BLUE RIDGE GROTTO of the NSS

Monthly Meeting Minutes –  Jersey Lily’s Salem, VA

 

February 17, 2023

Attendance:

Lauren Appel – Chair                       Nick Schmalenberger - Vice         Mary Sue Socky – Treasurer/Secretary   

Doug Feller                                         Jeff Huffman                                      Dave Socky

Susan Burr                                           Lynn Ott                                               Gene Harrison                                  

Karen Kastning                                  Trish Geiger                                        Bob Alderson

Kelly Perkins                                      Cyndi Hutchison                               Carl Cornett

Bob Alderson                                     *Stuart Candler                                 * Dylan Kelly (from Roanoke City P&R)      

*John Pearson                                  (* denotes guest)

 

Meeting called to order 6:30p  by Chair Lauren Appel.  Introductions, everyone was welcomed.

 

Trip reports:

12/10/2022: Brants Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Nikki Fox, and Sydney Hansen. Short trip to Brants to fix and improve the rigging, check to see if there was a lake, and to rig the 'Rocket Formation' where we stopped last time. This was the night that Bob's Volvo (1978) burned up outside of Fincastle. Mary Sue and Dave Socky left the WVACS Christmas party early to rescue Bob.                       

 

12/29/2022: Maxwelton Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Nick Socky, Jason Delafield. Mopped up leads in the Cove Creek area. From Latte Room, go right down to Cove Creek, but take the right before the drop down to Cove Creek (at the Le Mudge). We went upstream for 400 to 500 feet and surveyed loops and leads around the H canyon cut across and the Classic Canyon cut across. I didn't fit in half the passages that were surveyed but was able to take notes while Nick and Jason pushed stuff. Fun eight-hour trip that resulted in 500 feet of survey.                  

 

1/5/2023: Benedicts, WV. Participants included David Socky, Greg Springer, and 2 teachers from Ohio University. This was a trip to get the two teachers from Ohio University familiar with Benedicts to see if they wanted to use this cave for their class field trip. They also went to Norman and Boar hole. The entrance crawl is a lot bigger than when I went years back. Still a narrow crawl, but not an uncomfortable one. When we got into the first main room, we went to the right. A little way in you could go left or right, we went right first and explored to the end of a narrow sinuous stream canyon with deep potholes. The water was over our wellies, so we got pretty wet. It eventually got too tight. We went back and tried the left passage. There was some crawly stuff, then a larger room with formations. Back out in the main trunk, we went downstream in the main trunk until crawling would have been required. We turned around here. They chose Norman Cave for their field trip.

 

1/7: McClungs Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Nick Socky, Matt Vest, and Sykes Richardson. We first surveyed a short dig near the entrance on the right. The dig ended in mud fill, but we got 30 feet of survey. Then back to the high lead just before the Beetle Run that Nick and Matt did back in Sept 2022. The climb up was right next to the waterfall, but Nick was good enough to pull us out of the water. The top had a traverse line which you had to pull yourself up and into a narrow slot before you could get off rope. It was awkward, but not as bad as it could have been. Up a little narrow canyon was a room where the previous survey had stopped. There were three leads. Two were easy digs and the third was going passage up a small 6-foot climb. Sykes and I started surveying the going lead while Nick and Matt worked on the digs. Our passage was narrow and muddy. At one point, we had to dig out a bypass tube so I could fit. After two digs, we got enough mud removed for me to fit. The canyon continued with really gloppy mud on the floor. It was boot sucking mud about 1 to 2 feet deep. It was sucky enough that it pulled my wellie right off my foot. We continued surveying until Nick and Matt caught up with us at 3pm. Their leads had ended soon as they were too tight. We checked the footage and found we had the required 320 feet, so GSCS was now over 52 miles! We decided to let Sykes check ahead to see if there was enough to come back to. He saw at least a couple of hundred feet, so there was plenty. We surveyed 2 more shots in order to get to TAH20, and then headed back. We got out just as the sun was going down at 5pm. A good 6.5 hour trip with a total of 368 feet of survey.

 

1/21:  Germany Valley?  Bob Alderson, Vonny Droms, Mark Minton.  Bolt climbing,

 

1/21/23: Porter Cave, VA.  Susan Burr, Kelly Perkins, Jeff Huffman, Nick Schmalenberger, Lauren Appel, Lisa Graves, Stuart Candler, Nathan Frye.   January grotto trip.   We did the normal tourist route through Porter's Cave. There was another group that arrived after us, we hurried up to the entrance to make sure we got the gate open & inside before they came up. Jeff & I both brought tools to help dig the entrance open. This time it did not take too much digging to get it open. We visited the Keyhole, the Attic, and the Natural Bridge. We also visited the Big Room (Grand Ave.).  We played around in there for a bit & then headed over to the formation room, where we saw all the “pretties,” fossils & crickets. After everyone got their pictures, we went to the Big Slit & then out the waterfall entrance.  We did a good job of keeping away from the other group. We only saw them when we came out of the Keyhole, as we left Grand Ave. & just as we arrived back at the entrance. As I looked up to the gate, I saw the guy who said he just locked the gate. I believe we were there for about 3 hours 45 mins.  Afterwards we all went to Clifton Forge to eat at Bella's. Everyone had a good time!

