Triangle Troglodytes

Buckets of Popcorn

2011-10-09T21:26:00.001-04:00

Just a short trip report here; the full description (with photos) will serve as the program at the October 25 meeting.

I flew into El Paso and then rode with Karen Willmes and Dave West up to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I had never spent a week on a caving expedition to a national park, but at least I had met most of the people I would be caving with last year in the Ozarks.

We spent the week in two national park research huts, equipped with kitchens, beds, and swamp coolers. Patti and Scott House from Missouri, together with Ed and Elizabeth Klausner from Iowa, had purchased all the groceries we'd need for the week. We pulled up Saturday evening, and the only vehicle I rode until the next Saturday was an elevator.

The research huts were stationed just above the amphitheatre at the natural cave entrance, the place where the famous bat flights take place each night. The bat flights were incredible to watch, but the National Park Service allows no photos or pictures. One evening we were surveying the amphitheatre late at night after the tourists had gone, and my headlamp pointed up to reveal that the bat flight continues at full strength well after dusk.

Our goal for the week was to work on a new survey of the tourist trails in Carlsbad Caverns in an effort to produce a detailed map for the National Park Service. Dave West's major project for the week was to survey and sketch the Natural Entrance area from the top of the sinkhole past the amphitheatre and down to the pit (Death Gate). I helped Dave some (kept him company and occasionally took survey readings), but we never really found ourselves out of the daylight areas. I did get to use my trig skills in an effort to determine the height of the ledge opposite the amphitheatre (22 feet), and this was added to the cave profile. I also had the opportunity to race up to the entrance when we wanted to survey 400 feet below the entrance and realized that the survey tape had been left up near the amphitheatre shortly before the bat flight.

The cool part about helping Dave in the afternoons was that the light was constantly changing as the sunlight penetrated deeper into the cave entrance and down into the pit. I had varying success with camera shots under these conditions. However, my most interesting pics in the entrance may actually be the video of the cave swallows ascending from the pit.

I also helped Scott House as he sketched Appetite Hill, an enormous breakdown pile with ceilings more than a hundred feet high. As we surveyed the tourist trail portion of this, we had the opportunity to describe what we were doing to the cave visitors. It was fun to speak to people visiting from all over the world, many of them not remembering the cave the same way as it appeared when they were kids.

Ed and Elizabeth started the week surveying the highly decorated Kings Palace tourist section of the cave. I was able to join them and listen to the tour guide's long description of what complete darkness looks like; they must've had the lights out for twenty minutes while the tour guide described the cave. When Ed was busy sketching, Elizabeth and I set up photographic shots of the Queens Chamber and the Papoose Room. Those photos came out very well, blending the commercial lights with Elizabeth's Sten lamp.

By Wednesday Ed and Elizabeth took me to survey the Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns. It was fascinating to step off the tourist trail and poke into the Swiss cheese walls of the Big Room. We had to be so careful on these walks to avoid crunching the cave popcorn that covered the walls, floors, and formations. Fortunately the electric wires for the lighting offered trodden paths. Behind the lighting I spotted cave trays and a cave cone not visible from the tourist trail; I've never seen these formations before. The last survey in the Big Room ended just before we reached the Sword of Damocles. Definitely a fun week of cave survey in a beautiful cave.

Trip report for Aug 27th

2011-09-13T23:09:00.002-04:00

Trip report: 08/27/2011 or how to avoid a hurricane caver style
Type: Edumacatshione'
Location: Grottoes, VA; Grand Caverns
Why: 'cuz a) set this up, b) wanted to avoid storm and chaos with it, c) bored with surface life, d) all of the above
It was one good way to get some practice from an old salt of caving like Bob Thren. He has done some caving and surveying
for sure. Start of trip, Friday. By self, drove up. I got to Grottoes, again by interstates. Out of Wilson, took I95;
transferred over to I64W at exit 79. Drove on to find I81N and made the small jump on that north to find Grottoes. It's
easy for me the half awake zombie revved on caffeine, so I go that route. Got there at 0230 Hrs, the oh being Oh Good god,
it is late as hell! I slept in the car, being that late I was not gonna pitch a tent in a drizzle of rain with
breakfast emminently being set at or near 0800hrs. Nope, just not at all my cup of tea or joe or whatever.
I got up via the usual knock on the window from Bob. I chugged some leftover cold triclosan laced coffee from night before.
Headed over for breakfast at Batterbee's. Found out that they do cook dinner as well for us hungry mud covered lot.
From there, went back to the Grand to begin things. With me being at first the only student, class was almost canned.
Until, Bill Biggers decided that he was not going to do much in the cave so, he did not need as much help as he had. Since,
the regular muscle for trenching and tunneling was MIA due to storm presence, tunneling work would have to wait.
With that and two more students, class got started. Equipment used were compasses and clinometers. Compass had a window on
the side to alot for viewing the reading while staring at the desired target. Nice if you ask me.
Class time was spent at the golf course getting used to fore and back shots. Those are done typically as station 1 to st#2
for the forward. Think reverse for the back, yeah. Simple. For a big room, where to get a good representation, one must
do the splay shot. This is done as one point to many, and no need for back shots which saves time, not for the sketchman.
Ok, this is simply distance to, bearing, vertical angle to, and location in three space in reference to the surroundings.
Distances are taken generally from a tape measure or similar device. This is low tech, low cost, and hey, what can I say..
Electronics cost and die from mud exposure.
See below:

Example: To walls Ceiling Floor
Station Distance Bearing Vertical angle Vertical HT Lft Rght Up Dwn
Null Null or actual Null 3.5' 6.8' 3.6' 3.3'
S-2 5.7' 46/227 -3/+7 5' 4.2' 4.2' 3.3'

The above was ripped from the survey trip into Dante's Inferno. It's been surveyed, but still a good point for practice
in the cave environment. What is better than a cave with well made stairs, paths, and other things to facilitate ease of
travel? It was kinda like the survey teams who resurvey a road for the highway commision, is how I felt. Though, they
generally do not have someone to draw the details of the survey on paper and act as second data logger.
Post surface class, we grouped up geared up and went up. I
went in the traditional fashion of mil-surp and broad beam light. Came in handy for the sketching later in the cave.
Note to those who will want to do this, it is a good idea to have the symbols at hand in one's sketch book. I found my
reference pages useful for the work ahead. Still shoulda put more in, but hey, I'll get it right on the next go.
Sketch work is easy and best done with a keen eye for detail. Basically, you sketch down what and how the passage strikes
you. How it moves in the space ahead. Does it narrow and so on. Even the details of stalactites, and such..Especially those
and other things in the cave like um pits! This work went on for a while. About 1300 to 1550, I think. Then, it was egress.
Once on surface, there was little rain and some wind. Bob, of course, cussed. I found he hates wind with a passion.
Dinner was buffet style at Batterbee's. It was chicken and plenty of fixings for the sides. I ate hardy. Didn't do much
physically, but cave survey will give one an appetite from trying not to freeze to death; caves do have a chill and all, even
if they are dry. Watched the details of the Irene havoc, as they came up on Fox, I think.
Went back to park afterwards, shot more bull over NSS happenings. Found out that conventions are best attended to by those
who plan well and comfortably ahead. If you don't, boy are you in for it! It being anything from high floods washing
your tent and you down stream somewhere..to sudden loss of car, infestations of all kinds, especially from hail, wild animals
and not just those in hardhats.. It being windy and rain, I slept in the car again. and Mistake #2. That I still have
a kink in my neck from. !

Of note for those who may want a go at it..I'll let ya know when I know. I'm on the Baltimore grotto's mail list, now.
So ifn there is interest in doing something like a class on survey as they hold it or helping Bill in Fountain to hear the
occassional "Oh !" just ask me. I should know or be able to find it out for you. As always, food is good to bring, but
a caterer who wants the extra scratch makes for easy packing and loads less hell and hassle! That is for sure!
Update first weekend Oct seems to have activities planned.
Written not transcribed by MG.

2011-09-12T23:59:00.017-04:00

Nelson Cave and OTR

Ken Walsh, Peter Hertl, and myself (Robert Harris) traveled to Old Timers Reunion (OTR) together over Labor Day weekend. From OTR we chose to make a trip to Nelson Cave, WV because it an only open cave that Ken had not previously been in. Peter and I were not choosey.

Nelson Cave is on beautiful property with a farm and forest. I lost my sunglasses in a stand of spruce trees while looking for the cave entrance. Nelson is an easy cave suitable for beginners and interesting enough for more experienced cavers to take time to look around. The crawls and one small climb were fairly easy on my ACL ligament which is recovering from an operation five months ago. Nelson is mainly linear with little change in elevation, though I did not see the map. There are only two junctions (aside from a small stream-filled branch) so it is easily navigable.

Nearly out of the twilight zone, there is a kink in the progression of the cave which Ken wanted to poke his head into in order to potentially discover a new lead. It proved to be too tight, but we did find two salamanders in this area which we took time to photograph and observe while Pete returned to the entrance to retrieve his camera.

Both salamanders in this area were the same species and It has a very good match to a long-tailed salamander Errycea longicauda.

Ken and I simultaneously explored both branches of the first fork while maintaining a voice connection until we realized that the branches diverge. We decided to progress down Ken's branch on the left side because it was larger and easier. This branch had much more organic material than I am used to seeing in most caves including dark soil, tree bark, and leaves plastered to the four-foot high ceiling from flooding. There was progressively more water and mud in this part of the cave until we came upon the second fork. The smell of rotting leaves was noticeable in this room, but not overly unpleasant. We took the small tunnel to the left which was mostly a belly crawl through mud and over some streams. This looked like it was ending, but in fact went to a squeeze, around a bend, went about 30 feet further, then ended.

Back out at the second fork we then explored the right branch. After a few face crawls in the mud and over streams, Pete decided to leave his pack in a room while we checked a lead that didn't look like it would turn out to be much. Soon we found a larger species of salamander that posed for us in Pete's gloves.

This salamander is possibly a Gyrinophilus subterraneus (which is rare and has only been found in General Davis Cave, Greenbriar County, WV) but more likely a spring salamander Gyrinophilus porphyriticus.

Progressing past this area Pete, as an entomologist, complained a bit as I destroyed a spider's newly built web. It is not normal to see spider webs deep into caves. Right around the corner within about 20 feet was the beautiful surprise back entrance to the cave. We went outside of the cave to explore, but could not tell for sure where we were. There were thorned fruit trees. Later we were told by the land owners that we were on the other side of the mountain and either in or very close to a cemetery, though we did not see any evidence of that. Pete was out of luck without his pack for a water and snack break, but surely we would not have found the back entrance if he had brought it along, Ken reasoned.

Heading back into the cave through this entrance it became apparent to me that it is much better to start at the front entrance as we did. This is because the back entrance requires cavers to soon crawl through low mud filled areas. I like a cave that eases me into the nastiness because it is less noticeable that way.

We made our way back to the first junction where Ken was excited by the amount of air flow on the right side, so we went in. This branch has a soft but firm mud floor on a long crawl that tightens down to a belly crawl. This part made my knee uncomfortable and actually the belly crawl was preferable because it took the pressure off my knee. Towards the end there is a very welcome 12 foot climb (the only climb in the cave) and a breakdown terminus. There is still air flow though a small hole, but it seemed too tight and filled with sharp formations. We spent some time in this room looking closely at the rock strata and discussing how much we did not know about geology.

On the way out, we checked on the first salamander again and Pete tried to fit though the small slot in the kink without avail. Back outside we were greeted by a lot of cows who come to look at us. I pessimistically walked back to a stand of spruce trees to look for my lost sunglasses. I was surprised to immediately find them hanging at eye from a thorny vine.

Back at OTR, Peter competed and won the rope climbing contest for the 5th (?) year in a row. Here he is pulling rope for another competitor.

Ken and I competed in the survey contest. Ken did well earning 5th place, while I landed 8th place out of 18 contestants. Here I am surveying from a patch of poison ivy at the base of a large tree. I did end up getting poison ivy on my ankle.

OTR was a lot of fun with all kinds of interesting things happening, and I would like to see more of our grotto attend in the future. Here is a picture of one of the cavers' stores set up by the vendor OnRope1.

Rob
Disclaimer: The description of the layout of this cave may be subject to error.

Fountain, Madison and Grand Caves

2011-08-14T18:28:00.002-04:00

Fountain, Madison, and Grand Caves
Photography/Sport Trip
Grottoes, VA
August 5-7, 2011

Grotto Members present:
Ken Walsh
T. Robert Harris, PhD
Ava Pope
Matthew Lubin
Mark Daughtridge
Martin Groenewegen
Lisa Foley

Also starring:
Kevin Harbin, guest of T. Robert Harris, PhD
Ericka Hoffmann, former grotto member and photographer extraordinaire

Ken and I were the first grotto members to arrive at the camp site- a lovely ball field in Grand Caverns Park, located in Grottoes, Virginia, just north of Charlottesville. We were greeted by members of the Baltimore Grotto and trip co-coordinators Carol and Craig, long time friends of Ken’s. There was much excitement and anticipation throughout the evening as other grotto members and guests arrived from Chapel Hill/Durham, Charlotte, Washington DC, and Wilson.

Breakfast in the morning was provided by the incomparable Battarbee’s. Serving family-style food on the honor system, the coffee was hot and the biscuits were scrumptious. Truly the perfect breakfast to get us ready for a long day of caving.

Heading back to camp and gearing up, trip photographers Ken and Ericka were delighted to have so many eager and willing helpers to sherpa gear into Fountain Cave. Along the way, we acquired two wayward members of the Baltimore Grotto, whom we successfully reunited with their group. The Baltimore Grotto was there on a dig to reunite Fountain Cave with the neighboring TI-59 Cave. Voice contact has already been made! Mark D. lent a hand digging for a while, and the group uncovered all sorts of artifacts. We noted that while Fountain Cave is beautifully decorated, it has also suffered damage over the years. Currently, it is one of the Virginia Region's annual conservation project caves, and we could see the efforts to fix broken formations.

Then it was picture time! Ken set up the first shot with Ava, in her bright blue cave suit, as his model. As it was the first photography shoot for several folks, who had to be taught to use digital flashes, this took some time. The effort and patience paid off, as the results were amazing. Ken was thrilled to capture his best shot of the trip. Ericka was next to set up a scene using me as a silhouette model. She used a film camera and flashbulbs for her shots, so it was tricky to judge the amount of light. Both photographers observed how much the cave seemed to absorb light, and worked together to make sure the shot came out beautifully. I can add cave model to my resume! Another highlight of the photography session was experimenting with shadows. Ava and I made a convincing stalagmite shadow, and Mark took his rightful place as King for a few shots. Matthew got involved, and the two staged a monster’s attack and subsequent beheading! Next, Rob and Kevin took turns vying for Ava’s affections in the Romeo and Juliet shots on Rapunzel tower, while Martin found himself trapped in a giant spider’s web! Although we had to sign out by 5, Fountain Cave was stunning, and the photographers were able to capture its beauty and magnificence. Everyone had a great time helping out and learning more about caves and cave photography! PICS at http://tritrogs.org/gallery2/v/FountainCave2011/.

Dinner was a team effort, and together we all prepared a fabulous meal of burgers, hotdogs, salad and corn. Martin decided to try cooking a regional weed, Lambs Quarters. He didn’t get sick so it must have been okay. He did, however, manage to slice open his thumb with an oversized camp knife. Always quick to the rescue, Ken fixed Martin up with the help of Mark, who provided the crucial duct tape.

After dinner, we were off to explore Madison Cave. Madison Cave is of incredible historical importance as it is the very first cave surveyed in the New World! Additionally, it was signed by none other than George Washington himself, who had a knack for cave surveying as well as winning wars and founding countries. Thomas Jefferson also took an interest in the cave, and described it in his Notes on the State of Virginia. Published in 1787, the map he drew is the earliest known American cave map. In his own words:

“The entrance of the cave is, in this side, about two thirds of the way up. It extends into the earth about 300 feet, branching into subordinate caverns, sometimes ascending a little, but more generally descending, and at length terminates, in two different places, at basons of water of unknown extent… The vault of this cave is of solid lime-stone, from 20 to 40 or 50 feet high, through which water is continually percolating. This, trickling down the sides of the cave, has incrusted them over in the form of elegant drapery; and dripping from the top of the vault generates on that, and on the base below, stalactites of a conical form, some of which have met and formed massive columns.”

Upon our entry to the cave, the first signature seen is that of James Madison. Not the President James Madison, however, but rather his 3rd cousin and bishop in the Protestant church. Continuing on past Madison and Washington’s signatures, Mark once again got to put his first aide skills to good use. Bob, an older gentleman from the Baltimore Grotto, slipped and cut his arm. The wound was pretty severe, but quick to the rescue, Mark successfully bandaged it up and the group was able to continue enjoying the cave. We came to two narrow passages leading to a lake. The lake never changes levels, not matter how much rain the source may get, and was used during the civil war for saltpeter mining. The lake also features unique and beautiful calcite rafts floating on top.

Although it looks quite shallow, the lake at this point is over 90 feet deep and reaches a depth of over 200 feet. It’s also home to the Madison Cave isopod. Once thought to be unique to Madison Cave and listed as an endangered species, the isopod is now know to live in caves and wells within a 200 mile radius of Grottoes. The species is the only member of its genus and is the only freshwater cirolanid isopod north of Texas.

We were so lucky to be able to tour Madison Cave- despite being the first commercial cave in America, Craig informed us that only 50 or so people had seen the cave in the last 40 years!

The next morning brought about a return trip to Battarbee’s for another delicious breakfast before packing up camp. We were then treated to a behind the scenes tour of Grand Caverns with Craig and Carol. Grand Caverns was discovered in 1804 by Bernard Weyer while trying to retrieve one of his traps. Weyers Cave, as it was then called, opened for tours in 1806, making it the oldest continually operating show cave in the U.S. During the Civil War, the cave was visited by both Confederate and Union soldiers on the same day. There are over 200 verified civil war signatures in the cave. The most famous signature is W W Miles, of the 14th Pennsylvania Calvary, who visited and signed the Caverns on September 26, 1864. The caverns were also visited by troops under General Stonewall Jackson during June 1862, and General Duvall, a Virginian of the 5th New York Volunteer Calvary, in 1864.
In addition to the historical importance, Grand Caverns, a solutional cave, is noted for its rare ‘shield’ formations. The cave boasts over 200 of these unique structures, the most in the eastern United States. The shields are formed when water is forced out of a crack in the cave wall. As the water is forced out of these cracks, the calcite crystallizes and a plate begins to grow. The results are stunning.
Also notable is the cavern’s vertical bedding. The caves of the Shenandoah Valley were formed in mostly horizontal limestone layers. At Grand Caverns the layers of bedding are vertical, not horizontal, turned on end by tectonic forces. The group enjoyed seeing an optical illusion in the white lily room and General Jackson’s horse. In an effort to discover a new cave, I tried to fit down a small passage at the request of our gracious hosts. I was excited to go where no one had gone before! My efforts were unsuccessful though, and I was glad Ken was on hand to rescue me from the hole. The group seemed to enjoy my stalagmite impression. Maybe I’ll be able to give it another try during Heritage Days, an annual festival held in Grottoes every year, culminating with a ball inside the Caverns.
Craig ended the tour by pointing out the bat gates, and explaining they are constructed to let bats in but keep people out. While it was sad to leave such an amazing place, we learned a lot about cave photography, local history and geology. A great time was had by all!!

The Bat's Meow

2011-06-05T23:52:00.002-04:00

Not often that I'll write a trip report after a sport trip, but the caving crew yesterday made the trip a lot of fun. We left Saturday morning and managed to begin hiking the hill to New River Cave a little after 1 PM. We could've been there earlier if the Chik-Fil-A had been on the right side of the highway.

From the Church Room, Justin and his dimly lit lamp concluded that the path to the Winter Forest Room was a dead end. While he changed batteries, Ava, Martin, and Dave proceeded to the Winter Forest Room. However, Justin, Lauren, and I found only Ava when we arrived. Martin and Dave had chosen to slide down a flowstone slope, so we worked to reconnect with them back through the Church Room.

We alternated leaders through the Big Room, staying near formations at the top. We poked up and down holes until Dave and Justin led us to a climb beside a falling stream. A challenging climb made us head back to an earlier junction, and along the way I was able to watch cavers imitate lizards, frogs, and lemmings. Lauren and Martin led us up from the junction into an area that was close to the Attic Room.

Alternating ceiling heights presented us with great views of formations, and Martin pulled out his camera supplies. Unfortunately he dropped his memory card into the wrong slot, one between the breakdown. Fortunately Ava's slender hands were able to retrieve it. The next climb near the ceiling exposed hundreds of twisting vermiform helictites, and Ava dubbed them "The Broken Fingers." I wonder if the memory card retrieval inspired this moniker.

Climbing back down from this room, Dave dropped his water bag down a pit in an expert effort to lead us down into the Lunch Room. From there he took us on the straightest route down to the stream. Lauren wasn't happy that she had to walk on Justin to make the descent. Ava was less happy because this descent put us on the downstream side of the breakdown, and she hadn't worn kneepads. We squeezed on through the breakdown to the upstream passage.

The remaining standard obstacles gave no one grief except Martin, who had more gear strapped to his back, sides, and front than an astronaut in space. The group proceeded upstream to the Waterfall Room and found it pouring strong.

On the return from the Waterfall to the Lunch Room, I looked hard to connect back up with the China Slide to avoid all the nasty crawls. We instead found another route back to the Lunch Room. I looked around the corner and saw the China Slide I should've known from the start.

Exiting the Big Room required one last slide from everyone. I went first and guided each person's feet down the climb. When Dave was about to come down last, I asked him if the dead bat was still lying on the ledge where he sat. Obviously someone else had sat on the dead bat, and it was funny to see them each checking their butts for bat remains.

As Lauren led us to the entrance, she claimed that she heard a meow and a squeak. Had a bat learned to purr? Some photos are posted at http://tritrogs.org/gallery2/v/NewRiver0611/.

Worley and Hail Mary Caves

2011-05-18T22:18:00.004-04:00

The Worley Cave survey began in 2002 but was put on hiatus while the notes spent years in the wilderness as Ranger Joe moved around the Southeast. In 2009 we got the notes and started poking into the cave's smaller leads. They led us to discoveries of a waterfall, an upper level, monorail worms, and some very small places. Last June Dave Duguid, Rob Harris, and Duke Dooley moved some mud and dripping water to find a new section of the cave within sight of the entrance.

On May 14 Dave Duguid, Tanya McLaughlin and I went to Worley Cave, but I set the new section back as our last objective for the day. Dave and I began by completing more of the fill-in sketching that I need done to fill in the map of the monstrous Entrance Room. Next I shoved Dave and Tanya into some breakdown to see if they could make light connections. While I finished my sketching, Dave and his hoe headed for the Sandwich Passage, with Tanya following behind.

Dave hesitated...and then he stopped...face to face with a live raccoon. Dave had cornered the raccoon in a 12-inch high passage just before the raccoon got to a 6-foot drop. Apparently the hoe wasn't intimidating enough to make the raccoon jump, so Dave backed out and called those leads beyond the Sandwich dead for the day.

At that point the survey crew turned to the new section of the cave. Survey into the new section was a little tricky, but the fourth station had us back in standing passage. Dave and Tanya set stations while I sketched, and we turned right at the first junction. Long straight shots of thirty and forty feet awaited us, but the passage heights dropped us back into crawling at times. There were sure signs of raccoon usage in this part of the cave, and monorail worms abounded. Dave's hands got so messy that he dumped his food from the bag into his mouth; at least that was the story he shared when he complained about finding his nuts in his boots.

There is still more survey to be done in the new section of Worley Cave as well as some other leads. We exited the cave and encountered the owner's brother back at the car. He shared an interest in what we had been finding and also shared information about the other caves in the neighborhood. In a search for scrap metal, the cars and appliances have now been removed from Roadside Dump, a former cave entrance very close to the area we had surveyed that day. Maybe we'll connect on a future trip.

On Sunday Tanya led Dave and me to the holes above Copenhavers Cave. Dave discovered that Hail Mary Cave dead-ended after just fifty feet, and we found no other going leads in the hillside.

Dave and I drove up to Crystal Springs Natural Area, the new Wytheville park, in search of possible other caves where the limestone meets the sandstone. Instead we found thick blooming rhododendra before the drive home.

Lovers Leap, A Vertical Pursuit

2011-04-02T16:25:00.005-04:00

The daytime high was 81 degrees when Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, and I made our plans to head for Lovers Leap Cave, but the weekend weather took a turn for the worse. Despite the forecast for ice pellets overnight, we trudged up the hill. I think that Mike and Lisa were glad that I advised them not to wear Wellies as we hiked up. As we climbed the hill, fallen trees pushed us closer to the steep face and prevented us from using the switchbacks we've found necessary. Apparently the hilltop is being cleared of trees. Hopefully it won't result in erosion; it's tough to imagine the hillside being even harder to climb.

Inside the cave Mike climbed toward the ceiling in the main room. He discovered more passage up there that requires survey, and I led him back down to us through a simpler hole in the floor/ceiling.

Then we headed to the pit. Mike and Lisa enthusiastically descended into the slot and admired the white flowstone and draperies choking the sides of the fissure. At the bottom of the 68-foot-deep fissure, they surveyed 35 feet in both directions. One lead got too tight to pursue, but two others will require additional ropes to continue descent. As Lisa ascended the rope, she dropped a mini-mag that Mike was unable to locate. Put together with the 1950's-style flashlight that Dave Duguid found there previously, Lisa dubbed the slot the Flashlight Eating Fissure.

Upon my request, Lisa used her sten light to check out a second slot located below the Echo Bench. She believes it goes pretty deep (based on rocks dropped in), but only the thinnest people would be able to ascend out of there. Mike and Lisa then demonstrated that the Echo Bench also serves as a loveseat (check out http://tritrogs.org/gallery2/v/LoversLeap0311/loversleap0007.JPG.html in the TriTrog photo gallery).

We also surveyed two leads above the cable ladder drop. The first led us to an easy dig over an 8-foot drop, and that remains to be explored. The second lead pinched into fissure at the lowest level, but Mike squeezed along the horizontal. I followed, and we surveyed into a room. Unfortunately a drain pointing back to Lisa gave us the only route out of the room.

Almost 800 feet of survey now, but the plan view isn't very interesting:

The plot below shows a profile of the line plot to show how the fissures cut down through the 35-degree bedding.

We exited the cave to a light rain. I ascended the entrance rope at night with a single jumar, but I slipped and slid the whole way up, loaded down with the weight of my gear. Mike and Lisa had more luck while wearing their full vertical gear. As we crested the top of the hill, snow blew into my face. So much for an early Spring.

Completion of Copenhaver's Cave

2011-02-24T00:05:00.001-05:00

Another successful caving trip; I don’t know of many caving trips that can’t be considered a success. A Saturday morning departure from Raleigh/Durham and a quick lunch break at the local Marion barbeque joint landed Lisa, Mike, Ken, and Dave at the cave entrance at 1pm. What cave, Copenhaver’s. Why; the combination of dry conditions and a successful survey in January.

