Trip report for Aug 27th

Trip report: 08/27/2011 or how to avoid a hurricane caver style
Type: Edumacatshione'
Location: Grottoes, VA; Grand Caverns
Why: 'cuz a) set this up, b) wanted to avoid storm and chaos with it, c) bored with surface life, d) all of the above
It was one good way to get some practice from an old salt of caving like Bob Thren. He has done some caving and surveying
for sure. Start of trip, Friday. By self, drove up. I got to Grottoes, again by interstates. Out of Wilson, took I95;
transferred over to I64W at exit 79. Drove on to find I81N and made the small jump on that north to find Grottoes. It's
easy for me the half awake zombie revved on caffeine, so I go that route. Got there at 0230 Hrs, the oh being Oh Good god,
it is late as hell! I slept in the car, being that late I was not gonna pitch a tent in a drizzle of rain with
breakfast emminently being set at or near 0800hrs. Nope, just not at all my cup of tea or joe or whatever.
I got up via the usual knock on the window from Bob. I chugged some leftover cold triclosan laced coffee from night before.
Headed over for breakfast at Batterbee's. Found out that they do cook dinner as well for us hungry mud covered lot.
From there, went back to the Grand to begin things. With me being at first the only student, class was almost canned.
Until, Bill Biggers decided that he was not going to do much in the cave so, he did not need as much help as he had. Since,
the regular muscle for trenching and tunneling was MIA due to storm presence, tunneling work would have to wait.
With that and two more students, class got started. Equipment used were compasses and clinometers. Compass had a window on
the side to alot for viewing the reading while staring at the desired target. Nice if you ask me.
Class time was spent at the golf course getting used to fore and back shots. Those are done typically as station 1 to st#2
for the forward. Think reverse for the back, yeah. Simple. For a big room, where to get a good representation, one must
do the splay shot. This is done as one point to many, and no need for back shots which saves time, not for the sketchman.
Ok, this is simply distance to, bearing, vertical angle to, and location in three space in reference to the surroundings.
Distances are taken generally from a tape measure or similar device. This is low tech, low cost, and hey, what can I say..
Electronics cost and die from mud exposure.
See below:

Example: To walls Ceiling Floor
Station Distance Bearing Vertical angle Vertical HT Lft Rght Up Dwn
Null Null or actual Null 3.5' 6.8' 3.6' 3.3'
S-2 5.7' 46/227 -3/+7 5' 4.2' 4.2' 3.3'

The above was ripped from the survey trip into Dante's Inferno. It's been surveyed, but still a good point for practice
in the cave environment. What is better than a cave with well made stairs, paths, and other things to facilitate ease of
travel? It was kinda like the survey teams who resurvey a road for the highway commision, is how I felt. Though, they
generally do not have someone to draw the details of the survey on paper and act as second data logger.
Post surface class, we grouped up geared up and went up. I
went in the traditional fashion of mil-surp and broad beam light. Came in handy for the sketching later in the cave.
Note to those who will want to do this, it is a good idea to have the symbols at hand in one's sketch book. I found my
reference pages useful for the work ahead. Still shoulda put more in, but hey, I'll get it right on the next go.
Sketch work is easy and best done with a keen eye for detail. Basically, you sketch down what and how the passage strikes
you. How it moves in the space ahead. Does it narrow and so on. Even the details of stalactites, and such..Especially those
and other things in the cave like um pits! This work went on for a while. About 1300 to 1550, I think. Then, it was egress.
Once on surface, there was little rain and some wind. Bob, of course, cussed. I found he hates wind with a passion.
Dinner was buffet style at Batterbee's. It was chicken and plenty of fixings for the sides. I ate hardy. Didn't do much
physically, but cave survey will give one an appetite from trying not to freeze to death; caves do have a chill and all, even
if they are dry. Watched the details of the Irene havoc, as they came up on Fox, I think.
Went back to park afterwards, shot more bull over NSS happenings. Found out that conventions are best attended to by those
who plan well and comfortably ahead. If you don't, boy are you in for it! It being anything from high floods washing
your tent and you down stream somewhere..to sudden loss of car, infestations of all kinds, especially from hail, wild animals
and not just those in hardhats.. It being windy and rain, I slept in the car again. and Mistake #2. That I still have
a kink in my neck from. !

Of note for those who may want a go at it..I'll let ya know when I know. I'm on the Baltimore grotto's mail list, now.
So ifn there is interest in doing something like a class on survey as they hold it or helping Bill in Fountain to hear the
occassional "Oh !" just ask me. I should know or be able to find it out for you. As always, food is good to bring, but
a caterer who wants the extra scratch makes for easy packing and loads less hell and hassle! That is for sure!
Update first weekend Oct seems to have activities planned.
Written not transcribed by MG.

