Triangle Troglodytes

Tritrog Annual Trip

2008-08-11T23:48:00.001-04:00

The Tritrogs annual trip came together at the last minute; a few minor changes landed the event at Claytor State park instead of Douthat, and James cave instead of Breathing cave. Planned were 13 individuals, some of those being new cavers and one being an eight year old. My oldest son Dawson enjoys caving; I thought it would be interesting to see how he would do without any influences his younger brothers have brought to past caving “adventures”.

Friday evening proved to be hot and muggy as we set up camp. Ken and I pitched our tents, put up the canopy, and dragged much of the food out while it was still light. While waiting for the others to arrive, Dawson and I walked down to the lake. Claytor is actually a very nice park; Ok Virginia state parks actually rock! I would recommend giving them a try.

The last group arrived sometime after 2am; or so I am told, Dawson and I didn’t wait up for them. Since it was too hot for a fire, we opted for lights out and some sleep in preparation for a big day of caving.

After a big breakfast, we all set out for James cave…in the rain. Not quite what we expected, but then again its August and when isn’t there a change of rain. Fortunately the rain paused long enough for 13 cavers to rampantly dress and dash to the cave.

James cave is horizontal, though does have a few short climb-downs and several belly crawls. An ideal cave for new cavers; provides a nice variety. Two teams were formed; through past experience, one team would be too slow given the obstacles. The groups ventured upstream toward the other entrance first; not the pretty section of the cave but a good introduction to crawling and walking through the stream passage.

Returning to our starting point we continued downstream, through the culvert and into an extended belly crawl; only to discover the belly crawl is actually a hand and knee crawl for Dawson. Here the cave immediately becomes more interesting; there are multiple levels and directions to continue downstream and formations become much more prevalent. The challenges presented in the cave are actually fun, there are two climb downs that took a few minutes to get everyone past.

Over four hours into our journey we made it back to a highly decorated room, the soda straws numerous, the flow stone flows, and the stalactites tall and proud. It was here that Dawson stated he was ready to leave; his sediment quickly spread to everyone.

After a brief rest and pictures the teams planned their exits. Rather than return with a team of seven, Diana volunteered to exit with Dawson and myself (making the trip a bit more exhilarating for an eight year old). We made record time getting out of the cave, under 45 minutes. And Dawson still had time to step into water up to his waist, climb every climb, with the exception of one, and tell us how we weren’t keeping up.

After everyone got out, a bit muddier than expected, we loaded up and headed back to camp for dinner. The rain was gone, the sun out, and the temperatures pleasant. Everyone pitched in with the meal preparations and consumption of the simple spread, before long s’mores were being made over the warm glow of the remaining embers.

Sunday brought breakfast, camp cleanup, and determining what lay ahead; some opted to go mountain climbing, others opted to check out the cascades nearby, and the remainder chose Tawney’s cave just outside Blacksburg Va. Tawney’s is not as long as James cave, but very impressive. The front room is highly decorated, has a nice stream traversing the cave, and had an enormous sinkhole on the backside.

Dawson found the stream irresistible and had to personally verify the depth numerous times; in addition Ken introduced Dawson to the stickiest mud he had ever had the pleasure of standing in, and even more pleasurable after almost loosing a boot. After a few hours, it was time to think about the trek home and retuning to our daily routine.

I hope everyone had a good time and hope to see him or her in a cave again soon!

Wrapping up leads

2008-07-23T00:45:00.000-04:00

Ken and I met up with Tanya in Marion VA for a weekend of caving; but not any caving, surveying. Tanya had two leads on possible new cave in the area; and a team was in place to continuing work inside Rowland Creek cave.

First stop, a cave that Tanya described as a hole in the ground next to a house, vertical in nature, and determined after tossing a few small stones into the hole there was an un-quantifiable distance and some water. We met with the enthusiastic owner; she had just bought the property and was very excited to have two springs and a potential cave. She, and her son, escorted us maybe twenty-five feet to the cave entrance. Removing the “gate” produced an entrance wide enough to slip into without digging.

After suiting up and armed with a hand-line thanks to Ken as the anchor, I dropped into the cave. The cave initially was dirt, but quickly changed to rock walls and ceiling; the floor was steeply sloping, consisting primarily of dirt and roofing shingles. The slope ended in a deep pool of water. After cleaning out the shingles, Ken and I surveyed the cave. The cave is 30ft in length; the pool is probably a sump and could be dived. However I question the water quality, as the house’s septic system is upstream and in close proximity with the cave.

