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