Going on a personal "Cave tour" in Tennessee.

Well, my parents own a good portion of land on an island here in Tennessee, and it's ridden with caves. Everywhere. So, the quality of darkness isn't exactly great here and I want some time to get in touch with my more luminous side.. Not to mention have a bit 'o fun.

I'mma goin' caving!

I'm bringing the following flashlights with me:

Surefire L4; This is brand-new, I haven't even tested it in real darkness. (By the way, the tint hardly even looks LED.. VERY good.)

Petzl Myo XP headlamp (Look, ma, no hands!)


Possibly my M6. I recently bought me another'n, and while it's not the most efficient of lights, it has such a beautiful design and there's not much that can top it's brightness.


You guys got any recommendations? I would bring an HID, but that'd be overkill.

bring a hard hat and make sure your headlamp can attach securely to it.

and a canary :shrug:

That sounds like a good start. I'm not sure how serious this caving trip is going to be but I'll just assume that you know what you're doing or are going with someone who does.

I'd recommend that HID light though. The caves I've been in were black inside and really absorbed the light. If you only take one M6 it would give you some room to carry an HID. I'd also take a spare headlamp. Other than that it sounds like you've got the rest covered.

Let us know how it went. I'm jealous because I love to explore cool places like that.

Have fun!


P.S. Try and MN15 in your M6. It's one of my favorite lamps in that light.

Lucky guy. Sounds like you can build you own "Bat-cave" if you wanted to.

Patriot36 said:

That sounds like a good start. I'm not sure how serious this caving trip is going to be but I'll just assume that you know what you're doing or are going with someone who does.

I'd recommend that HID light though. The caves I've been in were black inside and really absorbed the light. If you only take one M6 it would give you some room to carry an HID. I'd also take a spare headlamp. Other than that it sounds like you've got the rest covered.

Let us know how it went. I'm jealous because I love to explore cool places like that.

Have fun!


P.S. Try and MN15 in your M6. It's one of my favorite lamps in that light.

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Thanks for the help. My parents used to keep exotic animals like dwarf deer, hyacinth macaws, and ever one cougar.. and most were kept on the island.

Though most are at our local zoo now, some animals bred and still inhabit it. I'll try and bring a camera for beamshots and to show you guys any exotic fauna.

Lucky guy. Sounds like you can build you own "Bat-cave" if you wanted to.

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Well, I certainly wouldn't be short of lighting choices.

I used to spend time in Florida Caverns and always carried a Coleman propane lantern for good general illumination. That and several good lights as you described should set you up well.

Glasstream15 said:

I used to spend time in Florida Caverns and always carried a Coleman propane lantern for good general illumination. That and several good lights as you described should set you up well.

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Well, I want to have my hands free, so I'll stick with my headlamp for general stuff. Thanks for the tip, though.

Even carrying the lanten, we were able to mostly stay hands free by setting it in an area that we could explore using small lights and then come back to. Try it out both ways and then go with what is the most comfortable.

Ok, you are definately going need need to take a camera with you, and show us all the pics.... only been to Carls Bad my self...

Doug

we're gonna need pics for sure.

I'd take a waterproof, 24-hour runtime led light.


like this:



http://www.tek-tite.com/src/product_info.php?id=19

Standard caving rule: bring at least three lights.

Hopefully this summer going to meramac caverns and going to bring half of my arsenal....and a camera.

PhotonBoy said:

Standard caving rule: bring at least three lights.

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+1 to that.
Ideally two of the lights are headlamps. When you are in a wild cave [not a tourist cave] a headlamp is a must, and so it is very good to have a backup. Because I like lights alot [suprise!] I rarely go in with only three.

Caving is the greatest shredder of gear of all the active recreations I do. Mountain biking would be a distant second. I don't think an HID would be a good idea. In the caves I've been in, there is rarely a long straight passage that a big thrower would be helpful in, and if the bulb is relatively fragile regarding bumping on hard surfaces [the only kind I've found in a cave], and possibly expensive to replace, I'd leave it at home. Not to mention water and mud don't play well with most HID's. It is true that some of the conditions just absorb light, but any decent light by our flashaholic standards will be fine. For example, a Streamlight ProPoly 4AA Lux would be fine. If you have something brighter, like a Fenix T1, T10 or T11, Dereelight, Tiablo ect you'll be in great shape.

An island in Tennessee ringed with caves is making me drool. Good luck. Please post pictures and accounts.

bring backups for the backups, and don't wander into unknown territory alone too quickly, it would not be a back idea to bring along a pack that can be dragged behind you full of survival gear for a first time exploration into a cave, bring a friend, bring a notebook and paper to map out the cave as you go (roughly) to prevent the likelyhood of getting lost, also, a thousand foot roll of string isn't a bad idea.

I have this lights bigger brother:

http://www.tek-tite.com/src/product_info.php?id=26

watt4 said:

we're gonna need pics for sure.

I'd take a waterproof, 24-hour runtime led light.


like this:

http://www.tek-tite.com/src/product_info.php?id=19

Click to expand...

Doug said:

I have this lights bigger brother:

http://www.tek-tite.com/src/product_info.php?id=26

Click to expand...

Bulb Life: 25 hours??????

Seems a little low?

Whatever you take, attach it to your body, lanyard etc

Well, this is going to make me sound real old, but I remember spelunkin through some caves in Missouri about 45 years ago using a carbide headlamp. At the time that was the standard for cave exploration. I doubt they still make these things but they seemed to work very well at the time. Am I the only one old enough to remember them around here?

Among the people I know, carbide has only fairly recently become displaced by LED lights for expedition caving, away from easy resupply of batteries and recharging facilities.
4-5 years ago basically all the people I did alpine caving with still used [good] carbide lamps. Now, practically none of them do.