 

1/28/23:  Nick Schmalenberger and Jeff Huffman visited Padlock Cave, VA to help Martin DiLeggi with the dig.  Jeff found a place in the entrance where we could take a large rock out, that led to the room underneath and parallel to where we had been before. The cave keeps going. 

 

2/1: Bob Alderson, Mark Minton Vonny Droms, Tom Malabad, +1 visited Warm River Cave, VA for a bat count.  (Warm River Cave is closed except for science trips.)

 

2/4: Carpenter Swago Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Paul Walko, and Aimee Ballard (team 3). There were two other teams in the cave for a total of 9 cavers. From Paul Walko – “We were surprised by how wet the entrance was, especially with it being about 20 F outside (luckily, the Carpenter entrance blows out in the winter). Thankfully we had the rest of the trip to dry off. Our first objective, re-survey the mid-level from A19, went well and we tied into CNC13. The second objective, re-survey the stream level, went well until we got to about 2/3rds of the known length and it turned into a low stream crawl. NOPE! Our 3rd objective, re-survey the high-level ledge from A44 went quickly, then the ledge ended and we surveyed a parallel crawl (technically part of the main passage) making a nice loop. The climb out of the Carpenter entrance was wet! However, it was much warmer at 30 F so it was not too bad.” A good 11.5 hour day with 1020 feet of survey.

 

2/5:  Nick Schmalenberger and Martin DiLeggi checked out a trash-filled sinkhole on the property near the Padlock Cave dig.  They dug around in the trash for a little while but just found more trash. There is more trash than a year ago. They also checked a nearby karst outcrop.

 

 

 

 

2/8: Catawba Murder Hole, VA. Sunshine Caving!  While Marian McConnell and Mary Sue Socky supervised from the road, Bob Alderson, Dave Socky, Doug Feller, Mark Minton, Vonny Droms performed chainsaw surgery on two fallen trees hanging over the Catawba Murder Hole, VA Daylight Cave. Mark, Vonnie, and Bob did all of the vertical work. Doug and Dave helped with hauling branches up.  The big trees, including root balls, were dropped to the bottom of the pit, then cut and stacked.  After the tree work was done, Mark, Vonnie, Bob, and Dave went to the back of the daylight cave to blast open the tight spot. Bob drilled three holes for straws, but none of them did anything. Maybe one blew out the back of the hole. But we'll need to go back and try again. Dan McConnell stopped by at the very end of the activities.  We then all went up to the house where Marian fed everyone a great lasagna dinner.    

 

2/14: Banes Spring, VA: Bob Alderson, Bill Koerschner, S? Robertson (VPI caver) resurveyed “old stuff” from the 1970s and 1980’s.

 

2/11 – Coon Cave, VA:  This was the 17th trip in this cave.  Bob Alderson, Vonny Droms, Mark Minton, Gabby Zawacki, who else?? continued the dig.  There were three teams:  the lead team checked out a new pit.  Another team continued pushing tight passage.  The final team worked on removing  mud over a lip at a drop.

 

2/11: McClungs Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Eli Meyer, and Jason Delafield. Team 2: Nick Socky, Lars Vogel, and Anya Vogel. We went to Venti-Muddy. Our team did the large left hand side passage that heads south. Nick and team did the connection crawl between Venti-Muddy and Little Muddy. Our team got 909 feet of survey - mostly walking passage. However, it did eventually get down to a belly crawl in water. Jason Delafield offered to check out the crawl. He went about 100 to 150 feet until it got too tight for his comfort. But it kept going as a crawl in water, but on about 8 - 9 inches high. There was one section where the water was two feet deep with about 8 inches of air space, so Jason got totally soaked. He did find a high lead - a narrow slot in the ceiling which opened up into a room and/or passage. He did not check it out. This lead was about 75 to 100 feet past the point where he started his belly crawl in water. Nick's team surveyed the connection, completing a 9800-foot loop! It was a good 8-hour trip.                        

 

UPCOMING TRIPS

Tomorrow Sat. 2/18/2023:  BRG trip to New River Cave, VA. Sign up with Susan Burr. 8:30a HROM. 

 

Next Month’s Trips – 

3/18/2023: Grotto trip to Butler Cave, VA.  This trip will be limited to 8 cavers.  BRG members have priority. If you want to be on the trip, let Susan Burr know. 

