For New Years weekend, Dave Duguid and I drove up to Marion to search for new caves with Tanya McLaughlin. We began on one side of a promising ridge that has some caves on the opposite side. Despite Daisy's pokings into some burrows, it didn't seem very promising. Then I happened across a Rabbit Hole which I hope is more than a burrow. Although the ground was frozen, the base of a tree framed a small pit that dropped down about ten feet. When the weather improves, we have permission to dig it out to human size and see if it'll go further. That evening we checked that the entrance of Snider Branch Cave is not receiving garbage since our clean up and confirmed that no WNS bat activity was happening at the entrances to Rowland Creek Cave.
On Saturday Tanya and I hiked up Tramway Hollow. The hollow was a mix of sandstone layers with dolomite beneath. We found lots of sinkholes and sinking streams, but we found no contact points that might lead to substantial caves. We also learned that mountain laurel seems to grow great in areas with surface streams (sandstone layers) but not at all over the dolomite. Shallow roots?
Dave had eaten his lunch at that point, so he and I went out to search for a dig I had found a year ago while traveling to Cotton Cave. I roamed the ridge without any success until Dave circled back from the Cotton Cave entrance. Then we met at a rock face with a small hole. It wasn't the right place, but we did manage to find the remnants of a filled cave. It's now about ten feet deep and ten feet wide but only a few inches high.
Although dusk was falling, we continued to look for Easy Way Down Dig. When Dave got to the big tree, I knew he had found the right hole. Warm air poured from a six-inch-wide slot into the 15-degree temperatures. Dave gathered the GPS coordinates while I began to dig the stones and loose dirt with my rock hammer. We didn't get very deep into the narrow dig, but it still appears quite promising for cave potential. It drops down at least six feet and feeds into ridge with multiple caves. Unfortunately the impending night turned us around.
On Sunday Dave, Tanya, and I took a road trip to visit cave entrances looking for signs of WNS-infected bats. We visited Marion Quarry Cave (both entrances), Little Hancock Cave, Hancock Cave, North Fork-Painted Lady Cave, Hogs Hole, Worley's Cave, Huff Cave, and McMullins Cave entrances. I'm happy to report that we saw no signs of bats in distress and had an opportunity to ask the local neighbors to act as our front line communicators if they see any bat activity this winter.
Although the temperatures only reached daytime highs in the teens, I had a good, productive caving weekend aboveground and still have mostly clean clothing.
