BLUE RIDGE GROTTO of the National Speleological Society

BRG Meeting Minutes 3/21/24

Jersey Lily’s; Roanoke, VA

 

 

Attendance:

Nick Schmalenberger, Chair

Dave Socky, Vice Chair

Kelly Perkins, Treasurer

Marian McConnell, Secretary

Carl Cornett

Barry Ferguson

Helene Ferguson

MarySue Socky

Jessica Shores*

John Pearson

Logan Van Hon*

Lynn Ott

Doug Feller

Pat [Joe] Banks

 

*Guest

 

Trip Reports:

 

Dave Socky:

·         2/21: Pasco Digs, VA. Participants included David Socky, Bill Koerschner, Rick Lambert, Keith Sweeney, Amos Mincin, Billy Picket, and Foster Murray. Digging on the Pasco property. One dig turned out to be a long crevice about 15 feet long and 20 feet deep. We dug at this for about 4 hours. We did some technical digging so we could get down far enough for a good look. It got too narrow, and the bottom was dead bottom. We surveyed it with 5 shots and called it Pasco Crevice. Then we dug at a new hole that had moss growing around it. We did one technical dig plus lots of hammering and prying. Finally got it big enough for Amos to get in. Rocks rolled down a ways, making this dig very enticing. Amos got in but it got narrow again about 15 feet down. Amos said it would take some widening but may continue down. This one would require us to come back to in order to do the technical dig.

·         3/10: Aqueduct, NY. Participants included David Socky, David Lester, Bob Cohen, Mark Dickey, Jessica Van Ord, Emily Hannigan, Chantz, Roland Hannigan, Emily Davis, Philip Rykwalder.  Drove from Bob Cohens house in the Bronx to 'Sleepy Hollow' near/around Westchester in the 'burbs'. We met Mark Dickey and Jessica Van Ord near the aqueduct. We drove to a small residential road which bordered a park. We parked and then walked about a mile until we got to a 3-foot diameter culvert. We did have to go over a 7-foot wall but used webbing to get down. The culvert had a small stream coming out of it. No helmets, but knee pads, gloves, and warm clothes, we crawled supposedly 200 feet, but it seemed longer. It was up hill. Finally, it broke out into the actual aqueduct, going left and right. The tunnel was about 7 to 8 feet high, 6 to 7 feet wide with an arched ceiling, straight walls and a slight curved floor with a small stream running down. We went left. Bats, crickets, mold, and roots. A five-inch diameter water pipe ran along the right-hand floor. After a while we reached a point where the tunnel was walled off with brick. They had built a road which cut into the tunnel. We turned around and went back. Mark, Jessica, and I ran the other way for about 1000 feet and turned around when it got wet again. The trip out was uneventful. The scariest part of the whole trip was Dave Lester and I taking the subway and bus back through the city to get back to Chris's house at 2 am in the morning. Part of this trip was through the outskirts of Harlem. We didn't have any problems. We got to bed at 4am.

·         3/16: McClung Cave, WV. Participants included David Socky, Joe Zokaites, Matt Centofanti, and Andrew Allard. We went back to the end of the Broomstick Room near the Second Breakdown to survey the rest of this passage we didn't find on the previous trip. The way on turned out to be really obvious and I was really disappointed in myself for not finding it on the previous trip. Some really nice stuff, but also some crawly and gnarly stuff. It was a good 13.5-hour trip with 736 feet of survey. 300 feet of it was new.   

·         3/20: Pasco Dig, VA. Participants included David Socky, Joe Zokaites, Keith Sweeney, Rick Lambert, and Bill Koerschner. We did technical digging on the same hole we ended our day on 2/21. We spent most of the day widening the way down and then did a number of straws to get through the next tight spot. There is still more to do, but rocks roll a good ways down. Just can't tell how wide it is yet. We quit around 4:45pm

     

Susan Burr:

·         2/17: New River Cave.  The Blue Ridge Grotto had a great 5-hour trip into New River Cave yesterday. Jeff Huffman, Lauren Appel, Kelly Perkins, Nick Schmalenberger, Lisa Boutwell Graves, Isaiah Hall, & myself were all on the trip. We actually found the China slide going in, but of course it took a bit of looking around. Same story when we got to the bottom of it. Trying to find the route out to the stream. None the less, we made it to the waterfall upstream. Afterwards we headed back out & went to the Forest Room. That too took a bit of scouting around, but we made it. This room is full of pretty formations. Of course, I forgot my camera in the car & I was too far up the trail & it was WAY too cold, so I didn't go back to get it.

