BLUE RIDGE GROTTO of the NSS
Meeting Minutes
Jersey Lily’s Roadhouse Meeting Room
July 20, 2018
Attendance:
Bob Gulden – Chair Susan
Burr – Vice Chair Mary
Sue Socky – Secretary
Dusty Gulden Doug
Feller Marian
McConnell
Nicole Gulden Carl Cornett Karen
Kastning
*Odin Gulden *Lauren
Appel
(* guest)
Meeting began at 6:40p. Welcome back, Chair Bob Gulden!
TRIP REPORTS:
6/16/2018: Butler Cave, VA. Participants included David Socky, Mark Hodge,
Bill Koerschner, Susan Burr, Doug Feller, Trish Geiger, and Jeff Huffman. This
trip was led by Mark Hodge. We went in the Sofa entrance and went Downstream
Sand Canyon and then into the Lower Complaint section. There were some crawling
and narrow canyons to get through this section. Trish complained light
heartedly that if she wanted crawling, she would have just gone to a good PA
cave. We went to the point where the rope hung down which leads to the Upper
Complaint area, where I've surveyed before, getting in from Dave’s Gallery and
the crawlway we had dug open. After Lower Complaint, we went back to Sand
Canyon. We then went on a big loop where we visited the Natural Bridge, the Moon
Room, The Hanging Dong, & the Rimstone canyon. There was lots of nice
passage, some of it quite large. It was a fun and easy trip. Nice to be in a
cave since it was pretty hot outside.
6/17: Warm River Cave, VA. Participants included David Socky, Mark Hodge,
Phil Lucas, Maret Maxwell, Mark Minton, and Yvonne Droms. This trip was to make
the new gate for Warm River Cave more secure and to block off the points where
it could be bypassed. The gate looked good. It was my first look at it, since I
had been unable to help with the installation. The gate is located just at the
bottom of ladder and before the narrow 'slick and slides' slanted crawl. There
is still more work to be done to finish the gate, mainly using the quick
setting foam to lock in the rocks at the sides of the gate. After messing with
the gate, Mark Hodge and I went on into the cave, down through the crawl
through the breakdown & to the first point we get
to the water. We wanted to see how high the water was. It was high. We figured
the first low air spots would be open, but that the ones further in the cave
were probably still sumped shut. On the drive back, I stopped at Falling
Springs and confirmed that there was LOTS of water coming over the falls. Also,
the outflow at Dam Cave was pretty high too.
6/17: Dam Cave, VA. Participants included David Socky, Mark Hodge, Phil
Lucas, Maret Maxwell, Mark Minton, and Yvonne Droms. Mark, Maret, and I worked
on Dam Cave while Phil, Mark Minton, and Yvonne worked on the dig further up
the hollow. We set off two sets of straws and made some half decent progress,
but the 18 inch drill got stuck in the chuck of Mark's hammer drill and he
decided he didn't want to damage it further.
6/20/18: Karen Kastning took a long 3 1/2-hour solo hike, in the
heat and humidity, up Trillium
Gap Trail to Grotto Falls. It is located off the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, in
the Smoky Mountains National Park, TN. There is a short 10’ shelter cave behind
the waterfall. Karen was visiting
nearby Pigeon Forge, TN for a family reunion, and remembered the cave and hike
from ~35 years ago. This time,
it took her 6 1/2 hours round trip. Her
son Kass was very impressed at
her hiking ability!
6/29: Carlsbad Caverns, NM. Participants included David Socky. I went on the commercial tour, starting at
the natural entrance. I did the full loop, looked at the gift shop underground
by the elevators, and then went back out via the natural entrance. Elevation
loss/gain on the trip is 800+ feet! In cave temperature was around 56 to 60
degrees F.
