Macadoodle Doo

The lateness of the Friday night at Tanya’s house was punctuated as I dozed off. Tanya entered the room to let me know that Macadoo’s is open early mornings. Emily, Ava, Martin, Pete, Anuj, and I discovered that Macadoo’s restaurant is open at 8 AM but not with a breakfast menu. We managed to meet Glen, Anays, Ryan, Steve, and the Molnar crew only a half hour late.

Ryan led the crew carrying water into Hancock Cave. It’s the first time I’ve been with a group hauling water into a cave to create mud. Mud making was exactly what we needed to do inside the cave. Graffiti covered some walls between the Grantham and Octopus Rooms, but it was mostly just scratched lettering and not spray paint. So Emily, Kim, Sophie, and Ava got to making mud pies that they smeared against the walls. They left the graffiti not only covered but also looking again like a natural wall. The rest of us were using wire brushes and having less success at hiding our removal efforts. I think that Emily needs to share some sculpting tips with the TriTrogs.

Then I wandered off with the mudpie crew to count bats. This was by far the most disappointing endeavor of the day. Our crew shone bright lights at the ceiling, poked into all the cracks, and explored most of the passages where we typically find bats. Nada. Pete’s crew found one bat all day, and Steve’s crew found none.  It sounds as though Steve’s crew wandered into the vertical maze where bats would’ve been hard to spot anyhow.

We did have a great time caving though. Sophie led us into the Anastamoses Maze where she saw someone had dropped a flashlight down a hole out of reach. From Harrington Hall, we traveled up In the Pendants Hall and then towards the Long Room. Much giggling as the girls dove into the Comic Book Hole followed by Emily finding her center of gravity.

Next we crossed up to the passage just before the Overlook Room and then down the Corn Cob Crawl. I seemed to get the best echoes just before Hickory Dickory Pit (where Ava lost her pants), and then we explored some of the area above TJ’s Trap (after Ava re-dressed).

The Breakdown Staircase offered a new challenge this time. Kim dropped Emily’s bright orange pack, but it didn’t fall to the bottom. It landed on a breakdown piece about fifteen feet from the floor. As I tried to convince myself that any rock that could hold the pack would support my weight, Ava shared “I can see it.” I was very happy that she found a position where I could reach the pack from below.

We cleaned up the graffiti cleanup gear and headed out. 

New River Cave Survey Trip with Ava the Caver

Pete Hertl and I made some bad choices about the best route out of the Triangle but arrived in time for the midnight tour of the Bat Ranch. The next morning I spent time talking to the scout troop from Holly Springs that was visiting for a cave trip. Eventually Pete woke up, and we spirited Ava Pope off to New River Cave for a survey trip.

Now that the cave is owned by the NSS, some spelunkers must’ve decided that the cave deserves their exploration. Too bad the spelunkers ran out of green string before they got to a junction.

We headed back to the Attic Room for our survey leads, stopping when Pete wanted to admire the various piles of scat. I knew where the leads were but had some difficulty finding the tie-in station. We surveyed into a room surrounded by breakdown whose entrance was beneath a flowstone bank. As the survey twisted around the blocks, we dropped deeper into the jumble.

Pete climbed up a shaft that I could encircle and shake his hand from three different sides.  That also let me know where we would need to survey next. We found the easy way to survey to the top of the breakdown and connect in with a known survey station. And Ava did fine reading the instruments while standing over a pit.

The last lead was just an annoying survey that led into another chamber beneath the breakdown. The survey totaled just 280 feet but completes (?) the survey in the upper cave. After that survey we headed out for a late Mexican dinner and then a very late night drive home.

Summer Surveying

“I think Ken can get in through the squeeze, but I’m not sure he can get back out.” These words don’t inspire me to sign up for a trip with Carlin and Dave, so I invited Tanya McLaughlin to help me survey in Saltville Quarry Cave last Saturday. I was happy to hear that Brian Williams had sent her a new wetsuit because she’d want to wear it in the passage where I was leading her.