The survey started at station C7 just outside the Zen Garden, surveying would lead us through the Christmas Goose room and into the large room we surveyed into on the last trip. In this room we put the sketcher, Ken, to the test with the longest shot in the cave; it was more than 48ft. The mud floor is deeply carved out as a result of a various streams flowing through. The ceiling has many dramatic height changes; one part of the ceiling as to be more than 50ft. The 50ft location has a narrow stream of water cascading down; would be interesting to see if there is additional cave there, but the height may limit the options.

Those, Lisa and Mike, on instruments were also tested; their test consisted of getting into the lowest and wettest part of the cave. The large room drains into a significantly smaller passage; it is easy to see how the cave could fill with water completely if more water is coming in, than going out.

We exited the cave around 9:30 and found only the Pizza Hut to be open. We ordered a few pizza’s to go along with the fine selection beer Mike and Ken had brought along. We were back at the cave entrance Sunday by 10:30am; the goal was to try and finish the cave survey and do a bit of surface survey looking for any interesting surface features around significant locations in the cave.

Mike and Dave checked out a lead off of C4 while Ken sketched a profile. A short dig off of B13 that Dave and Lisa worked on the day before resulted in a dead end in breakdown. Only thing left to check out was a known passage off of station B2. Here, Ken gave the survey it shortest shot of 1.9ft. Mike worked on a drain at the end of this passage only to conclude it was too narrow to continue.

The cave survey of Copenhaver's is complete; total surveyed distance is 1685ft with a maximum depth of -107ft. Looking at topographic maps it appears the standing water at the end of the drain is at river level.

Lisa and Tanya had interesting news; they had found some encouraging leads on the adjacent hillside after performing the surface survey. Looks like another trip to the property will be a likely event. In addition, the cave could use a clean-up, a nice gesture to the generous land owners; there is some trash inside the cave and a bunch outside the cave.

Copenhaver survey trip

2011-01-11T23:47:00.001-05:00

Despite the weather swings in January, a caving trip had been on the calendar for weeks, surveyors found, a selection of caves to choose from; all that remained was for Mother Nature to cooperate. But Mother Nature was going to keep us guessing, as the weekend drew near it was clear that it would be cold and there would be snow; but how much snow and how cold?

About this time last year the weather forecast predicted blizzard conditions, we collectively canceled and Marion got NO snow. This year, the fellow cavers seemed a bit more impervious to what some would call poor weather; in fact two individuals had their eye set on snow shoeing on Sunday. While weather was mentioned and monitored, the question of whether to call the trip never surfaced in earnest.

The drive was not eventful until passing Mt Airy where the snowflakes were large and plentiful; fortunately it was short lived. However the climb up the mountain on route 77 yielded colder temperatures and more snow but clearly still drivable. The city of Marion had the most snow and the streets were completely covered with snow.

Reviewing the current conditions it was determined that Lover leap traverse to the entrance was a challenge none of us wanted to confront with 6inches of fresh snow, a rapidly declining thermometer, and a rapidly increasing anemometer. Starting a new survey project at Copenhavers was number two on the list.

Being that the cave is only 10minutes from Tanya warm house we suited up there and planned for the option to return to her house in full cave gear. We briefly spoke with the land owner, drove to a spot in the cow field we felt we would not get stuck, hiked to the cave, posed for prosperity, and started caving.

There were six cavers, conveniently making two survey teams. One team (Ken, Matt, and Trina) started their survey at the entrance; the other team (Dave, Mike, and Tanya) started their survey at a short nuisance pit about 100ft inside the cave. Temperature inside the cave was substantially better than outside the cave, but the front was cooler draftier than expected. The first room did have some hibernating bats (I saw about a dozen though there could have been more); they were not there two months earlier.

Based on dinner time conversation, the team Ken was on got the brunt of the cooler temperatures. They started at the drip line and worked into the cave; taking breaks to seek warmer parts of the cave when necessary. They surveyed all passage above the pit, with two exceptions that will probably never be surveyed (unless there are some really tiny volunteers). But the best news was they did connect to the initial survey station of the other team.

The other team surveyed deeper into the earth in search of the rumored underground lake. The passage was littered with material washed into the cave, all the way to the ceiling in most places. After traversing a breakdown room, the day drew to a close; but not before a quick peek at the continuing passage. I think this quick peek sealed out Sunday plans, the cave was still going strong!

The fourteen degrees temperature had most getting out of their coveralls in record time, got to avoid the freezing suit dilemma. Dinner was Italian; the evening entertainment was a lengthy game of Bang. The plan for Sunday was laid out, going back to Copenhavers; more to survey, not hoping from cave to cave given WNS issues, and for some not wanting to be outside in the elements for any lengthy period of time.

Saturday morning it was about eight degrees when Dave, Ken, and Mike hiked toward the cave (Matt and Trina opted for show shoeing). Getting to the last survey station didn’t take long. The survey was much warmer as there was minimal if any air movement.

While surveying we got off the trunk passage into a room and then a smaller side passage but with a good echo. We were soon rewarded with a large sloping room, only to find that this is only a small part of a much larger room. The room was large enough that we did not traverse the entire room. There is known passage out of the room, and hopefully more we just haven’t found it yet.

Due to the time of day we opted to try to connect back into the trunk passage; we eventually found the trunk passage (the faster way out) but was unable to complete the survey loop. That will be the first thing on a subsequent trip, which will lead into a very large room with many possibilities.

A couple of interesting statistics:
- The dip (angle of the cave) in the cave is approximately 30degrees.
- Total length surveyed was 981ft
- Vertical distance is currently at 86ft.

Hancock Cave Cleanup

2010-11-22T08:16:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Grant Molnar, Steve Molnar, Matthew Gayek, Peter Gayek, Ray Caraher, Doug Criger, Mark Little, Martin Groenewegen, Duke Dooley, Rob Harris, Matthew van Fossen, Diana Gietl, Dave and Dawson Duguid, Howard Holgate, and Jeri Espinoza for your help on Saturday cleaning up the sinkhole entrance at Hancock Cave. We managed to haul out a full truckload as well as Duke's trailer. This included carpeting, toys, a range, dishwasher, and parts of the fridge.

To see more photos, go to the TriTrogs photo gallery at http://tritrogs.org/gallery2/v/hancockcleanup2010/.

Gap Between Sleep and Morning

2010-10-12T23:04:00.001-04:00

Imagine that you've been told, "Come along on the cave trip. We're not worried about catching your cold." Imagine that you get to dig through bins of brand new cave gear to suit yourself up. Imagine that the leader Dave makes you feel wanted by encouraging you to join his trip, and you mention that twelve hours should be your limit while recovering from the cold. Imagine that you'll be able to explore virgin cave that Karen describes it as "the kind of cave you like." Imagine her telling you to wear a T-shirt because the walk in for the first few hours is pleasant and you'll wear your coveralls down.

Imagine a pleasant underground hike starting at 10 AM along a well marked trail, over some impressive breakdown piles for about two hours. Then a lakeside break (where Aaron fills his first pee bottle). The next hour is less tranquil as you squeeze through a breakdown pile, but Dave leads you up into the Big Room that the sten light cannot see across. The Less Big Room at the far end is still a nice long walk.

Imagine that you now reached the section of the cave undiscovered until last Spring. Imagine that you now are chimneying, crawling on your belly, and squeezing between rocks for an hour-and-a-half in order to reach your survey lead. The lead looks like a walking passage, but you first survey a crawl on the side that loops back in. Aaron fills another pee bottle.

At the end of the walking passage, a slab divides the passage into top and bottom. Imagine that the upper passage (a 10-inch high crawl) is the more appealing choice. You continue stretching long survey shots, and the sketcher has lots of work to catch up. Imagine surveying 569 feet before the passage ends in breakdown surrounded by gypsum crystals, flowers, and needles. It's now 10 PM, and Aaron is down two more bottles.

Imagine you now spend six hours (and Aaron a few more pee bottles) traveling back toward the cave entrance and down the hill to the fieldstation. The cave water (with iodine) was especially tasty. After dinner, you lie down to sleep on the futon at 5 AM. Someone in the kitchen wakes you two hours later. Oh no.

Leap Up, Dig Down, Cotton a New Idea

2010-09-10T11:29:00.020-04:00

"Crap! No holds! Just mud!" Wedged against a vertical mud and rock slope in front and smooth muddy rock slabs on either side I know my only piece of protection, a nylon runner now at my knees, will probably slide off its rock horn if I move up. I'm not sure it would hold for a downward fall either since it's probably just a small boulder packed in by mud.

I rethink my inital excitement when my compadres suggested this as a great survey trip for me since they needed a "climber" here in Lover's Leap Cave.

Wedged into the crux halfway up this 40 foot climb on the left side of a long narrow room I still feel as much joy and excitement about seeing what's at the top and overcoming the climbing challenge as I feel fear that this might be a colossally bad idea. If I fall from this vertical section onto the 40 then 30 degree slope below I'll probably just slide through the mud, bang against the walls, perhaps sprain or break something minor but doesn't seem like a risk of death or long term injury. I have added incentive to stay healthy being committed to an international alpine trip in 4 months.

I've already stepped back down a couple of times, half hanging on the sling, half resting with steps kicked into the mud with my rock shoes which have 6 pounds each of mud caked on them. Downclimbing to my belayer would be just as treacherous as moving up or staying. Above me about another body length across a 50 degree mud field is a level ledge with what appear to be two small flowstone slopers that should serve as decent protection, maybe even enough to rappel back down. I fling one glove onto the unseen back of the ledge. The second I toss right onto those flowstone slopers. If only my hand were still in that one to grab the only decent looking hold in sight of my headlamp. Now the gloves are literally off and my determination is renewed.

Bare handed I now find a small crimper indented into my left hand wall. The right wall I can reach with my foot with my knee stradled across a boulder outcrop that juts out towards me. The seemingly good hand hold on the right wall broke off cleanly when tested- glad I didn't trust my foot to it.

The crimper and some small uppy motions inch my hips up further to the top of the vertical section where now the slope seems plausibly angled to stick to. Digging with my bare hands I carve out a fist sized left hand which compresses when I weight it. Dig more to make it usable again. Right hand digs through to a rock I can barely pinch with fingers. Don't dig enough to make it a jug handle, it might dig loose from the slope entirely. These are my life line as I fish-flop onto the slope. A previous failure getting over a traditional rock climb roof taught me that grace isn't always part of the best solution. Dig, pull, wiggle, flop, dig, scramble, (slope collapsing as I go,) up to the flowstone slopers. Brush the glove aside, Crumble! It was just mud, not stone. OK, getting used to this now, at least ledge is pretty flat. Fling both gloves down to my belayer, who has retreated into the passageway from the hail of mud and rock I loosened. He was kind enough not to add to my stress by telling me the sling around my one "safe" spot came loose and fell back to him. Gloves I was willing to dedicate to the cause are safe below, but myself I'm still worried about. (Even if my one piece of pro 15 feet below was really there it would only slightly lessen the impact if I hit the bottom from this height. The ledge I'm on is slowly collapsing around the edges- time to move on!

Up a few more feet around a big boulder I find a small alcove that's even flatter, and seems more stable, though till just mud for a floor. I bang on everything to guess what is real and what is mud. Digging with my nut tool I thread a runner around a real stone again, possibly held just by mud. Clipping in I yell down that I finally have some pro. Breath. Rest. whew, that was intense. look around. If I stand there may be one passage to my left, one above, and one to the right. Yay, the cave appears to go! That's why we risked this climb!

After catching my breath I drop the tape measure. 35 feet to the belayer's station. I mark a spot on the big boulder and Dave and Ken both take readings from below to confirm my inclination. They are back in the room beyond where the climb started so it's only a 47 degree angle to them, but the climb must have been more vertical than I thought given that reading.

I feel safer about my ledge and the closeness of the walls than the one piece of pro I have, but I'm happy Dave has me on belay even on a static rope. I finally relax and stand up. Yep there's tight crawling passage just above my head to the right. Snaking up and around the upward spiral I find lots of what we presume to be racoon skat, some of it very fresh. I don't want to crawl through the freshest of it to explore that right hand crawl which is almost square. Besides, if it continues like that for long I'd have to back out through it again into this high vertical channel.

Up is easier and slightly cleaner and opens into a 20 by 8 by 4 foot high room. There are two passages that continue through the other side, what would be left from my piece of pro below. One is squirel sized, the other racoon sized and has racoon like fur stuck in the spider webs on the top of it. Possibly diggable to human sized were one so inclined. I call this room the Smart Car Show Room as other than the height you could fit about 2 of them in here. I had to untie to get fully into the room as the static rope drag was too much. I re-tie, check my knot, and down climb back to my pro. I chose a rapell strategy talking with the more experienced cavers below and rap down, leaving the runner to mark our progress for some future caver.

I name the route "Racoon Ridge" and estimate it to be about a 5.10 R in the rock rating system. Meaning it requires rock shoes and a few advanced techniques to deal with the hard to find or create shifting holds and is Run-out with little opportunity to protect.

I rest and snack before joining the surveyors again. It's late but we want to finish the known leads before indulging in Mexican food and beer. Before my climb David had dropped more than 60 feet into a pit on the opposite end of the large room from my climb. He found a possible small lead and a flash light we guess is from the 1950's well down that narrow pit. Ken and Rob rigged a cable ladder down a smaller pit that we all had to step over on the way in. Dave's pit continued but got too tight for comfort with no one else able to descend and help if he got stuck. Ken's pit also seemed too tight to continue, even if he'd been on rope instead of ladder. Above Ken's pit we climbed into a large room with sloping walls telling of major geologic shifts long ago.

"That seems too tight to go, but feel free to poke your head in and see what you think." - words Ken and Dave's stomach would soon regret. I snaked around with a few yoga moves and dropped into a room I could stand in with crawling passage continuing 14 feet till it turned intriguingly to the right. We surveyed only another 10 feet past that turn where it would have been a dig to get into a tight canyon 20 feet high by 20 feet long by about 8 inches wide. Once in the computer we were intrigued to learn that this canyon runs back towards my climb and the Smart Car showroom and both of them are only about 12 feet below the entrance elevation.

We added more than 1/3 of the total 543 total surveyed feet to the map of Lover's Leap cave that day. Outside we carefully night-scrambled down the extremely steep hill that had required rigging rope to retrieve a dropped pack on the way in. Only Pizza Hut was open so late but we happily chowed down with our host Tanya and Rob's friend Beth who'd just driven from Blacksburg. Never a germaphobic caver I did not balk at sharing a slice with Tanya, but I may never live down commenting that after climbing 40 feet up through mud and crawling through fresh racoon droppings and guano that swapping spit with Tanya would the most pleasant thing I'd done all day.

Pizza Hut fed us impressive amounts of food for which we tipped well before retiring to Tanya's to stay up way too late discussing endless options for Sunday. Only when we woke at 10 did I learn our goal. We missed breakfast at the only Sunday morning table service restaurant but lunch fared us well instead.

Dave's truck and Beth's SUV earned their stripes (literally from several tree branches) on the "road" into the Cotton cave hillside. We split into 2 teams, Ken and I mainly focussed on the intriguing "Easy Way Down" dig, while Dave, Rob, Tanya and Beth checked out 5 Goat cave nearby and Cotton Cave.

A truly beautiful autumnal day enhanced staying outside to dig. We progressed hugely, the highlight of which for me was fashioning some opposing slip knots to grip odd shaped boulders with webbing so that Ken, Dave and I could haul them out with webbing. I was disappointed that none of them were large enough to justify rigging block and tackle to really practice vertical rescue techniques. We opened up the right side of the 10 foot long slot enough to poke head lamps down and even willow thin Beth agreed she could not fit between the slabs it exposed. Straight down seemed perhaps more promising but a final large boulder slab halted progress for the day. Left seemed also unlikely to open up into large enough passage. We all agreed the progress was impressive, but from here it would be much slower and perhaps a few winters of freeze/thaw would help.

Five Goat cave had turned out to be only about 12 feet long, perhaps the easiest map ever. Ken and I wanted to at least check out nearby Cotton, which even with the help of those who'd just come from there was hard to find only 100 yards from "Easy Way."

I was newly stunned by the immediate beauty of Cotton in the entrance. Back of the main room a climb I'd started up last year intrigued me even more. I was tired from digging, yesterday's climb and short sleep, but only a realization that it was 6:30 and we had food and 3 hours of highway to consume before we slept deterred me from starting up it anyway.

We allowed a few minutes for reconnasaince of the climb. Beth chimneyed up a narrow section further out in the room that I had thought might lead to a ledge for traverseing back to the water-fall of flowstone at the far end. She got up enough to report the ledge was not as flat or deep as hoped, and we watched nervously as she figured out how to down climb from that awkward position with some aid from Ken and me. The hard part about the climb at the end seems to be an utter lack of opportunities to protect it. It was drier now in late August than it had been on our first visit, and plenty solid and rough. The problem for me is the fall consequences and how to get back down. Everything solid stone but the rimstone pools below meant a much harsher landing than the mud climb in Lover's Leap would have been. I'd rate this one maybe a 5.7 as a rock route, but one never knows for sure until it's climbed.

Extra headlamps from 6 people made the space above the climb more intriguing than ever. It appears to open into a large mezzanine where 20 people could stand and then leads further back beneath a large archway. How much more passage it could contain carved by the water that formed all the beautiful flowstone decorations intrigues me!

We'd brought a telescoping squeege pole in hopes of hooking webbing through a high formation which turns out to be infeasible. Instead I tied my camera and a light to the squeegee and Ken and I carefully extended it as high as we could reach. The video was poor, with the light too inconsistent, but as a proof of concept it is an idea worth improving for future explorations. Getting ideas for a future adventure above the stone falls was our main goal so we declared victory, retrieved some old trash from the cave, and headed for the Mexican food Saturday had denied us. Properly rehydrated by Margaritas we discussed the diminishing returns of light over distance on the ride home.

Lover's Leap map has only a few areas where further surveying might be possible, mainly down the long pit Dave explored. Racoon Ridge may remain a once-climbed wonder for decades. Easy Way Down digging may get harder if it can be opened into cave at all. So the intriguing but hard to protect climb at the current back of Cotton remains our most enticing remnant of this excellent early fall trip. Perhaps it goes no further than we see, but my imagination dreams of glorious hours of surveying unmapped miles.

Lunchtime Trip Underground

2010-07-11T19:05:00.007-04:00

Rob Harris had permission to visit the Old Lead Mine inside the Raleigh Beltline. He hadn't been there since he was a little boy, but he was curious to visit again. We walked the short distance from his friends' driveway to a cool entrance on July 10, 2010.

The entrance is a few feet high and sloped down toward a shallow pool about ten feet in.

The ceiling got higher as we proceeded up the next slope, and the passage maintained its six-foot width despite small breakdown pieces along the way. Sixty feet from the entrance a very large breakdown slab covers the floor. Just beyond that a two-foot deep pool marks the back of the mine.

Rob and I surveyed and photographed the mine passage. While I was finishing the sketches, Rob investigated the rock to better understand the graphite mining.
Because all the soft walls appeared white and schist-like with quartz intrusions, we couldn't understand where the graphite was. However, stains on my hands indicated that we had indeed found the graphite. It's just a few percent of the rock. I was fortunate to find online the 1947 article "The Origin and Importance of the Raleigh Graphite" by John W. Harrington.

Rainy Weekend

2010-06-21T23:19:00.005-04:00

Rob Harris, Dave Duguid, Duke Dooley, and I headed up to Marion for a caving weekend. Although we started early Saturday morning, the hike up to Lovers Leap Cave was still quite warm. Unfortunately an entrance obstacle prevented us from surveying in Lovers Leap that day, and then the thunderstorm started. As it seems to happen on every trip, hiking down the hill from Lovers Leap was slippery after the rain.

We still had plenty of time to start a survey trip, so we headed to Worley's Cave. Just before entering the cave, another downpour started and we all got pretty wet. Inside the cave I led the team off to drier leads on the left side. I didn't remember that the ceiling was so low in this part of the cave. Dave managed to teach Duke and Rob how to survey, and their 106-foot loop only closed off by two feet. In the meantime, I began re-sketching areas of the cave not covered in the first surveys.

I managed to finish off the sketch for the big entrance room while the team poked into a lead just out of the twilight zone of the cave. They dug a little and then started crawling. Eventually Dave and Rob wandered out of voice shot. They came back reporting walking passage and multiple leads, and Dave promised to survey it after they made the passage more passable.

On Sunday the thunderstorms came and went and came and went... We found the drive out to Easy Way Down Dig wasn't too muddy for Dave's truck. Rob, Dave, and I headed off to work at the hillside dig while Duke took the time to drive back to Fayetteville. The dig was easy to find this time.

Dave, Rob, and I began pulling rocks, roots, and mud out of the slot, but there was no air blowing out of the small hole beneath the big old tree. As we dug, we discovered that the tree roots had broken up some of the rock for us and we found our way into a ten-foot wide slot. Everywhere along the slot seemed to have hollow floor, but air wasn't blowing up anywhere.

After banging on some soft rock, the long slot turned out to be quite useful. Dave could lie sideways in it and dig further into the hole under the tree. We left the dig covered in mud but willing to check for blowing leads another time.

Thanks to Tanya for letting us shower before the trip home.

Clean Getaway

2010-01-04T18:09:00.001-05:00

For New Years weekend, Dave Duguid and I drove up to Marion to search for new caves with Tanya McLaughlin. We began on one side of a promising ridge that has some caves on the opposite side. Despite Daisy's pokings into some burrows, it didn't seem very promising. Then I happened across a Rabbit Hole which I hope is more than a burrow. Although the ground was frozen, the base of a tree framed a small pit that dropped down about ten feet. When the weather improves, we have permission to dig it out to human size and see if it'll go further. That evening we checked that the entrance of Snider Branch Cave is not receiving garbage since our clean up and confirmed that no WNS bat activity was happening at the entrances to Rowland Creek Cave.

On Saturday Tanya and I hiked up Tramway Hollow. The hollow was a mix of sandstone layers with dolomite beneath. We found lots of sinkholes and sinking streams, but we found no contact points that might lead to substantial caves. We also learned that mountain laurel seems to grow great in areas with surface streams (sandstone layers) but not at all over the dolomite. Shallow roots?

Dave had eaten his lunch at that point, so he and I went out to search for a dig I had found a year ago while traveling to Cotton Cave. I roamed the ridge without any success until Dave circled back from the Cotton Cave entrance. Then we met at a rock face with a small hole. It wasn't the right place, but we did manage to find the remnants of a filled cave. It's now about ten feet deep and ten feet wide but only a few inches high.

Although dusk was falling, we continued to look for Easy Way Down Dig. When Dave got to the big tree, I knew he had found the right hole. Warm air poured from a six-inch-wide slot into the 15-degree temperatures. Dave gathered the GPS coordinates while I began to dig the stones and loose dirt with my rock hammer. We didn't get very deep into the narrow dig, but it still appears quite promising for cave potential. It drops down at least six feet and feeds into ridge with multiple caves. Unfortunately the impending night turned us around.

On Sunday Dave, Tanya, and I took a road trip to visit cave entrances looking for signs of WNS-infected bats. We visited Marion Quarry Cave (both entrances), Little Hancock Cave, Hancock Cave, North Fork-Painted Lady Cave, Hogs Hole, Worley's Cave, Huff Cave, and McMullins Cave entrances. I'm happy to report that we saw no signs of bats in distress and had an opportunity to ask the local neighbors to act as our front line communicators if they see any bat activity this winter.

Although the temperatures only reached daytime highs in the teens, I had a good, productive caving weekend aboveground and still have mostly clean clothing.

October caving

2009-10-27T00:04:00.002-04:00

The allure of unknown passage in Busted Turtle cave provided enough incentive to get back and continue surveying. Tanya and Robbie joined me.

I did not leave Raleigh until 7:30 in the morning having overslept; my new alarm clock has a feature were the alarm can be set for weekdays or weekends; my error now apparent. However with very little traffic I was able make good time and was not late. The weather the entire trip was not the best, cloudy and occasional rain. Marion had no rain, just wind.

The cave is less than 10 minutes from Tanya’s house; before we knew it we had driven through the property and were hiking to the cave entrance. We took out the log that was impeding the entrance (though I’m not sure it made it any easier to get out).
Surveying started in the entrance pit, lead number one. The lead was a large room that looked that it had great potential but stopped after 40ft. Lead number two was a bit smaller than I remembered; “small” surveyors will be needed to continue. So we skipped it in favor of lead number three. The lead led us southward. It was not well decorated, but Robbie thinks we located Peccary tracks; he’s going to follow up and get back to us on that one. The lead yielded some good yardage but eventually stopped too.

Onto lead number four, this lead resulted in much more interesting cave. We got into some really nice soda straws, helictites, and other smaller formations. Unfortunately we were not the first as was clearly marked by the “fresh” vandalism of the cave’s formations. Also of interest was the number of bones found. There had to be more than one set of bones, animals unknown. The lead had some smaller passage then opened up again only to stop. There is more cave here, but will require “small” surveyors.

Finally lead number five, a high lead that Robbie checked out; to my great disappointment the lead was only a single room. We surveyed that quickly and called it a day. The survey resulted in 370ft of cave passage, for a total of 800+ feet.

There are three leads yet to survey; two leads will require either smaller individuals or significant time behind digging gear. Both leads have a combined distance of more than 100ft and the likelihood they continue as the passages round a corner leaving one to dream of trunk passage ahead! The third lead is at the bottom and will require a bit of rock manipulation. It holds high potential as well, probably higher than the other two. I’m hoping we can get the proper body configurations and proper blasting skills to get to the remaining leads.

On Sunday, of which was an absolutely gorgeous day with the sun, cool temperature, and fall foliage, we set out to do some ridge walking. Tanya had two areas to check out. It was noted there was to be a cave above the spring Tanya and Ken had found on a previous trip, now connected to a huge culvert and a road overhead. Either there was no cave or it suffered the fate of being buried when the road was constructed.

Our next stop was just up the street to another spring with a documented cave nearby. After poking around the spring and walking the hill a bit, we set out to dig a promising spot. After twenty minutes we had ourselves another cave. I scooped about 100ft of it and it is still going. It’s small and has a few inches or water in it of course. Several people will be getting wet when surveying that one unless it drys up during drought periods.