Nelson Cave and OTR

Ken Walsh, Peter Hertl, and myself (Robert Harris) traveled to Old Timers Reunion (OTR) together over Labor Day weekend. From OTR we chose to make a trip to Nelson Cave, WV because it an only open cave that Ken had not previously been in. Peter and I were not choosey.

Nelson Cave is on beautiful property with a farm and forest. I lost my sunglasses in a stand of spruce trees while looking for the cave entrance. Nelson is an easy cave suitable for beginners and interesting enough for more experienced cavers to take time to look around. The crawls and one small climb were fairly easy on my ACL ligament which is recovering from an operation five months ago. Nelson is mainly linear with little change in elevation, though I did not see the map. There are only two junctions (aside from a small stream-filled branch) so it is easily navigable.



Nearly out of the twilight zone, there is a kink in the progression of the cave which Ken wanted to poke his head into in order to potentially discover a new lead. It proved to be too tight, but we did find two salamanders in this area which we took time to photograph and observe while Pete returned to the entrance to retrieve his camera.



Both salamanders in this area were the same species and It has a very good match to a long-tailed salamander Errycea longicauda.





Ken and I simultaneously explored both branches of the first fork while maintaining a voice connection until we realized that the branches diverge. We decided to progress down Ken's branch on the left side because it was larger and easier. This branch had much more organic material than I am used to seeing in most caves including dark soil, tree bark, and leaves plastered to the four-foot high ceiling from flooding. There was progressively more water and mud in this part of the cave until we came upon the second fork. The smell of rotting leaves was noticeable in this room, but not overly unpleasant. We took the small tunnel to the left which was mostly a belly crawl through mud and over some streams. This looked like it was ending, but in fact went to a squeeze, around a bend, went about 30 feet further, then ended.

Back out at the second fork we then explored the right branch. After a few face crawls in the mud and over streams, Pete decided to leave his pack in a room while we checked a lead that didn't look like it would turn out to be much. Soon we found a larger species of salamander that posed for us in Pete's gloves.


This salamander is possibly a Gyrinophilus subterraneus (which is rare and has only been found in General Davis Cave, Greenbriar County, WV) but more likely a spring salamander Gyrinophilus porphyriticus.

Progressing past this area Pete, as an entomologist, complained a bit as I destroyed a spider's newly built web. It is not normal to see spider webs deep into caves. Right around the corner within about 20 feet was the beautiful surprise back entrance to the cave. We went outside of the cave to explore, but could not tell for sure where we were. There were thorned fruit trees. Later we were told by the land owners that we were on the other side of the mountain and either in or very close to a cemetery, though we did not see any evidence of that. Pete was out of luck without his pack for a water and snack break, but surely we would not have found the back entrance if he had brought it along, Ken reasoned.


Heading back into the cave through this entrance it became apparent to me that it is much better to start at the front entrance as we did. This is because the back entrance requires cavers to soon crawl through low mud filled areas. I like a cave that eases me into the nastiness because it is less noticeable that way.

We made our way back to the first junction where Ken was excited by the amount of air flow on the right side, so we went in. This branch has a soft but firm mud floor on a long crawl that tightens down to a belly crawl. This part made my knee uncomfortable and actually the belly crawl was preferable because it took the pressure off my knee. Towards the end there is a very welcome 12 foot climb (the only climb in the cave) and a breakdown terminus. There is still air flow though a small hole, but it seemed too tight and filled with sharp formations. We spent some time in this room looking closely at the rock strata and discussing how much we did not know about geology.

On the way out, we checked on the first salamander again and Pete tried to fit though the small slot in the kink without avail. Back outside we were greeted by a lot of cows who come to look at us. I pessimistically walked back to a stand of spruce trees to look for my lost sunglasses. I was surprised to immediately find them hanging at eye from a thorny vine.

Back at OTR, Peter competed and won the rope climbing contest for the 5th (?) year in a row. Here he is pulling rope for another competitor.


Ken and I competed in the survey contest. Ken did well earning 5th place, while I landed 8th place out of 18 contestants. Here I am surveying from a patch of poison ivy at the base of a large tree. I did end up getting poison ivy on my ankle.

OTR was a lot of fun with all kinds of interesting things happening, and I would like to see more of our grotto attend in the future. Here is a picture of one of the cavers' stores set up by the vendor OnRope1.

Rob
Disclaimer: The description of the layout of this cave may be subject to error.