The landowner was very friendly and pointed us to two other hillside cave entrances, but we were ready to survey the big stream lead I had looked at last December. Unfortunately Tanya didn’t bring her new wetsuit along. Underground I was much happier than her in my new neoprene pants (purchased at a sidewalk sale).

The cold water was just over knee deep for me, but the problem was that Tanya and I sank into the mud if we stayed in one place too long. Take a survey shot, take three steps back, and then approach again to light the station for the other reader. Fortunately the seventh survey shot landed Tanya back up on a solid bank.

Unfortunately that’s where the water got deeper. I walked back to the entrance so Tanya could warm up, and then I sketched the section for those seven survey shots. Normally I’d like to sketch as I go along, but juggling gloves, instruments, tape, protractor, ruler, book, and reading glasses would’ve been tough when there were few dry ledges for stuff. Tanya warmed up out in the summer sun.

After I finished sketching, Tanya wanted to find a drier passage, cave, or county. We walked to the cave entrance where the landowner had seen fog rolling out in the winter. I didn’t quite fit into the entrance. I hauled up the hill through poison ivy bushes to find the other destination where the owner had spotted a cave. It turned out to just be an eight-foot deep talus cave. I dug open a cave above the quarry’s spring. It was just two body lengths long.

Tanya conceded that I had made a good faith effort at finding dry cave, so she agreed to re-enter the stream passage long enough to get a few more stations. The second time in she noticed how white and well decorated the cave was a few feet above the water level. I had no time to look around while in the deep part of the passage; I thought my wellies would fill with mud.

The cave just got prettier as I moved on back, and I was delighted to find a pair of spring salamanders and a pair of crayfish underwater. Numerous cave salamanders clung to the side walls. Tanya and I both elected to stop after a few more shots, and I arrived at an intersection. Unfortunately the only good station was one that I had to reach on tiptoes.

On Sunday I convinced Mike Broome to continue surveying that same stream passage (the side passage dead ended after a few shots). We progressed all the way back to the sump.  Then I sketched the plan view while Mike collected cross sections.

On the way out, Mike found a side lead I had overlooked the day before, but we were too cold to survey it at the time. We beat a hasty retreat for the entrance and happened across Carlin Kartchner, Dave Duguid, and Lisa Lorenzin. They had surveyed their way from a tight lead to the too-tight entrance.

After I warmed up a bit, I took Carlin and Dave back in to survey out Mike’s lead. Their rewards included well decorated passage, a spring salamander, and wet crotches. Overall we surveyed in Saltville Quarry Cave just under 800 feet more over the weekend, tripling the length and finishing the survey.

Survey weekend

Missed Opportunity is a cave better done with warm days to avoid getting too cold when exiting the cave.  Reason, the front of the cave requires a stream belly crawl.  On July 26, the belly crawl was traversed by four neoprene clad cavers; Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Carlin Kartchner, and I.

The survey objective was to stay out of the stream passage by continuing to survey the high leads; methodically choosing the left most lead.  The lead let immediately into a low passage and remained low for quite some time; alternating between hands and knees crawling and bell crawls.  However there was very little complaining from anyone as the passage was very well decorated.

 

With repetitive 30ft shots the survey team of three got ahead of the sketcher burning through pencils drawing in a plethora of Speleothems.  The sketcher didn’t even catch up after the survey team enjoyed a guilt free lunch.

 

The left wall eventually terminated with a parallel lead going back the way we came.  It was determined it would be best to stop survey at this point and exit the cave.  The day resulted in just less than 1000ft of new passage.

 

No sooner had we pulled onto the main road, Ken and Tanya caught up with us.  They had been surveying Saltville Quarry cave near-by.  Their survey efforts did not complete the cave.

 

Over an Italian meal, we determined returning to Saltville Quarry to try and complete the remaining leads was the best option for Sunday. 

