Fall VAR 2012

            We started off the trip by meeting at Carlin’s Friday after work – we were Jacob, Carlin, Ken, Diana, and Ava.  The boys rode up with Ken and girls rode in Diana’s car (boys smell bad anyway).  After quite a search we stopped for food in Danville at an Italian place, Jo and Mimmas.  We recommend this for future groups looking for a decent meal on the way to caves, it was delicious.

            After food and coffee we headed down the road toward Rockbridge County, Va.  We made a last stop for gas, bathroom, and beers in Lynchville just before midnight.  Diana stepped in to use the restroom and not long after they turned off all the lights and locked the doors!  Luckily, (as might be expected of a caver heading to a caving event) she had a headlamp on hand so continued to wash her face and came out (very much to the surprise of the workers) a few minutes later.  We all had a laugh.  VAR was ~ 20 minutes away down back roads.  We followed maps, gps, and finally the signs to get there.  Upon arrival there were several people hanging around registration and sign ups for trips the next day.  Because we were so late most were trips were full, but someone (maybe Bob?) recommended a couple of caves a little ways north, Belles Valley Wet and Dry caves, for us to check out on our own.  

            We decided to figure out the details in the morning and then headed toward the back of the property to camp.  We set-up tents and the grotto flag, had a beer, and chatted while scanning the beautifully clear sky for shooting stars.  Some of us saw several, Ken wasn’t having any luck so he went to bed.  No less than 2 minutes after he was in his tent we saw one that was so bright Diana had time to see its reflection in the car window and turn around to see it!  Moral of the story: don’t go to bed.  Then, against our better judgment, we went to bed.

            The next morning Ken had the fixins for French toast and Diana brought fixins for coffee (with a French press).  It was a French morning.  Tanya found us. We shared our breakfast with her and afterward Carlin helped move her tent near the rest of us.  

            We geared up and stopped for directions on the way out.  After some GPS difficulties we headed on the way (Carlin, Jacob, Ken, Tanya, Diana, and Ava).  There were lots of dirt roads, we were definitely in the middle of nowhere.  Both caves were right on the road so we parked at the intersection to get changed and went for the dry cave first.  Carlin tried to take some photos of the entrance but he didn’t have his SD card. He takes better photos than I do so I loaned him mine.  Therefor, all photos are courtesy of Carlin (and also do not show him, but I promise he really did come along).

            Diana and Jacob were the first ones in. It opened up into a little room and then to a belly crawl a few yards long.  Then on to kneeling passage with lots of rimstone pools with a few inches of water. 

 

We saw several bats on the way in.

  

We continued on to a small room in the back, nothing too special.  Ken thought there was a lead, Carlin checked it out and said no go.  So, naturally, Ken (the largest person in the group) proceeded to shove himself feet first into the hole to see if Carlin was right.  When he was chin deep in mud he decided it didn’t go--that was the end.  Carlin took some nice photos of Jacob on the way out, Ken helped with lighting.
               

            We exited for the wet cave only to find more cavers at the parking area. They were about to check out the dry cave too.  We were warned that the wet cave was REALLY wet and that we’d go in, start swimming, and swim until we were too cold to swim anymore.  It started off in dry walking passage for a few yards where we found a salamander and took pictures, then as expected it got wet really quick.  We were waist deep in 55 degree water almost immediately. 

Soon we were seeing salamanders everywhere!

And wading in water that was approaching chest deep!  We were able to get up a little higher to straddle the deep water by keeping feet and hands on the walls. The water was relatively clear, clear enough to see to the bottom in some spots.  We followed the water upstream for quite a ways, there was some nice flowstone and tons of salamanders.  So many that even I stopped pointing them out. They looked similar to cave salamanders but their coloring was more dull than usual.  

            We continued on, switching between swimming through, wading in, and straddling over the water until Ken got to a point where he said we would have to duck under and possibly get our heads/chests wet.  But, Carlin wanted to check it out and pushed through without getting too wet (ie. he didn’t have to submerge his head).  The cave continued up a flowstone waterfall to some rimstone pools and into walking passage.  The rest of the group followed.

We saw a dead bat in the water, gross!  Then came to what appeared to be a sump, checked it to the point that my right ear was very wet and very cold.  Decided not to push it so we headed back toward the entrance.  It was a lot of fun! Some of our packs were less waterproof than others.  On the way out Jacob was sending his swaygo pack sailing on top of the water through people’s legs as they straddled the stream passage, others had soaked lights and food that wasn’t as fun to watch.  We stopped near the entrance to take some photos, see below.

 

Daily workout

 

Diana had just told Ken to close his mouth, he obeyed. 

 

 

No comment

  

Ken and Diana headed out the way we came in, Carlin, Jacob, and I headed out the other entrance where we could hear the other group of cavers.  Jacob saw a froggy on the way out. 

            After trying to convince the other group to get wet and check the cave out we headed up the road a piece to scope out a few other holes in the side of the road.  None of them seemed to go so we headed downhill towards the creek to look for another cave we’d heard about.  We didn’t find it but did make it to the creek where we waded/swam upstream looking for the cave in the hillside bank, no luck. 

Ken, Ava, and Diana traveling up the creek

 But, Jacob did find an alligator snapping turtle! 

            On the way back we were halted by a road block...of cows.  Seems they liked being out of the pasture blocking the road better than life inside the fence.  We made it back for dinner, beers, and a presentation about caving in Mexico by Tony Akers.  There was a nice campfire after the presentation.  Then we headed back to the tents to look for shooting stars before we went to bed.  Ken saw 2!  In the morning we packed up camp and Carlin attended part of the regional meeting.  Then we headed toward Lexington to find breakfast.  After some trouble finding any open restaurants we found one, a place called Niko’s (for future reference).

            Then, at Ken’s suggestion, we made our way toward the Devil’s Marble yard to do some hiking on the way home.  It was a nice 1.5 mile hike up to a huge boulder field on top of a mountain.  Solid boulders for almost ½ mile!   

Ken, Diana, Ava at on the Devil's marbles

We climbed on every single one of them and then kept going toward the summit.   We hiked back down and headed for home.   We stopped for Mexican in Danville and then back to Carlin’s.
            Seems like everyone had a great time, I know I did.  Let’s go caving!