At the Fall TAG Cave-In I bought 800ft. of rope. The plan was to use this rope on Whites Sides Mt. in NC. We headed out the Friday after the Cave-In. I meet Brian and Jamie at Jamie’s place just outside of Louisville. We made the long drive to NC. We arrived late with a damaged tire. The next morning Jamie and I got in a fight over breakfast. After some words at each other we drove over to Whiteside’s Mt. On the hike up I got to carry the rope. We reached the tope and found a good spot. We repelled about 750ft. and then fogged back up. We were off the Mountain after dark. Opps, oh well, no harm done. The drive to AL was longer than I thought. We stopped and ate dinner at Pizza Hunt. We ended up at some unknown camping sight in TN. It was a long way down a rock road but after almost falling asleep I figured I wasn’t going to make it to AL. We set the tent up and quickly went to sleep Sunday morning I woke up around 8am. By 8:30 I had managed to wake Jamie and Brian up. While they moped around while I broke down the tent and loaded my person gear up. I repeated “Thunder Hole, Thunder Hole” several times. I think I may have been hell bent on bottoming the cave. Jamie was driving us down the winding rock road a little after 9am. We drove for about an hour till we reach the outskirts of Chattanooga. Breakfast was at a 5 star Waffle House. We arrived at the parking area for Thunder Hole some time around 12. Brian and I began packing up our gear. The 800ft rope was still stuffed into my pack so I emptied into the truck. I asked Jamie if he would mind coiling it and maybe change our damaged tire. I double-check my guild book to ensure that we had enough rope to bottom then cave. Brian and I sat out to do the cave without Jamie. The walk up the hill was bad but nowhere near as horrid as I remembered it being in June. My legs where tired and Brian had to wait on me a few times. My legs where feeling it from the day before hike and climb. I began to worry when I could not hear the entrance waterfall. As I feared when we reached the entrance the waterfall that had been screaming into the cave in June had vanished. It took us a few minutes to gather our gear and enter the cave. Brian went down first. Unfortunately, he forgot to take any ropes down with him. I followed with all the ropes. We made good time and quickly dropped the 20ft pit and then proceeded threw the craw. The constrictor squeeze didn’t seem that bad this time. This was as fare as I had made it into the cave on my first trip. We rigged the Neptune well and dropped the 96ft. pit. I think this drop would be a lot of fun in higher water. We only dropped threw a small stream on our trip. Then we proceed threw the canyon until we reach as small 10ft. climb down. The chert floor was only about an inch thick in places and was hollow underneath. I climbed down first and Brian handed me the rope. Jamie had provided us with his wagon wheel for the trip. We continued down the stream for a couple hundred feet. We then encountered the final drop. I found nothing special about the drop a simple 68fter. At the bottom we followed the stream to the sump. I took us one and a half hours to bottom Thunder Hole. The way out was uneventfully until we reach the 40ft drop just below the crawlway. I was almost to the top when I realized I had left my cave pack below. I climbed up to the ledged and changed over and repelled back down. Brian pulled the up two ropes and proceeded threw the craw. I reclimbed the pit and derigged it. After a snack and some water I preceded threw the craw. By the time I exited the stream craw I could hear Brian whistling. I reached the 20ft and climbed up. Before there was a small trickling waterfall at this climb up. When Brian climbed up the rope acted as a dam and each time he ascended water squirted down. He was bored while waiting for me he did his best to empty the 6 pools of water in the passage above to stop the trickling. He did this again before I came up and stopped the trickling waterfall for about 7 minutes. I told Brian to take a couple ropes and head for the surface. I coiled up the 40ft rope and then headed out. Along the way I heard Brian call on rope. I reached the bottom of the entrance pit while Brian was still ascending the pit. After he was off rope I climbed out. It had taken us 2 hours and 45 minutes to do the cave. We spent a few minutes packing our gear and putting on dry clothes. We hiked down the Mountain as the sun was setting. We returned to the truck to find Jamie hadn’t done anything while we where gone. He was mad because he had wanted to be home 30 minutes ago. Home was about 4 hours away. Brian and I put our gear away. I drove us to Kimball TN. for dinner. We stopped and Subway and Long John Silvers. We then head out of the Mountains. I pulled over about 30minutes into the drive. I checked the damaged tire and told Jamie he was going to drive. Jamie drove us the rest of the way back to Charlestown. At Jamie’s place we unloaded our gear and then downloaded the pictures. Brian and I got into our vehicles and drove off. I guess I was pretty tired because I drove into Louisville on accident. This really pissed me off. I made it home around 4:30am. I had to unpack my truck so I could drive it to work. I went to bed pissed at Jamie for being a stubborn all day on Sunday. I got a couple hour of sleep and was a happy camper at work the next day. Brandon Stephens