Despite the weather swings in January, a caving trip had been on the calendar for weeks, surveyors found, a selection of caves to choose from; all that remained was for Mother Nature to cooperate. But Mother Nature was going to keep us guessing, as the weekend drew near it was clear that it would be cold and there would be snow; but how much snow and how cold?
About this time last year the weather forecast predicted blizzard conditions, we collectively canceled and Marion got NO snow. This year, the fellow cavers seemed a bit more impervious to what some would call poor weather; in fact two individuals had their eye set on snow shoeing on Sunday. While weather was mentioned and monitored, the question of whether to call the trip never surfaced in earnest.
The drive was not eventful until passing Mt Airy where the snowflakes were large and plentiful; fortunately it was short lived. However the climb up the mountain on route 77 yielded colder temperatures and more snow but clearly still drivable. The city of Marion had the most snow and the streets were completely covered with snow.
Reviewing the current conditions it was determined that Lover leap traverse to the entrance was a challenge none of us wanted to confront with 6inches of fresh snow, a rapidly declining thermometer, and a rapidly increasing anemometer. Starting a new survey project at Copenhavers was number two on the list.
Being that the cave is only 10minutes from Tanya warm house we suited up there and planned for the option to return to her house in full cave gear. We briefly spoke with the land owner, drove to a spot in the cow field we felt we would not get stuck, hiked to the cave, posed for prosperity, and started caving.
There were six cavers, conveniently making two survey teams. One team (Ken, Matt, and Trina) started their survey at the entrance; the other team (Dave, Mike, and Tanya) started their survey at a short nuisance pit about 100ft inside the cave. Temperature inside the cave was substantially better than outside the cave, but the front was cooler draftier than expected. The first room did have some hibernating bats (I saw about a dozen though there could have been more); they were not there two months earlier.
Based on dinner time conversation, the team Ken was on got the brunt of the cooler temperatures. They started at the drip line and worked into the cave; taking breaks to seek warmer parts of the cave when necessary. They surveyed all passage above the pit, with two exceptions that will probably never be surveyed (unless there are some really tiny volunteers). But the best news was they did connect to the initial survey station of the other team.
The other team surveyed deeper into the earth in search of the rumored underground lake. The passage was littered with material washed into the cave, all the way to the ceiling in most places. After traversing a breakdown room, the day drew to a close; but not before a quick peek at the continuing passage. I think this quick peek sealed out Sunday plans, the cave was still going strong!
The fourteen degrees temperature had most getting out of their coveralls in record time, got to avoid the freezing suit dilemma. Dinner was Italian; the evening entertainment was a lengthy game of Bang. The plan for Sunday was laid out, going back to Copenhavers; more to survey, not hoping from cave to cave given WNS issues, and for some not wanting to be outside in the elements for any lengthy period of time.
Saturday morning it was about eight degrees when Dave, Ken, and Mike hiked toward the cave (Matt and Trina opted for show shoeing). Getting to the last survey station didn’t take long. The survey was much warmer as there was minimal if any air movement.
While surveying we got off the trunk passage into a room and then a smaller side passage but with a good echo. We were soon rewarded with a large sloping room, only to find that this is only a small part of a much larger room. The room was large enough that we did not traverse the entire room. There is known passage out of the room, and hopefully more we just haven’t found it yet.
Due to the time of day we opted to try to connect back into the trunk passage; we eventually found the trunk passage (the faster way out) but was unable to complete the survey loop. That will be the first thing on a subsequent trip, which will lead into a very large room with many possibilities.
A couple of interesting statistics:
- The dip (angle of the cave) in the cave is approximately 30degrees.
- Total length surveyed was 981ft
- Vertical distance is currently at 86ft.
