Snail Shell Cave - Campout

Our camp out this month was at Snail Shell Cave in Rutherford County. Snail Shell Cave is a wet cave owned by Southeastern Cave Conservancy, Inc, or SCCI. (http://www.scci.org/). This cave is the longest continuous cave in the Tennessee Central Basin region comprising of more than 13 miles of known passages.

We explored 3 different passages in the cave. From the entrance, the path to the left is a 2400 feet (about 1/2 mile) swim just to get started. To say the water is deep and cold is an understatement. We swam this direction for about 400 feet or so before we abandoned it and decided to try a different direction. We swam back to the entrance and tried the path to the right. This path is also wet but the water ranged from ankle deep to over your head, but the deep parts that were over your head were only for a short distance. The majority of the water was about waist deep. We explored this direction for a couple of hours. I am told you can travel all the way from Rockvale to Smyrna through the system.

We met a more prepared group of cavers on our way out of the cave. We must have looked funny to this group as they were prepared with wet suits, PFDs, flippers, water proof lights, etc and many of our group didn't even have shirts on. We had swim trunks, shoes, and a light - that's it.

Attending were Saul H, Steven L, Cole M, Alexander H, Wesley H, Hayden P, Harrison H, Tyler T, Noah T, and Leaders Adrain H, and John T. Most of the boys want to go back next year if possible and claimed to have had a great time.