Lover's Leap Cave Trip Report

2009-10-15T23:06:00.001-04:00

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Tanya McLaughlin was good enough to allow Matthew Van Fossen, Ken Walsh, and Matthew Lubin to stay at her house Friday night, October 2. After a hearty breakfast at the new Pioneer Restaurant, not far from the old, the skies were gray but remained closed on Saturday morning above Lover’s Leap Cave, and stayed closed long enough to allow them to climb the hill to the cave and descend to the entrance without getting soaked. Surveying was a learning process for the two Matthews. We covered about 200 feet in length, encountering a bat and some possible evidence of cave rat habitation along the way, and a couple of previously marked survey points. Leads were examined and new positions marked. In the army, “familizarization” with each new piece of equipment and in particular with weapons is a well-worn process for new recruits; “familiarization” with the clinometer and compass for the two Matthews consisted of a series of angles shot both forwards and backwards, with no more than a 2-degree variation permitted between the measurements. One line from a point on a low cave ceiling to a point on a slightly higher rocky outcropping, hovering above a deep pit, proved particularly challenging, but was useful in teaching the value of settling into the best possible position to take instrument measurements, whether that involves acrobatics that would make a Chicago Bulls halftime rubber man proud, or simply taking one’s helmet off to avoid scraping a low ceiling.
Stretching from about 11 in the morning to slightly past 5, the trip was quite uneventful and added some new information on Lover’s Leap Cave to our previous store. The strains of bluegrass once again greeted those exiting the cave. Lubin struggled to get the line for climbing up the hill from the cave entrance back, so that Walsh passed some tricky moments on hands and knees endeavoring to get up a steep slope unaided by any rope. Eventually the summit was reached, and the subsequent climb down was by earlier standards uneventful. After dinner with Tanya, they returned to Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

Eight Month Wait - Busted Turtle Cave

2009-09-02T21:57:00.003-04:00

Tanya found this cave through the owner’s daughter late last year; the January trip was to cave this cave. However due to various reasons we changed our plans; one reason was there were rock climbers coming out of the cave. It was interesting in that one of the climbers knew of a cave just over the hillside; knowing of no caves had been reported on this hill we quickly jumped on the opportunity to cave the other cave, now known as Cotton Cave. This left the original cave on the project list. I had tried several other times to get a trip planned but it didn’t work; this trip I had a vertical oriented crew of Robbie, Rob, and Brian.

The cave requires vertical experience; in fact the cave has three drops totaling over 145ft. We managed to survey 475 feet with some very promising leads left for another day. I can see at least a few more trips to this cave!

Getting back to the day’s activities; we came prepared with ropes and more ropes. One rope was used to repel the entrance pit and was used to drop a nuisance drop immediately following. Large passage awaited us on both sides. Given a solid vertical crew we chose to keep going down; the idea was to determine just what was in store for future planning.

The second drop put us in a large room with various bone piles; the most intriguing was the skeletal remains of a large turtle. The turtle was much too large to be a box turtle which probably leaves only aquatic turtles; what an aquatic turtle was going this high up on the hill would be anybody’s guess. The cave is more decorated than originally thought; most of the formations are old and not active. The top two levels appears to be quite dry.

Robbie was bird dogging out in front while Rob, Brian, and myself surveyed. Robbie found the third pit and rigged it while we surveyed toward him. Given there was nothing in the immediate vicinity to tie into he had to use webbing and rig to some formations about 20ft back. The bolting kit we brought was not of much use as the walls and floor were simply mud and very soft rock.

The bottom of the pit landed us in a large fissure with a stream. The stream came into and out of the cave in very low leads, something that would require some serious digging if the stream ever dried. There were a few leads through some small passage; these leads opened into another fissure that immediately terminated.

Robbie was cold from digging in a wet, muddy section of the cave; he did find another strong lead but it would require a bit of cave modification to take the edge off some rock. While waiting for the others to ascend the third pit I went back to check a few of the open leads; and leads they are.

I’m very excited to get back to this cave. Hopefully I can drum up some interest; the challenging pit has been dropped and doesn’t yield any great interest to work on those leads until the other, much more promising leads are proven out.

Don't Look Before You Leap

2009-09-01T20:11:00.002-04:00

Friday evening Tanya McLaughlin shared an account of a felonious escape from Lovers Leap Cave with Matthew Van Fossen and me. The flowery description was written long ago and told a tragic tale of a man trapped underground. It didn't tell us about the obstacles that awaited us.

We met Blaine Schubert of Eastern Tennessee State University at the Food Country grocery. He pointed into the air to let us know where the cave entrance was located. We turned to see the top of a nearby cliff on the edge of town. He has gained permission to let Ty Gosnell collect samples for a Masters Thesis, and the TriTrogs have volunteered to help by producing a cave map. Apparently the caves high on the cliffsides are more likely to produce older fossils, and an account had listed a Pleistocene peccary fossil found in the cave.

We pushed through 50 feet of vegetation to find ourselves in a forested wood, at the base of a steep hill. We zigzagged along deer paths, but there were too few that headed up the hill. I'm guessing that we climbed 500-600 feet vertically to reach the top of the hill. Then Blaine showed us the short path down to the cave entrance.

Matthew and I thought it wise to dress for the cave trip before descending the path. We dropped our backpacks and dressed for the caving trip, left our packs atop the hill, and commenced the slide down to the entrance. I rigged about 80 feet of webbing as a handline to make the ascent easier, but I quickly realized that it also made the descent a lot less frightening. The sloping ledge starts wide but narrows down to a few feet wide near the end of the webbing and shortly before arriving at the cave entrance.

The entrance presented the next challenge to my long legs. To get inside, I had to snake down through the breakdown, but the 90-degree turn is challenging until you figure out the wiggles necessary to drop your legs in the right hole. Blaine and Ty led us down to the main room in the cave. After an easy climb over breakdown, Blaine led me down a slope to a pit that we can explore later (likely won't need more than a cable ladder).

Tanya, Matthew, and I returned to the cave entrance to begin our survey while the paleontologists moved on to collect samples. Survey down through the breakdown entrance was tricky, but we were entertained by live old time country music resonating up the valley. Before I entered the cave again, I noticed that the sky was clouding up. I grabbed the webbing and did a Batman climb up the slope. I grabbed Matthew's pack and my own, carried them down the slope to a dry spot near the cave entrance, and watched rain begin to pour.

Inside the cave we surveyed back down into the main room and then took a sharp left. The left passage took us into a high room and then a fissure with some nice boxwork. Tanya found a deadend at the far end of the fissure, and I managed to slide my body up about fifteen feet to find no leads in the ceiling. The station at the fissure bottom was 48 feet below the entrance, but the cave promises considerably more depth.

Matthew had more luck back in the earlier room. Tanya and I convinced him to climb up on a ledge, cross the room, and ascend toward the ceiling. Matthew found some going leads and then tried to return to us. Six feet above the floor he took some time evaluating the ways he could get back down. As the elapsed time approached ten minutes, we dubbed this room Van Fossen's Conundrum because of his intent puzzling about ways to return to the floor without allowing us to help.

Matthew and Tanya were ready to head out of the cave at this point, but I convinced them to shoot down a passage that I presumed would end shortly. Tanya found that her hips got stuck as she tried to follow the passage. Matthew easily slid through, but I was limited at the same point as Tanya. I just couldn't lie on my side and lift my left hip into the air. Fortunately my head could get into Matthew's room far enough for me to complete my sketch.

Then we headed out of the cave and enjoyed the music emanating from the valley below. Tanya found the climb to the top of the hill very challenging and exhausting. The earlier rain had left the slope muddy. Matthew climbed up next, and I tried to follow with my backpack. The backpack hit the cliffside and knocked me out of my Batman stance and down to my knees. Crawling showed me how hard the slope climb could be. When I got to a place where I could stand again, I rose too quickly and got dizzy for a second. After I got to the top, Matthew headed back for the last pack and found that the climb gets harder with wear.

We managed to slide down the muddier hill and return to my vehicle shortly after dark. Tanya vowed that she won't go ever again to Lovers Leap, and Matthew was receptive to her thinking that evening. Who's ready for the next trip? I don't want to wait until it snows.

Weekend Escape

2009-07-20T21:14:00.000-04:00

Mark Little, Howard Holgate, Bryce Schroeder, and I joined Tanya McLaughlin to help her finish her survey of Flat Ridge Cave and the connecting Potato Bin Cave a few feet away. We began by driving down to the Sugar Grove lumberyard, and I checked out a previous insurgence that has now completely filled. While returning, wasps bit through my socks until Howard rescued me by hauling me back onto the bridge.

Mark didn't want to survey between the cave entrances, so he convinced Tanya that he could convert GPS coordinates into a vector that she could add to her survey program. We entered the resurgence to the cave after seven years and were happy to find it dry.

The muddy floors in this section of the cave looked familiar to me, and Tanya led the group toward a low belly crawl that headed toward Frog Bottom. Mark and Howard were more interested in an alternate non-belly route that I presented. Unfortunately Tanya and Bryce didn't wait for us beyond the belly crawl. We called out to them, headed down a few different passages, and eventually heard them respond to our calls. After getting turned around ourselves following the sound of their voices, we joined our leader again.

Then we found ourselves headed directly down a passage with no significant side routes. That's the way I remembered the path to Frog Bottom. I seemed to come to the passage end when I saw the NSS symbol on the ceiling, but a small hole in the floor offered hope. I slid on through and beckoned the others to follow into the big rooms beyond while I checked Tanya's map. With my compass in hand, I found that we were at the opposite end of the cave from Frog Bottom! I climbed down a hole to see the passage to the Birth Canal where Ericka Hoffmann had photographed a twisted me, and I knew for sure.

Fortunately we were on the side of the cave where we had hoped to break into Potato Bin Cave, the cave with a door beside Route 16 in Sugar Grove. We had little luck with the mud in the nearby passages. None of the leads seemed to go. I pressed up a dirty hill to find the vertical shaft up to nowhere that we had found about eight years earlier. The bottom of the shaft had a small hole where I remembered passage, but I now didn't even come close to fitting. Eventually I figured out that the passage we had explored in the bottom had filled in. It took fifteen seconds to correct that. I barrelled down into the next room and began digging furiously at a hole in the floor that blew air. Someone in the group began complaining about the cold, so I had to leave that dig for another day. I dropped in some flagging to find from the other side.

We checked out some leads for Tanya that all turned out to be dead ends and then headed to the big entrance room for a short break. Howard discovered some great spiders along the way with teardrop egg cases.

Then we headed for Frog Bottom. Howard was in front and reported that the Frog Bottom siphon had filled with mud to the ceiling. Frog Bottom had been an 8-foot slope down sand with a corresponding slope up on the other side. I couldn't believe that it had filled with mud, so I plunged in...almost up to my neck in muddy water. The leads beyond Frog Bottom would have to wait for another day.

Mark, Bryce, and I then surveyed down through the Vermi Chapel for about 75 feet more passage in six shots. Hieroglyphic vermiculations decorated the walls of the passage and the draperies we surveyed past. [According to Cave Minerals of the World, vermiculations are "thin, irregular, discontinuous deposits composed of incoherent materials (usually mud and clay), which are commonly found on the walls, ceilings, and floors of caves."]

When we joined Howard and Tanya to connect Potato Bin Cave to Flat Ridge, we grabbed the shovel and hoe from my brand new Escape Hybrid (a worthy caver's vehicle). Mark Daughtridge had poked into a hole in Potato Bin with little success last January, so we meant to open it up into Flat Ridge Cave. I could get my helmet in at first but not my head. I started digging with the hoe. I could then get my head in but only saw wall before me. I dug some more and got my chest past the tight spot and into a small box above. That still afforded me no view, and I only had one arm above me. Tanya put her feet against mine so I could get some traction, and I shoved myself into the box up to my waist. With some twisting and turning, I was disappointed that the box had no hope of exit by any other route. And no flagging tape.

It was still early in the day, so we headed over to Rich Valley in clean street clothes to check out some springs for Tanya. The first one was just a spring with plenty of dead air places to dig; good luck finding the cave there without erosion refilling it from the steep mountainside.

The second spring ran near a road built in the last decade. The spring was flowing heavily out of a 6-foot diameter concrete culvert that road crews had placed there. I straddled the stream and walked in about 100 feet to find that the spring actually leads to a cave, an adventure for another day.

Seneca/Stratosphere West Virgina: Wild and Fungus-y

2009-06-18T14:46:00.019-04:00

On June 5, 2009, I made the 5 1/2 hour drive from Durham to the quaint crossroads of Seneca Rocks, WV. After a great Saturday of guided rock climbing on the beautiful, starkly exposed fins and thin technical summit of Seneca, I enjoyed a leisurely run by the upper Potomac river, a couple of beers, and a tasty pizza as I pondered how to spend my Sunday in this mountain paradise. My spartan little hotel room at Yokum's was such a luxury compared to usual tent that I decided to sleep in, nestled comfortably as I was between the peaceful river 30 yards behind and the melodious 3 am rumblings of the occasional big rig only 30 feet from my front door.

Forgoing further climbs or strenuous hikes I settled on a plan to take advantage of some of the many commercial caves I'd passed on the long drive in. First priority was the closest- Seneca Caverns, touted as the "largest and most beautiful in W. Va!" Skeptical of this claim I asked our lovely guide, Holly, who clarified that the 3/4 of a mile of electrically lit passage included in the tour constituted the largest commercial cave in WV. Aha!

Nonetheless, I was thrilled for the chance to cave in my street clothes even if it wouldn't be the 5 miles of underground sidewalk I'd enjoyed in Mammoth KY. Even better, I learned that a 2nd cave only 200 yards away was also open for business, and better still was considered a guided "wild" cave!

Barely able to wait long enough to scarf down the rather edible lunch offered on site, I quickly bought my tickets and donned the helmet provided. I was bummed that no outside flashlights were allowed, but once Holly learned that I was a true caver, she not only permitted my peeks around with my discretely pocketed headlamp, but was eager to discuss "real" caving with me as we waited for parents and munchkins to flee from darkness to the next floodlights in the sequence of switches that move groups through the tour.

Holly's well rehearsed spiel suggested familiar shapes in the many formations throughout the cave, for the benefit of the imagination-impaired. I would have had no trouble appreciating the variety of beauty in the cave without having to squint sideways to see donkey-kong in the flowtone, but it was an amusing spiel nonetheless.

We started out in a room with a large "dutch oven" mound of flowstone, that unfortunately had been partly removed and a deep pit filled in to make the entrance room flat and easy for the public. Later on we ended up below this room where a cut stone wall made from that removal now seals and protects an Indian burial chamber. Holly quietly told me that the owners believe there may be undocumented passages beyond that wall.

Just past the entrance there is a large room looking across to a 40 ft tall balcony ledge with nice formations flowing away below it. Snaking down and around on wooden stairs we entered a smooth tall chimney carved by a once deep pool that left a few small incut ledges along the smooth curvy walls where it's level had stabilized at times. Below this was the red-lit low point of the cave known as the Devil's oven, which could have claimed some small children had not some brave legendary child left a permanent hand print in the stone and scared the devil away with her strength. (Not sure if the handprint was natural formation or put there to go with the tale.)

After that we saw a thin strip of "bacon" artistically backlit, several old rimstone dams, but best of all was "mirror lake" where the water remained in the pools. A pit further on beneath the boardwalk clearly had some very deep mud, Holly reported it to be thigh deep on the last guy who'd been in. She later went back with the long handled reacher pole to try to retrieve the pacifier a previous tourist had donated to the mud.

When I found out that neighboring Stratosphere cavern actually afforded the opportunity to be as wild as I wanted it to be I quickly put on some long synthetic pants and old shirt instead of the chilly shorts and decent shirt I'd been wearing. This tour outfitted from a separate shelf of helmets that included headlamps and even offered a secondary mag light. "Zeb" was the fearless leader for Stratosphere- Unplugged! (no electric lights!) I was pleased for the 2nd time in as many days to have a guide for wild West Virginia to myself!

Fifty steep wooden stairs lead down into Stratosphere where the cool air immediately validated my choice for long pants. Continuing in we noticed right away the abundance of white fungus all over the wooden posts of the stairs in the dark cave proper. Stratosphere had been public before in 1939, but closed after the fungus had succeded in consuming the stairs beyond safety limits. All through the cavern what I first thought was mulch was the remains of the old stairs. Now there are posts with rope hand lines where stairs once were. We also found numerous rusty nails, which I later learned to avoid in crawlways.

Here as in Seneca Cavern the entry room had been filled in with gravel to level it out. At the far end a rock and mud slide plugged what must once have continued or been another entrance. Zeb speculated that one might find leads by digging the sides of the entry room too.

After the first turn he pointed out a hole that clients were welcome to drop into and expolre. He said I was the first client he'd ever taken in who actually did. :-) At the bottom was a small room with a tightening low crawlway. I scooted into the next little room and took off my strapless helmet to peer into the next bit. It might have kept going but was getting plenty tight by then and seemed unpromising this early in the cave.

I backed out and we continued, past a cool wide based column and a long fallen column. (Or was that in Seneca? One's mind tends to merge memories. . .) Down a slope where the hand line was appreciated, we found the back of the cavern at it's lowest point so far where the huge flowstone formation that names the cave resides. "Stratosphere" is a 3o foot high hot-air-baloon shaped feature with hollow fins that ring like organ pipes which Zeb demonstrated with a stick and his hands.

Zeb was very curious about potential leads and we explored high and low behind Stratosphere formation to no avail. Here in the featured room we found another type of fungus I hadn't expected- a perfect little mushroom at the base of the artificial wall we'd hopped down to enter the room. Above us a stream channel wound through the ceiling, reminding me of the stream above the waterfall in Worleys, VA which will surely work it's way through its stone floor too some day.

On the way out as we neared the top of the slope we stopped to explore a man sized whole on the lower left wall. It wasn't large enough to drop into feet first and get into the bit going horizontal. At my feet was also a downward passage possibly large enough to squeeze through and clearly still being shaped by the muddy flow trickling down. I wanted to go inverted, but our helmets were still strapless and I could picture mine lodging irretrievably down that shaft and preventing further opening by the water flow. So I let go the notion of peering in either direction from where my feet were, but paused for a listen. Far below water plunked through untold air into a pool beneath. I'm not sure if you can really tell how much water or distance is involved just from sound but for those of us not imagination-impaired the sound was truly tantalizing. I'd guess the water was dropping 10 or 15 feet into a pool the diameter of your average bistro 2-top table, but who knows it could have been 30 feet into an underground sea bounded with magical treasure.

Zeb had not paused to listen that way before and was intrigued to possibly explore this lead someday soon. Amidst the old mulched stair remnants we found another single-leaf plant sprouting 5 inches high, guarded by an earthworm that was mostly white but retaining a bit of pink suggesting he hadn't been solely cave dwelling for many generations yet. Our last treat on the way out was several very healthy and plump looking bats. One Zeb identified as a Virginia Long-eared amongst all the smaller pipstrelles.

A high ledge near the entrance/exit would have been an easy climb even in running shoes, but Zeb said the six rooms above weren't very impressive. If only I'd had reliable Ken there to spot me and a few more hours of daylight for the long drive I probably would have gone up anyway.
Returning to the muggy summer yielded one more excitement as I changed out of the muddy clothes and shoes for the drive home. A model helicopter was darting to and fro above the tall grassy within range of its radio operator. Suddenly it began to wobble widly, sputtered and landed with a painfully ungraceful thud amongst the weeds. I didn't stick around long enough to see if it was airworthy again, but the owners didn't seem to distraught as they went searching for it.

Unfortunately my leisurely day had me passing the several other commercial caverns along the way too late on a Sunday evening to stop and investigate, but I hope to catch some of them and Virginia's Natural Bridge on future trips.

Gas Kills

2009-06-08T23:15:00.002-04:00

Dave Duguid and I stayed with Daisy, Tanya, and Smoke up in Marion Friday night. The next morning saw an early morning start off to Worley's Cave in Smyth County. No trouble climbing down the long sloping entrance room to get to the Sandwich Passage. We all slid through easily and then progressed into the room where the 2003 survey had left off.

Dave first slid into a crawlway downstream and announced that there was indeed a good deal more cave to explore. Our intent was to start into these passages from the old survey station, but it was not to be found after all these years. We went back two stations and surveyed in. By the time we got there, Dave was so proud of his station setting that he told us we could survey from any of the side passages and hit this station. We tested him.

While I sketched, I sent Dave and Tanya under the waterfall to survey down from the station where we left off in January. I could hear their voices through different holes the entire time. They found the old survey station, and then I heard Dave beginning to grunt. He sounded like he was only a few feet away, but he found himself sliding down a steep slope of breakdown with little ceiling above him. He never even made it close to the hole in the wall where I would've dug him out. When I plotted the data afterwards, it seems that the station where Dave started couldn't have been more than four feet above me. Therefore, I have to guess that he was crawling toward me at a lower level in this chert-riddled cave.

Then they tried to connect through another passageway. We could see one another's lights but get no closer as the passage pinched out.

I joined Tanya and Dave to survey at the base of the waterfall. Dave declared a side passage a dead end, but I could see 30 feet up a passage from there. It'll just require an easy dig for a small person, and it heads in a direction away from the rest of the cave.

Then we climbed up the waterfall. After I boosted Dave up, he found a great place to triple rig a cable ladder above the falls to make for an easy climb for Tanya and me. We surveyed through a hands-and-knees crawl and up into a 40-foot long chamber. Water dripped from the ceiling, and a waterfall dropped down one wall. However, the most notable feature of this room was the floor. The seemingly solid floor had many traps where footfalls into deep mud covered the tops of my boots. The most notable quickmud was right below the survey station.

After the passage sumped, all three of us were very wet. We beat a hasty retreat to the cave entrance with just 206 feet of survey. I changed my clothes in the coolness near the cave entrance while Dave and Tanya headed for the car. I arrived to find them still in their coveralls; apparently I missed them chasing the horses.

After an early dinner Dave and I headed over to Determination Dig near Rowlands Creek Cave. Dave was on a mission to make the surface dig into a cave. Eventually it was big enough for him to squeeze inside. He pulled some more dirt forward, and I pulled it out of the cave. This went on for 90 minutes. Dave kept going a little further inside, and I used Tanya's hoe to rake out the dirt.

At one point he warned me that I was about to have an unpleasant extraction. I thought he was referring to the skull that I found rolling toward me, but Dave insisted that his fart had nearly suffocated him. Maybe the two events were connected.

End of Hibernation Vertical Practice (April 12)

2009-04-12T13:57:00.006-04:00

I counted about fifteen people who came out to our first vertical practice for 2009. Cooler weather than we expected, but that meant that Christian didn't overheat in his longer climbs. We also had some great picnic food. After the rock climbers found out how slowly prussik knots move up ropes, my belay rope ran a lot faster for the rest of the afternoon.

Because I was belaying most of the time, it was kind of everyone to load up photographs on my camera. Everyone had opportunities on the rope or the cable ladder:
--Linda teaching friends how to stand on one foot

--Proof that you're never too young to climb a cable ladder in a skirt

--Dave grilling while on rope (nothing flame-broiled!)

--Mike demonstrating that a rope crossover can get very complicated if you also add a cable ladder to the mix

--Dave, John, Christian, and Linda completely disassembling and then reassembling my rig in the dark

I'll eventually post my photos to the new grotto photo gallery (when it opens), but for now folks can enjoy the rest temporarily at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019500&id=1463527306&l=e0b364ddd8.

Grand Photography

2009-03-08T22:37:00.004-04:00

March 8, 2009

For the last seventeen years I've enjoyed retelling a story about someone who had been caving since the 1960s and was befuddled by his lamp's low power when we visited Rehobeth Church Cave. Instead of focussing on his lamp's operation, I recommended removing his sunglasses.

Mark Little and I drove from Raleigh up for another Grand Caverns weekend. We planned the trip with Ericka Hoffmann in order to practice our cave photography skills. A chilly Friday night welcomed a warm Saturday, and we headed up the hill toward Fountain Cave. Mark played with his camera while Ericka played with the snakes, and I headed down the hill in the hopes to hurry along the RASS cavers carrying the key to the cave.

We followed the RASS cavers back to the dig spot where they've been working for two and a half years and helped them photodocument their progress. Then we began our series of photo shots as we moved back toward the entrance. We took turns setting up shots with a variety of cameras, practicing what we've learned from some great cave photographers. I seem to be adequate at lighting and framing my shots, but my lack of knowledge of the complete digital camera operation often hinders me. I struggled with the viewfinder and remaining with an F-stop of 4 through the cave. With the help of Ericka's flash bulbs, I was able to get one great shot.

Ericka and I wanted to visit Grand Caverns and practice our skills further. I forgot that I left my SD card in Mark's vehicle (which had disappeared), but Ericka loaned me one of hers. When we climbed the hill to the cave, we found the lower level door had been locked. Scott Davis came to our rescue.

Inside we started by focussing on a single shield in the Cathedral Passage. I figured out how my camera had lost its bulb setting. At that point Ericka and I discovered that I still couldn't focus my shots well, and I still needed far more flash than made sense. I remembered that I should be able to remove the lens filter because it might be dirty. It turns out that I had been using a polarizing lens filter all day long, and that had messed up all of my previous shots. What a dope.

After Ericka shot some photos of the Bridal Veil, we spent several hours catching photos near the Shield Room. Despite the sticky mud off the tourist trail, we collected many macro shots as well as tripod-supported shots of the shields.

Return to Smyth County

2009-01-27T16:45:00.015-05:00

The New Year's trip previously posted could not have ended with a better cliff hanger- Literally a beautiful waterfall with at least one lead to be explored in Worley's Cave. Originally I had hoped that a full crew would be able to go this weekend and help us survey miles and miles of unknown cave- my imagination was stirring at full tilt of what we might discover based on the intriguing waterfall we'd left behind.

Alas, only Ken and his total newbie surveyor (me) were able to commit to the full weekend, but we did find a few even newer folks from Duke who wanted to go sport caving half a day. Up for any form of caving Ken and I headed up to Marion on Friday night to crash again with super cave finder Tanya. A fun discussion of all things speleological ensued until we had to sleep and dream of discoveries to come.

The 2 gurus decided that no reliable map of Roberts cave existed with the latest being done in 1952 by paces and compass only. With only limited time before meeting the Dukies in the afternoon we headed to Roberts, instruments in hand. An easier wild cave entrance won't likely be found- the parking area of the state park announces the Roberts Cave Trail, where 100 yards ahead a handful of obvious holes beckon.

The first hole went only a few feet and the 2nd we checked was obviously the main cave, opening immediately to extensively decorated walking passage. All that we surveyed was level, clear open, displaying relatively clean looking flowstone. We got a good look at a big brown bat too. It was nice surveying the entrance with actual sunlight illuminating the instruments.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time or get very far, but did establish that it's worth some return trips. We dropped off Tanya at her house, inhaled a quick lunch and dashed over the mountain to meet untold numbers of Duke students for my first look at Ken's favorite completed (or was it?) map project- Hancock!

Thanks to Ken's expert driving of my speedy Prius we arrived in time for me to have a quick peek into Little Hancock while he kept watch for Dukesters. Although small, it boasts some nice fossils on the left, exactly where Ken said they'd be, and some nice formations all along the right wall. We also saw a cool ice formation outside an impassable 2nd entrance to Hancock.

A few minutes later the untold number of Dukies could be told- Two. I guess the others had to study or watch Duke beat up on Maryland or whatever it is Dukies do. (I went to that other school. :-) ) Justin had done one wild cave before and Hannah had only been a few feet into some old mines, so everyone but Ken was in for some new treats in Hancock.

Ken nominally let me lead with an old version of the map and I promptly detoured from my initial plan and first explored intriguing passages under and left of the entrance. To get there we had to descend 2 handlines at the start, so Ken was not shy about introducing the newbies to some short vertical passages.

