Gangsta Legacy

The Gangsta Mappers were a group of cave surveyors back in the 1990s who attacked major projects where no good cave map could be found. TriTrog members joined this loose group whose members stretched across six states. Despite some great landowner relations (the owner actually joined some of the survey trips), New River Cave provided unusual challenges because its six-mile-plus length is contained in about eight levels, all in the same fissure.

The Gangsta Mappers thought that they had finished the survey in 1997, and then the cartographer began scratching his head about how to display the levels. After a car accident, he left the caving community and the notes eventually fell to Dave West.  Dave spent several years drafting a map but discovered that the notes still showed a good number of unmapped leads.

Last weekend we took the first trip back to the cave in order to mop up numerous leads.  Ava Pope, Martin Groenewegen, Karen Willmes, Bob Hoke, Jessica Chesnakas, and I joined Dave West in our first effort to survey the remaining leads, some very close to the front of the cave. Nothing new to say about the front of the cave--the formations broken by spelunkers haven't changed in decades.

We found the first lead with no difficulty, but finding the tie-in points was more of a challenge. As Dave sketched the first lead, my team moved further down the passage to the next lead. Ava discovered that the second lead split after the first station, so we split the group as both surveyed up through the breakdown.  My team was lucky enough to break into a formation-filled room.  The aragonite bushes were impressive, but a small hole in the floor promised certain burial to anyone willing to drop down it.

We thought we were finished with this side lead, but Dave made us circle back into the main passage and close the loop.  Then the idea was to find the Planetarium.

I had never heard of the Planetarium before, but Dave told me it was higher than the Attic Room. I wanted to go up but followed the group down to the Lunch Room. We then made a series of wrong turns until we worked our way back up and toward the Attic Room.  Unfortunately Dave hadn't brought along sketches for that part of the cave.

I climbed toward the formations on the ceiling, and the rest of the group eventually figured out the easy way to join me. Surprisingly that took us up into the humongous Planetarium when we turned westward.  An old survey marker let us know that we had found the leads we were looking for. 

We spent about two more hours surveying across the flowstone-covered breakdown slabs and looking down leads too tight to fit into. Ava and Bob worked their way to within forty feet of the Forest Room but chose not to pursue the tight squeeze. Next time we'll be sure to visit it for the great formations.

Last Trip to Lover's Leap Cave

Two weeks ago Saturday morning started with delivery of my Worley’s Cave (Smyth County) map to the landowners and then a brief stop to work on permission to explore a new cave nearby.  Then Rob Harris, Rachel Weinstock, and I followed Carlin, Dave, Martin, and James around the hillside looking for an access road to Doane’s Cave.  Our car eventually gave up on the road rally, and I convinced Rob and Rachel to join me on a hike to help me finish a cave map.

First we went to get permission from the landowners and visit the Saltville Town Museum.  It was very impressive because it covered the history from the Pleistocene Era, through Native American settlements and the War Between the States, with lots of details about the history as a company town, and to the present day.  I really recommend stopping to visit their great small-town museum when you get a chance.

After lunch we headed up to Lover's Leap Cave. It was a beautiful day, and I was surprised that my Wellies easily climbed the hill.  Inside the cave we surveyed up into Shelob’s Lair above the main junction.  The name was chosen after Rob squealed when a spider scared him.

After the survey into the ceiling, we headed over to my dig past Bluegrass Pit.  With the rock hammer, it was easy to pull clay out of the hole.  It was eventually big enough for me to get my body in feet first, but I couldn’t find any footholds when I was in up to my chest.  Therefore, I sent Rob in my stead.

The leads inside this small room all pinched out.  Rob found the footholds he needed and clambered out.  Then we headed out of the cave to more beautiful weather and an incredible sight.  At least thirty hawks were perched in two or three trees where the rope was tied.  Rachel climbed right under them without many taking to flight.  When Rob joined her, the birds took to flight and circled Lovers Leap.  A really cool way to end that cave’s survey (you can see the final map at the Members Only section of the TriTrogs web site).

Higginbotham's #4 Cave

Planning and unplanning.  I really wasn't expecting many of the Greenbrier County caves to be underwater when we started planning for our February cave photography trip.  Fortunately we were still able to pick a "dry" cave for our trip.

After getting directions from the landowner, finding it was the next challenge.  With four cave entrances on the property, I was sure I could see the pond entrance but didn't remember the fence in between.  Ericka and I had looked off toward other entrances and totally missed the green gate we were supposed to drive through.

