Even with Pete’s sleeping bag, I was somehow able to see out
the rearview window of my vehicle as Rob Harris, Sarah Dotson, Pete Hertl, and
I traveled together to Marion. The traffic was backed up in Greensboro. We
spent the night at Tanya McLaughlin’s home with the intent to go caving on Saturday.
After a leisurely breakfast we started out for Saltville
Quarry Cave, but I encouraged Tanya to try to reach another landowner first.
That resulted in a quick directional change just a hundred yards from Tanya’s
house. Then we discovered the likely carsick victim and moved the person to the
front seat…and we were finally off to Linda’s
Lair. Within sight of a house built
circa 1830, the cave entrance had been covered in brambles but was definitely
human-sized. I stood in the rain pulling brambles up from the slide-in entrance
while the other four went inside. It led into a room at the base where everyone
could stand, but the dirt fill suggested we weren’t going any deeper.
Garbage bags covered the seats in my vehicle, and we headed
for Saltville Quarry Cave. Tanya
charmed the landowner’s son into giving us permission to map the cave, and we
set off through a pouring storm in 36-degree weather. The cave entrance was so
much warmer. Of course they sent me scouting
down the wet passage because I wore wellies that day; high boots didn’t help
much when the water depth reached my knees.
Fortunately the lead on the left took us to a drier, higher
passage. I set survey stations and worked with Rob at mapping the entrance room
while the others goofed around in the warmer passage. A tight crawlway led us
up into a well-decorated hallway, and our whole group surveyed all the way to
the end…well, to the spot where it got too tight for me. Pete and Sarah learned surveying fast. Rob managed to squeeze
under a ledge to some “going” passage.
