So I was really aching to get back into caving and now I am just aching. Thank God for knee pads and gloves! My name is Andrew Donadio and I have the pleasure of telling you about our trip of Feb 1-3, 2008, to the New River Cave near Blacksburg(the true location being a tightly guarded secret). We started out with 9-10 interested cavers and left with 5 in one car. This was actually nice in terms of money and camaraderie, as four of us had never really met.
We left from the Cisco parking lot at 6:00pm on Friday headed to Chapel Hill to pick up Matt Lubin. Matt L. had organized a little navigation quiz to see if he really wanted to trust Ken in a cave. Ken(I got something against cell phones) Walsh fell for the old left turn at Albuquerque, but recovered and we found Matt after just about ten minutes. I asked every Carolina girl I saw, "Can you take me to Matt Lubin?", but they were totally useless! So we picked up Matt and headed north on 86 to good old Martinsville and a tasty Mexican dinner at Los Tres Maguyueres or something like that. All I understood was that Mag....whatever it is, is part of the Guava plant, which has something to do with Tequila.
One highlight, we did stop at a gas station with a remarkable amount of electronics associated with the Men's room. They had an unusually large"OCCUPIED" light/sign above the door and a big red button (like you would push to launch a torpedo or WWIII) to push inside if you were in any way displeased or without anything. It was so tempting!! According to the attendant, they were planning one of those bank drive thru suction tubes to deliver emergency TP but they needed to find a way to plug that pesky hole in the middle of the roll. So it would be a pleasant place to drop the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean. And then we all discussed the many ways you could say that like sending an ambassador to Iraq...etc., etc.
So we got to near Blacksburg and it was just cold and windy, so we(Andrew, Matt W., and Ken) thought, "Gee, we need some beer." We hoped we could find some close by, but alas Christiansburg was aptly named, so we drove into Blacksburg where we found an aptly named bar, "The Underground". After a few beers, we decided that sleep might do us all good and we returned to the hotel around 1am. I think the beds at the Knights Inn were super! Matt, Matt, and Mark also thought so. Ken on the other hand said the floor was not quite up to his standards. Something woke me up Saturday morning and it sounded like a Walsh Horn. After 4 hours of listening to us sleep like angels, Ken had had enough!
Denny's gave us just the right mix of protein and carbs for breakfast.
We arrived at the cave which is near a beautiful, almost ideal, camp ground by the New River, I am guessing, and we started putting our equipment on. We started up the railroad tracks but before we could get to trail we were overtaken by a really freaking long freight train -- that's why the campground is nearly ideal. Ken says the trains come through every 20 minutes all night long!
We hit the trail and went up a good distance, found the entrance and went in around noon. We saw lots of really neat things, but the thing that stands out the most for me is the really tall waterfall room and the climb/crawl from there into another very large room where we would like to start next time when my teleporter is complete. At that point we crawled and climbed back to the waterfall using Ken as an anchor to belay us all. Then Ken came down with out belay, shame on him!
We then started the walk, climb, crawl out, which went pretty well until the second to last room where we found the way to forrest room rather than the exit. Eventually we kept following the room in the right direction and found the exit. We came out at about 6:30pm. We went down the hill and changed into our Guns and Roses outfits(Ken and I) and then went to dinner. Matt L. decided to wear his dirty clothes and skip the whole clean thing, so I gave him the name "Pig Pen" and by the way that jacket really was a pretty shade of blue! His before and after pictures are going on the "what to bring" page of our new website.
We all ate like we had never seen food before at BackStreet? I think it was called BackStreet. I don't remember much cause I got really hypothermic and peaceful until all that Pizza warmed me up again.
I am thankful to Ken for leading and standing guard through the night. I am thankful to Mark for helping us climb and making sure everyone -potentially-had a bed. I am thankful to Matt L. for the great conversation we had. I am thankful to Matt W. for incessantly talking about how great married life is. Check better be in the mail. And I am thankful that I found the Triangle Troglodytes and got back into Spelunking.
Andrew "My left arm works again" Donadio