Eventually we got to the cave and crawled into Higginbotham's #4.  Martin Groenewegen, Jacob Jackson, and Ericka Hoffmann all happily posed, carried gear, and spotted flashes for me as Ericka, Martin, and I took photos.  Because we kept seeing and photographing cool formations and passages, we never quite made it all the way to waterfall climb.

I didn't get to try the backlit photography I had hoped to get in a moister Greenbrier County cave, but we still had a great time.  You can see some of the photos at http://tritrogs.org/gallery2/v/Higginbothams4/.

Cold Sink. The End.

Going into this weekend I was stoked. I had noted 14 potential surveyors, 12 of which I considered committed by the time we were driving to Marion. I was stunned when all 14 showed up! With that number I was essentially forced to make 4 survey teams surpassing my long standing goal of 3 teams in the cave. Everyone was pretty timely, the biggest delay coming from my explaining to all the teams who they were going to work with, and what leads they were going to work on. Lesson learned. Let's hope I have that challenge of coordinating lots of surveyors again many times in the future.

Because there were so many of us we staggered teams going into the cave . Early on Jason Schomo had a zipper malfunction which delayed us a bit, but we otherwise made very good time. The conditions in the early part of the cave were the driest they've been since the first survey trip. At that time we only traveled a short distance into the main crawls of the cave. These conditions made moving quicker and easier not only because the mud did less to impede us, but it seemed the mud balls we'd rolled pushing through the crawls on previous trips served like ball bearings as we slid along the floor. If anyone was bothered by the crawls on this trip, I didn't hear it. Okay, maybe Ken complained, but that doesn't count. Mark Daughtridge actually commented multiple times that the crawls were much nicer than he expected, suggesting they were much nicer what we went through on our Worley's survey trip back in November.

We didn't have a long list of leads for the cave, but we had enough for each group. Each team started in their respective section, but the teams were never far from each other. My team started with the two vertical leads we left last time. The first one didn't go anywhere, but shockingly the second did. My team ended up getting over 100' down there. As we neared completion of our survey of this level we felt we were close to known walking passage so we sent Jacob out to look for the connection. We made the handshake connection, but Jacob never returned. Instead he choose to spend the time chatting with another team. Dave and I were a bit annoyed by this, but it turns out that that nice walking passage we'd left them with ended fairly abruptly after 6 stations. When Dave and I returned to the group after wrangling with the short yet quite bothersome drop, we had a few snacks, and rallied the troops to seek out the other teams.

Very odd striations on the wall down here. Guesses on how they got there? (click image to enlarge)

When we found Dave Sockey's team, they were just finishing up the survey of their passage. Knowing the final team had the most promising continuing lead, I  led everyone toward where they were located. When I finally reached them after a surprisingly long descent, I was told they had two more stations and then they'd be done.

I was shocked.

This meant there were no more non-digging leads left. It was still afternoon at this point, so a few people poked at some of the plugged passages we'd encountered, but found nothing. Fully expecting to have a few more CS trips to line up I was left with a confused empty feeling. We did some rough estimates as this point and realized we were going to be just shy of my goal of mapping a cave over a mile long. My team was the last team out, and I moved a bit slower than I did on the way in. I'd spent a lot of time in the cave and I felt a bit like I was saying goodbye.

I guess now we just need to find the next big one. 

Now we're never going to get out!

A quiet gathering under the oculus

If you missed this last real CS survey, but still want to get into the cave, I'd like to plan another trip to get some final clean-up data for the map. Let me know when would work best for you.

Some statistics for the cave as we now know it:

Included survey length = 5103.6 Feet

Higest station = 31.9 Feet above entrance station

Lowest Station = -110.7 Feet below entrance station

Cave Depth = 142.6 Feet

A cave adapted millipede that was over an inch long.

Schoolhouse Rocks

I was perplexed why a school under construction needed a cleaning, but we parked beside the power washer on Sunday morning and hiked down to a cave entrance Tanya had identified the day before.  I pulled out some logs and branches and slid down into the entrance of Schoolhouse Rocks.  After I knew that we had found real cave, Dave Duguid and Jacob Jackson joined me.

We traveled down the four-foot high passageways, and I was thankful that this cave afforded so much more space than Cold Sink Cave.  Dave, Jacob, and I traveled to the downstream end of the cave where it sumped and surveyed toward the entrance.  In the meantime, Lisa Hall, Brian Williams, and Tanya McLaughlin started at the drier upstream end.  Jacob set great stations, and we worked our way to the entrance with just six survey shots. The cave was nicely decorated with draperies, stalactites, stalagmites, and rimstone dams; I probably would've enjoyed them more if I hadn't been lying in the stream reading instruments.  I knew that I should've bought one of those Swaygo packs from Scott McCrea the day before.