I lost my lead privileges after taking us down an unexciting dead end crawl, so Hannah and Justin led us out of the Octupus room towards the Funnel Tunnel, the one place Ken said we shouldn't go on a day with snow melt and new cavers. The steep round edges of the first 2 "Toliet bowl" formations were enough to dissuade the new leaders so we back tracked to see why getting to one room had earned it the name "Whine Cellar" but didn't go all the way to it.

We played around with the climb to Rapunzel's Tower and then headed back toward In the Pendants Hall. We were all suitably impressed by the maze capacity of this cave. Dare I say we were amazed at how complex it is?

Ken, having memorized the complexity, had some fun with it, making sure Justin and I took the first passage on the left which we crawled out of to see Ken and Hannah walking towards us from the 2nd much easier passage on the left only a few feet further on. That area was interesting enough on it's own, but Ken pointed out another detour for us to try sans packs. About 10 feet up on one wall was a hole I doubted was much bigger than me with spiny protrusions right where my spine would be if I got up there. With a boost from Ken I did get into the hole and as expected kicked my legs around comically in the air behind me as I wiggled my upper half through to the room beyond. I knew there was nothing to kick against but kept doing it despite what my brain tried to tell my legs. Justin was cool enough to endure the same comic route even after being amused at seeing me do it. We saw some cool water trickling in to clean the rocks there and presumed it was probably near the icy entrance I'd seen earlier. One small pit there smelled of ammonia and then we rejoined the others. I highly recommend the "cartoon hole" for those willing to entertain others getting through it.

We came to a chamber that resonates low tones in entertaining echos where we slithered carefully around some cool formations onto a false floor room above a very deep pit. I enjoyed that room immensly until I laid down on the floor and saw that the inch thin slab continued more than my body length beneath me above the open chasm. I took the tightest way I've done yet out of there, remembering a few techniques I've heard veteran cavers describe. It wasn't bad since it was plenty open on either side, was less likely to impact formations and I also knew there was the other way around it.

The opposite ledge of the false floor chasm held a small mud sculpture that presumably was made during the ample time Ken had once spent rappelling, surveying and ascending back from the chasm. It was much more detailed than the other mud sculptures we saw elsewhere and contributed to ourselves.

Back below the high entrance to the mutiny room Ken dropped down into a small pit mumbling that he didn't remember it, and was surprised to find a low room with interesting helictites on the ceiling, one reminiscent of the map of Italy. The room offered a view through formation far too tight to pass of another small room with a bit of snow white flowstone peeking through. Is any map ever really done?

Newest caver Hannah was the first to recognize the Octopus room and it's way out. Tired and hungry we eventually did navigate all the way back up the climbs and out into the 23 degree weather to find the log book had become a frozen mass of wet paper stuck to the mailbox.

Back home after consuming good Mexican food with Tanya, we activated the battery in a new cat toy on a stick and found that the squeeky mouse is great for exercising the dog as well.

The next day we slept in a bit, ate a nice breakfast and send the young Dukies on their way. Ken and Tanya and I headed to Worleys and went down to the "sandwich" passage, wherein the caver becomes the meat between close slabs of stone. Backing through the 18 feet or so of sandwich one's feet eventually come down onto a nice pedestal and into a room opening onto a giant clay sliding board of a room which was the last we got surveyed at New Years. The room is about 30 feet wide by 50 feet long at about a 35 degree angle, at least that's what my instruments/memory say, and I'm sticking to it until Ken corrects me.

We went straight to the crawlway about halfway up the left hand side of the room, which seemed to have less water flowing out of it than before. It opened up into the same beautiful room I'd only glimpsed at the end of the previous trip. My initial glance had been so hasty that I'd totally failed to realize that as the crawlway opens up there is another crawlway to the right, and underneath the falls is a larger, almost stooping height passage where the water drains down via another route than how we found the room. So, my coveted climb up the water fall would have to wait.

I wanted to go ahead and get wet and get to climbing, but we surveyed the larger passage below the falls first. With my poor novice station setting skills it took quite a while to do only a couple of shots, and we didn't get to see if it links up with a larger room Ken had explored below which I got to peek into on the way out from the main sliding board room.

The crawlway on the floor where we came in had a sleepy bat right in the middle of it so we saved that for another day too, and finally, I was ready to climb!

On the back of the water fall what looked like great footholds for the climbing shoes I had brought along for the occasion were just a thin black patena over mud. The bottom shelf about 3 feet up tested sturdy so I climbed up there, then onto Ken's shoulder and tested the suspect mud and rock at the upper rim. Finding a good blocky handhold that seemed attached to a well anchored shelf I pulled up into the opening above and quickly scooted back onto solid ground where the stream poured over the shelf to Ken below.

I ooohed and aahed about the pretty room I was in. Looking across the hole I'd just climbed up from the round room had redish and white striped stone polished smooth like a Utah canyon wall. A 2 foot round passage led away from the hole on the other side, a bit more risky climbing to get into on another day. Behind me the stream trickled over a few ledges of less than a foot high each as the narrow walking passage narrowed upstream to a crawl through.

I set a station looking down to the room below and got one good shot back down. Tanya didn't want to attempt the wet unstable climb and Ken could not stand on his own shoulders to get up there, so they commenced telling me it was time to move out as I checked out the opening a few feet up stream. I could hear more water falling in the room beyond and could not resist a glimpse.

The short crawlway opened immediately into a room at least the size of a bus. A small plain waterfall trickled down the far wall, origin unknown. To the right a drainage passage, to the left a room that could have other passages off it as well. A few quick pictures of my foggy breath and I was back to the opening, onto a helpful shoulder, lower shelf and the main floor again.

Tanya got to personally see the web worms we'd discovered last trip, and found Ken's gloves right where he'd left them on that trip too. As they made their way back down the sliding board using the stream as stairs I peeked into the room we think will connect to the lower waterfall drain passage which Ken had surveyed on still older trips.

We re-emerged from the sandwich then the cave itself to dust off in the late afternoon light before enjoying some good Italian food and heading for home. Worley's left us with more fun to discover, trading one lead for multiples as the survey and our intrigue grows. In all I got to see new-to-me territory in 4 different caves in the 2 days, the joy of being a new caver.

New Year - New Caves

2009-01-08T23:49:00.002-05:00

Is there a better way to start the New Year besides going caving? Ok it wasn’t officially the New Year, but it was great to go caving the first weekend of the New Year. Tanya had been compiling a to-do list; Ken, Mark, and myself made the trip from the Raleigh area to see what we could cross off the list.

A Friday morning departure was an pleasant variation. Upon arriving at Tanya’s, the landowner of a newly identified cave was contacted and we were under motion. Turns out there are at least two caves on the property (some ridge walking is probably in order). One of the landowners graciously showed us the cave; ironically a family friend, and buddies, was caving it. The cave has a pit entrance. With some quick directions we found the other cave, now named Cotton Cave.

Given the weather, time of day, and the involvement of rigging the pit we chose to survey Cotton Cave. The landowner opted to come with us, as she wasn’t familiar with the second cave and wanted to explore. Cotton cave was decorated with what I would presume to be very old formations. The cave has a small entrance but opens up to a large passage. The passage had a few low terminal leads. There is one high lead remaining; it will take some assisted climbing or a scaling pole to keep going. We completed all survey except for the high lead.

Ken found another promising lead while in transit between the vehicle and the cave. I didn’t see the entrance, but according to Ken it will require some digging and something about a jack.

While discussing caving opportunities Saturday morning, the team was split on returning to the vertical cave or doing a different cave. Weather, skill level, and other factors helped in the decision-making process; in the end safety and solid reasoning prevailed, the vertical cave would be done another trip.

Tanya had a lead on another cave in the northeast quadrant of Smyth County; we talked to the landowner and set out on foot to find the cave in the heavy fog. We split up; Mark and Tanya had found the cave. They didn’t go in due to the pile of trash at the entrance.

While Tanya and I went to find the local spring, Mark and Ken returned to the cave to determine whether to suit up and go caving. Returning from the spring we ran into Mark and Ken, apparently the cave has a penetrable distance of about 12ft. One item removed from Tanya’s list.

Next on Tanya’s to-do list was to survey Ward’s Saltpeter cave. The cave is known in the community but there isn’t a map available; there is now! Landowner notified, we set out driving around in the cow fields.

With the sun to our backs we started the survey. The main passage was a large, descending, walking passage with a jog to the right at the bottom. The cave immediately forked. It is presumed the left passage is where saltpeter was mined. To the right, water and the only formations in the cave.

The survey did not take long as the shot were typically 30ft and greater; but a great little cave to see. Another item removed from Tanya’s list.

Believe it or not, but we weren’t done caving yet. We stopped in the Sugar Grove area to survey a newly accessible cave; now to be called “The Flat” (locals claim someone lived in the cave for several years). Tanya had been in the cave and made a guess the cave would be a quick survey, well that was at least what she told us to get us to stop there.

The cave was typical for the Sugar Grove area, very random in direction and size. The cave has two immediate passages; the right most passage was completely surveyed. The left side was longer and a bit more challenging. When the leads got tight we called it a day; there are two leads left, one will end in a room, the extent of the other isn’t known though it will require several small people.

Sunday over breakfast the discussion of the days itinerary presented itself. I, of course, was hoping to get to Rowland’s; but due to the rain and the need to dig outside I quickly changed my perspective. The map of Worley’s, in Smyth County, hadn’t been completed. It was thought the effort could be wrapped up.

Worley’s a very cool cave; the front room is much more dramatic than I every figured. The next room we surveyed was very impressive as well, though a bit wetter. While checking for leads an interesting “worm” was found inside the cave. Ken’s web search found the “worms” to be larvae of fungus gnats (http://members.socket.net/~joschaper/webworm.html). As we were wrapping up the survey a short peek around the corner presented continued passage and more surveying needs.

We obviously didn’t complete Tanya’s list; there’s some very cool cave yet to survey and explore!

Statistics for the survey oriented individuals:
· Cotton Cave: 19 shots for 238 feet (28.7 feet deep)
· Ward Saltpeter: 14 shots for 376 feet (51.6 feet deep)
· The Flat: 15 shots for 192 feet (19.7 feet deep)
· Worley's Cave: 17 shots for 397 feet

"Project" Cave Continued

2008-10-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: The name and location of the project is not being provided externally until the conclusion of the project at the request of the park ranger.

The Tritrogs first organized trip to “Project” cave to assist the park work on their cave was a success. The team was small, Ken, Christian, Linda, and myself, the work accomplished grand. At the risk of repeating information, it is rumored the cave was purposely blocked to prevent people from going in to far; we are trying determine if that is true and what else lies within the cave.

Given the size of the cave, the number of participants was about correct; future trips may opt for one or two more individuals to help with dirt management once the dirt is outside the cave (the park management would like to sift through the dirt for any possible artifacts before disposing of the dirt).

Our mission was primarily digging, and digging we did. The dirt was rather loose and easy to dig; a garden hoe was the prized tool, unfortunately we had only one. The weather was actually appropriate for digging, in the high 60’s with heavy cloud cover and a fine rain.

Several potential leads were selected, then the team set to work. I worked on a lead that snaked slightly downward at the backside of the cave. Christian and Linda worked a lead nearby which also had a downward angle. Ken and Tanya hauled dirt out of the cave; interesting enough using “Flying Saucers”…you know the round things used for sledding! Ken and Tanya hauled all afternoon, an extra thanks goes out to them!

My lead pinched down to something impassable; Linda gave it a try just to insure I wasn’t loosing my sense of dimension due to being positioned head down for too long. We can with certainty say this passage was not traversed by anyone holding a torch.

I then worked on a lead we suspected Christian and Linda’s effort would connect into. At some point Linda focused on another lead between their original lead and the one I was now working. Eventually I was able to hear Linda’s efforts in my passage. A possible connection inspired Linda; she was determined to make the connection today. Soon Linda was digging from both sides…well not at the same time, but you get the idea. I moved further into the passage to work toward Christian; it wasn’t long before I could hear him, but more distant.

After the connection, I thought the effort would conclude but it was not meant to be. I went back to check out the tremendous effort Christian did, while Linda checked out the continuing lead I had been working. Linda and I quickly found we were closer than expected. Well Linda quickly jumped on the task of completing another connection. It wasn’t long before I was pushing dirt her way and working myself through. We may have robbed Christian of some glory, but we wouldn’t have been able to make the connection without him.

After a day of digging we feel confident that this section of the cave was not filled in by human efforts. It must have been filled in during repeated floods or surface erosion. How much cave remains is still unknown; there are more leads and significant amounts of dirt yet to be extracted. That will be another trip.

"Project" Cave

2008-10-16T23:58:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: The name and location of the project is not being provided externally until the conclusion of the project at the request of the park ranger.

The Triangle Troglodytes had received an email from a park ranger associated with a park that has a cave on its premises. The cave is thought to have historical significance. The park is looking to explore deep routed rumors pertaining to the cave. Among them is the strong possibility of there being more passage is the cave, the story is the cave was filled or blocked to prevent people from going in further than they should. I decided a trip to the park would be most beneficial in understanding what lay ahead.

I took Devin, my four year old, along with me; Devin was very excited to go caving (he enjoyed his previous caving experience). We met the park ranger, and she took us to the cave with the parks “gator”. Devin wasn’t so sure about riding a gator until he realized the gator being referenced was a small vehicle and not a reptile.

The present passage is probably around one hundred feet; there are several dig areas. Unfortunately it couldn’t quite be determined where the cave might have been filled in. Doing some digging revealed the soil that is actually loose and easy to dig. Devin enjoyed digging to.

The tour continued; there is “shelter” besides the primary cave that has a possible dig or two. Another small cave was pointed out, another dig. It was noted there is another cave on the property but location unknown at this time. And there is a distinct ridge all the caves appear to be in.

The cave sounds and looks like an interesting project.

Triangle Troglodyte Conservation Trip

2008-10-16T22:26:00.002-04:00

The annual TriTrog cave conservation trip this year was planned for Marion County VA; more precisely, Hancock cave. Hancock actually has two entrances; the back entrance is part of a sink. Unfortunately the sink was used for household trash; the trash was buried with dirt during one of the sales of the property. However over time the dirt has eroded; the process of erosion has helped to fill in the back entrance and exposed the trash.

The trip ended up being a small group, but an effective group; Ken, Susanna, Mark, Tanya, Dave and his son Dawson. At the last minute we chose to stay at one of the cabins in Hungry Mother State Park. And once again, Virginia state parks continue to amaze me; the cabin we rented was really nice and included linen service…too bad our hours were such a fire in the fireplace just wasn’t an option.

Susanna did a terrific job organizing the cleanup. She had all the details worked out; the owner met us as we drove up, we had the correct tools (ok maybe garden sheers and wire cutters need to be added to the list), and an excellent lunch spread.

A sizeable dent in the trash was made, but another trip to get the smaller house hold trash is needed. Given some time the freshly exposed dirt will wash away allowing easier access to trash buried below. Some interesting discoveries were uncovered; a kitchen stove, drier, three washing machines, metallic shed roofing, TV, bike, bedsprings, chairs, big wheel toy, and freaky doll parts.

The cleanup culminated when the map of Hancock cave was presented to the owner. The landowner was extremely appreciative of the efforts performed by the caving community to help him understand, protect, and to work to keep his cave clean.

The afternoon was spent caving! During the cleanup a single lead found near a washing machine, it was worth investigating. Unfortunately the lead immediately led back into known cave, the top of a high fissure. In addition we stopped briefly in the back entrance to Hancock and Little Hancock.

We traversed over to the main entrance and ventured in for a three-hour tour. Dawson performed his first arm-rappel; something he still is talking about. Ken led us around various parts of the cave, some new areas for both Mark and myself.

Dawson informed us he was tired and ready to exit, however I suspect his abrupt interest in exiting was probably more related to the spaghetti dinner promised earlier. Ken took us through the breakdown staircase; it was the quickest way out. For those that have not been through that section, it is a series of step-downs through a vertical maze. Dawson did great, dad worried to much but was calmed by taking Ken’s mentally comforting suggestion…leashing Dawson to me with some webbing.

Sunday found us at Rowland’s cave, is anybody actually surprised? Ken, Dawson, and myself toured the lower section; found two new areas that need surveying. One will require some digging. Dawson named one of the rooms the Rock and Roll room; he found his name very funny, as there were rocks and the rocks rolled as we passed through.

The upper section was visited, as it is the prettier part of the cave; however Dawson was more focused finding new passage and wanting to know where every lead went rather than looking at the formations. The Screech Owl wasn’t in the cave; hopefully the owl will return when the weather cools more.

As it simply wouldn’t be right to go to Rowland’s without doing at something toward completing the ongoing project we did some digging in Sentinel cave. Ken found that to proceed might require more serious modifications to get through. An option we will hold off on for now as it would appear another lead was found below it. The dirt was easily dug, and soon I was able to get in about six feet to observe the airspace continues. And I think there was airflow; yet another promising lead to work on.

VAR trip to Culverson Creek Cave

2008-09-23T23:05:00.002-04:00

I've always wanted to visit Culverson Creek Cave but was disappointed when I arrived at the VAR registration desk. We were told that all of the sign up sheets had been filled before 10:30 PM. On the outside chance that something might still be open, I went to the pavilion to find many empty slots on several trips. The TriTrogs split up onto different trips, and I joined Dave Socky for my first trip to Culverson Creek.

We squeezed into the Wildcat Entrance and found that the climb down into the stream passage consisted of well dug holes with an easily traversed path. Wandering down the stream passage it was hard to hold a quiet conversation. Every word reverberated from the walls. Along the stream we managed to get wet up to our ankles, but no one seemed to notice.

I must admit that I had more trouble with the Hairy Spot than anyone else. Climbing onto the wall twelve feet above the stream was easy, but I couldn't seem to lower myself to the footholds that laid below. It may have been because my elbows were in the wet potholes instead of just my hands, but my hips kept pushing me off balance. That was the only tough spot on the trip, but we had more adventures. Boot sucking mud, salamanders, millipedes, a fifteen-foot high log jam, crayfish, sliding boards, frogs, and a belly crawl along loose gravel all marked the way to the Echo Tubes.

The Echo Tube made the whole trip worthwhile. That passage, like many others in Culverson Creek Cave, were formed when the water flow was too massive to be controlled by the log jam. The phreatic tube was twelve feet high and twenty feet wide. The Echo Tube ran hundreds of yards polished smooth and slippery. The pools of water all along the passage let us know that it still floods regularly.

The Echo Tube ended in an unexplored breakdown pile. I dug in to find a passage that sumped about fifty feet down in one direction. Unfortunately the other direction of the pile ended in impenetrable breakdown after walking a few hundred feet. During the trip out we were covered in fog but managed to exit in just 1.5 hours. Plenty of time to get back for the VAR dinner. I even had time to wash the mud off my face.

Tritrog Annual Trip

2008-08-11T23:48:00.001-04:00

The Tritrogs annual trip came together at the last minute; a few minor changes landed the event at Claytor State park instead of Douthat, and James cave instead of Breathing cave. Planned were 13 individuals, some of those being new cavers and one being an eight year old. My oldest son Dawson enjoys caving; I thought it would be interesting to see how he would do without any influences his younger brothers have brought to past caving “adventures”.

Friday evening proved to be hot and muggy as we set up camp. Ken and I pitched our tents, put up the canopy, and dragged much of the food out while it was still light. While waiting for the others to arrive, Dawson and I walked down to the lake. Claytor is actually a very nice park; Ok Virginia state parks actually rock! I would recommend giving them a try.

The last group arrived sometime after 2am; or so I am told, Dawson and I didn’t wait up for them. Since it was too hot for a fire, we opted for lights out and some sleep in preparation for a big day of caving.

After a big breakfast, we all set out for James cave…in the rain. Not quite what we expected, but then again its August and when isn’t there a change of rain. Fortunately the rain paused long enough for 13 cavers to rampantly dress and dash to the cave.

James cave is horizontal, though does have a few short climb-downs and several belly crawls. An ideal cave for new cavers; provides a nice variety. Two teams were formed; through past experience, one team would be too slow given the obstacles. The groups ventured upstream toward the other entrance first; not the pretty section of the cave but a good introduction to crawling and walking through the stream passage.

Returning to our starting point we continued downstream, through the culvert and into an extended belly crawl; only to discover the belly crawl is actually a hand and knee crawl for Dawson. Here the cave immediately becomes more interesting; there are multiple levels and directions to continue downstream and formations become much more prevalent. The challenges presented in the cave are actually fun, there are two climb downs that took a few minutes to get everyone past.

Over four hours into our journey we made it back to a highly decorated room, the soda straws numerous, the flow stone flows, and the stalactites tall and proud. It was here that Dawson stated he was ready to leave; his sediment quickly spread to everyone.

After a brief rest and pictures the teams planned their exits. Rather than return with a team of seven, Diana volunteered to exit with Dawson and myself (making the trip a bit more exhilarating for an eight year old). We made record time getting out of the cave, under 45 minutes. And Dawson still had time to step into water up to his waist, climb every climb, with the exception of one, and tell us how we weren’t keeping up.

After everyone got out, a bit muddier than expected, we loaded up and headed back to camp for dinner. The rain was gone, the sun out, and the temperatures pleasant. Everyone pitched in with the meal preparations and consumption of the simple spread, before long s’mores were being made over the warm glow of the remaining embers.

Sunday brought breakfast, camp cleanup, and determining what lay ahead; some opted to go mountain climbing, others opted to check out the cascades nearby, and the remainder chose Tawney’s cave just outside Blacksburg Va. Tawney’s is not as long as James cave, but very impressive. The front room is highly decorated, has a nice stream traversing the cave, and had an enormous sinkhole on the backside.

Dawson found the stream irresistible and had to personally verify the depth numerous times; in addition Ken introduced Dawson to the stickiest mud he had ever had the pleasure of standing in, and even more pleasurable after almost loosing a boot. After a few hours, it was time to think about the trek home and retuning to our daily routine.

I hope everyone had a good time and hope to see him or her in a cave again soon!

Wrapping up leads

2008-07-23T00:45:00.000-04:00

Ken and I met up with Tanya in Marion VA for a weekend of caving; but not any caving, surveying. Tanya had two leads on possible new cave in the area; and a team was in place to continuing work inside Rowland Creek cave.

First stop, a cave that Tanya described as a hole in the ground next to a house, vertical in nature, and determined after tossing a few small stones into the hole there was an un-quantifiable distance and some water. We met with the enthusiastic owner; she had just bought the property and was very excited to have two springs and a potential cave. She, and her son, escorted us maybe twenty-five feet to the cave entrance. Removing the “gate” produced an entrance wide enough to slip into without digging.

After suiting up and armed with a hand-line thanks to Ken as the anchor, I dropped into the cave. The cave initially was dirt, but quickly changed to rock walls and ceiling; the floor was steeply sloping, consisting primarily of dirt and roofing shingles. The slope ended in a deep pool of water. After cleaning out the shingles, Ken and I surveyed the cave. The cave is 30ft in length; the pool is probably a sump and could be dived. However I question the water quality, as the house’s septic system is upstream and in close proximity with the cave.

The woman’s son was given the honors of naming the cave; he decided to call it Rodas-Wolters Pit. After eating some tasty cookies, thanks to the landowner, we hit the road for our next stop, Five Goat Cave.

Five Goat Cave was mentioned in a previous caving report; at the time of initial investigate the river was too high to cross. Today the river was not running high. The trek across the river was soothing as the water was cool. The trek up the hillside, not as pleasant, was covered in underbrush and the summer heat and humidity was present.

The location was eventually reached. I started to check out Five Goat, while Ken pushed on to investigate another rock outcropping. As I approached the “cave” the strong smell of scat was abound; this should have registered as a sign. Looking into the small hole light could be seen from the right side. There was no way a goat could get into what I was standing in front of; going around the corner to check out the source of light I found there to be a large fissure crack. I also found two raccoons; I could see them in the shadows, and I could now hear them as well. The sounds and body movements told me I was a very un-welcomed guest. To reduce bodily harm I quickly retreated. Five Goat Cave looks to be a massive rock that slide down the rock outcropping, creating a shelter. Perhaps another look after the current residents have moved out may be in order just to insure no cave lies within.

At this time, Ken was beckoning our presence; he had found a cave nearby. Still being caught off guard by the raccoons and telling myself I was never going to repeat that, I was a bit hesitant standing outside the entrance even though there was no nasty smell; that is until Ken told me he threw a few stones into the cave and listened for any additional movement (though I was happy that Ken volunteered to go in first).

The cave had an interesting upper entrance or skylight. There were very old formations in this cave, and the cave looked to be comprised of dolomite. The cave, including both entrances, was quickly surveyed for a grand total of 37ft. Tanya named the cave “Chip on the Shoulder”.

We retreated back the way we came, though the step hillside in front of the cave looked like an easier route. Unfortunately during our walk back someone stepped on a Hornets nest; and yes there were causalities, Ken and Tanya both took the brunt of the anger.

Sunday Robbie and Jason joined us; Robbie, Jason, and myself were to survey a lead and check out a pit in time and conditions were right. Meanwhile Ken and Tanya were going to work/dig on Sentinel cave and Animal Den located on the same hillside.

The team I was on quickly got to our destination and started surveying. We had a rough start, as the numbers were not matching, most likely accountable to the 70-degree inclination. Soon we were making good progress; the lead had a low, muddy room, which opened up, into another room. This room had massive breakdown blocks, a sizeable pool of water and is well decorated on one side.

Retreating back into the muddy room we pushed the other lead; we had a shallow sloping room to the left. To the right Robbie stated we had connected back into known passage. At first I didn’t believe him, he said I would recognize it when I up to where he was at; and he was right. It was a lead we had left before. The survey of 213ft closed three leads.

We proceeded to check out the pit lead; it held the most promise as it blows air and is in a location on the perimeter of known cave. Robbie had the honors of dropping the pit. He described the pit as being narrow but wide. The pit broke into two passages; one passage joined another known lead with a low pinch. The other passages lead back to another lead. Three more leads closed out.

As we retracted, one last lead was looked at. The lead continues, but some small modifications to some breakdown are in order, something to consider another day. I took Jason to the upper entrance; he graciously climbed a ledge we could only inspect from a distance. The ledge didn’t hold much promise, and he confirmed there was no lead.

I checked out the efforts of Ken and Tanya on the other caves. Animal den was obviously worked on. After parting the Mosquito curtain and crawling inside it became apparent the cave terminated at 6ft. Later it was discovered that Ken and Tanya surveyed the cave and renamed the cave to Mosquito Den…I wonder why? I quickly stopped at Sentinel, seeing no fresh dirt piles, and another cloud of Mosquitoes; I quickly deduced that Ken and Tanya didn’t work on this cave today.

Guided Tour at Organ Cave

2008-07-23T00:39:00.002-04:00

Being in West Virginia for a family vacation, it seemed fitting to get a bit of caving in, and to expose my kids to caving gently. Our two older kids have done some caving; my youngest child has not. It was decided to catch the Organ cave guided tour; the cave would be lighted and the route would be easy to accommodate the masses.

