Even though other TriTrogs all backed out, I elected to
reroute myself a bit for this year’s Grand Caverns Easter Restoration Camp. I
drove up Friday evening in time to catch dinner in Grottoes, Virginia. This solo
effort left plenty of time to socialize with the other two dozen cavers before
work began on Saturday.
I spent the morning hauling buckets of gravel through Grand
Caverns’ majestic hallways while others painted doors and handled outdoor
chores. We worked up sweats that were obvious to the tour groups we tried not
to disturb. Before lunch the tour groups tended to be pretty small, but they
grew to sizes over thirty in the afternoon.
After our free lunch provided by VAR, I shared a quick tour
of the cave formations to some new volunteers. Then we returned to bucket
hauling for a short while. I eventually peeled off to help spray clean algae
growing on the formations; I was taller than the rest of the spray crew and
could reach the high places that needed scrubbing. Some of the algae seemed so
old that it’s below the flowstone surfaces now.
A few hours after the free dinner, I left to visit my family
in Baltimore for a breakfast heavy on the Polish sausage. If you’re sorry that
you missed this conservation effort, we’ll likely have more opportunities
closer next winter as the VAR continues with on- and off-trail cave restoration
efforts in Caverns of Natural Bridge next winter.
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