6/30: Lechuguilla, NM. Survey team 1 included David Socky, Jamie Moon,
Scott Anderson, and Jen Foote. Survey team 2 included John Lyles, Kevin Manley,
and Devra Heyer. We surveyed in the
lower end of Glacier Bay, only about an hour from the entrance. There were four
drops; with the biggest being Boulder Falls at 155 feet deep. All of the vertical climbs were
easy. The temperature was 68 degrees F at 98% humidity. As long as you were
moving, you were sweating. Surveying was not too bad once you cooled down. It
was a 12 hour survey trip where our team mapped 428 feet. The other team mapped
around 285 feet. We didn’t see any huge gypsum chandeliers, but we did see some
nice formations and lots of gypsum crust.
7/2: Sitting Bull Falls Cave, NM. David Socky visited a little cave
behind the Sitting Bull Falls park waterfall.
The whole cave was about 10 feet long!
(BRG meeting
7/20/2018) p2
7/12: Lowmoor Cave, VA. Participants included David Socky, Bill Murray,
and Blake Jordan. We surveyed in the mine, including some cave passage we found
near one of the truck entrances. The cave passage was very dry and loaded with
raccoon and mouse scat. After surveying we then took a short tour of the cave,
exploring to the Ship Room and coming back a different way. It was the first
good cave trip Blake had done since moving to VA. The trip was 6.5 hours long
with 960 feet of mine and cave passage surveyed.
7/13: Culverson Creek Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky and
Nick Socky. We went to the high lead in the Wildcat side, which we decided to
name Snake Canyon. I made it through all the narrow stuff until we got to a
little climb up. Nick went up first and then started squeezing through a tight
spot. He said "Hmmm I didn't remember this spot. It's a little bit of a
chest compressor on me". That being the case, I knew I wouldn't fit. I
didn't even try. We were three stations from where the survey would start. Oh
Well. We took off our vertical stuff to go back, which made the narrow canyon a
lot easier. We then went down Death Canyon and into the Williams Passage
Extension. This time we found our way through with little problems. We went
down the Extension passage until the mud mountain climbing got to be too much
of a pain. We really needed a digging bar to make footsteps. On the way back,
we stopped at the "Lost Waterfall" and cleaned off our suits. We made
it back to the start of the WVACS Classic by 6pm.
7/14/18: Mary Sue Socky led the
beginner trip to Higginbotham’s #1 -#3,
Cave, WV. Claire Frostick, Chuck Frostick,
James Hack, David Mueller, Dianne Mitchell, Melody Avery, Ashley Hitchcock,
Vanna Hitchcock, Adele Springer, Josh Welshams, Emma
Bullock, Emily Calvert, Jacob Curry all came along for the fun in this easy,
wet cave. No one was lost this time!!!
Everyone exited via the #3 (McClung Entrance/Exit). One injury – Emma bumped
into a limestone anastomoses, nicking the bridge of her nose just below her
glasses. Head wounds are amazing! James Hack taped her up, and she was
fine. The water was very low in the upstream
sump.
7/14: Maxwelton Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Louis
Mozzano (book), Taren Woelk (book), Valerie Garrison (front sights), Anna
Reachmack (front sights), Rob Woodell (back sights & point), Marissa Loftus (observer).
Vanessa Krabacher, Jenn McGuire, and Philip Moneyhun were on a separate
survey team that did the cross canyon just upstream of the Latte Room. They
were in the cave for about 6 hours. They made it back to the WVACS Classic in
time for dinner.
UPCOMING TRIPS:
(Karen Kastning mentioned
Adams Cave, VA (near Radford) would be good for a short grotto trip.)
·
BRG trip to Higginbotham #4 Cave, WV, next weekend
6/28/2018. Contact Susan Burr for info.
·
Aug BRG trip is
TBA.
·
Sept. 21-23 Fall VAR in nearby Blacksburg, VA, down by the New River!
BUSINESS MEETING
July
20, 2018 BRG Treasury Report
Fund Amounts
$ 106.64 Cave
Bucks
$ 160.64 Conservation
Fund
$ 185.41 Equipment
Fund
$ 2900.46 General Fund
$
3278.15 Total Funds David
Socky, Treasurer
Doug Feller was reimbursed
for the 4 new AAA light systems.
