Perkins Cave Survey

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

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

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

Leads generated: none

The most exciting discovery of the day?

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

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

En route

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

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

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

Me sketching.

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

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

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

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

Antler helictites near station TP15A

All photos taken by Bill Grose and used with permission.

Clean to the Finish

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

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

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

January caving in Marion

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Doc the Halls

Even with Pete’s sleeping bag, I was somehow able to see out the rearview window of my vehicle as Rob Harris, Sarah Dotson, Pete Hertl, and I traveled together to Marion. The traffic was backed up in Greensboro. We spent the night at Tanya McLaughlin’s home with the intent to go caving on Saturday.

After a leisurely breakfast we started out for Saltville Quarry Cave, but I encouraged Tanya to try to reach another landowner first. That resulted in a quick directional change just a hundred yards from Tanya’s house. Then we discovered the likely carsick victim and moved the person to the front seat…and we were finally off to Linda’s Lair.  Within sight of a house built circa 1830, the cave entrance had been covered in brambles but was definitely human-sized. I stood in the rain pulling brambles up from the slide-in entrance while the other four went inside. It led into a room at the base where everyone could stand, but the dirt fill suggested we weren’t going any deeper.

Garbage bags covered the seats in my vehicle, and we headed for Saltville Quarry Cave. Tanya charmed the landowner’s son into giving us permission to map the cave, and we set off through a pouring storm in 36-degree weather. The cave entrance was so much warmer.  Of course they sent me scouting down the wet passage because I wore wellies that day; high boots didn’t help much when the water depth reached my knees.

Fortunately the lead on the left took us to a drier, higher passage. I set survey stations and worked with Rob at mapping the entrance room while the others goofed around in the warmer passage. A tight crawlway led us up into a well-decorated hallway, and our whole group surveyed all the way to the end…well, to the spot where it got too tight for me. Pete and Sarah learned surveying fast. Rob managed to squeeze under a ledge to some “going” passage.

We surveyed about 435 feet in Saltville Quarry Cave that day and still have the wet hallway to explore.  It was a cave worth seeing, but my coveralls smelled pretty bad after the trip. I wish that I had an outdoor place to clean them in December.

Hancock Cave Bat Count

This year’s bat count at Hancock Cave started a bit shaky. I wasn’t sure who was coming and going as the week progressed, but Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin stepped forward at the last minute to help. Jenny Hundertmark, Mike, Lisa, and I stayed at Tanya McLaughlin’s house Friday night. On Saturday morning we met the campers: Matt Lubin, Matt Weiss, Matt Nelson, Steve Molnar, Ashland Nelson, and about six scouts. Having Matt Jenkins along just would’ve confused us more.

After the entrance climbs, we split into two groups in search of bats in the same rooms we’ve checked in past Novembers’ counts (since WNS was discovered there in 2009). My group seemed to enjoy clambering around while looking up at the ceiling. Matt N. dove into every hole I’d point out, and Matt L., Jenny, and the scouts followed him willingly into most of them. The squeeze out to Hickory Dickory Pit was one the adults enjoyed while the scouts stayed with me in the Echo Chamber.

We found three different bat species, and the other team also located a few bats that we didn’t see.  Both groups had to negotiate past the one at the base of the Corn Cob Crawl. The count was roughly the same as last year.

My team was lucky enough to come out to the cool temperatures first, so we donned our orange vests and hiked over to Little Hancock Cave (no bats there). The walls were alive with harvestmen so thick that the walls seemed to be moving. After a short search, they were able to find the Peacock Entrance to Hancock Cave (no bats there). We went back to the cars, changed clothes, examined the map, called into the cave for the other team, and eventually helped them exit. Next time we should remember to coordinate exit times.

New River Cave Clean-up Trip

With landowner permission, the annual grotto clean-up this year was held at New River Cave. Usually we aim for something in Smyth county, but we had a hard time coming up with a good candidate over there this year, which is a good thing, so we instead headed off to New River Cave on a tip from Ken Walsh. We all drove up to the nearby Bat Ranch on Friday night and had a rather quiet night camping under the clouds and stars. Mike was asleep when many of us arrived and Ava, who was very helpful in making sure we were taken care of, was out of town.

The trip was pretty straight forward. Hike up steep hill, clean graffiti, pick up trash, have fun, get tired, turn around, exit cave, hike down steep hill. Am I forgetting anything? We had a nice turn out with 11 cavers coming, many of whom it was only their first or second time underground. Hopefully some of them will be back for more because caving is awesome. (Cave survey is especially cool ;p)

Ken explaining a bit about how fun caving is and how to make sure it doesn't become no fun.

Ugliness on walls being removed by smiling faces.

The roof graffiti was a pain here, but the Price's did a good job clearing it off.

Insert pun here

Lunch

Pretties -- with Mark for scale

Awkward family photos.

 

 

Typical Easy VAR Caving

Saturday morning Diana Gietl and I scoped out Culverson Creek Cave (Wildcat Entrance) for a future photography trip. We were joined by Karen Willmes and Dave West, two of my best friends who happened to arrive at VAR/YTR the night before just minutes behind us.

Diana saw many potential places to shoot photos on a future day. We slipped down the entrance climb into a stoopway that soon became walking height, and then we had high ceilings for the rest of the trip (not counting Dave’s side leads).  The entrance passage eventually dumped us into the main stream, and we headed upstream first to wide passages (and eventually a sump). Be warned that a misstep in this area could leave you in mud up to your knee.

Downstream travel was less muddy but more wet.  I felt foolish taking some extra time skirting one pool, but I remembered it as a necessary maneuver in order to stay dry.  Diana found it trickier on the way out and found herself sliding into the creek up to waist deep.  The best treat was a number of Northern Spring Salamanders, in addition to the white crayfish.

While Diana napped after the short cave trip, Karen, Dave, and I wandered down to the entrance to Poor Farm Cave at the far end of the property. Karen and I joined George Dasher from there to walk off in search of the lost entrance for Rimstone Falls Cave. Unfortunately we stopped at the electric fence so missed out on the cave.

We had a great catered dinner. Diana liked it so much that she retrieved her flipped plate from the patio deck and scooped up the whole meal.  The evening continued with the funk music of Septatpus, including a song dedicated to Rob Harris.

On Sunday I sat through the VAR meeting and then went back to camp to find that the sun’s heat had driven Rob Harris and Diana from their tents. I put on fresh caving clothes, and we set off for Poor Farm Cave for a one-hour trip. The coolest thing in Poor Farm Cave was a hidden whistling passage.