next--Two Views of Miller's Cove prt2, pg179
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 two views of
MILLER'S COVE
BILL CUDDINGTON: |
When I was looking around for new caves around Roanoke, I looked on Earl Thierry'sgeologic maps, and found a small area of limestone right over in Miller's Cove. The first time I went was with Gorky and David Showalter from Roanoke. At that time there was only one person living right in the Cove. We talked to him and he said there was a hole up there, sort of like a ground hog hole, and it was too small for a person. He did say there was steam flowing out of it. We asked where it was, and he just pointed up on the mountain (from the bottom of the Cove), and said it was up in those woods there near an old logging road. It was early in the morning, so we started out looking, just sweeping the woods, walking back and forth. We had walked for nearly six hours, and decided to give up. After giving up and in walking back, I walked right by the entrance; this was in the fall of the year. I went over, looked in and as you know, a person can easily get down in the hole. We didn't have any gear at all. The day was almost gone and these boys had to get home. One thing about caving-with these boys, they always had to be home at a specific time; one time we were late coming out of Catawba Murder Hole, and we were met by their brother and the Rescue squad.
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I returned one evening after work by myself that week with some ladder and short rope. I rigged here and there, and got to the top of what we call the 75--foot canyon. I understand now there is a way you can climb down that to avoid rigging it, but at that time I didn't try by myself. I dropped rocks and was really impressed with the cave. It was "brand new"; there were no tracks or anything.
Then, several days later, Earl, Corky and I went in. We rigged the ladder down the 75 foot drop. I safetied them down, then rappelled on down. Of course, the cave splits here, but we didn't know it at that time. We just took the most obvious route. We got to the bottom about 325 feet down, and found a pool there. I collected a nice round rock there, and my mother put it in her school. When we came back to the bottom of the canyon, I was getting ready to climb up the ladder to safety them up. Corky checked up the other way in the canyon and said it was a dead end. Now, we know it leads to the biggest part of the cave. I don't remember ever going back except once or twice to take a fellow named Bill Carter, who lives in Roanoke and did a lot of caving. Bill did weight lifting. He enjoyed going in, collecting rocks and stuff out of a cave. He didn't break off anything, at least while I was there. It's sort of a sloppy cave. It's fine when you're the first one, but not to keep going back in there. Just as I was about to leave for the Army. Cliff Forman moved to Roanoke, and I showed him the entrance. He went in there and went the other way in the canyon, and found the biggest part of the cave. At this point the cave is supposed to go down 500 feet or so and have thousands of feet of passage. Cliff made several trips in there and did some mapping. After I got out of the Army, I'd meet people from VPI, and they'd ask if I'd ever been in Miller's Cove Cave, I'd say, yes. I was the one that found it. They'd look at me kind of funny. It was written up in the NEWS. I did a lot of ridgewalking in that area, and I think Cliff did too. We didn't find any other caves as big as Miller's Cove Cave in that area.
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previous--Buddy Penley's Cave pg177
next--Two Views of Miller's Cove prt2, pg179
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