BLUE RIDGE
GROTTO of the NSS
Roanoke, VA
Meeting via “Zoom” May 15, 2020 at 7p
Attendance:
Susan
Burr, Chair |
Dave
Socky, Vice Chair |
Marian
McConnell, Secretary |
Trish
Geiger, Treasurer |
Mary
Sue Socky |
Nicole
Gulden, Odin & Orion |
Jenn
Suggs |
John
Fox |
Lynn
Ott |
Doug
Feller (briefly) |
Alex
Sproul |
Keith
Goggin |
Nick
Schmallenberger |
Lauren
Appel |
Meredith
Weberg |
Bob
Gulden |
|
|
Note: Technical difficulties – Susan’s
link kept freezing up and her sound was garbled until she turned off her video
camera; there also seemed to be some problems with some people hearing Dave
Socky (Dave/MarySue/Marian were all on one camera
from Socky’s house). Doug signed on but then fell off early. We used chat to
communicate with Susan until she turned off her video and was able to
communicate with audio only.
Treasurer’s
Report
as of 5/13/2020 (Trish Geiger):
Cave Bucks $31.64
Conservation $91.01
Equipment $133.87
General $3,184.38
TOTAL $3,440.90
Committees:
·
Newsletter
– Carbide Dump. Great April issue. Thanks
to all who submitted info, articles, photos. No May issue due to COVID
cancellations and quarantine.
·
Membership
–
o
Brandon
Phibbs had applied for membership. Susan and Mary Sue sponsored him. He is a
good caver and is working on cave projects; could be a great helper with BRG
projects. We had a quorum and voted – it was unanimously passed. He does need
to pay his $10 dues.
o
Jason
Delafield needs to pay his dues.
o
No
new membership applications at this time.
Old Business:
·
Donations
for 2020. After some discussion the following list was proposed by Susan and
seconded by Dave Socky:
$15
to MAKC (Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy)
$25
to ER-NCRC (Eastern Region National Cave Rescue Commission)
$50
to VCB (Virginia Cave Board)
$100 to WVCC (West Virginia
Cave Conservancy)
$25 to ACCA (American Cave
Conservation Association)
$50 to Cyclops Cave
$25 to CaveSim_______________________________________
$290 total Passed unanimously
·
2020
BRG Rescue Roster needs a new contact person – will check each month to see if
we get any volunteers
·
All
DGIF (Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) are CLOSED “to protect the bats”
(this is VA and WV)
·
Virginia
Cave Board updates – Updated – Marian
will attach to the email a copy of the document “Caving in Virginia and the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic issued
May 15, 2020 by the Virginia Cave Board.
New
Business:
·
Favorite
newsletter covers from 2019 to submit to NSS Con Salon – 6 were picked and
submitted (Oct/Nov, Jan, Feb, May, Aug, Sep).
·
Bob
Hoke gave Dave Socky for BRG digitized copies of the Carbide Dump from the very first issue; all are available for
viewing.
·
The
2020 NSS Convention will be virtual due to the in-person one being cancelled.
There will be a schedule on the website. Meredith is the Co-Chair for
organizing this. There will be Youtube videos, watch sessions, and more.
·
Letter
from Geary Schindel, NSS President (was sent out via email to all members).
Keep safe! Meredith said there was discussion at the recent BOG meeting and
some of the NSS Cave Preserves may be opening soon.
·
Letter
from DGIF (see above under Old Business).
·
Goodwin’s
Cave ownership update – MarySue spoke with owner last
night who said new owner will be John Eizenzimmer;
who actually attended a few BRG meetings in the past. We will wait and see what
the access and relationship will be and are hopeful we will be able to continue
BRG’s stewardship of the cave.
Adjournment at 7:40p.
ADDENDUM: Past trip reports included to keep us up to
date; these were not reviewed on the Zoom meeting due to time constraints.