After paying, we met our guide and were quickly on our way. The boys were very excited to be caving, dressed with their caving helmets and light. The main entrance into Organ cave is quite spectacular despite the massive wooden staircase consisting of 93 stairs. Our first stop was a dilapidated shed with a few rusted out storage barrels. It was presented to us as a rations storage area for the government as part of the cold war; when the cold war ended 50 years later the rations were given to tour patrons as samples.

Further back in the cave we were enlightened with proof of Noah’s flood; that was the explanation as to how the seashells found in the cave walls got there. There was no mention that the cave is limestone; and that marine animals, thus the shells, form limestone. I’m not going to debate the account of Noah as it is documented in the Bible; but I’m quite sure that the oyster shells imbedded in the rock didn’t get there by a massive Oyster migration inland during a massive flood that lasted 40 days and 40 nights (and 300 days as the water receded).

Organ cave has some large trunk passage; the lighting was done well, with very little evidence of algae growing due to the process of photosynthesis (water and light). Much of the initial passages had very few formations. Much of the front area of the cave was mined for Saltpeter during the Civil war; many of the vats used are still present today.

During the tour we came to a section of the cave where there were many, many “pockets” in the ceiling; the pockets were probably a foot in diameter and 6 inches deep. Our guide proceeded to tell us that a large number of animals lived in the cave at some time; during a massive flood the animals got trapped and drown. The dead animals rose to the ceiling and became pinned; while pinned there, the decomposition of the carcasses created a chemical imbalance that eroded the limestone to form the pocket.

About this point, my youngest tells me he had to go to the bathroom; what timing, a much-needed diversion from the tour guide. Fortunately I had carried a pack and in it was a plastic bottle. Unfortunately it still contained water; after gulping down the water, my youngest was in his defining moment caving…peeing in a bottle. A few minutes later he told me his legs were tired and wanted to be carried; he then promptly fell asleep on my shoulder.

We eventually got into some passage that was highly decorated; in this passage the infamous Organ formation can be found. Many of the formations were pretty; unfortunately the tour pretty much ends at that point with a quick retreat back to the entrance.

I think Organ cave is an amazing cave and has a lot to offer; the tour was obviously disappointing, in the end I doubted everything said which is a shame for there is some good history in that cave that needs to be properly shared. I think my boys had a good time, the older one wanted a bit more excitement, it was the appropriate level for the middle child, and well the youngest one couldn’t stop talking about it (after he woke up).

SERA / VAR

2008-07-23T00:33:00.001-04:00

This year’s spring VAR was combined with the annual SERA event; the event was held in Bristol TN. Since I was leading a tour into Rowland Creek cave, I thought it best for Joe and I to rig the rope and check the lower stream passage depth. The stream passage is affected by precipitation. While in the cave Joe wanted to spend some time exploring the new passage opened up since he’d been here last.

The stream was low, but present. We checked out a few leads throughout the cave; saving the most promising for last. The lead had good potential. And in fact the lead did produce more cave, estimated to be around 200ft worth (a follow-up trip to survey is in order). The passage is rather challenging as there is a tight squeeze followed by an eight-foot drop. The new passage seems to wall out, the only thing left is the pool of water that extends around a corner.

Friday night at camp an unexpected down pour provided some relief from the heat, though added to the humidity. The combination of humidity and people talking into all hours of the night yielded a sleepless night.

Saturday I met up with the crew I was taking to Rowland; four individuals. Joe met his team going to Berry Hill; Joe decided that since he had seen Rowland the day before he would check out another vertical cave in the area.

The tour of Rowland’s went smoothly; a group of five is slow due to the technical challenges presented in the cave. Josh Rubinstien really enjoyed the cave; so much so he volunteered to survey the short, muddy section in the stream passage I have been holding off on doing. Approximately 100ft of cave was added.

Joe said that Berry Hill cave was a great cave; he was however stuck with a large group trying to get through the cave and the vertical challenge at the entrance.

Saturday evening consisted of listening to some music, drinking a few drinks, and generally just milling around. It was surprising to see how quiet our neighbors were; must have been the previous night of partying and today’s caving.

Sunday we drove over to check out Bristol caverns, on someone’s suggestion of a short, easy, guided trip before heading home. However the caverns hadn’t yet opened; in the end we decided to drive home and clean gear during the daylight hours.

SERA/VAR Trip

2008-06-08T22:26:00.001-04:00

I arrived at Bristol Campground for the joint SERA/VAR at the same time the rain arrived. It poured, and then I set up my tent. The rest of the weekend was warm but not unbearable.

Saturday I led a horizontal, intermediate trip to Hancock Cave with Dave and Nick Socky, Andrew and Ann Hindman, Witt Reddinger, Karen Willmes, Susan Burr, Patrick Simms, and Winnie Miller. After the drops the group traveled to the Octopus Room and waited for me to lead. In order to start them off right, I led them into Harrington Hall and up the long slope into the Anastamoses Maze (I know that some TriTrogs recognize that this is the harder way into the maze). We then slid down the Corn Cob Crawl and discovered that Nick has outgrown his cave suit.

Pat, Nick and Susan checked out Echo Hall and Hickory Dickory Pit (through the tight slot), then we headed down to the junction between TJ's Trap and the Breakdown Staircase. Nick and Witt followed me down one tight slot that appears on my map. The survey notes had been confusing but were quite accurate. Unfortunately the other seven laughed at us as we struggled our way out of the slot. So I sent them up into the High Root as a punishment; I think the seven that climbed it found a short climb considerably challenging.

Everyone dropped successfully down the Breakdown Staircase, but few recognized Harrington Hall. I ran them out toward the back entrance, and Karen was the only one silly enough to follow Nick into a hole back near the Long Room. I remember when that hole was marked by a wooden dowel to remind a nutty traveler of a hard way to close a Hancock loop. They rejoined us shortly back into the crawlway, and then everyone went down the sliding board.

From the overlook we watched the group shrink. I then asked the remaining group to find their way back to the Corn Cob Crawl; close enough. We dropped down it again and headed for the top of Which Glob Pit. Susan wasn't willing/able to squeeze into the blowing hole at the top of the pit, but Karen Willmes was able to get inside. She found a virgin room within the breakdown, but the blowing lead would require a prybar to go further. To get Karen out, I had to reach in and pull her by her coveralls. That is one tight lead.

We slid down TJ's Trap and then crawled upstream back to Harringon Hall. I then led the group up into the Vertical Maze. I had forgotten that the easiest route through the maze required me to crawl on my side, but Karen asked "What tight passage?" I found my way back to the lead that Melanie McCullough, Yu Liu, Dave Duguid, and Mike Davidson had surveyed last year. The way out of the maze from there was supposed to be straight ahead, but all I saw was a tight canyon. I worried the whole group when I consulted my draft of the map; could the passage have gotten thinner? I slowly pushed my body into the slot and stepped over an old beer can. It opened up after it couldn't have gotten tighter.

Susan followed me through, and I asked her to kick the beer can in my direction. It seemed like a good idea, but her kick punctured the can. I picked up the Bud Lite can that started spraying all over me. I held it up to my mouth, but the spray covered my face. The group found it easy to follow the smell of beer back to Harrington Hall where I packed up the can. Easy trip out followed by dinner at Marion's Tuscan Italian Grille.

On Sunday Dave West wanted to borrow my chair for the VAR meeting, so he traded Karen for the chair. We ended up going to the Gray Fossil Site Museum (just opened). I know that the five rhinoceroses, the pandas, unhumped camels, tapirs, etc. should've really impressed me. However, it was also fun to challenge my dung beetle against George Dasher's, to learn that elephants poop my weight every eleven hours, and to discover that Karen can identify every type of scat you throw at her. The fossil site and its incredible discoveries are really a must see for everyone in eastern Tennessee.

April Showers

2008-04-09T23:23:00.001-04:00

One of the most prevalent events affecting the weekend to varying degrees was the weather. Mother Nature taunted meteorologists, which in turn hampered planning from a technology dependent group of cavers. Rain it did, and significant amounts; surprisingly enough the rain had little effect on the caving. In the end the weather provided comic relief as the weather related jokes and playful jabs were plentiful.

The basic plan was to cave with several Duke students on Saturday and exploration on Sunday. Ok for those that know me, the plan was more elaborate than that. But as we all know, plans change…my excuse; it was the weather’s fault!

We (Ken, Mike, and Dave) met the Duke students (Jake, Justin, and Charlie) Saturday morning as planned and drove to our predetermined destination, James cave in Pulaski County Virginia. After a quick rundown of the cave and the perceived objectives, done with a significantly reduced cave map, we entered through the main entrance.

We took the passage toward the “original” entrance first, said direction as a few options. As expected, we ended up in the low, crawling passage rather than the walking passage. Fortunately the crawl was brief, back in the walking passage we traversed the downstream passage with ease; popping briefly out into the daylight. Back in the cave we retraced our steps, well not the low crawl. Soon we were at the culvert used years ago to gate the pretty section of the cave off.

The upstream side is more expansive than the downstream side and generally contains two levels. To stay out of the water we chose the upper level whenever possible. The upper level was actually fun; it provided an interesting array of walking, climbing, crawling, and canyoneering. It also provided many formations to admire. There were several cascades of water where rim stone dams overflowed into flowstone. Further back in the cave, the formation become more prevalent and more pristine.

One interesting observation was a monitoring station in the cave; the exact intent of the setup was not known. But the general conclusion was the intrusion of water entering the cave through the ceiling was logged; how much water flowing through several formations was being tracked as well. We later found a monitoring station on the surface used to monitor precipitation.

The tour of the cave lasted approximately five hours; the cave was a cave worth returning too. The Duke students enjoyed the caving, but had to retreat to Durham as final’s are rapidly approaching.

Ken, Mike, and myself continued to Marion Virgina for the evening. Saturday evening resulted in enjoying some fine home brew and hours of fun playing the “Cave Game”. The revised plan for Sunday was rather adhoc; check out a possible new cave and go over to Rowland to determine what we could do there.

The new cave lead was, as Tanya mentioned, across a swollen Holston River and quite high on a steep hillside. We would not be getting to the cave today; the river was the major deterrent. But rather we conjectured whether or not the entrance would actually result in a cave; that discussion would only be settled when the possible cave entrance could be reached.

After confirming a topographical map of the hillside Rowland Creek cave is in, we opted to do some ridge walking. Ken, having an eye for possible dig locations, found two potential spots rather quickly. I worked on one while Ken and Mike on the other. I stopped the dig I was working on, slow going, in favor of checking out the other dig.

Mike broke into a small passage before calling it a day. There is more digging needed; but it was exciting to find there could be more cave passage on the hillside. The new found cave has been named Sentinel cave; named such as Mike was describing the two formations one has to squeeze through, it was like two sentinel’s guarding the cave.

A quick peek in the upper section was done; Mike had not been in that portion of the cave. The screech owl was inside the cave; the cave must be his/her nesting ground as it has been seen in the cave multiple times over the last 15 months. Also a quick peek in the lower section was done; wanted to check the stream level given the amount of rain over the last few days.

Weekend Ending in Tragedy

2008-03-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

From Chapel Hill to Staunton we traveled
To watch how plot twists slowly unraveled.
Characters were scheming but phony
In Ben Johnson’s play called Volpone.

Just a short distance to Grand Caverns Park
Did we find cold cavers camped in the dark.
We rose next day to find frost-covered tents,
Clear sign that we lacked any good horse sense.
Next morn past tour groups did we travel
As we hauled our buckets of gravel.
We spread the stones beneath the tourists’ feet
Whilst staying silent to remain discrete.
Free lunch did salve the strain felt in our arms.
Repainting stairs to stop rust’s future harms.
Limestone walls tightly clenched the screws of old
With our vise grips we cried “Out, out damn bolt.”

A sumptuous feast of shrimp and beef burgundy,
An evening tour that lasted near to Sunday.
Some guesses at my age did flatter me,
Enjoyed Easter breakfast at Batterby.

From Grottoes to Staunton did we make way
To relish performance of the Bard’s play.
The ASC matinee was splendid
And so our Shakespeare weekend was ended.

Paxton’s Cave: February 23, 2008

2008-03-02T21:56:00.001-05:00

After nearly two and a half years and nine caving trips, I am finally writing my first trip report. I suppose it is time…

Howard and Hayden Holgate and I had all had to cancel a caving trip just three weeks earlier, so we were anxious to get underground. Ken Walsh was gracious enough to organize a photography trip to Paxton’s Cave in western Virginia for Saturday, February 23.

The four of us met on Friday evening and began our adventure. After stopping for dinner at Los Tres Magueyes, where Hayden dined on a plate of rice, we continued our journey to Covington, Va.

Words can’t really describe what awaited us at the lovely and rustic Pinehurst Motel. Really, they can’t. I should have taken a picture so that I can share it with all of you. However, with my camera buried in my Pelican case with my caving gear in Howard’s truck, I will just have to rely on the memory of the décor emblazoned in my mind.

The first thing that Hayden noticed was that the dark wood paneling on the walls was actually real wood. That wood paneling was on the bottom four feet or so of the wall. It’s what was on the top portion of the walls – and the curtains – that have my eyes still straining to see a 3-D image in the patterns. Yes, that’s plural. The wall paper was a very busy pattern consisting of two- or three-inch shapes in brown , turquoise and black. The curtains, surrounded on three sides by the lovely wallpaper, was a very different – and also very busy – pattern in various shades of red and blue. It was a sight to behold. Next time you take a trip to Paxton’s Cave, I recommend room 32 (I think) at the Pinehurst Motel.

While the decorations were not what I would have chosen (which is good, since those patterns have not been sold during my lifetime), the room was comfortable and clean, so we got a good night’s sleep before heading into the cave the following day.

After loading up on carbs for breakfast on Saturday, we headed to Paxton’s Cave. We briefly met the landowners, signed the log book, and headed to the cave. There was a nice waterfall at the cave entrance, but we managed to get into the cave without getting wet.

Ken had studied the map, but warning us that this was a cave he struggled with finding his way around, turned over the navigation duties with a shrunken map to Hayden. The first objective was to find the Throne Room.

Well, we didn’t exactly accomplish that mission in a timely manner. After what I would guess was about two hours of walking around in various circles (and watching Ken trip over the same rock three or four times), we finally pulled out a compass, studied the map (which was not overly helpful) and determined to head generally southeast. That got us on track. We moved away from the rock that kept jumping out and tripping Ken, and eventually found some passages that did not look familiar to us. Well, to me, Howard or Hayden, who were in our inaugural voyage to Paxton’s Cave. We welcomed Ken’s shout of “This looks right!” as we finally neared the elusive Throne Room.

We had enjoyed exploring along the way and had paused for a few photo opportunities here or there, but the Throne Room was a welcome sight. It did not disappoint. The Thorne Room had all kinds of interesting formations. Ken and I pulled out our cameras and started taking a lot of snapshots. Climbing over breakdown while trying to protect my camera proved to be the greatest challenge of the day. But it worked, and I took photos of helictites, soda straws, bats (there were quite a few in this cave), various unknown formations and a couple of stalagmites. As Ken and I snapped away, Howard did some exploring and Hayden rested. Eventually Ken and I recruited Howard and Hayden to pose for some photos as we attempted manual cave photography. I’m definitely a novice at this, and my snapshots on auto function still turn out better than those in manual settings. I’ll keep working on that, though.

Once on his feet to pose for photos, Hayden joined in the exploration. He discovered a stalagmite that glows for a couple of seconds when illuminated with a flash, so he and Howard showed that off for us a few times.

We took a few more pictures, explored some more and then headed out of the Throne Room and back, we hoped, toward the cave entrance.

Ken had told us upfront that he had an easier time finding his way out of the cave than into it, and this held true. While we managed to throw in a few more wrong turns, and gave Ken the opportunity to trip over the same rock one more time, we did get back to the entrance without too much trouble. We noted the breakdown that looked (a little) like a set of jaws. As you enter the cave turn right there, toward a passage with a very large rock, and you’ll be going toward the Throne Room.

Anyway, after a few wrong turns we pulled the compass back out and headed northwest. We got to the entrance with just a little bit of daylight remaining. Ken took one last picture at the cave entrance and we headed back to the Pinehurst Motel.

After taking a few minutes to get cleaned up at the motel, we feasted on pizza (except for Hayden, who continued his all-carb diet with plain spaghetti) at Cucci’s. With full bellies, we went back to the motel, enjoyed hot showers and a game of movie trivia that Ken had brought along for entertainment.

The trip back on Sunday was uneventful. Hayden put his new driver’s license to good use and drove us home, and Ken helped me compile a list of all the caves I’ve been in. With his help in recording those caves, I decided it was time for me to give him a break from writing the trip reports and give it a shot for the first time. I still have a lot to learn about cave photography, but the exploration and photo attempts were a lot of fun.

New River Cave Beginner Trip February 1-3, 2008

2008-02-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

So I was really aching to get back into caving and now I am just aching. Thank God for knee pads and gloves! My name is Andrew Donadio and I have the pleasure of telling you about our trip of Feb 1-3, 2008, to the New River Cave near Blacksburg(the true location being a tightly guarded secret). We started out with 9-10 interested cavers and left with 5 in one car. This was actually nice in terms of money and camaraderie, as four of us had never really met.

We left from the Cisco parking lot at 6:00pm on Friday headed to Chapel Hill to pick up Matt Lubin. Matt L. had organized a little navigation quiz to see if he really wanted to trust Ken in a cave. Ken(I got something against cell phones) Walsh fell for the old left turn at Albuquerque, but recovered and we found Matt after just about ten minutes. I asked every Carolina girl I saw, "Can you take me to Matt Lubin?", but they were totally useless! So we picked up Matt and headed north on 86 to good old Martinsville and a tasty Mexican dinner at Los Tres Maguyueres or something like that. All I understood was that Mag....whatever it is, is part of the Guava plant, which has something to do with Tequila.

One highlight, we did stop at a gas station with a remarkable amount of electronics associated with the Men's room. They had an unusually large"OCCUPIED" light/sign above the door and a big red button (like you would push to launch a torpedo or WWIII) to push inside if you were in any way displeased or without anything. It was so tempting!! According to the attendant, they were planning one of those bank drive thru suction tubes to deliver emergency TP but they needed to find a way to plug that pesky hole in the middle of the roll. So it would be a pleasant place to drop the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean. And then we all discussed the many ways you could say that like sending an ambassador to Iraq...etc., etc.

So we got to near Blacksburg and it was just cold and windy, so we(Andrew, Matt W., and Ken) thought, "Gee, we need some beer." We hoped we could find some close by, but alas Christiansburg was aptly named, so we drove into Blacksburg where we found an aptly named bar, "The Underground". After a few beers, we decided that sleep might do us all good and we returned to the hotel around 1am. I think the beds at the Knights Inn were super! Matt, Matt, and Mark also thought so. Ken on the other hand said the floor was not quite up to his standards. Something woke me up Saturday morning and it sounded like a Walsh Horn. After 4 hours of listening to us sleep like angels, Ken had had enough!

Denny's gave us just the right mix of protein and carbs for breakfast.

We arrived at the cave which is near a beautiful, almost ideal, camp ground by the New River, I am guessing, and we started putting our equipment on. We started up the railroad tracks but before we could get to trail we were overtaken by a really freaking long freight train -- that's why the campground is nearly ideal. Ken says the trains come through every 20 minutes all night long!

We hit the trail and went up a good distance, found the entrance and went in around noon. We saw lots of really neat things, but the thing that stands out the most for me is the really tall waterfall room and the climb/crawl from there into another very large room where we would like to start next time when my teleporter is complete. At that point we crawled and climbed back to the waterfall using Ken as an anchor to belay us all. Then Ken came down with out belay, shame on him!

We then started the walk, climb, crawl out, which went pretty well until the second to last room where we found the way to forrest room rather than the exit. Eventually we kept following the room in the right direction and found the exit. We came out at about 6:30pm. We went down the hill and changed into our Guns and Roses outfits(Ken and I) and then went to dinner. Matt L. decided to wear his dirty clothes and skip the whole clean thing, so I gave him the name "Pig Pen" and by the way that jacket really was a pretty shade of blue! His before and after pictures are going on the "what to bring" page of our new website.

We all ate like we had never seen food before at BackStreet? I think it was called BackStreet. I don't remember much cause I got really hypothermic and peaceful until all that Pizza warmed me up again.

I am thankful to Ken for leading and standing guard through the night. I am thankful to Mark for helping us climb and making sure everyone -potentially-had a bed. I am thankful to Matt L. for the great conversation we had. I am thankful to Matt W. for incessantly talking about how great married life is. Check better be in the mail. And I am thankful that I found the Triangle Troglodytes and got back into Spelunking.

Andrew "My left arm works again" Donadio

Exploring Peacock

2008-01-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

Tanya McLaughlin had insisted for years that she had explored the back way into Hancock Cave (not beyond the Funnel Tunnel) back in 1999. She, Paul, and Linda had found a place high on the rock wall thatled underground and dropped down a steep climb. It seemed like a reasonable Sunday goal to help me improve the map to Hancock Cave.

In our streetclothes, Dave Duguid, Tanya, and I were greeted by the landowner's dogs, and we discussed his hunting season with him for a while. Then we started poking around at the rock wall. High up Dave and I found nothing but wet leaves and slippery slopes. We circled around to explore the area where the water disappeared.

I found a crack that seemed to head into the hillside, not too far from the ice column. I tried to maneuver sideways over a rock to see if the crack opened up low. No luck, so I took my wallet and keys out of my pockets and tried again. This would've been an easier effort in my caving coveralls and boots. This still didn't work, so I thought I would slide my legs over the rock first and shove myself in.

Dumb idea but the right direction! When I slid my feet in, I noticed a hole in the floor of the passage where I had been sitting. It dropped down about six feet and out onto a balcony. Time for coveralls.

We suited up and surveyed the cave, despite the freezing temperatures. At the bottom of the balcony, the passage widened out to six feet but ended in a muddy drain in the floor. At least it mapped out at sixty feet.

I came back home and looked at the 1985 sketch (in meters) by Tom Moss of the Peacock Entrance to Hancock Cave. Tom Moss, Greg Kramer, and Jay Cox didn't use back sights or sketch to scale, but their drawings looked as though they had entered the cave near the garbage dump at the left side of the wall. We found no signs of cave there any longer.

Two days later, I wondered how their sketch would close with our survey of Hancock Cave (because we had completed a surface survey). I entered their data into the computer, noticing a lot of downhill shots. However, how could they be shooting down five meters below stream level? I shifted their data over to find that it matches reasonably well with our survey of the new cave.

It turns out that Tanya, Dave and I surveyed to the drain that is just about fifteen feet travel distance away from our survey inside the cave (based on the 1985 survey). Just a short dig to connect!

The Best Laid Plans…

2008-01-08T23:45:00.000-05:00

The survey of Rowland Spring cave continues. A plan intended to yield the maximum data derived; and it may have been a good plan if everything remained constant. Constant, things were not. Despite the ever-changing environment, the trip was a success; fun and safe caving, additional survey data, and a renewed understand of the cave system.

To set the stage: It had rained in the Marion area two weeks prior, it also happened to have been bitterly cold only days before, and there was even snow on the ground. We know there is an active stream in the cave, but it has been dry for some time; and we know the cave had a tendency to be cold due to the significant flow of air between the two entrances.

Walking to the cave Saturday morning, there was evidence of the recent rain. The streambed outside the cave was decorated with an array of fresh leaf dams formed from heavy rains. The good news however was the stream was dry; if there was any connection between the outside stream and inside stream, the dry streambed was an encouraging sign.

Inside the cave the interior stream could immediately be heard, not that surprising given the stream in only 50ft from the entrance. Climbing down to stream level resulted in two observations; the stream was higher than ever seen before, but still below boot level. And the lower level of the cave was downright cold; in fact, the mud on the floor was frozen in a honeycomb of ice crystals a few inches high.

The pit was rigged and Ken descended first; his goal was to check out the stream level at the bottom of the pit. His initial report was satisfactory to continue into the cave. However, two leads in the stream passage were immediately scratched from the agenda.

As the remaining team dropped the pit, Ken’s continuing report became a bit less appealing. "The water could not be avoided, and the water was up to his knees." Knowing the remaining leads were out of the stream, we continued. Side note: the height difference between Ken and Lisa is such that water level for Lisa was well above her knees.

Out of the water and the settled cold air, the team initially set out to tackle the first lead. The lead presented an interesting climb; Mike managed to climb up with encouragement from Lisa and an excellent belay from Ken. Fortunately the lead looped back to one of the three leads we skipped in the stream; from this vantage point the second lead in the stream could be better viewed, the lead did nothing. Three leads knocked out!

The next lead was another promising pit, dropping mud into the pit resulted in a plunk rather than a splat…water. Ken found the deepest section in the big room to have water; at least 5ft of water. The pit would be done another day.

The next lead was a climb up a chimney; Mike continued to demonstrate his solid climbing skills. I on the other hand, opted to climb the rope. The lead ended in a solid rock hole that even Lisa would not be able to get through, disappointing as what little could be seen there appeared to be at least an additional room. Another lead completed.

As Mike and I wrapped up the lead Ken and Lisa investigated a different lead; their lead was a small vertical crack. Their effort, confirmed by a visual connection, brought the lead into a previously surveyed room. Once more lead down.

Mike and I investigated a lead near the graffiti in the big room; the lead has excellent potential and leads into some new passage. It was determined a team of three would be preferred, otherwise the survey effort would be hampered by one individual doing instruments, book, and sketching.

Instead, we found Ken and Lisa in time to check out a high lead. Sending Lisa,we were able to get a visual connection; in the process, Ken found a section of the cave I had previously hand drawn, he thought best to survey. In one section, a stream could be heard beyond a narrow, soda straw infested restriction. Yet one more strong candidate for continued cave, that came to an end.

Knowing what lay in front of us we opted to exit the cave. The exit went smoothly despite the bone chilling water. Before long we were all out of the cave enjoying warmer temperatures, a good Italian meal, and Mike’s home brew.

The good news, the cave continues to grow. While we knocked off quite a few leads, there are four remaining. The pit, a climb, a low muddy crawl, and the continued passage confirmed this trip. I am looking forward to seeing what other secrets this cave may reveal.

240ft surveyed, cave length now at 2840ft.

It should be mentioned that on a previous trip an unusual concentration of dead bats in a very localized part of the cave was found; Ken contacted a biologist whom recently published an article regarding an unknown bacteria that seems to be effecting bats to see if there could be any connection. The biologist was provided pictures and reported to Ken what to look for. We did not find any live bats showing any signs of the bacteria, nor did we find anymore dead bats.

Sunday’s caving put us back at Hancock; Ken had one more unconfirmed report of cave that needed to be investigated. After talking to the landowner regarding the status of his new house and a few other things, we looked around the rock ledge for something that fit the description. Ken found a passage, and it fit the description he had.

As we started the survey, the rain also started; fortunately we were soon protected from the rain once inside the cave. However we were not protected by the cold; this cave still had ice from the recent cold snap.