 

Ken and Mike took the wet lead while Carlin, Lisa, and I headed to the low tight lead.  The lead of interest was a low lead that got even lower and is impassible within some cave modification.  Opting out of alternation, Carlin found another passage that had blowing air.  With a bit of scooping he reported seeing daylight.

 

Our survey initiated, and led us through 138ft of low, sometime tight, and generally muddy passage toward the other entrance.  Stepping into daylight, the entrance was the other cave Ken pointed out early.

 

Again, timing was good; we ran into Ken and Mike at the first cave entrance warming up.  Ken and Mike had finished the other passage but found an additional, terminating lead while exiting,

 

With Mike and Lisa needing to get on the road; Ken, Carlin, and I headed back to wrap up the remaining lead.  While known the passage was wet, the thigh deep water was cold; colder than the stream in Missed Opportunity.

 

The side passage led to an additional 66ft; while Ken was wrapping up the sketch, Carlin and I waded to the end of the passage.  The passage is actually well decorated; taking the trek back despite facing the ever increasing water level was worth it.

The passage I would never send my friends to.

Last Sunday Dave Duguid and I headed out to Horseshoe pit. We were there to finish the last good lead in that cave. It was exactly one year from the last time we visited this cave. Part of the reason it took so long to get back inside was due to all the other good caves we started surveying last summer. The other major reason was a lack of gear. Bolting gear to be more specific.

On our first trip there Brian Williams set a bolt by hand to get things started up to a nice looking high walking passage, but bolting this whole traverse by hand drill would have taken forever. One year later, having acquired all the hardware and electrons necessary to get this traverse done right we headed in just the two of us. We'd had a much larger group for the survey the day before, but most were not vertical and those who were left early to get back to NC. This left just two of us hauling in 300' of rope along with everything else needed to make a bolting+survey trip happen. 100' static for the traverse, 100' dynamic for the belay, and 150 (way to much) for the Heinous Complainus Pit. This isn't counting the rope needed for the 50' entrance drop. In summary, a lot of heavy stuff.

Working the traverse was a challenge. It was my first time bolting a traverse and it was exciting. I set 5 bolts to get safely to the other side and another two at the end for a final solid anchor. Not a ton of bolts, but I was fighting mud much of the time. Once across, I got off belay and checked to see if we would have the great going lead we hoped for. Alas, as expected, shortly around a bend the passage abruptly ended. although it was open walking passage the floor was ankle deep wet mud and the passage only went for ~70'. We surveyed three shots for a grand total of 886' in the included survey length. Derigging the dynamic line and retrieving all he quickdraws also required a fair amount of ingenuity and speleoacrobatics.

So why would I never send my friends to this passage? Well it's not just because it went no where. Everything starting at the Heinous Complainus pit is not much fun. Lot's of loose falling rock at the Complainus pit, gross nasty mud everywhere in that passage. On the traverse much of the material that looks like rock is just mud in disguise. Coming out we were exhausted.

This exhaustion was probably due to a multitude of factors including the fact that we'd had a full day of non-trivial survey the day before. Both Dave and I could have eaten and drunk more that day as well. I guess we were both trying to conserve a little weight. I wasn't hungry at all, but when we stopped at subway afterward I devoured a footlong sub even though I'd intended to save half when I ordered it. I've decided my body was probably sending mixed signals due to the "fun" I'd just had. Still want to see the new passage I bolted into? We left a static line for the traverse, but if you ask me, don't bother.

(Sorry for no pics this time. It was a beautiful day on the surface, but I didn't want to haul any extra photo gear for this one. Matthew may have a good story about photo gear to share on this blog soon though.)

Clean at the Start, or When Electronics Go Bad

Dave West led another survey trip to New River Cave and managed to scrape up eight other willing souls. Before the trip, he shared what the draft map looks like. It’s incredible that he’s found an artistic way to lay out all the levels in an understandable manner.