 

3/26:  Old Fart Slow Cave Trip to Wild Cat Cave, WV. WET CAVE. Dave & Mary Sue Socky, Marian McConnell are leaders.  This will be Al Stewart’s farewell cave trip.  Rain Date: 4/1/2023.  Contact MSSocky if you want to be on the trip. 

 

Upcoming Vertical Practices @ HROM:  March 12, March 26, April 1.  Doug Feller and Nick Schmalenberger are instructors.  Contact Susan Burr if you are interested.  (See new business)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUSINESS MEETING

2/17/2023 BRG Treasury Report – Mary Sue Socky, Treasurer

Fund Amounts

$       40.96           Cave Bucks

$         2.00           Conservation Fund

$     104.12           Equipment Fund

$   3959.17           General Fund

     $ 4107.05      Total Funds

 

Outgoing report: Dave Socky reconciled the annual bank statement, said everything balanced.  Thanks, Dave!

 

*Cave Bucks:  All Cave Bucks donations are voluntary; funds go to cave conservation programs.

 

Committees: 

Newsletter – Another successful DUMP.  The BRG I.O. report has been completed. Please take some of the hardcopy NSS News and exchange newsletter we have collected – thanks! 

Membership – BRG has 55 members and 4 subscribers.  Pick up your membership packet.  The rest will be mailed. Extra 2023 Membership lists are available.  

ROCKS –  Nothing.

S&T -  upcoming training. See new business. 

 

Membership Proposals:   None. 

 

Old  Business:                                                              

·         2023 Spring VAR will be May 19-21, hosted by Battlefield Area Troglodyte Society (BATS) at the Thorn Springs Campground near Franklin, WV (see flyer in February Carbide Dump)

·         Cave Owner award was framed for Carroll Bassett.  BRG would like to do a group presentation to him, TBA.

 

New Business

·         Tree removal in Catawba Murder Hole was successful on March Feb 8th with Mark Minton, Yvonne “Vonny” Droms, Bob Alderson, Doug Feller, Dave Socky, and Mary Sue Socky. See photos and video on Facebook; may have the video as a BRG meeting program.

·         Donations and renewals to various caving/conservation organizations.  How much of our budget do we wish to donate?  Big Discussion. Some people prefer to donate privately to get their own mags & subscriptions.  John Pearson queried BRG donations from the old list.  John’s recommendations will be published in the March DUMP.   In addition, Trish Geiger requested that all this info be on a thumb drive so it can be shown on the screen at the next meeting. 

·         Vertical practices (Susan Burr). BRG needs vertical training sessions.  Some cavers are rusty; new folks wish to learn. Future trips are planned to Catawba Murder Hole and Grapevine Pit. Three practice dates at HROM have been selected: March 12, March 26, and April 1.  Doug Feller and Nick Schmalenberger will be instructors.  Contact Susan pondlady97@gmail.com if you want to sign up. 

·         May BRG meeting on May 19th conflicts with the Spring VAR which is May 19-21; should we cancel, reschedule, or have anyway if we have a quorum?  Tabled, will discuss next month. 

 

 

Announcements:

·         Charlie Maus passed away; please sign sympathy card.  No memorial plans yet. 

·         Vote for your Favorite 5 Carbide Dump covers. Winners will be submitted to the 2023 NSS Cover Arts Salon.

·         Pandemic Caving – let’s be healthy going underground.  Rules have been posted in the DUMP.

·         Closure for bat caves

o   West Virginia – Closed Sept 1 – May 15 for bat hibernation. 

o      Virginia -         Closed Oct. 15 – Apr. 15. For bat hibernation. 

 

2023 CAVER CALENDAR:

·         Mar 17 – BRG meeting @ JL’s

·         Apr 21 – BRG meeting @ JL’s

·         Apr 21-23 – ER-NCRC Intro to Cave Rescue weekend course, Elkins, WV; see https://ncrc-er.cave.org/events

·         Apr 22 – VAR Earth Day Restoration sinkhole cleanup @ Apple Farm near Covington, VA

·         May 5-7 – Spring MAR, Shade Gap, PA  https://www.franklincountygrotto.com/fcg-spring-mar-registration/ 

·         May 19 – BRG meeting @  JL’s (meeting conflict)

·         May 19-21 – Spring VAR @ Thorn Spring Campground, WV; hosted by BATS.

·         June 19-23 – WVACS Convention Pre-camp, Renick, WV.  Contact Jessica Reep j.reep@aol.com for info.

·         June 26-30, 2023 – NSS Convention, Elkins, WV.

 

7:22p Cold Beer!

Program: Dave Socky’s slide show “Hiking in Chile, South America”. 

 

 

 

Minutes Submitted by

Mary Sue Socky, Substitute Secretary

Hope Marian feels better soon!