The cave had a large daddy long leg population; I was very surprised to find the “spiders” actually moving. I have no knowledge of spiders, but I would have thought they would be frozen solid like the surrounding water.

The survey didn’t take long, I don’t have the actual survey data, but I would estimate the cave is under 50ft in length.

Hancock Celebration (photo by Rob Phelps)

2007-11-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

Tying Up Loose Ends

2007-11-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was pleased to be joined by Bob Alderson, Rob Phelps, Robbie Spiegel, Karen Willmes, and Dave West at Hancock Cave Saturday morning. I was especially pleased that Howard and Hayden Holgate had already rigged handlines at the entrance drops, so we flagged them to let them know to leave them in place until we exited the cave.

I led the survey team of Bobs over to the high leads that remained in the Noogah Way while Dave and Karen admired the formations. The sticky crawl through the Noogah reminded me of the waves of ingredients in the Milky Way commercials, and it left me pretty muddy. I set the Bob/Rob/Robbie team up at their leads and headed back to Karen and Dave in the main passage. By the time I led them to the other leads, we were joined by the original Noogah boys, Gordon Bolt and Matt Jenkins.

Gordon drew the short end of the stick and was assigned to cave with me. Matt joined Karen and Dave in the survey of the Transportation Wing. Gordon and I began a profile of a section of the cave, beginning at the Earthworm Gym and extending back to the Funnel Tunnel. While I sketched, Gordon tried to find the survey stations we had set ten years earlier. Along the way we encountered Brian Bolt's sport trip that had chosen a particularly difficult route to begin; they turned around at the entrance to the Noogah, before their opportunity to see the real pretties.

After Gordon and I got all the way back to the Funnel Tunnel, we returned again to the Earthworm Gym area. The other two teams hadn't yet emerged from their leads, and I took this as a particularly good sign that they'd found lots more cave. Gordon and I then started checking leads ourselves. Because we only had two people, I chose the least promising lead first, a low passage that we had breezed by on an earlier circuit trip.

Breeze was where the debate came. Gordon saw little hope for the passage, but I was sure that it wasn't just dead air I felt when I wedged my body into the hole beside the mud wall. I pulled out Tanya's mini-pick-and-shovel and started digging at the dirt. I eventually got far enough in the dig that I could see that the passage continued forward at least a few more feet before turning right, but it was going to be a long left-handed dig. Before I was ready to quit, I sent Gordon back to the other side of the mud wall. He peered down a small hole, and we managed a voice connection. That killed the lead, but it really was live air I felt.

Next Gordon and I started a short survey into the flowstone above the passage where Karen and Dave had gone. We were hampered by only having one set of survey instruments, but the Bob team showed up shortly after we began the survey. They helped us get the readings. When I climbed up so that Gordon could show me the survey point, he sat down to get out of the way. Unfortunately he was practicing his Cornhole game at the time and left some of his coveralls atop a stalagmite (ask him for the fool story).

I gave the Bob team the choice of the remaining two leads from this room, and they chose the Earthworm Gym lead because it was blowing air. Gordon and I surveyed the opposite lead over some beautiful rimstone dams and up a flowstone slope. By the time we reached the second station, we could hear Karen and Matt excitedly rejoicing in the big walking passage that they had just discovered. Gordon enjoyed talking to them through a small hole in the wall, and they asked if they could be in passage that was already known. Although they sounded as though they were above us, I responded that the only walking passage I knew of there was the one where they started their survey. Dave West made Karen and Matt feel silly when he told them to tie their survey back into the existing station (at least the loop closure was good).

Gordon squirmed sideways beside a flowstone mound as we surveyed uphill. Beyond the pretty decorations the room transformed into a dank passage with broken ledges similar to the Harvest Domes. It petered out in a sharp bend. As we descended past the flowstone mound, Gordon discovered that his cheek muscles had recovered and were again functioning properly. However, I think that the Bob Team found the discussions amusing.

We gathered up all of the teams when the leads had all been surveyed and exited the cave together. We celebrated the survey conclusion with a bottle of champagne. Forty-five surveyors made nearly fifty trips into the cave to close 58 loops. The cave length now stands at 13,153 feet, just 47 feet shy of 2.500 miles, and I have a big map to produce. Thanks for all the assistance with surveying over the last eleven years.

Caving Opportunity

2007-11-01T23:51:00.000-04:00

With a date having been set, a crew of cavers found, caves and objectives known, the wait began. There had been little rain all summer and very little this fall, perfect conditions for the caves planned (though the local citizens of Marion would disagree).

· Hancock – Funnel Tunnel sumps after it rains
· Atwells Tunnel – hoping the low water levels would reveal a passage through the sump
· Rowland Spring – surveying the mud passage would be slightly more pleasant without having to get wet as well as muddy.

With heavy rain resulting from a low passing through the southeast, all plans seemed in jeopardy; there was talk of not going, rescheduling, of mutiny before Ken even got anyone underground…could it even be possible? Fortunately we had some hearty cavers, or just cavers desperate to get out of town. The plan progressed forward, though backup plans were quickly being assembled.

A group of cavers left Friday and caved Hancock cave Saturday, their report can be read in a different posting. I left Saturday morning; my plans were to check out Atwells Tunnel. I had initially planned on bringing my dive gear along as a backup if the water levels were not low enough. I was certain I’d need it now given the inches of rain received.

I met up with Brian, Tanya, and Dale in Marion; after lunch we drove over the mountain and to the cave. It had been two years since I had been there; it seemed much further away than I remembered it. We walked to the cave and found the water level to be the same it has been on previous trips. It wasn’t worth hiking to the sump; I knew there would be no visible duck under.

Gear assembled and hauled to the sump within the cave; here it was donned, return time agreed to, I started the swim down the visible part of the sump. The silt was heavy and suspended in the water column, tying line along the way the sump was inspected for a duck under. None was found; instead the sump progressed to the depth of 23ft where the roof and floor pinched to less than 10 inches. Given the visibility, the plowing of mud to continue forward, the dive was stopped.

Mystery solved; the idea of a quick duck-under and continued dry passage found to be completely untrue. The rumors of school-aged kids traversing the entire cave now suddenly didn’t seem all that realistic…just rumors.

After packing up Tanya mentioned a sink on the property she had been meaning to investigate. With the weather being sunny, bright, and warm who could pass up an offer to walk. The sink was clearly evident; better yet it has to natural drains in the basin. Some digging would be in order, but with the amount of water that must collect off the surrounding landscape there is probably cave there.

Afterward we hiked more of the property; Brian found a small cave while I found a dead cow. The cave entrance was small and looked like a bear den (given the proximity of the carcass further entrenched that thought). Brian scooped his find; the cave was only 35ft or so in length, ending in a small room.

No further caves were found; the relaxing hour hike was a spectacular consolation prize. We then drove over to Hancock to see how the other team was doing. Finding the hand line in the main entrance signaled the team must have gotten back the Funnel Tunnel. Not knowing their timeline we didn’t suit up to join them; but rather went and had a delicious Mexican meal.

Sunday at Rowland Spring consisted of Brian, Ken, Robbie, and myself. The objective was to finish surveying the large room. The cave was dry; the stream that runs through the cave had no water.

We managed to finally get the exterior wall completed and then preceded to fill in the interior content. In addition, we dropped into the breakdown and found a few smaller passages underneath; this area is the lowest spot in the cave by 4ft. Good thing the cave was as dry as it was.

Brian brought his camera, he had time to explore and photo document a majority of the big room and its splendor. I have yet to see the pictures, but will try to post a few on the web page.

The statistics for the day:

· 40 stations for 535ft
· We closed four leads
· Have two new leads.

There are a few promising leads for the next trip. The date for the next trip is not yet known, but hopefully we can locate a few additional cavers to assist with this beautiful cave.

Wanta Buy a Hammer?

2007-10-30T22:18:00.000-04:00

A bad cold, the flu, eight inches of rain. The odds were again against me being able to finish the survey of Hancock Cave on October 13, 2007. I had even proposed to Dave Duguid that I would trade survey dates with him with the hopes that water levels in Hancock Cave would drop down after last week's drenching. Mark Little, Melanie McCullough, and I woke up Saturday morning at Tanya's house to a much clearer day than we had seen all week. Still I had plans to take photographs in the front part of the cave and maybe dig above Which Glob Pit because the rain had been so severe.

My plans to dig required tools, none of which anyone brought to Tanya's house that weekend. After a leisurely breakfast, we stopped at the local hardware store where we bought a four-pound hammer, cold chisels, and center punches to help with the dig. Then we drove out to the cave. Apparently the drought had been more severe than the rain. I noticed that Bear Creek was still way down, and I returned to my original plans. Mark, Melanie, and I found the creek outside Hancock Cave to be dry, so we headed for the Funnel Tunnel.

I was utterly amazed that the Funnel Tunnel hadn't changed since our last visit there in August. It was still dug open over ten inches high, and I opened it up even more to make it easy for everyone to get through. I think Melanie could've gone through on her hands and knees. We had gotten a late start because we expected so little, but now we had some goals to meet.

I dragged Mark and Melanie back to the Tortoise Shell Room and our first leads. We lucked out again because the lower lead (would've been six shots) tied right into the upper lead and saved a painful survey start. Although the survey dropped us down to a five-foot belly crawl, it opened back up into walking passage that tied back into the known passage after eight shots total.

We headed back to the Chocolate Wall, and I found the next lead (a two-foot high crawl into a flowstone mound). On the second long shot in, Mark was already standing. This lead had opened up into big walking passage. Too bad Mark and Melanie wanted to drive back to Cary that evening. In this new passage we found rimstone dams, cave coral, and a four-foot long strip of cave bacon. It also had Hancock's signature pendants and large breakdown, but the really amazing thing was the flowstone shelf suspended four feet off the floor by the pendants. No one else may have noticed it, but I saw it form the outline of a viking ship with an unexplored passage beneath.

Our goal was to knock off the seven remaining leads. Instead on Saturday we surveyed 310 feet (cave length now 2.39 miles with 56 loops--38th longest in Virginia), knocked off three leads, and created two more. Too bad I couldn't have kept Mark and Melanie in there all night long.

On Sunday I joined Dave Duguid's survey trip to Rowland Springs Cave. We surveyed a lot of footage through fins and formations but never seemed to get far from the big room where we started. There I discovered that my new frog system falls into the class of "sit-stand-bang your shoulder-repeat" single rope techniques.

VAR/MAR 2007--Alpena Cave

2007-10-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

Friday morning was mighty damp. As I helped Philly Grotto set up for the 2007 VAR/MAR, the sky sprinkled every hour or so. I looked down at the cave description for the survey trip I was planning to lead to Middle of Nowhere Cave, and I added the phrase "may be damp" to the entrance description.
At 10 PM the signup sheets went out, and people hurriedly scribbled their names beside the trips they wanted. At least three people came over to me at Registration to announce that no one had signed up for my trip yet. By the morning, I couldn't even find one of my sketchers and we were down to the two leaders. Cancel the trip.
I myself then signed up for Barry Horner's trip to Alpena Cave. We had a blast with just six people making the through trip. Barry had dug open the back entrance, surveyed the cave, and used chemical persuasion to make the connection large enough for humans. Therefore, our trip included full descriptions of the exploration of the 2001 connection all the way through.
As for the character of the cave, I was a little reluctant about my ability to make the through trip because the description read that a 44-inch chest size was the limit, but Barry convinced me I'd fit. As it was, I don't really know where the tightest spot was because I never had any difficulty with a squeeze.
We entered by climbing down the breakdown in the sinkhole entrance and then spent most of the time following a downstream passage. The ceilings were often high, and we crossed over and through very little breakdown. The most fun part was descending the cascading stream as it plunged from one pool to the next.
The least fun came when the ceiling dropped down near the stream. We laid down in an inch or two of water and scooted along. The scooting was easy, but the wait for the people in front of me made my legs cramp a bit. Fortunately the stream was low enough to avoid the passage becoming an ear dip, but unfortunately the stream belly crawl was about fifty feet long. Still a lot of fun because it didn't get tight until I was near the end and could see people standing in front of me.
We popped out of that hole and headed straight for the entrance. After putting on dry clothes, we spent some time bouldering around Bear Heaven before heading back to the TRA site. The Lions Club dinner and dessert were tremendous (not to mention the sheet cakes), the presentations by Doug Medville and the Japanese Exploration Team were fun (with some great photos by the Japanese), and Ericka's superb performance with the live bluegrass band astonished everyone. Overall a great VAR/MAR with good, cool weather in the end. Happy 60th Anniversary to Philly Grotto.

Back To Grand Caverns

2007-09-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

It had been almost a year since having been to Grand Caverns; this time was to be a new experience. I took my two oldest boys with me; I had promised a caving adventure and some camping since spring. Our family trip to West Virginia during the summer months didn’t produce any caving opportunities and for camping, it’s just been far to hot.

Even though the typical format for the caving weekend is to arrive Friday night, we left Saturday morning; insuring we had avoided a front that produced a significant amount of rain throughout the entire region. We entered the park around 2pm and found no one around; there was only one camp set up. The ranger indicated that Carol had retrieved the key to Fountain cave. The ranger provided some additional detail to the lightening strike on Grand Caverns and the damage done; Carol mentioned in an earlier email that we wouldn’t be in Grand Caverns this weekend.

Concluding someone must be in Fountain, we geared up and hiked the hill. We found no sign of anyone at Fountain; the gate was locked and no key was sitting on the ledge. Not having a clue where anyone was at, we hike the remaining hillside to Jefferson Cave and then continued to the top. We wandered around the hilltop before returning back to Fountain; still no one. We then hiked over to Madison cave on an off chance the group was working a different cave today.

We returned to the park and goofed around until dinnertime. We ate at the Wood Fired Oven, Pizza of course. Returning back to the park no one had arrived; again we goofed around in the baseball field until bedtime. The kids tried their best at ghost stories amongst all the laughing until lights out.

In the morning we met up with the other campers, three. The group ridge walked a piece of property Saturday; the effort yielded no new cave. We ate a good breakfast and got Scott on the phone; he was interested in taking one of his kids into Fountain. A small group entered into Fountain cave. The kids enjoyed fountain and wanted to explore all passages; Dawson was sure he’d found a new part of the cave and wanted to map it. Next time I go into Fountain with the kids I need to bring a stronger light; I think the cave would have been much more interesting if the lighting was better.

Scott mentioned he had the key to Madison and we could go over there quickly. Dawson immediately remembered an earlier discussion revolving around George Washington’s signature. He was overjoyed knowing he would get an opportunity to see the signature. Madison is a much smaller cave; we found Washington’s signature surrounded by a slew of others. The three boys enjoyed reading the various signatures and wanted to leave their own; I don’t think they fully understood why that was no longer the proper cave etiquette.

Thanking Scott, we headed down to Crozet Tunnel. Crozet Tunnel was built in 1858; it was the first tunneling effort in the US where teams dug from both sides and met in the middle. A significant engineering accomplishment considering the year accomplished and that the effort yielded only a few feet of error. The tunnel is no longer used; there is a larger tunnel beside it for today’s larger trains.

Dawson and Dylan enjoy trains; yes we have a large collection of “Thomas” paraphernalia. Due to time constraints we didn’t bring lights; we would just hike to the tunnel and go in just a little bit. The boys thought it was cool; even though they were hoping a train would come through the parallel tunnel. No luck. Not hiking through left the opportunity for a future trip.

How to Beat Down Surveyors (or How to Knock Off Fourteen Leads)

2007-08-30T14:46:00.000-04:00

We had had a wonderfully productive survey trip last December in Hancock Cave, but then the rains and snow melt kept us from passing through the Funnel Tunnel for many months. On August 11, Dave Duguid and Will Summer joined me for another survey trip into Hancock Cave. This time we meant business. I knew that when Dave vigorously started widening the Funnel Tunnel to a size that allowed Will and me through (Tanya loaned us a great shovel).

I was really impressed that Dave and Will had their readings agree right from the start. There was a little bit of grumbling when I suggested they always choose passages to the right (because it was more likely to lead away from known cave), but they went along. The first right passage turned into a decorated stoopway but widened out before it joined in with a walking passage.

The end of the walking passage found us in several short domes, including the highest point beyond the Funnel Tunnel (almost 33 feet above the cave entrance). After surveying the domes, Dave discovered a survey marker we left in the 1990s. When I pulled out all of my notes, I realized that we had discovered the back way into the famed Noogah, closing a really big loop.

There were several leads in the Noogah area that we knocked off the map from there. One involved a climb up to a mouse nest with six mice surprised be Dave's visit. Another low lead was too small for me, but Dave pushed his body through and sketched the room. We looped up and down to close some other loops in that area. The remaining lead in the Noogah area involves a high step-across onto an iffy rock, and we chose to save that one for a fresher start.

Instead we went back near the beginning of our survey that day and surveyed down a long water-sculpted passage with at least one shot over forty feet long. Dave and Will liked these long shots, so I next to them to the other side of the main passage to mop up the dry stream leads. It was easy surveying for Will, but Dave was the one who had to drag tape from one station to the next. Will and I just walked around in the main passage.

Nearest the Funnel Tunnel the stream passage got extremely low. Dave couldn't even drag his body along the cobble after a certain point. Fortunately we could visually connect the stations from both sides, so I'll be able to sketch that to the final map.

It was late when we got out, so we were stuck with the Pizza Hut. One would think that the only customers in the restaurant could've been fed in less than 50 minutes, but the staff seemed to be in no hurry. Around 12:30 AM, we bedded down at Tanya's.

Dave, Will, and I managed to survey 760 feet of passage on that trip with more than fifty shots. Everyone knows that Hancock Cave is the longest surveyed cave in Smyth County, Virginia. The surveyed passage is now up to 2.33 miles in length (depth of 170.5 feet) for the survey we began in December 1996. This length means that Hancock is now longer than Patton Cave (2.040 mi), Buchanan Saltpeter Cave (2.060 mi), Clover Hollow (2.103), Cave of the Winds (2.147 mi), Cave Mountain Cave (2.200 mi), Kennamer (2.326 mi), and Sinnett-Thorn Mountain Cave (2.329 mi). It's approaching the lengths of Trout, Fletcher, Ape, and Low Moor Caves, but there are only about seven leads left to explore this fall.

The Deal, Survey Style

2007-08-16T23:06:00.000-04:00

Anxious to continue sketching Rowland’s, Ken and I stuck a familiar deal. I would help him in Hancock if he helped me in Rowland’s. A date was selected; we set out to find others to assist; Will helped us on Saturday and Tanya and Robbie on Sunday.

Hancock

After a home cooked breakfast, thanks to Ken, we set out for Hancock. Ken had a plan already in place; the leads he was interested in were past the funnel tunnel. The funnel tunnel can only be passed when there hasn’t been, nor will there be, rain. Obvious to most all, the southeast is under near drought conditions.

Even though Hancock is currently over two miles in length, getting to our initial lead did not take long. The lead took us generally north and not into anything very tight. The lead eventually took us into a room that had been surveyed to via another direction; closing off another lead on Ken’s list.

While in the general area Ken had a few other leads. One high lead led into a formation choke; through the formations gray field mice could be seen milling around. One of the leads seemed very promising but in the end looped back to the room we had surveyed to earlier. There was one high lead, with a deep crag below, that I opted out of; it might be more appealing as the first lead on fresh legs.

Ken had one more lead to survey, a low stream passage; and the correct motivation, another home-prepared breakfast if we could break 750ft of surveyed passage. With 50ft to go, who could resist! I pushed in, however low meant really low. While lying on the bed of mud-glued coble stone, trying to dig it up, I simply called it quits. We surveyed what we could; fortunately it amounted to more than 50ft.

We exited the cave around 10:15 to a hot, humid, sound invested night. Receiving very low service at Pizza Hut landed us back at Tanya’s around 12:30. Keeping to his word, Ken made breakfast the following morning.

Rowland Spring

Pulling up to the owner’s house we were rewarded with a bit of information. On the last trip we found a signature in the cave; asking the owner if he knew any of the names, a gentleman standing next to him confessed to being one of the guilty party. The individual provided details of using a rope and climbing hand over hand through the known pit; all the wild speculation of how the signature got there came crashing to an end.

Rowland’s is not a large cave at this point, however to get back to the survey area takes some time. There’s a series of climbs and of course a pit to drop. There was no water in the stream and the mud exceptionally sticky.

The start of the survey immediately put us into a large room, which we never surveyed out of. I don’t think we surveyed but thirty percent of the room. The room is very impressive; it is difficult to define where the walls are, our lights where not bright enough to penetrate to the opposite side. The room has very large blocks of breakdown making traversing the room quite interesting.

The survey tally for the day was 416ft; the remainder of the room waits to be surveyed and any leads off of the room.

Tight Squeeze: Five Cave Trips in One Weekend

2007-07-16T14:18:00.000-04:00

I left my office around 4 PM on Friday afternoon. I enjoyed an easy drive past and through Boone out to Blountville, Tennessee. I expected to meet Zoey and the Girl Scouts at their camp at the commercial Appalachian Caverns. However, no one was in camp when I arrived. I did notice two people in coveralls up by the cave entrance, so I went up to talk to them. They were the trip leaders for the Girl Scout wild cave trip that hadn't left yet (it was almost 9 PM).

I threw on my coveralls and joined Wes and Tanya and walked in to meet the scouts. Wes and Tanya had a lot of experience making wild cave tours as sporting as one might hope. They began by pushing the willing through a side loop that finished with a tight squeeze. They claimed that it was 7-1/2 inches at the tight spot, but I'm guessing it was more like 8-1/2 inches (since I fit). Wes had the girls crawling through the sides of walking passages, and they didn't care that I kept meeting them as they exited the squirmy crawls. He even poured water from his bottle to make a sliding board that he had to pull the girls down. Near the end of the trip that evening, we found a mud puppy (a creature I never see in Virginia caves). We exited the cave around 11:30 PM Friday evening.

Everyone was awoken Saturday morning at 6:30 AM to begin the next day. This Girl Scout trip was being set up as a 5-day-long caving camp, so there were lots of things to learn. Teaching the drowsy scouts about cave maps at 8 AM was not my shining moment; the early hour really prevented them from showing much interest.

A local caver named Jared and I followed Zoey's car out of the campground to head toward the cave (about an hour later than expected). However, the van full of scouts took about fifteen minutes more before they joined us at a nearby intersection. We then headed to Renfro Cave where we were allowed to split into two groups. The old saltpeter cave is marked by pinnacles exposed by the mining, and the girls in my group had a good time clambering around and testing their climbing skills. We headed back to the room nearest the entrance, and I passed out map outlines of the cave and keys to NSS map symbols. The object was for the girls to figure out where they were on the map and then fill in the map's blank spaces. Blank stares. I think they later appreciated that sketching a good map isn't easy.

We had an extra half hour to go explore, so I led my group to a dead end. They then took us high up in the cave where I spotted the alternate entrance. We were all too big to exit that way, so we returned to the vans a little bit later than the other group. The van took off for lunch, and then we headed to the same park to meet them. Unfortunately the park had multiple parking areas, so we ended up in different places. This led to a late arrival at Morrill's (Worley's) Cave.

I think we managed to enter Morrill's Cave around 4:30 PM. We stayed in one long line as we trampled along the trunk passage. My group stopped about a half mile in with buckets and scrub brushes. The girls learned how to clear graffiti from the cave walls in their conservation efforts, and they were dedicated workers while we waited for the other group to return. The other group did not return. My group headed after them down the Railroad Passage, and I gave some advice to would-be cave photographers as we passed some pretty formations and deep rimstone dams. Everyone was back to the parking area by 7 PM, except the van driver and van. After a few wrong turns on the way to dinner with girl scouts, I skipped out and headed up to Virginia for Sunday caving with other TriTrogs.

After a good night's sleep, Dave Duguid, Diana Gietl, and Tanya McLaughlin took me back to the upper entrance of Rowland Springs Cave on Sunday morning. A warm breeze blew into this entrance, so no one got cold when we weren't moving. Dave improved his earlier survey notes, Diana balanced her tripod and camera on dolomitic flowstone, Tanya learned how to pose, and I cursed at blue flash bulbs. While we didn't do any entranceway shots, I think that Diana managed some nice formation photos (based on her 1-1/2 display screen).

We exited after several hours and then regrouped at the lower entrance of Rowland Springs Cave. The cold wind was roaring out this entrance, and I could see my breath plummet down the hillside. This was new cave to me. We climbed down to the stream level and then back up a cable ladder into a huge room. Dave and I discussed how to sketch the room, and then he began a massive cross section to capture the immensity of this relatively short cave. Meanwhile Diana rigged Dave's new rope to drop a 30-foot pit.

After Diana discovered passage at the bottom, Dave, Diana, and I surveyed down the pit, with me in the middle setting station. While hanging on rope, I measured 95 degrees for the azimuth down to Diana, and her reading was 30 degrees off from mine. What a way to start a survey! However, the fact that both our clinometers read 85 degrees vertical drop meant that the trig works out to less than a foot in error. With me hanging on rope and Diana sliding down a slope with nearly vertical measures on a compass, that was the best pair of readings Dave could get from us.

The three of us found an active stream passage at the bottom of the pit, and a few high leads would've taken us back up to other levels. We continued surveying away from the known cave passage, and the stream eventually gurgled into a small hole in the wall. The stream-level passage ended shortly thereafter in mud plugs, so we headed uphill. It was nice to leave the wet stream, but a cool breeze took over at the higher level. Diana took us up a dry slope until we arrived at some incredible formations. Delicate white rimstone dams and thick draperies were much prettier than anything else I had seen all weekend.

We stopped surveying at big borehole-like passage, with promises of lots more formations for the next survey team. Unfortunately my time lying in the stream and the prospect of driving back to the Triangle that evening made us turn around at that point. The next sets of surveyors have a lot to look forward to. We also did pretty well with our survey, eighteen stations covering about 275 feet in under four hours. Overall, I sure can't complain about a regular weekend with five cave trips.

Rowlands Continued

2007-06-14T23:26:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning was a bit of a mix-up, the restaurant we were to meet Robbie as was closed due to a family emergency. It took a bit to get things straightened out, and was soon at the property talking to the landowner. His brother and himself were outside; they both are very friendly and supportive of our effort. He is very appreciative of the work we are doing to clean up and protect his cave. Both have plenty of stories about caving in Rowland as boys. That cave has real significance and memories to both of them.

We started the survey from the lower level; near the cable ladder climb, as it has become known. In some of the breakdown there was a hole in the floor, which led into tall canyon-like passage. The passage is actually the continuation of the canyon before the cable ladder climb. It was not noticed as such previously due to the amount of suspended breakdown. The canyon continued until reaching a short climb to the right (and a dead raccoon to the left).

The climb looked very promising; at the top of the climb the cave T’ed. The right passage was one terminal shot, darn. To the left, we were presented with another entranceway into the big room we started to survey on the last trip. The survey continued into the big room. It was nice to complete the big room and to knock off two leads, but disappointing the leads didn’t continue on. In the big room there is one lead that was not surveyed. This lead will require vertical gear; it is a pit. The stream can be heard from within the pit; while the bottom was not visible the depth the streambed would be estimated at about 25ft below.