Dave had Karen Willmes and me join him as he sketched cross sections from the entrance to the Attic Room. My job was to keep Karen company while Dave worked. As we entered the cave, I’m happy to report that the walls TriTrogs cleaned several months ago still appear graffiti-free.

Before we even got to the Register Room, Dave dropped his disto electronic distance finder from a height of roughly six inches. It wouldn’t work again, even with fresh batteries. Suddenly Dave’s cross sections got much harder for him to draw. He now needed Karen and me to pull a tape measure across the cross sectional diagonals. I think that they averaged about 35 degrees in inclination and roughly fifty feet along the diagonals. I spent a good deal of time on the perches.

When we got to the back of the Attic Room, we also added some resurvey so that Dave would have a better idea of how disparate previous surveys reconciled. I guess it turned out that I was more essential when electronic devices fail.

While at dinner that evening, we got word that the National Speleological Society will acquire New River Cave. The TriTrogs can be proud after last year’s cleanup that the cave entrance area will be clean at the start of the NSS ownership.

Perkins Cave Survey

Participants: Jason Lachniet, Bill Grose, Emma Buchanan, Julie Slater, Carlin Kartchner

Bill, Carlin survey (BC): 475’ (mostly virgin?)

Leads killed: TP15A (both) and TP18A? (potentially still a lead at TP18A), one of two leads at E30.

Leads generated: none

The most exciting discovery of the day?

I have mixed feelings about cave re-survey. Part of the thrill of cave survey is the chance to document something no human has ever seen before, but if someone has already “surveyed” a cave that puts a slight damper on the motivation. Having heard that Perkins was being resurveyed I figured I’d join in on a trip because I knew getting into that cave often involves jumping through a few hoops. Knowing also that nearly 10 miles were mapped in the original survey had me skeptical there would be much low hanging fruit. Turns out I was wrong.

I drove up early Saturday morning partially in hopes of avoiding bad weather we’d had on Friday, but I still got more than I wanted. It was sunny, but between Greensboro and Winston-Salem there was a lot of ice, and I may have passed more accidents that morning than I’d passed in total in my life before this trip. Needless to say it was a bit unnerving, but soon after I’d decided I was going to call Jason and head home, things started clearing up, and after around Pilot mountain things cleared up so much so that most of Virginia seemed relatively dry with no snow or ice seen anywhere. Ultimately I met up safely with everyone, we piled our gear in Bill’s truck and we were off.

En route

The cave was as expected, very beautiful, and had a pretty friendly route for the 45 min it took us to get out to our leads. Once there we split into two small survey groups, but were working fairly near each other. My team was just two people consisting of myself sketching and doing foresights while Bill set stations and

read backsights. We started with a side lead that was basically just a debris blocked passage parallel to the 200’ crawl on the old trade route. This wasn't too interesting until we made a voice connection with the other team. We found by moving a few rocks we were able to make a tight surveyed connection to the other team. Pretty cool.

After working that lead Bill and I returned to our main lead which had some beautiful gypsum crusted passage just below us that was perhaps 10’ wide and 15’ tall. We were excited the whole day about surveying it, but we never got to it. Bill explored a lead on the other side of the down climb into that canyon which he thought we’d finish in 3 stations. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…

Me sketching.

All it took was moving a couple rocks and Bills upper level crawl kept going. We ultimately made a couple loop closures and killed a few leads which we connected to in another part of the cave. It was pretty thrilling and it’s highly likely that most of that area was virgin. It was all low crawling, but never was it terribly uncomfortable. Most of the survey shots were easy to sight in both directions. We surveyed everything in our area leaving no new leads, but never did get to that canyon passage. Even though Bill and I still had the energy to keep going we had a relatively early call out time so we packed up and headed out around 9pm. This was fine as I was still tired the next day though that may just be because I forgot about the DST change when I set my alarm.

Frosty formations at the end of a side passage we surveyed.

