BLUE
RIDGE GROTTO
June 16,
2023 Meeting Minutes
Jersey
Lily’s; Roanoke, VA
Attendance:
Nick
Schmalenberger – Vice Chair |
MarySue Socky
– Treasurer |
Marian
McConnell – Secretary |
Carl Cornett |
Dano McConnell |
Lynn Ott |
Trish Geiger |
Susan Burr |
Barry Ferguson |
Helene
Ferguson |
Doug Feller |
John Pearson |
Kelly Perkins |
Randy Perkins* |
Dave Socky |
*Guest
TRIP REPORTS:
4/22: Paxton Cave, VA –
Susan, Doug and Matt. Basically everyone had things to do other than caving
this month. It was a cooler, rainy day, but Doug & his coworker, Matt,
wanted to go caving so we had a nice 2-1⁄2-hour trip. We did the normal
tourist route & then went to see part of the “Historic” section...the
section with the large room at the front of the cave near the entrance.
4/25: Dixie and New Dixie, VA
[Above ground only] – Karen Powers (Cave Rat Study) with MarySue and Marian.
Setting up cameras to record for cave rat activity.
5/20: Patton’s Cave, WV:
Susan and group went in; water was high. Lisa fell in toward the end.
5/30: Red River Gorge, KY:
Susan, Lauren, Doug, and Randy went. Beautiful place.
Dave Socky:
5/20-21:
Spring VAR at Thorn Spring Campgound, WV – McCoy
Mill, WV – MarySue, Trish, Jeff, and Lauren. New Trout, WV – Trish,
Dave, Jeff, Lauren. [Also see below, reports from Dave Socky.]
5/13:
McClungs Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Joe Zokaites, Bill
Koerschner, Paul Walko. This was a trip to the southern end of Outer Mongolia
to finish up the lower leads and thus finish off this area of the cave. It was
a great 14-hour trip where we surveyed 978 feet. See the article on page xx.
5/20:
Trout Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Mary Hicks, Sally
Chappell, Sally's daughter & son-in-law, Trish Geiger, Lauren Appel, and
Jeff Huffman. This trip was during the Spring VAR at Thorn Springs Park. The
trip started out with just Lauren and ended up with a total of 9, including
myself. We only saw the first half of the cave since the access to back end had
a sign asking cavers to stay out because of the bats. There were lots of bats
in the cave. Trout is a very dry cave, with mostly linear passage, pretty easy.
The map we used really was pretty useless as there was no detail and didn’t
even show half of the little loops and come arounds. We spent a couple hours
touring the cave.
5/20:
New Trout Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Lauren Appel,
Jeff Huffman, Mary Hicks, and one other girl. This trip was during the Spring
VAR at Thorn Springs Park. After the Trout Cave trip
we hiked further up the hill expecting New Trout, but found Hamilton instead.
We only looked at the entrance, deciding we didn't want to crawl around in a
dusty maze. Plus we wanted to make sure we didn't lose
Sally and family. New Trout is actually the lower cave. Turn right at the kiosk
and it's right there. Long straight linear passage for first part, then it's a
maze of break down passages where the map doesn't do it justice at all. We
didn't find the end, instead got turned around and ended up back in the big
room. Fun little trip.
5/20:
McCoy Mill Cave & McCoy Mill Shelter Cave, WV. Participants included
David Socky and Amos Mincin. This was a small little cave within walking
distance of Thorn Spring Park campground. It's in a cliff on left side of road.
Crawly cave with two entrances. Probably a couple of hundred feet of passage.
Real close to McCoy Mill Cave is McCoy Mill Shelter Cave. Mountain Dave (Dave
Knox) and friend were digging at the crawl at the end of this 50-foot-long
cave. It was blowing air, but the lead was pretty small. They did 4 or 5
sessions of technical digging and progressed four or five feet, but there is
still lots to do and not an active project. For them, it was just something to
do at VAR.
5/27:
Roppel Cave - Khan Entrance, KY. Participants included David Socky, Bill
Koerschner, Bob Alderson, and Philip Balister. A second team included Jim
Bordon, Laine Roberts, Marissa Schorr, and Emily Michael. We went into the Khan
Entrance of Roppel Cave and involved a one-mile hike through fields and woods.
The entrance was a vertical culvert going down about 20 to 25 feet. Bill had a
key, but we insisted Jim bring his key along just in case. Good thing he did
because Bill's key was old and didn't work. Jim finally got the lock off and we
went caving. Our goal was to familiarize ourselves with the area, and check
leads. We went into the Outward Bound passage, the end
of which was a gnarly crawl with tight spots and obstacles. But at least it was
dry. Near the end, we got to a tight spot that Philip and I couldn't fit
through. Bob pushed a wet crawlway and got into the bottom of a high dome with
a big passage above. This was a known dome, so we surveyed out. We were looking
for a tie-in to the F survey. A tight awkward squeeze up led to a large trunk
passage - Bunnell Ave. We explored Bunnell Ave to the left until it got down to
a low crawl way. A left-hand lead led to a dig, which we worked at for a couple
of hours, but we finally gave up after reaching a corner and seeing that it
continued really low for a long way. We headed up a stream canyon looking to
get into the Son of Khan trunk. There was a section where stemming was required
over a narrow canyon. The stemming soon ended, but the passage turned into a
hands and knees crawl in sand and then a belly crawl. Bob had had enough, but
Bill went on for a little. I finally followed Bill and found I could get
through the belly crawl. A very small lead on the left supposedly went to the
Son of Kahn. Since I couldn't fit, we headed on out. We were out by 9:30pm. 71
feet surveyed. But it did add to the length of the cave!