We ventured to the upper level to check out three other leads; one lead was declared not safe to attempt with the current equipment with us and will require another try, with a 12ft ladder. The other lead did just as I suspected, looped back into a lower room we had previously surveyed. The last lead wasn’t really a lead, we knew the passage; the brothers used to traverse a rather creepy pit. The passage leads to the big room below. We surveyed the small section to add to the map for completeness.

Much of the cave surveyed was not nearly as decorated as other portions of the cave. However, the cave continues to impress me; it is not a long cave but has tremendous volume given the two large rooms. I remain optimistic the pit will provide more passage, only another survey trip will reveal the truth.

Middle of Nowhere (Spring VAR 2007)

2007-04-29T23:15:00.000-04:00

Some may consider Durbin, WV to be in the middle of nowhere, but fans of the Green Bank Observatory, old-fashioned railroads, and caving know better. I showed up Friday night after registration closed, during the party where Smiling Bob Gray and his wife were spinning the tunes. It was incredibly cold, and I lost one leg of my convertible pants, the only long pants I had brought along. The folks I knew at VAR were mostly already signed up for trips and weren't planning pickup trips of their own. I didn't think my options were looking very good unless I wanted to join Dwight Livingston on a Cassell Cave through trip.

However, I was pleased to find a cancellation on a horizontal trip with Doug Medville with possible surveying or ridgewalking. Score! On top of that, it was only a few minutes drive away. A drive up a forest road until the cars could penetrate no further and then a 1.5-mile hike. Normally that long a hike in caving gear would be unpleasant, but the cold temperatures and heavy clouds made the suit quite comfortable. The hike along the forest road was filled with foot-deep mud puddles that the ten of us avoided whenever possible.

I was hiking at the front with Doug when we neared where he thought the cave might be. His only trip into the cave had been in 1973, and the surface drainage had changed a bit since then. He knew that a pit was nearby but didn't know if it went anywhere, so Van carried along a cable ladder. We found the pit easily, and I free climbed down without any problems. At the bottom the echoing lead with water beyond it was too small for me to fit into. I spotted a shorter person down the climb, but it was too small for her as well.

Just up the stream from there, Doug remembered the cave we were headed for. Unfortunately it seemed to terminate after about 20 feet. Maybe he was wrong. In any case, the hillside hadn't been well ridgewalked, so we had lots of opportunities to find the cave. Doug found another entrance just below a pair of springs. I dropped down into it, saw a lot of water dripping from the stream above followed by a 9.5-inch high crawl. We elected to save this lead for the hike out.

We ridgewalked for another hour or two, finding lots of springs but no reasonably sized caves. Five of the party had headed back to the cars, not that Cheryl Suitor had a key to get her clean stuff from my car. Back at the wet tight lead, two folks explored it while I dug at one of the nearby springs. As it turns out, they found the place we were aiming for: Middle of Nowhere Cave. It was fun naming the other FROs we discovered along the way: East Edge of Nowhere, Going Nowhere Fast, etc. We chose not to survey that afternoon since half of the party had already departed. Everyone liked the idea of going back at OTR or Fall VAR when it's drier. Maybe Lisa should add that cave to her trip list for the Fall VAR.

When we returned to camp early in the afternoon, Ericka Hoffmann and I wandered through Durbin with her camera shooting some interesting black-and-white shots of the railcars and store fronts. I put on one leg of the convertible pants and explained to the Baltimore folks that it seemed that the best way to find the other leg was to advertise the missing one. Fifteen minutes later someone returned my missing leg. I now have my own Cinderella story.

I got even luckier later that evening. Gordon Birkheimer set up a poster showing twenty different cave entrances, and the goal was to name as many as you could. I teamed up with Ericka, and we nailed ten of them. That was enough to tie Craig Hindman and Carol Tiderman, and a coin toss won us a T-shirt, some stickers, and the title.

Continuation of Rowland Spring Cave Survey

2007-04-25T22:42:00.000-04:00

Diana and I left Durham around 2:30 on Saturday amidst one of the more beautiful sunny days we’ve had in some time; the weekend was to be so nice there was a brief right side / left side struggle in my brain. Perhaps the weekend would be better spent outside than underground. But the desire to connect the two entrances prevailed, even if we had to connect the two by a surface survey.

Getting into Marion around suppertime was a pleasant variation to most trips. It was nice to enjoy a relaxing dinner and conversation with Tanya, and still get to sleep before 11pm. I even got a chance to walk Tanya’s dog, Daisy, that evening before the sunset. Our start was a bit slow on Sunday, but after breakfast we rolled out toward Rowland Spring.

The plan was to continue to survey in the upper entrance. There were two leads to complete before trying to figure out how to navigate into the lower section. And, of course, to leave ample time to perform an overland survey should it be necessary.

We started the survey off of station C20 that lead us generally west for a few shots before ending. We proceeded to the lead off of station C12, leading general southeast. There were several deep rim stone dams along this passage, and a formation choke that was blowing copious amounts of air; I would guess air from outside based on the location.

The second lead brought us back to the hole in the floor that leads to the lower section. Since Diana and I brought our vertical gear we decided it would be better to drop the vertical section and determine the best route to safely get all cavers to the lower level.

As Diana prepared to drop the pit, the airflow passing though was clearly evident by Diana’s carbide flame curling in the direction of the pit regardless of which way she faced. The pit ended up being much deeper than expected, 48ft to be exact. I was going to drop the pit and help her look for the lower entrance climb; but she found the station left from survey B quickly. We opted to pass Diana the cable ladder and rig the other side. Tanya and myself cleaned up our gear and left for the lower entrance.

Upon getting to the climb, there awaited the cable ladder. Soon we were all in an enormous room. From this room we were able to detect the sound of the stream on the northwest side of the room. While taking a break; I checked out a possible lead to the north of the room and found continuing passage, and a dead possum.

Getting back to the survey, we had the task of trying to sketch the room. We started with the south end since it appears to have no going leads. It wasn’t long though before the continuous airflow in this room chilled us to the bone. We opted to connect the two entrances and call it a day.

We surveyed 292ft of passage, with only one set of instruments…that is another story. The surveyed passage is now over 1000ft and has a vertical drop of 116ft. The most significant statistic though, there is more cave to be surveyed!

From 0 to 80 in 24 Hours

2007-03-12T00:16:00.000-04:00

March 10-11, 2007

The best laid plans are still subject to nature’s whims. Dave Duguid had assembled two teams of experienced surveyors willing to brave the Funnel Tunnel in Hancock Cave for the expected booty on the far side. Our December survey had indicated that we’d have lots of leads to survey through major maziness. Such was not our fate.

Bob Alderson, Gordon Bolt, and Matt Jenkins formed one team while Dave and Joe Fortuna joined me. The six of us arrived at the Funnel Tunnel to find water pouring from it. There was no air space at all in the low part. After some stream clearage there may have been an inch of air at the lowest part. It hadn’t rained or snowed all week, but the Funnel Tunnel flowed full charge. Gordon speculated that some of the Funnel Tunnel’s flooding likely reflects seasonal changes rather than just weather changes. Maybe winter snowmelt had finally thawed and trickled down Walker Mountain from near the top.

This left me with the difficult task of figuring out what else the teams could do. My team had vertical gear in the cars with them, but the others did not. My survey notes for the near side of the Funnel Tunnel had been left at Tanya’s house in Marion. I sat down and concocted a plan that avoided letting Gordon and Matt leave the cave to see the pretty weather outside.

Bob, Gordon, and Matt headed for Not-in-the-Face and You-Don’t-Know-Jack Pits, places where vertical gear can be more of a hindrance than an aid. They had digging tools, a bag of assorted vertical supplies, and two leads to survey. Dave, Joe, and I chose to exit the cave, retrieve vertical gear and a cable ladder for the others, despoil my first rope, and head for Hickory Dickory Pit.

Dave and I descended the pit while Joe listened to our gruntings. The pit drop is more a series of lips than any free pit. At the bottom of the drop, we found a mud wall that I dug my way up to get into the passage. I had never been down there before, and I finally understood why Linda Andrews had sketched the passages down there in such a strange way: they all overlap one another. It was very pretty and remained pristine, so I worked hard to avoid making muddy tracks across the formations. I was able to determine that the area really had no remaining leads, a fact that I was pretty sure about but unable to totally discern from the three-dimensional nature of the sketch. I applaud the survey efforts by that group through twisty, muddy passages with undisturbed formations.

The climb over all of the Hickory Dickory lips with a stiff, muddy rope was a real challenge for me and my ropewalker. When I reached the top, the steam I generated became so thick that Joe and Dave lost visual contact just ten feet apart.

Our next hurdle was the Whine Cellar. Dave yo-yoed it three times until he convinced himself that the right way was definitely that tight hole where the rope naturally dropped. When Dave got to the bottom, Joe was sure that he heard Dave’s voice from the direction of the Toilet Bowls. Joe found Dave below him in that four-inch crack that only Linda Waters will fit through. Not even Joe could climb down that, and so we knocked those off as potential leads. No new survey but useful notes to help complete the map.

The other team managed to survey one of the leads at the base of Not-in-the-Face Pit during that time. Sixty grueling feet down an additional pit. We found them giggling about the connection over to their other lead. Matt and Gordon seemed unwilling/unable to make the connection. Eventually their team joined us outside.

The next day took us to Rowland Springs Cave. Tanya McLaughlin, Dave Duguid, and I surveyed beginning at the upper entrance to the cave while the underground screech owl surveyed us from his perch. He was quite safe halfway up the wall, among the thirty-foot high flowstone formations. I was surprised to see such a well decorated dolomite cave.

The survey began easy, until we discovered passage beneath formations. We surveyed past many rimstone dams and the dolomitic stalactites, marked by their stubbiness. We Sunday-surveyed 336 feet in just over four hours, roughly 80 feet per hour. Meanwhile, Joe had generously watched the stream launder my vertical gear and new rope. Returning to Raleigh with clean gear is always a plus.

A Good Weekend to Be Underground

2007-02-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

February 17-18, 2007
Diana was interested in photography, and Hayden and his buddy Rick were more interested in sport caving. To please them both, I took Ericka Hoffmann up on her invitation to join her on a photo trip during the Sligo Grotto trip to Franklin. I figured that Hayden, Rick, and Howard would cave over at the John Guilday Preserve on Saturday where they could stay dry. I got most everything wrong.
Diana backed out, along with the folks that planned to go to the John Guilday Preserve. Instead Howard, Hayden, and Rick joined Meredith and Alan on a trip to Mystic Cave, the same place the photographers planned to go. Pretty brave of them considering that the temperatures the previous night went down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ericka, Steve Rexrode, and I entered Mystic Cave near Seneca Rocks with Howard's group. Ericka laid down in the stream to photograph some ice-mites, but I wasn't ready to get that cold that soon. I waited until we got further inside and pulled out my camera in a room where we heard Hayden and Rick chasing crayfish. Unfortunately the last time I'd done cave photography was Labor Day, so I had a tough time figuring out why I couldn't get the flash to work in bulb mode. I read the manual for a while and then just used the flashes I was carrying in the Pelican case.
Ericka and I took turns setting up my camera and remote on the tripod for room and passage shots, so I didn't dare change the settings back to snap closeups. After an exhaustive series to get one good shot (see the TriTrog photo gallery), I needed a break from posing. While Ericka did a lot of closeup photography in that room, I wandered off to scope out my next shot in the trunk passage.
I set the camera up on a tripod and practiced how I'd get the shot when Ericka and Steve joined me later. I think I like these practice shots better than the well-lit one because they just show my shadows and a yellow streak from my carbide lamp moving down the passage. I captioned the photo "Tinkerbell chasing Peter Pan's shadow."
After another series in the main passage, Ericka posed for a set of shots for me. I had to explain to her that both Steve and I were too tall for the shot. I managed to backlight a waterfall in a strange way, and the flash decay actually makes the water drops look as though they're dripping up instead of down. Too bad I can't remember which electronic flash we were using for that shot.
We then sport-caved for a while, and I got wet up to my waist (Ericka and Hayden up to their chests). However, we found one more shot to set up (notice the dampness of my bottom half) and didn't leave the cave until 6:30 PM to a chilly 17 degrees.
The next day we wandered into the New Trout maze and were duly impressed by the walls covered by brachiopods and other fossils. I chopped ice in an attempt to get us up to the Trout Cave entrance but determined that we could walk to Hamilton Cave faster than I was making progress. We spent just a few minutes in Hamilton before Hayden and Rick led us back out and down the hill. Then the long drive back home.

Survey Weekend

2007-01-19T01:13:00.000-05:00

The survey at Rowland Springs was the focus of an upcoming trip back to Marion. Tanya and I thought one more trip we would be able to complete the survey based on how we figured the cave would run. In addition to Rowland Springs, we thought Wide Mouth would be a good cave to continue surveying as a Sunday cave. Turn out for this trip was solid; Lisa Lorenzin, Joe Fortuna, Melissa Miller, Mary Frazer, Mark Little, Tanya Mclaughin, and myself.

People were slow to get started Saturday morning; it could have been the effects of stopping at Foothills Brewer in Winston-Salem (thanks to Lisa for the suggestion). Eventually we convened at the cave entrance. Based on the presumptions made by Tanya and myself a loosely organized plan came together. One team was to start at the top entrance and figure out how to descend into the cave and to meet the survey team, which was to use the lower entrance.

After a quick tour of the section of cave already surveyed, the groups set to their tasks. I was part of the surveying effort, which also included Mark, Tanya, and Mary. We started the survey at station A3; A3 provided direct access to the canyon Tanya and I avoided survey on last time. We surveyed for an hour or so before we heard voices from the other group of cavers. I figured they would be appearing before us any time; however that never happened, and eventually their voices faded completely.

After about two hours in the lowest portion of the cave and faced with an “interesting vertical challenge, everyone in the survey team opted for a break. We decided to exit and locate the other group. Upon getting to the other entrance Melissa was extremely excited to have located a screech owl in the cave; yes a very odd place of such a creature. Joe and Lisa explained what they have found. They were describing much more cave than Tanya and I ever imagined. The cave probably quadrupled in size and the sketching became much more complex given the massive rooms, multiple levels, and plentiful formations.

We all got a case of cave fever and put the survey effort aside; Lisa, Joe, and Melissa gave the survey team a tour of the cave. Some time was spent trying to determine how to get into a lower level not yet scooped out. It was eventually decided not to push the upper cave entrance any further, but to go back to the other entrance and finish a known side passage. Then continue to push forward toward connecting passage.

I relieved Mary from “the book” so she could join the others trying to figure out how to ascend the wall the survey team stopped at. After surveying the side passage and returning to the previous stopping point the other team had climbed the wall and put the cable ladder into place. From the room above, Joe mentioned this was a room he had dropped into from the other entrance earlier. We surveyed a few more stations before calling it quits.

After a well deserved Italian meal, a few of us headed up to Marion Quarry Cave for a 15-minute, causal tour. Part of Marion Quarry is a walking cave, no gear and no major disruptions to the food replenishing each and every cell in our bodies.

Sunday brought a quick breakfast at the Apple Tree in route to Wide Mouth cave. The goals here were for Lisa and Tanya to survey the known going passage. Joe and I were to continue to dig a section of passage that had previously been started. Mary and Melissa were going to explore Wide Mouth and the adjoining cave, Anderson.

Joe and I led into Wide Mouth; I was a bit taken back by the amount of dung in the cave entrance. The previous day’s talk about bear sightings around Rowland’s had me questioning my quest to get into the cave. Not being an expert on dung, I drew a tentative conclusion the dung was too small for a bear. After reaching a soft, mud area, I relaxed a bit more noticing the tracks were that of a raccoon. The dig ended up being a wash; previous rains had filled much of the passage back in. With little airflow, the effort was abandoned.

Joe backtracked to check out Anderson cave with Mary and Melissa. I located Lisa and Tanya and assisted with the sketching. Joe joined us some time later; it wasn’t long before we opted to stop the effort and return another day. On the way past Joe gave Lisa and I a quick tour of Anderson cave; no owls here, just a lone Harold Moth. Before leaving the area we received permission from the adjacent landowner to ridge walk his property. Ridge walking did produce a few more possible entrances into caves. Further investigation will have to be another day.

For survey-oriented individuals, we surveyed approximately 200ft and reached the lowest part of Rowland’s thus far; 40ft below the lower cave entrance. I would guess the upper level entrance is 60ft above the lower entrance.

Dome Luck

2006-12-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

In 1952 Gerry Law visited the back of Hancock Cave and left behind his signature and school affiliation (UNC). In 1998 Tanya McLaughlin tracked him down in Texas and interviewed him about the exploration of the cave. He remembered leaving his signature in only two caves but recalled that cable ladders were strung together to enter the cave through dome pits. Tanya dismissed his account as belonging to another cave because Hancock Cave had no known domes.

On December 16, 2006, Matt Westlake, Bob Alderson, and I traveled back through the Funnel Tunnel to this part of the cave. TriTrogs hadn't been back there since 1999, and we were anxious to figure out what happened in the remaining seventeen potential leads. The weekend was finally dry enough to allow us passage through the Funnel Tunnel, after a relatively short dig through the loose sand at the low point.

We emerged on the other side and headed for the first leads on the right wall. The first two pinched out (easy to sketch in), and the third side passage had already been mapped out as the Ice Box, a mess of loose, wet breakdown.

Bob looked down the fourth lead and told us to pull out the survey instruments. Using a right-hand wall rule, we first entered a high area filled with wet rubble that reminded me of the Ice Box, but it eventually pinched down in an old passageway. The left side of this passage was marked by BIG breakdown slabs that mostly held the rubble in place.

We then returned to the level of the main passage and started surveying the lower leads. They were surprisingly different than the upper passage: water had created solutional passage beneath the big breakdown slabs ranging from hands-and-knees crawls up to ten feet high. From the breakdown hung more of Hancock Cave's characteristic pendants.

We surveyed over and through the breakdown slabs and pendants, encountering wide rooms and tall rooms with many junctions. They eventually led back to the Harvest Domes, a series of dome pits that we estimated rise up to thirty feet high. The most climbable revealed no human-sized passages at the top, but our survey may have revealed a dome that we looked into, thought we had been there, and failed to enter. Maybe Gerry Law was right about entering Hancock Cave through some dome pits.

We continued closing loops for a while to survey 39 shots for a total of just 429 feet, a good number of shots for Matt's first survey trip. The problem with the short shots occurred because we hit so many real junctions in the passage. The water had carved out a full maze, and then the daddy-longlegs covered entire walls.

The remaining cave survey beyond the Funnel Tunnel is now down to sixteen leads, and several of these leads promise to be as exciting as the Harvest Domes. After surveying until 9 PM, we blew past the leads in a whirlwind tour to help Matt justify dragging a camera through the Funnel Tunnel. Hopefully his digital camera helped photodocument some of the prettiest formations in Hancock Cave.

The cave length is now up to 2.16 miles, the longest in the county and number 37 in Virginia. There are now 49 loops in the cave; it's easy to get lost.

New River Cave with Troop 822

2006-11-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

Howard, Hayden, and I got to see how well organized the scouts were Friday night when they began to set up their canopy, a smaller version than the one the TriTrogs own. Troop 822's efforts made the TriTrogs look really well organized.

Outside New River Cave a swinging vine and the story about drunken George's fall caught the scouts' attention. Inside the cave keeping thirteen people in one group was quite an effort. I chose to do this because Hayden and Howard had spent so much time lost in Hancock last summer with a map and a guide; I still felt guilty about leaving them to fend for themselves in another maze.

Marvelling at the passages along the way, the group descended to the Lunch Room and ate. One of the Scouts brought along a box of powdered doughnuts, or powdered doughnut powder, much to the dismay of the others looking forward to it as Sunday breakfast. Everyone had a good time going down the China Slide (the first time).

I gave a short lesson about the funny word chert, but the scouts were more comfortable asking Hayden questions about caves. Just to be like him, they all fought to keep their feet dry and out of the stream--overkill for Hayden who wore Sealskin socks.

We traveled all the way to the waterfall. The scouts that managed to keep their feet dry didn't seem to mind standing in the spray of the waterfall and then continuing to stay out of the stream.

On the way out I couldn't find the China Slide, despite the fact that I knew I was within ten feet of it. When I found the other way out of the stream, we backtracked to the rest of the group who had found the correct way up (and came back down the China Slide to retrieve us).

We also tried to teach the scouts how to push on the ceiling to increase their foot traction. Beginners don't always comprehend the power of flat friction on rocks, but they're willing to believe me in theory.

The only woman on the trip chose to change out of her dirty clothes in a more isolated space at night. She turned out to have much less privacy than she thought when the train's lights caught her on the track with her pants down.

Steger's Cave

2006-11-13T00:19:00.000-05:00

A dedicated group of VAR cavers have been working on “Cave Hill” for a couple of years in an extensive survey effort. All caves known to exist, several new caves have been found as the result of ridge walking, are being surveyed and plotted onto a single map. Caves include Grand Caverns, Fountain, and Madison among others. Many intriguing mysteries have presented themselves during the work. One of the outstanding mysteries is an underwater cave known as Steger’s Cave. The originally survey from November of 1980 resulted in a rough sketched map; the map generated more questions than answers.

Several scheduled dates had been planned, but fell through for various reasons. Brian Williams and Dave Duguid met at Grand Caverns on a perfect fall day on the 11th of November. The sun was shining and the temperature according to the forecast was to be in the 70’s. The intent was to get a handle on any riddle that Steger’s may hold. Bob and Jim were to assist with surface support.

Steger’s entrance is a Karst window near the base of Cave Hill. The window is a vertical fissure approximately five feet long and two feet wide; from the window to the water level is approximately 10 feet. Less than 25 feet from the cave is a river that happened to be running high and slightly milky.

After installing an aluminum ladder, a loose plan was put into place. The first step was to verify the correctness of the previous map and look for any additional passage not on the map. The second step in the plan, well that would be worked out after the completion of the first step.

I suited up, worked myself down to the water column, rigged my dive configuration as the individual components were lowered down, and submerged with a time limit of 30 minutes.

Dropping down the fissure it immediately became clear the cave was not well represented in the map. The 80-foot visibility enabled for a very good view of what lay ahead. The fissure cracks are more narrower, deeper, and more pronounced. I continued my descent and observed that the left wall consisted of a crusty clay substance that flaked off. Particles from percolation ranged from clay to small chunks of debris. The larger pieces were a bit unnerving as they rained down; I could feel them hitting my legs. The right wall was solid, though it did have large thin blades that with a little effort could be pulled off.

Following the pre-existing line, though not using it, I descended all the way to the bottom. At the bottom there was a six-foot karst window on the left leading to another vertical fissure. The two fissures were completely traversed at the bottom looking for additional passage. The only additional passage was a window the size of a softball. There were many isopods to be found swimming around.

Retreating along the line in a rainstorm of debris and rapidly falling visibility several short “jumps” off the line were made to insure there was no other passage at a shallower depth that was missing while descending. 28 minutes after the dive started I breached the surface.

After getting all equipment and myself out of the cave I updated all on my findings and drew a simple map. The second part of the plan was established; Brian would make a dive to gather the survey data and to take a few pictures. We waited over an hour before Brian geared up and descended into the cave. 30 minutes later Brian surfaced.

Brian’s first statement was the visibility did not clear up despite waiting. It would probably take days for the cloud to settle. Brian continued to describe his actions; he retraced much of my path through the cave with a few extra minutes spent at shallower depths hoping to find a new lead.

Both Brian and myself were satisfied, though disappointed, there was no more cave to be explored; and that we had sufficient data to generate a map that is a more accurate rendition of the cave.

Being that it was still early, we drove over to Madison cave. Madison is rarely open as it has historical significance as well as endangered isopods. The cave was open today as part of a resurvey effort. Jim provided us with a very thorough tour of Madison.

I found out that Madison was a commercial cave in the late 1700’s and early 1800s. The soot from the torches used remains present in the cave, thus giving the cave a dark appearance. Stopping to see George Washington’s signature in the cave was an unexpected bonus. The tour ended at the back of the cave where two sumps are present. The water clarity and surrounding cave looks very much like Steger’s.

The dive profile was as follows:
32% nitrox mix
89ft for 28min
Estimated distance of 200ft covered
No deco required, five minute safety stop done

Florida Cave Diving Trip

2006-11-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

Joe and I had been through too long of a period for cave diving in Florida. Joe has since completed his move into his new house and my job move has settled down therefore the making of a road trip was in the works. We worked the pros and cons of both early and late departures out of Raleigh; it really boiled down to leaving a 4:30am to get a dive in that afternoon, or leave a 9am and sleep in. The need for rest won out. The trip to Florida was uneventful as usual, and long has usual. Though not pushing the afternoon dive schedule make the time a bit more relaxing.

We stopped at Bill Rennaker’s for fills rather than waste precious time in the morning. Bill was in good spirits despite business being a little slow. He stated the water levels are down, caves are generally clear, but people were not coming in from out of town. I wonder if the price of gasoline is simply forcing people to reconsider long trips, in a round about way it has affected Joe and my attitude toward making the trek to Florida.

Peacock Springs State Park

Holding true to our tradition, we chose Peacock as our starting point. We have State park passes that are close to expiring; it was time to recover the initial cost of the pass. Besides Peacock has a lot of nice cave. It had been nine months since our last cave diving trip. Peacock is a more forgiving cave as it has several sinkholes that can be used as exits if needed.

The water level was indeed low; for those that know Peacock all the steps were out of the water. Due to the low water Peacock I had become a sink, the run that is typically present to the river was dried up. The lack of surface movement allowed for a large buildup of grass, weeds, and other delaying plant life to stink up the water.

Our plan was to take the Olson sink run, then proceed directly to Challenge sink. Turn the dive there and proceed back through the peanut restriction passage. This plan was not aggressive on our gas management; this dive would only use a bit more than half our gas supply.

The water once inside the cave cleared up very nicely, it was a little worrisome looking at the cloudy water from the steps. There were areas within the cave system where the water clarity changes, but even in the worst spots the visibility was still far superior to anything I had been diving the last six months.

Much of the passage taken on this dive was big and open, ideal for checking buoyancy, trim, and equipment modifications. We each made of few equipment changes this summer and now they were being put to the test. I returned to using the aluminum butt plate, while Joe removed his (Joe did go back to using his plate before the weekend was over).

The dive went smoothly; the kinks worked out in the first 30 minutes made for a very enjoyable dive. To make it even better, we didn’t see a single diver or any indication that any divers had been in the water before us that day until we got to the cavern zone. Here a team was putting a primary line in despite the mainline coming out into the basin. The team was obviously a team in training.

The dive profile was as follows:
- 32% nitrox mix
- 61ft for 131min
- Estimated distance of 5000ft covered
- No deco required, five minute safety stop done

Our second dive of the day was also done in Peacock state park; done at the Orange Grove sink. We opted to take the distance tunnel this run; the distance tunnel is much smaller cave with a thick silt covered bottom. The cave walls are very much the same as the remainder of Peacock.