The woman’s son was given the honors of naming the cave; he decided to call it Rodas-Wolters Pit. After eating some tasty cookies, thanks to the landowner, we hit the road for our next stop, Five Goat Cave.

Five Goat Cave was mentioned in a previous caving report; at the time of initial investigate the river was too high to cross. Today the river was not running high. The trek across the river was soothing as the water was cool. The trek up the hillside, not as pleasant, was covered in underbrush and the summer heat and humidity was present.

The location was eventually reached. I started to check out Five Goat, while Ken pushed on to investigate another rock outcropping. As I approached the “cave” the strong smell of scat was abound; this should have registered as a sign. Looking into the small hole light could be seen from the right side. There was no way a goat could get into what I was standing in front of; going around the corner to check out the source of light I found there to be a large fissure crack. I also found two raccoons; I could see them in the shadows, and I could now hear them as well. The sounds and body movements told me I was a very un-welcomed guest. To reduce bodily harm I quickly retreated. Five Goat Cave looks to be a massive rock that slide down the rock outcropping, creating a shelter. Perhaps another look after the current residents have moved out may be in order just to insure no cave lies within.

At this time, Ken was beckoning our presence; he had found a cave nearby. Still being caught off guard by the raccoons and telling myself I was never going to repeat that, I was a bit hesitant standing outside the entrance even though there was no nasty smell; that is until Ken told me he threw a few stones into the cave and listened for any additional movement (though I was happy that Ken volunteered to go in first).

The cave had an interesting upper entrance or skylight. There were very old formations in this cave, and the cave looked to be comprised of dolomite. The cave, including both entrances, was quickly surveyed for a grand total of 37ft. Tanya named the cave “Chip on the Shoulder”.

We retreated back the way we came, though the step hillside in front of the cave looked like an easier route. Unfortunately during our walk back someone stepped on a Hornets nest; and yes there were causalities, Ken and Tanya both took the brunt of the anger.

Sunday Robbie and Jason joined us; Robbie, Jason, and myself were to survey a lead and check out a pit in time and conditions were right. Meanwhile Ken and Tanya were going to work/dig on Sentinel cave and Animal Den located on the same hillside.

The team I was on quickly got to our destination and started surveying. We had a rough start, as the numbers were not matching, most likely accountable to the 70-degree inclination. Soon we were making good progress; the lead had a low, muddy room, which opened up, into another room. This room had massive breakdown blocks, a sizeable pool of water and is well decorated on one side.

Retreating back into the muddy room we pushed the other lead; we had a shallow sloping room to the left. To the right Robbie stated we had connected back into known passage. At first I didn’t believe him, he said I would recognize it when I up to where he was at; and he was right. It was a lead we had left before. The survey of 213ft closed three leads.

We proceeded to check out the pit lead; it held the most promise as it blows air and is in a location on the perimeter of known cave. Robbie had the honors of dropping the pit. He described the pit as being narrow but wide. The pit broke into two passages; one passage joined another known lead with a low pinch. The other passages lead back to another lead. Three more leads closed out.

As we retracted, one last lead was looked at. The lead continues, but some small modifications to some breakdown are in order, something to consider another day. I took Jason to the upper entrance; he graciously climbed a ledge we could only inspect from a distance. The ledge didn’t hold much promise, and he confirmed there was no lead.

I checked out the efforts of Ken and Tanya on the other caves. Animal den was obviously worked on. After parting the Mosquito curtain and crawling inside it became apparent the cave terminated at 6ft. Later it was discovered that Ken and Tanya surveyed the cave and renamed the cave to Mosquito Den…I wonder why? I quickly stopped at Sentinel, seeing no fresh dirt piles, and another cloud of Mosquitoes; I quickly deduced that Ken and Tanya didn’t work on this cave today.

Guided Tour at Organ Cave

2008-07-23T00:39:00.002-04:00

Being in West Virginia for a family vacation, it seemed fitting to get a bit of caving in, and to expose my kids to caving gently. Our two older kids have done some caving; my youngest child has not. It was decided to catch the Organ cave guided tour; the cave would be lighted and the route would be easy to accommodate the masses.

