Need a guide to Devils Well

“Hi all, I'm new here and would love for someone to join me and a few other nature enthusiasts for a little trip to Devil's Well... We have searched and searched and searched.. and I cannot find anything more than it is in the north western corner of the wilderness! My aunt has memories of this cave and I have seen pictures and I am dying to go! If anyone would be interested in guiding me, please let me know.. we could compensate you in some way I suppose if need be! I have some repelling gear but only one harness, you can email me at jackson.sparks(at)live.com or just respond here. We have a trip to the wilderness planned for this weekend 11/11/11 and we could go then or plan another day! thanks!”

“All the caves have been closed due to the White Nose Syndrome that has been introduced to most brown bats in the area. 99.9 of all documented caves in the Southeast have been gated, and all access is prohibited by the National Speleological Society . You would have to have special permission, and I think they only provide it for scientific purposes.

This site is pretty well hidden, and not spoken about by many, this is one secret they care about and I care about. It truly is a gorgeous site.”

“We'd be glad to give out info about the Wilderness, trails, waterfalls, and formations. Hit us up. We love talking about the Sipsey Wilderness!

Tell us about yourself and where you like to hike.”

“The caving nerds around here won't tell you Anything about locations of caves. Good luck though Sasquatch”

“You never mentioned Sipsey in your post, so unless someone had been there, they wouldn't know what the heck you're talking about. The place is secret and special and folks aren't going to just walk you in.”

“You wanna see caves?...heres caves in an' around...pick another from the list...

http://www.spelunkologists.com/home.htm

but here's a hint..Devils well ain't in HERE either!”

“SUPERTROLL LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Haha ok sorry guys, I was just taking a shot... I figured as much though.. :/ My friends are going to be in the wilderness this weekend and what would you say is the number one place we would have to visit, in our times there we have been to turkey foot and caney creek many times, as well as big tree and bee branch... We have found two caves that I know of and heard of the devils well through an acquittance of ours, and just thought I would try to get some info :P sorry to step on some toes! My bad!”

“With recent reports on trail damage and trees down due to the recent tornadoes, If you haven't been in there lately....you might have a hard time moving around. I heard parts of the SRT are even closed.”

“We were there not too long ago back in septemeber, and the damage was moderate, but we had no problems "getting around" I don't know I mean we don't mind getting down and dirty but it was nothing too difficult”

“I was chairman of the Smoky Mountain Grotto of the National Speleological Society for a year while I lived in Knoxville.

We didn't even share info on some caves along members.”

“White nose syndrome is devastating brown bat populations here in Quebec, Ontario, northern New England and upstate New York.

Canada is refusing to declare brown bats endangered because that would close down just about all on-shore wind farms. The windmills don't have anything to do with the syndrome, but they kill an enormous number of brown bats.

Makes me think ...”

“They state it only affects bats that hibernate for long periods. Due to the warmth of the Deep South, many more bats are being found to survive. Any cold snap, or shift in temps could wipe out all of the normal non hibernators.”

“sasquatch, check out alatrails.com for more info on areas that are bad. There are reports of some areas being impassable.”

“That's cool, Opie. Let's hope that knowledge will work toward a solution to the problem.”