Overview of the exploration:
(I'll be using terms described in the whippoorwill cave map)
http://i.imgur.com/AhfDQ.jpg
We were in the cave for around 3 hours. We were wearing our basic spelunking gear and brought snacks along for the journey. We entered the cave at Sassafras and began the journey in the long, straight Sassafras passage. There were a couple side passages that we saw along the way but we decided to stick to the main route for our first time. We made it to the main junction at the end relatively easily and jumped down to the Middle Room. Everything had been upright until this point but at the end of the middle We ran into the first underground stream here and it was a beautiful little crystal clear stream with nice pebbles along the bed. This little passage then opened into First Chert Canyon. This is where the true beauty of Whippoorwill revealed itself to us. The ceilings were incredibly high and it felt just like walking through a slot canyon in Utah... but underground... in Arkansas. Pretty awesome stuff. After we milled around in First Chert Canyon, we took on the Spaghetti Bowl. This is the point where we realized the cave map is not too incredibly accurate, and understandably so. The spaghetti bowl is very aptly named as there are lots of twisting and turning passages and they are not all on the same level. We essentially stayed to the left through all of the Spaghetti Bowl but we almost completely relied on the chalk on the walls at that point. (Some gracious souls had created chalk arrows along the correct route that saved our lost sense of direction on multiple occasions.) Spaghetti Bowl was a ton of fun and had a couple fun obstacles within it but eventually we made it to the Lunch Room. At the lunch room, as is standard, we set down and had a couple snacks. We talked about the journey up until that point and also took a look at our (somewhat) accurate cave map to plan the next bit of the journey. After eating and doing the obligatory 'shut the lights off to feel true darkness' we headed on. Kathy's Canyon (on the map) looked enticing but we again decided to stay on track and make our way to the exit. After the lunch room, we got a little mixed up on which way to go and we ended up going down the path towards the First Dome Room twice on accident. When we finally found the correct path we did some more meandering and found our way to the Water crawl exit. Here is where we would make our triumphant exit and come out the Whippoorwill exit victorious... well that's what we thought at least. I've heard legend of how hard this exit is but there wasn't much air room at all when I made my first attempt. It had rained pretty good the prior two days so I'm not sure if the water table was up or what but we decided as a group to postpone the water exit and make our way back through the cave. I am genuinely not one to shy away from a good ole fashioned challenge but we all voted to save that for another day. (This just makes me want to go back that much more.) So as I set my pride aside, we started our backtrack. This is where the chalk really saved us. We almost immediately got lost because of the 'new' scenery. I had made a conscious effort to look back at all the turns and make a mental image but it didn't prove successful at our first set of turns. We ended up taking the right direction turn but not at the right level. (We would take the lower route when we actually came in on the higher route.) Because of this, we essentially just looked for the chalk at every turn and then took that route. Once we made it back through the spaghetti bowl it was pretty much clear sailing the rest of the way back. When we finally made it back to the end of Sassafras Passage, we decided to make our way to the cloud room and check it out. It was cool and I found this neat little 'swiss cheese' looking rock platform. After that we decided to make our exit and head back to the overworld. Overall, it was a fantastic excursion and I can't wait to go back and finish what I started with the water exit. I also want to start venturing off into side passages because there really are so many. I am confident the cave map doesn't have everything mapped out and there are probably a couple passages that are still hidden.
Now for some pictures.. I will place captions BELOW the pictures:
Sassafras Passage with human for scale
Sassafras Passage with no human for scale
A later section of Sassafras with another human for scale
First little stream section after Sassafras Passage
First Chert Canyon with 2 humans
First Chert Canyon with (you guessed it) another human
Can't remember where this was but it was definitely in Whippoorwill cave. Positive on that
Cool rock formation
Spaghetti Bowl action
'Dragon Tail' rock in the Spaghetti Bowl
This was a nice shoulder shimmy spot. The hole that is below was deep enough to where we couldn't see the bottom. We made sure not to find our way to the bottom on this trip.
Lunch Room
Lunch Room ceiling
'Swiss Cheese' rock in the Cloud Room