After the trip everyone else who lived relatively close headed home while I headed to my favorite field house, Tanya’s. She’d opened her home for me and even made me breakfast in the morning which I thought was especially kind. It was nice to be able to hang out for a while one-on-one since I’m usually over there with a relatively large party. The downside to being there without other Trogs was that Bo could not be handed over to someone else so I spent a lot of time petting that demanding beast. Possibly the hardest thing I did all trip. It was a good weekend.

In summary, consider carpooling up to help on this project next time I go up. I think you’ll find surveying in Perkins worth your time. To find out how the other survey team did, a trip report is expected be posted to the Walker Mountain Grotto’s blog soon. http://walkergrotto.wordpress.com/

Antler helictites near station TP15A

All photos taken by Bill Grose and used with permission.

Clean to the Finish

I had to postpone the Walker Mountain Grotto (WMG) bat count in Hancock Cave by two weeks due to a 2014 snowstorm. Fortunately that allowed Pete Hertl to join Matthew Weiss and me.  I’m glad I had them along because the shift in dates left us with just Hunter from WMG and Janet and Dan from Flittermaus Grotto. A bat count is better with six in the group.

Hunter lived up to his name and found it easy to spot the bats in the cave. We circled through the rooms that we explore on each bat count and waited for the folks with cameras. We even forced Pete, Matthew and Hunter to climb through the Comic Book Hole.

The bat count matched closely the numbers from our recent November surveys, but we only found live pips this time (no other species). I was very happy to find no dead bats in the cave, and the bats all appeared healthy until the end. Unfortunately the last bat we found hanging near the Toilet Bowls had definite signs of white nose syndrome. Hopefully it’ll survive until hibernation season is over.

January caving in Marion

A survey trip was initiated for January 25 and 26. While the destination initially not set mostly due to weather conditions. The intent was to try to get the newly named Snow Cone cave on Saturday and Horseshoe on Sunday; both are ongoing TriTrog projects. The initial interest in the trip was high, upward to 12 people. However due to various circumstance, the available cavers fell to five. Five soles ready to face what Mother Nature was going to dish on us.


Waking up to single digits it was clear the ground to the cave would be frozen solid; the ground conditions put the landowner at ease. As we headed over Walker Mountain the snow started; it was immediately clear any additional snow would result in the return trip would be through the mountain gap in Chilhowie.


Having been suited up, we hurried into the cave and immediately felt the temperature relief. A quick show and tell of the “snow cone” put us at our first lead. To get warmed up I thought walking passage would be a good place to start, and it was the biggest hole in the current sketch. Five shots later we were 230ft into new passage headed back toward the hillside we entered yet another vast room; the third large room. After surveying the room we hammed it up for a couple of photographs and retreated back to the hole in the floor we left.


The passage was the smallest passage of the day though it opens up after a few small sections. Once through the small stuff we called the survey. We left walking passage yet to survey! It already has me wanted to get back to continue.


Returning to the surface yielded a couple more inches of snow and bitter cold. Fortunately Howard brought along a propane heater! It is amazing how fast you can get into street clothes when motivated. Soon we were driving out of the property and onto the snow covered roads.


The Italian restaurant was already closed by 7:30; we opted to McAdoo’s instead. From inside we watched it continue to snow heavily. I mention that because we getting back to my truck, the driver window was “missing” and snow inside. Initially thinking the glass shattered, the window ended up down in the door. However the window would not go up, nor could we reach it to pull it up. What a cold ride back to Tanya’s. At Tanya’s we pulled the panel off and was able to get the window closed. It was so cold Duck tape frozen before it would adhere to the cold window.


Sunday morning brought a balmy 30 degrees and getting the window fixed enough to get back to Raleigh was not such a miserable experience. Fortunately, once on route 81, the roads were dry and driving uneventful.


The single lead resulted in 485ft of survey and four additional leads. The sketch looks more complete with the work done, but the cave has already left us wanting to return to continue. The cave has far exceeded by expectations; in size and in beauty. The current surveyed distance is approximately 2000ft.