The annual TriTrog cave conservation trip this year was planned for Marion County VA; more precisely, Hancock cave. Hancock actually has two entrances; the back entrance is part of a sink. Unfortunately the sink was used for household trash; the trash was buried with dirt during one of the sales of the property. However over time the dirt has eroded; the process of erosion has helped to fill in the back entrance and exposed the trash.
The trip ended up being a small group, but an effective group; Ken, Susanna, Mark, Tanya, Dave and his son Dawson. At the last minute we chose to stay at one of the cabins in Hungry Mother State Park. And once again, Virginia state parks continue to amaze me; the cabin we rented was really nice and included linen service…too bad our hours were such a fire in the fireplace just wasn’t an option.
Susanna did a terrific job organizing the cleanup. She had all the details worked out; the owner met us as we drove up, we had the correct tools (ok maybe garden sheers and wire cutters need to be added to the list), and an excellent lunch spread.
A sizeable dent in the trash was made, but another trip to get the smaller house hold trash is needed. Given some time the freshly exposed dirt will wash away allowing easier access to trash buried below. Some interesting discoveries were uncovered; a kitchen stove, drier, three washing machines, metallic shed roofing, TV, bike, bedsprings, chairs, big wheel toy, and freaky doll parts.
The cleanup culminated when the map of Hancock cave was presented to the owner. The landowner was extremely appreciative of the efforts performed by the caving community to help him understand, protect, and to work to keep his cave clean.
The afternoon was spent caving! During the cleanup a single lead found near a washing machine, it was worth investigating. Unfortunately the lead immediately led back into known cave, the top of a high fissure. In addition we stopped briefly in the back entrance to Hancock and Little Hancock.
We traversed over to the main entrance and ventured in for a three-hour tour. Dawson performed his first arm-rappel; something he still is talking about. Ken led us around various parts of the cave, some new areas for both Mark and myself.
Dawson informed us he was tired and ready to exit, however I suspect his abrupt interest in exiting was probably more related to the spaghetti dinner promised earlier. Ken took us through the breakdown staircase; it was the quickest way out. For those that have not been through that section, it is a series of step-downs through a vertical maze. Dawson did great, dad worried to much but was calmed by taking Ken’s mentally comforting suggestion…leashing Dawson to me with some webbing.
Sunday found us at Rowland’s cave, is anybody actually surprised? Ken, Dawson, and myself toured the lower section; found two new areas that need surveying. One will require some digging. Dawson named one of the rooms the Rock and Roll room; he found his name very funny, as there were rocks and the rocks rolled as we passed through.
The upper section was visited, as it is the prettier part of the cave; however Dawson was more focused finding new passage and wanting to know where every lead went rather than looking at the formations. The Screech Owl wasn’t in the cave; hopefully the owl will return when the weather cools more.
As it simply wouldn’t be right to go to Rowland’s without doing at something toward completing the ongoing project we did some digging in Sentinel cave. Ken found that to proceed might require more serious modifications to get through. An option we will hold off on for now as it would appear another lead was found below it. The dirt was easily dug, and soon I was able to get in about six feet to observe the airspace continues. And I think there was airflow; yet another promising lead to work on.
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