·
2/22/2020
Haynes Cave, WV; Grotto Trip -
Leader: Doug Feller, Susan Burr, Lauren Appel, Jeff Huffman, Trish Geiger, Carl
Cornett, Jennifer Suggs, Jacob Whitlock, Nick Schmalenberger, Brandon Phibbs. Ed Saugstad meet us at a nearby church &
led us to the parking area & then to the cave. He also unlocked the gate
for us, which isn't very easy & took a while. Luckily he had his helmet
with him, which he loaned to Jennifer since she had forgotten hers. Ed was not
going to go caving with us. On the way to the cave, Lauren had stopped to take
a bathroom break. While we were waiting on Ed & Doug to get the gate
unlocked I had asked where Lauren was. No one knew. I then realized that she
had stopped for her bathroom break along the dirt road & we had turned off
of it a little ways further to head toward the cave. Lauren did not know that!
Trish & Jeff took off to locate her. Once everyone was at the cave we
started exploring the cave. We ended up getting into a couple of groups for a
while because we all keep taking off in different directions. Eventually we all
ended up back together as a group. We did see several bats, we got to cross several
of those semi scary wood plank bridges, and we saw some nice gypsum formation
& a nice rimstone formation near the entrance. I think we walked, climbed
& crawled into to most of the passages in there. It was a short, but fun
trip. Afterwards we headed over to Ed's house to return his helmet & then
to Paint Bank for lunch.
·
3/3/2020 Island
Ford Cave, VA - Susan Burr, Braven Womack (6 yr.
old grandson), Trish Geiger, Carl Cornett. Braven was
out of school for the day, so Trish & Carl helped me take Braven in Island Ford without his dad. Braven
wanted to be leader, so I let him since he had been in there before. He did
very well. We did the normal route in to the spring in the back & then out
the stream passage. Braven did not want to get in the
stream this time, so he managed to stay out. One time I had to give him a piggy
back ride for a few feet until more ledges were available. I feel like he has
picked up on how to negotiate caves better. This was his 4th cave trip & he
seemed to be more relaxed & adventurous this time. He crawled in a couple
of tight holes & did a short belly crawl through one hole in the back
section of the cave that no one else could do.
·
3/7:
Tawney's Cave, VA. Jeff Huffman, Hillary Huffman, Susan Burr,
Doug Feller, Brandon Phibbs, Candice Phibbs.
Jeff had a birthday in early March and Hillary asked him what he wanted
to do for his birthday. Jokingly, Jeff
said "go caving" (Hillary does not greatly enjoy it). Hillary said that she would go back to
Tawney's. Thus, we planned a trip. The morning of the trip, Jeff met with Mike
at the Bat Ranch to obtain the key. Jeff
told Mike that the gate had been left unlocked by a previous group the last
time that he visited Tawney's. Mike
expressed the necessity of locking the gate behind us and to stay on the trail
to the cave. Others have taken routes
off trail and have caused erosion on the hillside. At the cave entrance we fumbled with the
locks due to the tight quarters and the locks being hard to turn and pull
apart. We entered the cave and locked
the gate behind us. Once in the cave, we
made our way to the Moon Room. Jeff
showed Brandon and Candice where the Echo Room was located. Meanwhile, Susan was preparing a birthday
cupcake for Jeff. Jeff blew out the candle and ate his cupcake (another reason
for Jeff not to make it through Fat Man's Squeeze). Next, we proceeded down the Toilet Bowl and
made our way through the cave to the sink hole.
After playing around in the sink hole, we proceeded back through the
cave. At the top of the Toilet Bowl we
met a Parks and Rec group. Someone said
that both locks were broken and that they dummy locked the gate. We proceeded
towards the entrance and checked out Fat Man's Squeeze and the room with the
mud figurines. The gate was dummy locked
and one of the locks was actually broken.
The shackle had come completely apart from the body of the lock. The other lock was not broken. It was just hard to turn and pull. Jeff locked the one side of the gate and
retrieved a new lock from Mike (Jeff told Mike about the other difficult
lock). Jeff returned and locked the
other side of the gate. The trip was between 2 - 2.5 hours long.