·         3/16/24 - Lost World Caverns Wild Cave, Lewisburg, WV. Susan Burr, Jeff Huffman – Leader, Kelly Perkins, Logan Van Hon – guest, Erin Van Hon – guest, Abbey Mays – guest, Alexander Koch – guest. We did the normal route we usually do. We saw Lots & Lots of pretty formations. Unfortunately, we don't know the names of the different areas. I do know that apparently the latter section we went to was called the Sewer. I am just not sure what part of that latter section. One part was a fun narrow passage with a few slightly difficult parts. It ended for most at a small waterfall, however, Jeff & Logan climbed above the waterfall & did part of the upper section. Once out of that passage, Jeff, Logan & I opted to do a just for fun small passage that has a very tight & difficult hole to get out of. The guys had more trouble than me since they are bigger. Lots of pictures taken there! Our last section was through a crawl with lots of mud sculptures. It ended at some more pretty formations. Then we had to go through another super tight & this time very wet hole to get out. Luckily, we saved this for last so were weren't wet for very long since we headed straight out. We did notice that Mike Phelps had a group there doing Grapevine Pit. On the way out of the tourist part of the cave, we got to see 2 cavers coming down the ropes. I also got to speak with Mike for a bit inside the gift shop. He invited Jeff, Lauren & me to come up to see the new rigging Steve Silverberg has come up with. Our overall time in the cave was just under 4 hours. We thanked Steve multiple times for allowing us to come. I also discussed with Steve the possibility of us trying to come sometime during the summer to do Grapevine Pit.

 

Next Month’s grotto trip – TBA, Sunday April 21. (Date moved due to trip to Martinsville for Reptile event on April 20.)

 

BUSINESS MEETING

Treasury Report – Kelly Perkins, Treasurer 

$    110.96       Cave Bucks

$        2.00       Conservation Fund

$    144.12       Equipment Fund

$ 6,893.09       General Fund

$ 7,150.17    Total Funds

 

Committees:  

●        Newsletter – Great March issue. There will be no April Carbide Dump newsletter.

●        Membership – has 52 members & 5 subscribers. (Will be 53 if/when Duane Owen renews his membership). The membership list and cards are delayed until the new membership card design is approved.

●        ROCKS – Warm Springs Allegheny County weekly work.

●        Safety & Techniques – Per Nick there was an accident in Pig Hole last week during a trip to check out the cave for a possible training event. They entered through the bottom entrance, came across the Glop Walk, then at a ledge on the west balcony, a VPI woman fell and got hurt. Fortunately, she landed on some tires which lessened the severity of her injuries. There will be an accident report coming out with the details. The cave owner, Jean Porterfield, says the cave is still open and the rules are unchanged; cavers must be out by dark.

 

Membership Proposals: 

 

Old Business 

·         Updates for back of BRG membership cards to make current. – Pending Wil Orndorff replying to Dave Socky about the new Eastern Region rescue group re the chain of command (after calling 911) and to get a phone # instead of email address for the back of the cards.

·         Blue Ridge Grotto Google Groups - blueridgegrotto@googlegroups.com; as of 3/11/24 we have had 43 members sign up. That leaves about 10 (+ 5 subscribers) who have not.  Nick will go ahead and add the remaining people (e.g. Bob Alderson, etc.) and anyone who wants to be removed from the list always has that option. The Officers have made individual calls and sent messages to those people to give them a final chance.  If they don’t accept the invitation, they will no longer receive the emails (meeting announcements, newsletters, etc.). Nick sent out a message to see how many would be interested in a vertical practice on April 13th or 14th; details TBA.

·         CaveSim – Marian had contacted Dave Jackson to indicate our Grotto’s willingness and desire to help.  Dylan Kelly (who works for Roanoke City Parks & Rec) had learned that CaveSim is coming to Roanoke July 12-13; they received a grant for half the fee, but will need additional funding.  Dylan said it will be about $1,000 and will find out and let us know. Once we know, we will address this and see if BRG would like to fund that half, or at least a portion of it. Dylan said that Saturday will be for the kids in various programs (like Big Brothers/Big Sisters) and Sunday will be open to the public. (Check on dates and days of week!)  They are looking for a central site, perhaps Elmwood Park. He said they are also considering inviting CaveSim to return in October for GoFest. MarySue contacted Dylan who is out of town; she gave him Marian’s contact info to follow-up on the status of CaveSim.