I climbed out of the cave to a warm January sun and in just a few minutes felt toasty (well, soggy toasty).  The other team eventually finished their survey and joined us outside while Brian and Dave finished photographing the area near the entrance.  I would've enjoyed a good power washing when we returned to the truck.

Photo by Brian Williams

Photo by Jacob Jackson

Hancock Cave Bat Count 2012

November 17 marked the third annual bat count in Hancock Cave.  Since White Nose Syndrome hit this cave in 2009, we've been visiting the same rooms each November to see if bats will return and winter in the cave.  We only found two bats in 2010 and four in 2011.

This year Pete Hertl, Rob Harris, Mark Little, Ava Pope, and Jacob Jackson joined me for the tour of the rooms.  It began in a disheartening manner with only one bat (a pip) counted as we traveled to the Grantham Room, You-Don't-Know-Jack Pit, the Octopus Room, the Anastamoses Maze, Corn Cob Crawl, Hickory Dickory Pit, and TJ's Trap.  We played down the holes along the way to the Breakdown Staircase and found a little brown bat there.

Descending the Breakdown Staircase would've gone quickly, but Rob insisted on videotaping the descent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-5WFRJZNSk&feature=youtu.be).  Climbing around him added a new dimension to the obstacle course.

Then things got much better.  We found four more bats along In the Pendants Hall, and one appeared to be a grey bat.  Jacob, Rob, Pete, and half of Ava climbed up me and through the Comic Book Hole while everyone else laughed.  Before the Toilet Bowls we found a little brown.  Just above the Funnel Tunnel entrance we spotted a hanging bat that may have been a Northern myotis.

Hopefully there will be even more bats next year.

Cold Sink Oct 2012: limitless walking passage.

It's been more than a week since the last CS trip and I’m still riding high. The prospect of running a survey project in an ‘unknown’ cave starting from zero feet that pulls in over a mile of surveyed cave is just too exciting. On this last trip we pulled off 1017.2 feet surveyed. I tried to plan far in advance to build interest in this trip, but somehow I still managed to only pull out two teams. I’d emailed with Brian Williams a few days before the trip convinced we still could pull off three teams, but there were a few late bail outs which left us with only six surveyors. I was not too concerned though. The weather was looking good, and we had a good set of experience participating in the trip so I had high hopes we’d make good use of the weekend. I was not expecting what we found.

After the last trip I knew the cave continued but we had a number of leads to knock off before we could get started on the lead which had potential to extend the total cave length. My first goal was a nagging lead below the crawlway to heaven. On the last trip I finally got around to poking my head into this often passed lead and in so doing I decided the passage was in need of surveying. It would be a small two man survey, but I felt it needed further investigation. There was also a pit discovered on that trip which had an inaccessible bottom. We've done a good job of cleaning up our leads as we go so these got first priority.

With that small crawl in mind for this trip I divided our six cavers into the following teams. Myself, Jacob Jackson and Buford Pruitt on survey group ‘N’ (aka the Ninnies), and Ken Walsh, Brian Williams, and Stephanie Petri in survey group ‘M’ (aka the Monkeys). Stephanie had come with Brian and was new to surveying so I wanted to keep them together with someone who’d had some experience in the cave making Ken a natural choice. Of those signed up I figured Jacob was probably the most masochistic and likely the only one willing to help inspect the low crawl, so he ended up on my team. Surprisingly it took very little begging for me to get his assistance. Unfortunately Jacob was also the only other person on the trip who’d been past the pencil junction which meant the monkeys only had a vague idea where they were going. I really should have given them a copy of the working map.

When we arrived at the cave on Saturday morning around 10am, the monkeys headed in first followed by the ninnies. In the first room we noticed a bunch of harvestmen gathering on the ceiling, some cave crickets, and a small cave salamander. I even managed to convince the salamander to crawl up onto my hand for a brief moment. I might have damaged him before saying hello had Jacob not warned me of his location. He seemed mostly ungrateful if not perturbed by our luminous presence so we crawled on. We continued down the passage eventually reaching our starting point where we were blessed to hear Stephanie and Ken still working their way through the crawlway past the crawlway to heaven. (We really should name that passage. As it really is considered separate from the crawlway to heaven. Any suggestions? I think ‘Pergatory’ might fit nicely.) While we surveyed Buford worked on creating profile sketches of the cave since there was no room for a third where Jacob and I would be working.  


That low crawl was boring, but it still has a soupy wet tight lead at the end of it. If the cave is ever really dry it would be cool if someone poked their head down it, but I’d suggest making the attempt as a group of two so there can be a backup to extricate the brave if they get stuck. There are a number of down sloping hard rock pinches on that side of the cave so I assume this will probably end the same. For this reason I don’t feel this is a lead that really needs much more pushing.