Committees:
Newsletter –
July/August 2018 DUMP published. No newsletter until September.
Membership –
There may be a change soon.
ROCKS –Marian
is hoping to talk Spencer Frantz about getting ridgewalking permission from
Botetourt Co. landowners.
Safety & Techniques --- Nothing yet.
(BRG meeting
7/20/2018) p3
Membership Proposals: Lauren Appel has applied for
BRG membership. Her sponsor is Susan
Burr. Marian McConnell seconded,
Lauren’s proposal is now tabled for a month, BRG will vote on her membership at
the next (August) meeting.
Old Business
·
CaveSim says THANKS for $$.
·
NCRC says THANKS for $$.
·
NO Sept. 21
BRG meeting – go to VAR!
·
Karst Day, Sept.
18, 2018 @ Heritage HS, Lynchburg, VA.
Will be an all-day event for the school science classes. So far Marian, Dave, Mary Sue, Carl are
interested.
·
MAKC sent a Thank You letter to BRG for donating $$.
New Business
·
Cave and Karst Trails – VA Cave board has had signs
created, will be placed at various Virginia show caves and karst areas,
battlefields, etc. The info can be
accessed at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/vacavetrail
o
Mary Sue
Socky gave out “Virginia Cave & Karst Trail” stickers (miniature versions
of the C&KT signs).
·
Thai Cave
Rescue. Discussion over the two week long, miraculous
rescue of 13 members of a boys’ soccer team trapped in a monsoon-flooded Thai
cave. It was amazing that the team was
found alive, AND ALL were successfully rescued.
Thousands of volunteers. One fatality – a Thai SEAL diver died while replenishing
air tanks along the rescue trail. Two
hours after the soccer team was removed, the water pumps had a catastrophic
failure, and the cave began flooding again.
The order was given to get out – British volunteer cave divers lost personal
dive equipment, rescue equipment, air tanks.
MOTION: Mary Sue Socky motioned that BRG send $25.00
(US Dollars) to the British Cave Rescue Council. 2nd by Bob Gulden. Motion
passes by acclimation.
·
Unsolved Mysteries
and Unknown Sightings – this group, based in Salem, VA, contacted Marian
McConnell about the big cave on her property.
They want to monitor CMH for the possibility of paranormal
activity. Marian wanted to know if BRG
folks wish to help. Cavers would do the setup -position monitors in Daylight
Cave and to the top of the Ski Slope, and then retrieve equipment several hours
later. There is interest – Carl, Dave,
Mary Sue, maybe Susan and Doug – so Marian will contact the group
for project dates.
Meeting
ended at 7:28p, followed by
Program – Creepy Stories in Mammoth Cave (surveys)
Karen
Kastning related a creepy story about being on a survey in Floyd Collins
Crystal Cave, KY, and hearing an eerie sound deep within the cave passages they
were surveying. It turned out to be a
woman playing an Indian flute by Floyd’s glass casket.
Bob
Gulden told of surveying in Mammoth Cave KY in ‘the old days’ when NPS insisted
that cavers become invisible, hide behind rocks, down passages so as to NOT
Disturb or be seen by the tour groups.
If you were spotted, the park director was very displeased. Later, policy and procedures changed to
where the park rangers would announce “survey party from the bottomless pit” was
approaching, and the pack of tourists “parted” to photograph and let the cavers
through.
Karen
Kastning remembered a trip when her survey team had to hide behind rocks in a
room when a Mammoth Cave tour group approached.
A bouncy kid on the tour zipped off trail, behind the rocks and was
startled by finding the hiding cavers – he screamed! So much for quietly hiding from tours and
waiting for them to leave…
Susan
Burr hopes to have her slide show on “Name That Cave Entrance” cooperating by
next month.
Minutes by BRG Secretary,
Mary Sue Socky