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.