When we finished that section of survey we joined back up with Buford to eventually stop at the traverse pit to take some exact measurements of the pit. We measured 18’ from the lip just as we’d estimated, and 15’ from the lip of the nearby pit, a few feet deeper than originally thought. We then cut the excess rope we’d stashed at the traverse, and stuffed it into an extra pack I’d carried. Jacob, ever the masochist, volunteered to hauled it to the delay chamber for us. I would have hauled the rope, (really I would have) but from this point I was the only one carrying my vertical gear as the others would leave theirs behind at the traverse pit.

We worked our way through the  cave eventually arriving at the delay chamber where we would again be slowed down. We bumped into Ken’s group who’d surveyed a crawl back to that room while we rigged to drop into the nearby chimney and subsequent pit. We took a while to find something solid to rig to for the unexplored drop, but once we did I was on rope and peering down into a a 6’x8’pit that was 11’ deep from the lip. It was about what I’d expected having thrown a few rocks down the slopey squeeze to get to it. My only hope was for the possibility of a multi-drop, but the bottom of the pit drained out in a small uninteresting looking hole. Bummer. The one novel thing we did here worth mentioning is the way we protected to rope over the sharp rocks the rope must cross for the drop. Buford’s volunteered on of his external knee pads to pad the rope which we attached to the rope using a small prusik I always carry with me on my harness. It worked out very well.

Eventually, we escaped that boring lead to find the monkeys now working their way through the crawing lead at what was then the back of the cave. With no real leads to survey in the cave before that point, I broke out some line plots of the profile and had my team start sketching profiles. Ken suggested that we finish their next couple of crawl survey shots so they could start in the subsequent walking passage, but I declined thinking our time would be better spent working on profile sketches. Boy was that a silly decision. 



Giving Jacob, Buford and myself a different section to work on we split up heading back in the direction of the cave to work on profiles for the already surveyed passage. I finished before the other two and decided to dance off to where Ken, Stephanie and Brian were at. When I got there the whole group was giggling and generally acting sillier that they had been earlier in the day. It was easy to see why. They’d gotten into walking passage with great leads running off in multiple directions. Apparently Brian had scooped a little bit so I figured I could  look into what he saw so I ducked around the corner and started walking around. There was nice cave every where! It didn’t take long before Ken shouted at me for scooping so I easily concluded I needed some man power to back me up. I literally raced back through the crawls telling both Jacob and Buford to drop their sketches because they we’re going to love what we’d found. If I’d taken more than just a couple steps into that passage on the last trip I probably wouldn’t have been patient enough to wait till October to get the next trip in.
When we finally were established surveying things went rather smoothly. We hadn’t made the breakthrough until 7pm, but with that discovery, both teams seemed happy to keep surveying for another few hours. Ken worked until he got cross eye’d from trying to do plan and profile sketches while working in larger cave passage. I kept my team going after that team left so we could finish surveying a loop we’d started and by that point I felt as though I was going to get a headache. I was making silly mistakes in the book so I needed to stop. We took about 1hour 15min to exit the cave and got back to the cars around 1am with a fresh coat of frost forming on the ground. We got back to Tanya’s around 2am and stayed up for another 1.5 hours eating soup and talking about our new discoveries. I was on cloud 9. 

The next day we got to a slow start and had breakfast at the golf clubhouse near Tanya’s house around 10:30 am. The service was the best I’d experienced in the county, so we’ll certainly return. We didn’t feel much like caving, but did do some ridgewalking trying again to find that elusive second entrance to CS, and to try following up on a blowing lead Tanya had on the edge of the county. We didn’t find anything that day, but the weather was great, the sky was clear and the leaves were changing on many of the trees. It’d be hard to find a nicer day to wander around outside. 

Early on in this project I gave myself two goals as motivation to help the project move forward. Get three teams working the cave on a single survey day, and survey over 1000’ on a given weekend. We just barely eeked out the 1000’ goal, but I’d still hope to push for three teams at some point. I’m guessing the temptation of virgin walking passage might be a nice hook when advertising the next trip. For a while now I’ve thought it would be really cool to explore a “new” cave from station A0 to something longer than a mile. There is now 4318.5 feet in the included survey length, andd with the leads we left behind I’m fully expecting we’re going to achieve that large goal. Hopefully on the next trip!

This picture could use 100 captions, but I think it most important to note there are no footprints past the last station!

For another perspective on the trip see Buford's trip report from the weekend at his blog onrappel.blogspot.com