The distance tunnel requires a bit more finesse; the characteristics of the cave are such that a complete silt-out is possible with one or two misplaced fine kicks. Called the dive earlier than needed, we had a long dive this morning and didn’t want to subject myself to another long dive.

The dive profile was as follows:
- 32% nitrox mix
- 58ft for 86min
- Estimated distance of 3500ft covered
- No deco required, five minute safety stop done

Madison Blue

Joe and I had planned to dive Lafayette Blue Spring on Saturday morning; but after talking with Dave and Cynthia about how good the conditions were at Madison and that the spring is now stated owned where our state park passes apply, how could we not go check it out. I had not been to Madison in years; in fact the last time I was there was during my caving certification process. The run to the Godzilla room is a common circuit amongst divers and instructors for training purposes.

The basin was amazingly clear; the submerged platform was still there; the second entrance called the rabbit hole could easily be seen. The platform perched high above the water used by swimmers to jump in was still there as well. While no swimmer were there in the morning, though they sure came in droves later in the day.

As we were gearing up two other dive teams arrived. One team was going to the Godzilla room and the other was going to Martz sink. To avoid running into the teams we opted for a main line run. We were the first into the water, set a primary reel and ventured into the rabbit hole. The flow near the entrance was stronger than I remember it being, but then again I didn’t remember much about the system; not remembering resulted in it taking few minutes to find the main line tucked out of sight from cavern divers.

It quickly become evident that this was going to be a good dive. The visibility was stunning; the water clarity was unreal. The water was so clear it took on a blue hue. Running up the main line we passed quite a few jump lines and noted their locations against the map we referenced before getting into the water. The cave past the Godzilla room wasn’t anything I had imagined; it was far better!

We took our time swimming in; we didn’t quite reach thirds when we called the dive. The urge to continue forward was great, that will have to be for another dive. The trip out was leisurely. We observed the team that stated they were going to Martz sink had come and gone; there was some fine particulate matter in the water from their having been there. As we reached the Godzilla jump we observed saw the tail end of the other teams dive and the massive cloud of sediment trailing. They completely wiped out the Godzilla run for a couple of hours.

We left our primary reel in place knowing we were doing a second dive. Out in the basin the Godzilla team was thrashing about. Joe and I stayed clear while we cleared out decompression obligation. O2 was used to reduce our decompression time and increase our safety margin.

The dive profile was as follows:
- 32% nitrox mix
- 80ft for 95min
- Estimated distance of 4200ft covered
- Ten minute deco / safety stop done

During our surface interval we walked over to check out Martz sink as it can be used as an entrance point to cut out several hundred feet of swimming. Martz was impressive; it’s a small sinkhole that narrows down to a pool of water that is only a few feet in diameter. Looking into the water the sink drops straight down. While standing there we planned our second dive. We wanted to see what Martz looked like from underneath the surface.

Returning to the van we suited up and went diving; our first stop was Martz sink. It is easy to find; it’s actually labeled on the main line! Taking the jump we swam with the line until it took a sharp vertical direction. Looking up from a depth of 60ft we could see the small surface pool at the end of a nice vertical fissure probably two feet by 10 feet the entire length.

We proceed on plan into a small passage that leads behind Martz sink. Here the flow was practically non-existent and the silt began to get deep. We continued on for a bit, however the amount of silt that was percolating off the ceiling and from even gentle fin kicks was reducing the visibility. The run down the passage was called, no sense diving in low visibility conditions when there is plenty of cave were the visibility is great!

We worked our way be toward the cave entrance to start the third part of the dive; that was to dive to the Godzilla room. After insuring we had air we headed toward the Godzilla room. I can honestly say I didn’t remember the passage, but there was a line and we had plenty of gas left in our tanks. Even if we didn't find the Godzilla room we continue diving the line we were on. We did reach the Godzilla room, decorated with a large Godzilla action play figure. We completed the circuit, which naturally points out of the cave.

The dive profile was as follows:
- 32% nitrox mix
- 90ft for 90min
- Estimated distance of 4000ft covered
- Ten minute deco / safety stop done

Lafayette Blue Spring

Having missed Lafayette Blue on Saturday we decided to do the dive on Sunday. Bill Rennaker had suggested we dive the lower portion of the system. Typically we dive from Bill’s privately owned sink and dive upstream. Today’s dive was going to dive from the State park (pass is working out great this trip) up to Bill’s sink called Trap sink.

The state park was empty besides the park ranger; the park was very clean, well kept, and even had hot water showers. The only down side observed thus far was the long walk from the parking area to the spring.

After suiting up and insuring we had enough gap reels we started our dive. It took a few minutes to find the main line, as the cavern near the basin was very large. We dive into the cave and quickly reached the first sink. The sink was expected; the line not going through the sink was also expected. What was not expected was the size of the sink and the fact that the sink is only three feet deep and its flow is so strong that you cannot swim against it.

After getting through that sink we quickly encountered the next sink. And low and behold it was repeat of the previous sink. Knowing we had one more sink to go and our dive profile already consisted of numerous bounces we opted to call the dive. It appears Bill left a few key parts of the system out of his description. If we had known before hand was the conditions held for us we would have certainly chosen a different dive.

The dive profile was as follows:
- 32% nitrox mix
- 48ft for 58min
- Estimated distance of 2000ft covered
- Five minute safety stop done

Haynes Cave

2006-10-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

While visiting family in West Virginia I had a few hours to take my two older boys caving while our youngest napped. Before we left, I provided my wife Sandy with our location, time we expected to be out, and what to do and who to call should she not hear from us by the prearranged time.

My older son, Dawson, was really anxious to go, my middle son, Dylan, was a bit more timid and wanted to go I think more out of not wanting to miss out on anything (see the cave report about Island Ford Cave). I opted for Haynes cave in Monroe County; it is close to Lewisburg and is a very easy cave to access and to actually cave.

The shortest and easiest way to get to the cave is to cut across a large pasture. The boys were not to keen to walk in the field with the cows. With the cow's quizative look, standing their ground, and the pure size my boys felt more comfortable walking along the outside of the fence.

Not sure how Dylan would adapt to the dark environment I brought my u/w cave light to brighten things up a bit. The light exposed every dark spot in the cave; as a side note I need to bring this light to some of the caves with larger rooms, as it penetrates into the void with ease. Haynes cave doesn’t have much climbing, and what is does is very simple to climb. Dawson was really into it; Dylan was holding his own very well, so well I stopped using my u/w light and switched to a headlamp.

The cave was a dry as I remember resulting in significant amounts of dust in the air just from walking through. It didn’t help that Dawson and Dylan found the fine dirt on the ground to be very soft and soothing to the touch; much of their idle time was spent picking up handfuls of dirt and playing with it. It wasn’t long before all their close were a light shade of brown; my only hope was it would brush off easily, otherwise I’m sure my wife would have a word or two with me.

Walking through the cave we talked about how water carved the cave passages at one time and talked about how old the cave was. It wasn’t long before the kids thought dinosaurs walked and lived in the cave. There isn’t many formations, but of the few found we talked about how water made them (I think that might have been a difficult thing for them to believe or fully understand). But they were quick to point of the graffiti, or hieroglyphs as my older son called them, in the cave; that they could relate to.

We stopped and signed the registry on the way in; they each signed their names proudly. Dawson and Dylan found the idea of a registry a bit puzzling at first; but quickly warmed to the idea was we spent some time looking through the past entrants to the cave and that the next people to sign the registry would know that we were there.

We found a few brown bats; Dawson was very excited, as he knows a lot about bats. But he had not seen a real bat, and certainly not a bat in its natural habitat. We were lucky to find one bat near eye level; keeping a courteous distance they could see how the bat was hanging from its feet. We also

We walked the upper level all the way back to the end; a few of the pits were interesting to get around. The boys wanted to use the wooden walkways that have been there for many of years; and they probably safely could use them given their lack of weight. However I chose not to chance it and made them walk around or crawl into and out of the shallow pits. As we retreated we checked out one side lead before heading into the lower level (not the level at the bottom of the pit).

We did find the “well” that is used to get to the lowest level of the cave. There is an old hand crank used to pull buckets of Saltpeter from the lower depths of the cave during the civil war days. The boys were fascinated with the concept and wanted to go get a bucket and rope to see it actually work.

Time past too quickly, and with both of the boys enjoying themselves we lost track of time, I really did not expect our tour to last as long as it had. We have to leave the cave as the time I told Sandy to call in a rescue team should she not hear from me was quickly approaching.

And yes the dusty clothes cleaned up very nicely!

Hancock Cave Photo Trip Oct 4, 2006

2006-10-15T21:02:00.000-04:00

A gallant effort by Ken, Hayden, Howard, and Mike to help me take photos of some of the interesting features in Hancock Cave. Thanks again, Diana

(left) Hayden and Howard admire some solution pendants.

(below) Howard in the Octopus Room

(left) Mike in passage near entrance.

(below) Hayden in small passage near vertical maze.

(left) Howard in some booming passage.

(below) Hayden with some solutional pendants.

(left) Mike and Hayden. Cave passage that gives way to some interesting shadows and light.

Photos by Diana G (2006)

Rowland's Spring Cave

2006-09-21T22:57:00.000-04:00

Not having been caving for quite some time I polled people for a survey trip the weekend of Sept 16 in the Marion VA area. In the end it was just myself from the greater Raleigh area. I spoke with Tanya regarding caving with only two people since three is the recommended minimum number of cavers. She was OK with two as long as we didn’t try to attempt more than we should. We tentatively agreed to cave at a cave called Rowland’s on Saturday and to head back to Wide Mouth to work on a dig or two on Sunday.

After a hardy breakfast we made way to Rowland’s cave. Rowland’s is not a recent discovery or a deep hidden secret, but it is on private property. We spoke to the owner for a short time, very nice gentleman. We spoke to him again after caving and showed him the rough sketch; he was very happy to see his cave come to life on a piece of paper.

My first impression driving back toward the hill the cave is in was one of questioning the cave size; the hill is actually very small. The owner told us there were two entrances, I couldn’t see how there could be much cave on the hill and have two entrances. At this point Tanya had found only one entrance due to the steep grade of the hillside.

We geared up and walked to the entrance and went inside the cave briefly to get a sense of which way the cave looked to be going. I was going to continue to work on my sketching abilities and needed all the advanced information I could think of for an educated guess as to where to put the first station on the page. Inside the cave there is an obvious southern passage and an obvious northern passage. The northern passage was an immediate climb down into a large, impressive canyon. The southern passage was a continuous downward sloping grade. We opted to focus on the southern passage; it would be easier to survey and sketch (a must for a novice).

As a two-person team we worked very well together; best of all, our numbers were working. The cave had a few areas that required a few splay shots so I could more accurately reflect the cave on paper. We found the cave getting deeper and deeper. This was an interesting observation; we were sure we were below the stream level of an active stream outside the cave. After finishing up what we could on the southern side we exited the cave to enjoy the beautiful late summer day. We left a possible dig or two that could lead to an active stream passage below; in fact there could be more than one tributary as the water appears to be coming from different directions.

While sitting around outside the cave snacking, I opted to climb the hill and try to find the other entrance. While climbing the hill on my hands and knees at times I found a small cave entrance. I was sure this was not the second entrance from the description the owner had provided, but something that could be checked out later. As I continued to look around I did find the other entrance, you cannot miss it; it is larger than the first entrance. The cave here was a large canyon, and was located within a logical path from the northern passage noted earlier. The cave here immediately slopes downward and then appears to go vertical. I say appears because I did not lean over the side due to the angle of the ground and amount of loose dirt and leaves where one would need to stand. I called to Tanya and she made her way up to the second entrance; she was equally impressed with the entrance.

After returning to the first entrance, our reformulated plan was to finish sketching the main room just inside the cave and then to check out the climb down on the northern passage. The climb down was not challenging; soon we were both in the streambed. The streambed source was from the underneath the southern passage we had just surveyed. Heading deeper into the cave we came to what would probably be a chimney climb with a long piece of nylon rope through the middle.

We kept to the plan and didn’t survey anymore, but rather exited the cave and discussed plans to get back in the cave. There is more survey here, some possible rope work, some possible high leads, and possible digs around the streambed. It is interesting to note that the stream is going into the hill and not out.

Due to my planned departure time on Sunday, we opted for a quick restaurant stop for breakfast, then quickly proceeded to Wide Mouth cave with tools in hand. We brought digging and chipping tools. After getting into the cave we chose to try and get through the narrow skeleton key hole first. We brought a mallet and chisel. Once at the restriction, the mallet was all that was needed. We shaved off about a two by five-inch sliver of rock and the restriction was passable. Note: The rock was not a formation and we felt the unnoticeable damage to the cave outweighed the amount of air blowing through.

Both Tanya and myself were able to get through the restriction and continued into the low passage. We trekked probably about 40ft before stopping. The passage continues, it is small and perhaps could be dug out a bit to increase the comfort level; but it is going and going. We can only hope it opens back up.

Given the time, we didn’t survey the passage, nor did we go check out the other dig I think I had broke through on a previous rip; but rather opted to check out the hillside a bit. There are a series of sinkholes in the ground and a few small potential cave entrances nearby. Again, it was interesting to realize that the passage we were in was lower than the streambed outside the cave. And that the streambed is currently dry, but a short distance upstream it is flowing.

Tanya nor myself have a date lined up to get back to Rowland’s, but we will be looking for volunteers to assist; the cave has a few more secrets to reveal. In addition there is ongoing work at Wide Mouth too!

The numbers for the survey:
24 Stations
259.2ft distance surveyed
49.1ft in depth

OTR 2006

2006-09-05T23:36:00.000-04:00

In an effort to avoid Hurricane Ernesto, Matt Jenkins, Anne Kehs, and I left the Triangle Thursday morning. We drove in the rain to OTR but set up camp during a dry spell.

I headed off to Dreen Cave on Friday morning to take my digital SLR camera on its first trip underground. Ericka Hoffmann and I played around with our cameras while the others rigged and dropped the nearby pit. My photos can be seen at http://mattcj.dyndns.org/~tritrogs/gallery/v/dreencave/. They're not great photos, but I really liked being able to use the remote to take the photo while I posed.

Saturday I spent cheering on TriTrogs and friends at the Speleolympic Events (http://mattcj.dyndns.org/~tritrogs/gallery/v/otr2006/).

Sunday found me back at Cassell Cave. I went with Bob Hoke and Katherine Bertaut down to the Mud Maze. We all got thoroughly slimed surveying in the sticky mud, but our boots were cleaned again in the stream. We got out of the cave around 9:30 PM and went back to OTR for a fast food dinner and campfire singing with Baltimore Grotto.

Trip Around the Block

2006-08-13T22:44:00.000-04:00

Destination: Hancock Cave

Date: August 12, 2006

Participants: Anne Kehs, Mark Little, Ken Walsh, and our hosts and friends (Dave, Drew, John, and Craig)

Have you ever visited a cave so many times that you know the moves like the back of your hand? And then you drag others through it at a comfortable pace until you bring tears to their eyes? Neither do I. At least not quite.

The new landowner at Hancock Cave, Dave, had asked that the TriTrogs give his grandson and him a short tour of the cave. We planned it for the weekend when Dave’s thirteen-year-old grandson was in from California, and I warned him that Hancock is truly a caver’s cave, not for sissies in shiny clean Spandex.

To accommodate a Kenny Chesney concert ticketholder, Anne, Mark, and I drove through a rainstorm to the cave Saturday morning, and everyone met up at the appointed time. At the cave entrance, I gave a short lecture about caving safety and conservation. Everyone listened attentively while I spoke and then taught them how to climb a cable ladder.

No problems descending into the cave, and I (in front) heard no problems as they ascended the first 10-foot climb. I spotted folks as they came down the etrier drop, and no one seemed out of sorts yet.

We sped along to the Octopus Room as everyone enjoyed the shape of the trunk passage (until it became a crawlway). Dave pulled out his copy of the draft map and oriented everyone to the map. We took a short detour over to the Whine Cellar and the first of the dry Toilet Bowls. This was a good warmup for everyone to get their caving legs. As we moved down the passage, I kept getting asked what the name of each object in the cave was. When they found out that a lot of the cave is unnamed, they took it upon themselves to name formations and passages. GREAT!

From the Octopus Room, I started a tour of the pendants and led them toward the back entrance. They asked about the passage name where we walk among the pendants, and I just responded “In the Pendants Hall.” That really got them going. The high window above the stream is now called Rapunzel’s Tower, and the flaked flowstone mound just beyond is now known as The Spinnaker. We played around in the crawlways that lead toward the Long Room, we taught a little bit about chimneying and a lot about butt friction, and everyone still had some energy.

I picked a bad place for seven people to sit for lunch, a room that Dave noted has a breakdown piece shaped like Iceland. Therefore, I led them straight up a climb into the Anastamoses Maze.I probably should’ve picked an easier route, especially as I watched Anne’s kneepads slide down to her ankles. Lunch was what everyone needed to be refreshed after the climb.

After that I dragged the beginners down the Corn Cob Crawl, and Craig felt the joy of wearing his skivvies as a thong. Over toward Hickory Dickory Pit the men worked on lowering their voices to echo “Doom” while Anne and Drew tossed mud patties from Anne’s boots into the pit.

Drew is a great natural caver (better than Hayden when he began), but I denied him a trip up to retrieve Dave Duguid’s webbing from our June trip. I trust Melanie’s balance and timing a little bit more than someone I just met that day for a novice trip. It was probably time to start heading out anyway.

I saved the descent down the Breakdown Staircase for last, and I was very impressed by how well they had learned that day. John had been the person who kept saying that he felt lost in every room, but he did a great job coaching Anne down the steps in the Breakdown Staircase. Anne coached the rest, and they trusted her implicitly.

We followed the canyon straight back into Harrington Hall. I told everyone that they had been there a few times already that day, and Drew immediately knew the way back to the Octopus Room. After I slowed people up to photograph the etrier climb, a salamander slowed up the photographers near the entrance. We made a fun five-hour trip out of the adventure and managed to return everyone to the surface.

July 9 - Hey this isn't Stegers

2006-07-26T21:51:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to be checking out Steger this weekend; however due to a family matter I was in West Virginia instead. Having a few hours to spare and trying to shake the road buzz off I decided to take my two older boys to Island Ford cave, even though that involved more driving.

The two older boys had been in several commerial caves but never a "wild" cave. In the commerial caves they are typically more interested in the gravel path and any pool of water they can find. And of course commerial caves are typically lit well. There were many unanswered questions I had in regards to how they would react, what they would think, would they ever trust me again. In any event I was sure this would be an experience.

They were very excited about the whole thing. They were estatic to be putting on helmets with lights. They both loved the daylight zone, as we rounded the first corner I was watching for changes in their manorizisms. As we ventured farther into the cave, my older son was starting to really get into it. Pointing at this and that, wanting to check every little thing out; which including leaning over small ledges at a stream below us. Whereas the middle son was a bit more cautious, ok really cautious. After a few more turns he mentioned he wanted to go back, not wanting to push him into something he was not comfortable doing I stated we would turn around. The look of disappoint on my older sons face was crushing; however I would rather have a disapointed kid than a kid who is fearful of something.

Once back into the daylight zone we checked out the local pigeons, cave crickets, and the array of trash left behind. They enjoyed just crusing around, yelling into cracks hoping to be heard through another crack in the wall.

In summary it was a good experience, two of my boys got out caving and have an idea of what caving is and what to expect. Though I might have made a cave junkie out of my oldest son, but I'll need to bring a leash to keep him under control and myself sane. The other, perhaps another day; but in the meantime he'll probably stick to his guppie like abilities in the pool.

Annual Grotto Trip on July 22-23, 2006

2006-07-25T23:57:00.000-04:00

Date: 07/21-23/2006
Cavers: 16
Caves: Greensville Saltpeter(Saturday), Rehoboth Church (Sunday)
Camp: Moncove Lake State Park, near Union, WV
Raining Friday night, but weather cooperate well in the next two days. We spend about 5 hours underground the first day. Diana led a photo group. They had a few of nice shots. The other two groups are led by Matt and Ken. They explore various sites such as a few of entrances, the saltpeter maze, the formation factory, the haystack, and the watch tower in this cave.

Saturday dinner is organized by Brian. Hot dogs, corns and marshmallow are hot of the fire and the grill. Unfortunately there is no salad in the menu so a group has to drive to Union for it.

On Sunday, 7 cavers went underground for about 4 hours. It is more rocky than the previous cave. It has smaller passages with less walking opportunities. There are some climbings, but are easy ones. There are more formations than the first cave. The team explores two big rooms including the Main room. Due to hungry stomach, the rest(most) of the cave is left for later.

Hancock Survey on June 10, 2006

2006-07-25T23:25:00.000-04:00

This is the first survey trip for Melanie (Booker), Mike(Backward) and Yu (Forward), class of 2006. Dave is the sketcher. Ken is the "mentor" or the "explorer". The team spent about 9 hours underground! The team realized this until they are out of the cave! Teamwork such as in the first picture is practiced to reach a high lead before the TJ's trap. One on the cave artist is attached too. More photos in this trip is available in the TriTrog Gallery.

Here is a historical email from Ken:

You surveyed 200.5 feet, not enough for a free meal. The total cave length is now 2.07 miles.

The 12-shot Vertical Maze loop that you closed was 159.6 feet long, and the loop was off by 0.66 feet, rated Good by the software I use.

The loop into TJ's Trap was just nine shots and 124.65 feet, and your error was 1.52 feet, still rated Good. Things do change in the software as interlocking loops get changed, so these stats may change.

I do need to mention that this was after I corrected a few cases where someone apparently read the small compass numbers instead of the big ones.

Thanks for the help yesterday. You knocked six question marks off of my draft map.

Ken

New TriTrogs Blog

2006-07-04T00:10:00.001-04:00

We'll spend a little bit of time getting this ironed out, but I wanted to thank Matt Jenkins for setting us up with a new way to publish and review trip reports. Check it out, and contact us if you need an invitation to post to the site.

Guidelines for trip reports:
1) Remember that for now visitors can be reading this site.
2) Do NOT report cave locations.

July 1 at Hancock Cave

2006-07-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Destination: Hancock Cave

Trip Date: July 1, 2006

Participants: Matt Jenkins, Tanya McLaughlin, Ken Walsh, and Aaron Gladder

I felt a pang of nervousness when we arrived at the parking area for Hancock Cave. A tractor was clearing part of the field, and I was afraid that we might not get a chance to go underground that day. It turns out that the tractor driver was the new owner of the cave. We introduced ourselves in person to him and his wife, great folks building a retirement home on the property. That was enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Good thing.

Despite the five leads that we knocked off on the June 10 trip, the cave still has many unexplored leads on this side of the Funnel Tunnel. The problem is that some leads are tricky to get to and others require certain skills (e.g., anorexia). Tanya, Matt, and I had explored much of the cave in the 1990’s so we thought we knew what laid ahead. The funny thing was that drafting the map had skewed my memory a bit, and our long absence had made me forget the depth of the pits.

We made the two leads beyond You-Don’t-Know-Jack and Not-in-the-Face Pits our first goal. Because the pits are near the entrance with no good riggable walls and one lead was a pit and the other a climb, we elected to try a novel climbing technique, Tanya’s aluminum ladder. The 13-foot extension ladder was lightweight and made the pathway into the Grantham Room trivial to travel. After that, I let Matt drag the ladder along the crawlway back toward Not-in-the-Face Pit.

On my draft map I had drawn a ledge beside an unnamed pit along the way. I looked at the ledge and realized that there was no way to get Tanya to walk along the sloped ledge, pushing her hands against the opposite wall without staring down twenty feet, and climb up the other side. We solved this conundrum by extending the ladder across the pit (with 1.5 feet to spare). On belay I started across the ledge using the ladder for handholds. The tough part was that now I had to crook my neck and move across the ledge on my left knee with my right leg extended across the pit. On the other side, I rigged an etrier to the ladder rung and easily climbed out.

Before bringing Matt and Tanya across, I crawled over to Not-in-the-Face Pit to scout it out. The ladder wasn’t going to be long enough to get us to the bottom of the 18-foot-deep pit. Matt came up with the unique idea of tying the cable ladder to the aluminum ladder, dropping the extended aluminum ladder into the unnamed pit, and climbing down the cable ladder. The flaw in the logic was that as soon as we released the cable ladder, both ladders would’ve disappeared from our reach. Other variations involved people simultaneously jumping into pits while attached to one another, but Tanya and I couldn’t be convinced.

The aluminum ladder was no use at all in attempts to cross YDKJ Pit, so we returned it to the Grantham Room. We took a side trip to scout out the drop into the Whine Cellar, and my confidence in the ability to get the aluminum ladder to the lead down there waned.

Matt then led us almost directly back to TJ’s Trap. It’s good to see that his navigational skills have improved since his dowel days. He asked me if he could descend first with the handline, and I pointed out that that meant he’d have to catch me at the bottom. He reconsidered and let me go down first.

We went to the lead where Gordon hung in mid-air in much the same way that bricks don’t (we watched H2G2 the night before that trip). Matt refused to rig the webbing to the rock pendant I suggested (quite wisely) and instead tied Tanya’s webbing into a major loop around the rock holding Mike Davidson’s mud sculptures. The only downside to this rigging was that if you grabbed one side of the webbing, someone else had to pull the other way (another one of Matt’s ways to have one person descend while raising another).

I clipped an etrier to the bottom, and we descended into the passage below. Dave Duguid had been into this passage through the tight crawlway a few weeks earlier, and he told us that the passage looked as though it definitely continued. I checked out the passage, and instead it ended abruptly at the base of Which Glob Pit.

Matt, Tanya, and I all remembered our survey of Which Glob Pit from December 1997. Back then Matt and I were both hanging from the same cable ladder while reading instruments; Tanya was freezing at the top writing down all the notes and I sketched it in afterwards. As a payment for this shoddy survey, the three of us found ourselves at the bottom of Which Glob Pit again last weekend shortly after the area had received seven inches of rain in one day.

The dampness is significant because Matt and I were forced to figure out which protrusion he had used as a station nine years earlier. We surveyed from Like Bricks Don’t to the base of Which Glob in order to map this area and netted just 49 feet of survey. However, it knocks off two more leads in Hancock Cave. When it’s drier, it might be worth digging at the base of Which Glob Pit because this is the furthest point downstream in that part of the cave and blows air.

To get back up, we knew that Tanya didn’t want to climb up the loopy webbing, so we sent her out along the crawlway where Dave and Gordon both said I’d never fit. She eventually found the tight spot but insisted she couldn’t fit through. When she told us that we were responsible for getting her out in one piece, Matt and I began entertaining thoughts of a Frankens-Tanya who could be reassembled after passing the pieces out of the cave.

We did manage to squeeze her pelvis through the tight spot, get ourselves out of the cave with nothing more than a webbing line, and arrive at the Tuscan Italian Grill at 10 PM. It’s great that they’re open until 11 PM on Saturdays. The included survey length of the cave is now up to 2.08 miles.