5/28:
Mammoth Cave Crystal Cave [Floyd Collins] section, KY. Participants
included David Socky, Tom Brucker, and Brian Hockaday. The second team included
Maggie Brosky, Michael Ketzner, and Lee Gray Boze. This was a fun trip and to an area of Mammoth I had
never been to – the far reaches of Crystal Cave, all the way back to Floyds
Lost Passage.
5/3:
McClungs Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Bob Alderson, and
Joe Zokaites. We went back to the leads in Southern Outer Mongolia. Got 477
feet of virgin cave. 14-hour trip.
6/3:
McClungs Cave, WV: Dave Socky and team surveyed 477’ virgin passage.
Nick Schmalenberger:
4/23:
Greyledge, VA area – Martin DiLeggi and
I ridge walked around the property.
5/16:
Cemetery Pit, AL – Nick Schmalenberger with NCRC.
5/17:
Byers Cave, AL with NCRC.
5/18:
Pettyjohn’s Cave, AL with NCRC.
5/19:
Tumbling Rock, AL with NCRC.
2/20:
The Diggings Pit, ?? with B. Stickney.
2/21:
Bluff River Cave, ?? with B. Stickney and Mystik Miller.
5/27:
Newberry-Banes, WV through trip with Joe Zokaites, Sonya Erickson, Jon Mnich.
5/28:
Pig Hole, VA with Jon Mnich and Sonya Erickson.
Date? Memorial for Cliff Lindsay – old
school, Alumni Center.
This month’s trip: 6/17 to Greenbrier Poor Farm Cave, WV;
meet at HROM 8:30a.
Next month’s trip: TBA
BUSINESS MEETING:
Treasurer’s Report – MarySue
Socky, Treasurer
Fund
Amounts
$ 40.96 Cave
Bucks
2.00 Conservation Fund
104.12 Equipment Fund
3,698.06 General Fund
3,845.14 Total Funds
Asset
Amounts
$ 457.00 Petty
Cash
3,388.14 BRG Checking Account
3,845.14 Total Assets
Committees:
Newsletter
– 9 hard copies mailed out. No issue in July; will combine with August.
Membership
– Currently we have 56 members and 5 subscribers.
ROCKS
– N/A
Safety
& Techniques – Recognition to Dano McConnell for serving for almost 30
years as our Blue Ridge Grotto Safety & Techniques Officer. Was given a
card and personalized mug for his years of expertise, devotion, training, and
both mock and real rescues. Nick Schmalenberger has agreed to step in as the
new S&T Officer.
Membership Proposals: None.
Old Business:
·
Cave
Owner award for Carroll Bassett – will be given to him at the NSS Convention in
Elkins at the end of this month.
·
Vertical
training opportunities – Nick Schmalenberger has not scheduled anything yet at
River Rock Climbing gym; may go there and climb and check it out if anyone
wants to join him. Dano McConnell said
that Catawba Murder Hole Cave, VA is available for training for Blue
Ridge Grotto members; just contact him or Marian to schedule dates and times.
New Business:
·
Larry
Manning is requesting cave maps for NCRC. It was the consensus of everyone
present that giving out maps should be on a case-by-case basis of the cave(s)
needed for rescues. He is welcome to come to a BRG meeting to discuss if
needed.
·
Goodwins
Cave, VA update
– MarySue talked with the owner, Jon Eisenzimmer; he is impressed with BRG’s
attention to cave conservation and safety, and we are welcome to contact him if
we want to go into the cave (he may join us).
·
Marian
would like to have a daylight cave trip into Catawba Murder Hole Cave perhaps
in August to set up water misting from the top of the entrance pit, while the
sun is high in the sky during summer months, to try and create a rainbow for
cavers in the bottom of the daylight cave to get some cool pictures. Dano will
help set up a water source and mist-maker since it’s too far to run garden
hoses down from the house. Will look at some possible dates.
·
VAR
– Meredith did the whole Spring VAR pretty much single-handedly; about 200
people attended. No Fall VAR has been planned yet. If we did one in the future,
it would be lots of work and we would need help and coordination from other Grotto(s).
Announcements:
·
Per
MarySue, Joseph Lockridge, owner of Breathing Cave, VA, has passed away.
Marian will get a sympathy card to mail to the family.
·
Be
healthy underground; rules were posted in The Dump. If you are sick don’t come
to the meetings or caving.
·
Bob
Gulden’s Memorial will be July 1-3 at Friars Hole lower campground. All are
welcome. No formal food is planned. Porta-potty’s will be available. Family, friends, cavers all welcome. Contact
Nicole Gulden at sophia253@aim.com
·
Please
send verified cave info updates for https://var.caves.org/index.php/conservation/closed-caves/closed-cave-list to Brad Blase.
·
Winter
closure dates for bat caves in West Virginia is September 1 – May 15.
·
Winter
cave closure dates for bat caves in Virginia is October 15 – April15.
·
The
NSS has proposed a paid full-time position for an NSS Executive Director. See
your emails (if you are an NSS member).
·
Virginia
license plates “Explore VA Caves” – no updates yet. If you sent in a check to
reserve yours, you should get notification when your check clears.
·
Over
The Edge is having a drawing on June 30th to win the chance to participate
at one of their many upcoming events. Very VERY
safety-oriented.
2023 CAVER CALENDAR:
·
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. The schedule of events has been
published.
·
July
21 – BRG Meeting at Jersey Lily’s
·
August
18 – BRG Meeting at Jersey Lily’s
·
September
15 – BRG Meeting at Jersey Lily’s
Cold Beer! 8:15pm
Programs:
·
Dave
Socky’s slide show of recent caving trips
·
NCRC
Weeklong in Alabama photos by Nick Schmalenberger