·         Check on BRG stickers – do they have better quality sticking materials? What are the prices (for bulk quantity ordering) and how many do we want to order? Kelly is still checking on this so we tabled until next month’s meeting. Dave Socky will send out a copy of the new improved BRG logo so everyone can see it.

 

New Business:

·         Welcome to Jessica Shores, a guest, who works for the U.S. Forestry Service in our area. She has done quite a bit of caving with her boss, including caves in the Wytheville area, such as Deep Spring, doing general inventories of cave critters. She said they have keys to some of the caves they manage and can get us into the caves, and that we can go caving in caves when they open after bat hibernation season.

·         Vote for your favorite 5 Carbide Dump covers at the March 22nd meeting, or send votes by email to sockymss@cox.net by April 22nd.

·         Catawba Murder Hole Cave is CLOSED – Dano and Marian are working to resolve some landowner issues. We continue to be thankful for the Virginia State Cave Protection Law. All questions and concerns about the cave should be referred directly to Dano or Marian.

·         BRG Officers (Nick Schmalenberger, Dave Socky, Kelly Perkins, Marian McConnell) met on 3/13 at Wasena Tap Room. We discussed:

o    Jersey Lily's owner passed away so they were closed on Friday March 15th when our BRG meeting was scheduled. They offered us Friday March 22nd (same time and arrangements). We talked about various other options (different day/time, different location - even possibly a member's house, cancel this month, etc.). We finally agreed it best to have it on March 22nd. Dave sent out an announcement that evening to the members. Marian brought a sympathy card for all to sign at the BRG meeting and gave it to the Jersey Lily’s manager to share with staff.

o    We will have our BRG Officers' meetings at 5:30p at the Wasena Tap Room on the Tuesday before the regularly scheduled Friday BRG meeting. So the next one will be April 16th. Any members are welcome to attend; make sure to notify Nick a day or so before the meeting so we make sure to have enough chairs.

o    Nick mentioned a possible BRG trip to the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, VA during their April 19-20 event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day for the annual Reptile Festival. He said he and Susan and Lauren plan to go on April 20th; If you want to carpool, meet at the Belk Store at Tanglewood at 9a. For more info see https://www.vmnh.net/events/reptile-festival

o    Nick asked if we should solicit members for ideas on ways to use the money from the Carl Cornett gear auction. Such as helping with CaveSim* in July or October; or purchasing caving gear, etc. Other ideas are to donate to cave and/or bat-related conservancies and organizations as we have in the past, and replace the old white BRG helmets; there needs to be an inventory done of our BRG caving equipment to see what needs to be replaced.

o    Thank you card from Sarah [Rowland] and Phillip was passed around from our Wedding Congratulations cards.

o    MarySue asked what color everyone wants the new Membership list – green or yellow? Green was the choice.

 

Announcements:

●        Healthy Caving – let’s be healthy going underground.  Rules were posted in the DUMP. 

Please send verified cave info updates for https://var.caves.org/index.php/conservation/closed-caves/closed-cave-list to Brad Blasé.

●        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.

 

2023 CAVER CALENDAR:

●        April 19 – Next BRG meeting at Jersey Lily’s 6p.

●        April 20 – BRG trip to Martinsville Reptile Festival at Virginia Museum of Natural History

●        April 21 – BRG Caving trip – details TBA

●        April 26-28 – VAR “Earth Day” Restoration Sinkhole Cleanout – Bland, VA. Reward:  Trip into nearby Coon Cave, VA.

●        May 3-5 – Spring VAR at East Fork Campground; Durbin, WV. Registration now open.

●        May 17-19 – 2024 Spring MAR Field Meet at McClure Bean Soup Festival Grounds; McClure, PA.

●        May 22-28 – Speleofest, Lone Star Cave Preserve, Bonnieville, KY.

●        June 2-8 – Virginia Cave Week.

●        July 1-5, 2024 – NSS Convention in Sewanee, TN

●        2024 TAG will be in Union Grove AL on the Lazy G Ranch; date and details TBD.

 

Cold Beer! 

       

Program: Highlights from the NYC The Explorer’s Club and nearby aqueduct expedition by Dave Socky.