After paying, we met our guide and were quickly on our way. The boys were very excited to be caving, dressed with their caving helmets and light. The main entrance into Organ cave is quite spectacular despite the massive wooden staircase consisting of 93 stairs. Our first stop was a dilapidated shed with a few rusted out storage barrels. It was presented to us as a rations storage area for the government as part of the cold war; when the cold war ended 50 years later the rations were given to tour patrons as samples.

Further back in the cave we were enlightened with proof of Noah’s flood; that was the explanation as to how the seashells found in the cave walls got there. There was no mention that the cave is limestone; and that marine animals, thus the shells, form limestone. I’m not going to debate the account of Noah as it is documented in the Bible; but I’m quite sure that the oyster shells imbedded in the rock didn’t get there by a massive Oyster migration inland during a massive flood that lasted 40 days and 40 nights (and 300 days as the water receded).

Organ cave has some large trunk passage; the lighting was done well, with very little evidence of algae growing due to the process of photosynthesis (water and light). Much of the initial passages had very few formations. Much of the front area of the cave was mined for Saltpeter during the Civil war; many of the vats used are still present today.

During the tour we came to a section of the cave where there were many, many “pockets” in the ceiling; the pockets were probably a foot in diameter and 6 inches deep. Our guide proceeded to tell us that a large number of animals lived in the cave at some time; during a massive flood the animals got trapped and drown. The dead animals rose to the ceiling and became pinned; while pinned there, the decomposition of the carcasses created a chemical imbalance that eroded the limestone to form the pocket.

About this point, my youngest tells me he had to go to the bathroom; what timing, a much-needed diversion from the tour guide. Fortunately I had carried a pack and in it was a plastic bottle. Unfortunately it still contained water; after gulping down the water, my youngest was in his defining moment caving…peeing in a bottle. A few minutes later he told me his legs were tired and wanted to be carried; he then promptly fell asleep on my shoulder.

We eventually got into some passage that was highly decorated; in this passage the infamous Organ formation can be found. Many of the formations were pretty; unfortunately the tour pretty much ends at that point with a quick retreat back to the entrance.

I think Organ cave is an amazing cave and has a lot to offer; the tour was obviously disappointing, in the end I doubted everything said which is a shame for there is some good history in that cave that needs to be properly shared. I think my boys had a good time, the older one wanted a bit more excitement, it was the appropriate level for the middle child, and well the youngest one couldn’t stop talking about it (after he woke up).

SERA / VAR

2008-07-23T00:33:00.001-04:00

This year’s spring VAR was combined with the annual SERA event; the event was held in Bristol TN. Since I was leading a tour into Rowland Creek cave, I thought it best for Joe and I to rig the rope and check the lower stream passage depth. The stream passage is affected by precipitation. While in the cave Joe wanted to spend some time exploring the new passage opened up since he’d been here last.

The stream was low, but present. We checked out a few leads throughout the cave; saving the most promising for last. The lead had good potential. And in fact the lead did produce more cave, estimated to be around 200ft worth (a follow-up trip to survey is in order). The passage is rather challenging as there is a tight squeeze followed by an eight-foot drop. The new passage seems to wall out, the only thing left is the pool of water that extends around a corner.

Friday night at camp an unexpected down pour provided some relief from the heat, though added to the humidity. The combination of humidity and people talking into all hours of the night yielded a sleepless night.

Saturday I met up with the crew I was taking to Rowland; four individuals. Joe met his team going to Berry Hill; Joe decided that since he had seen Rowland the day before he would check out another vertical cave in the area.

The tour of Rowland’s went smoothly; a group of five is slow due to the technical challenges presented in the cave. Josh Rubinstien really enjoyed the cave; so much so he volunteered to survey the short, muddy section in the stream passage I have been holding off on doing. Approximately 100ft of cave was added.

Joe said that Berry Hill cave was a great cave; he was however stuck with a large group trying to get through the cave and the vertical challenge at the entrance.

Saturday evening consisted of listening to some music, drinking a few drinks, and generally just milling around. It was surprising to see how quiet our neighbors were; must have been the previous night of partying and today’s caving.

Sunday we drove over to check out Bristol caverns, on someone’s suggestion of a short, easy, guided trip before heading home. However the caverns hadn’t yet opened; in the end we decided to drive home and clean gear during the daylight hours.

SERA/VAR Trip

2008-06-08T22:26:00.001-04:00

I arrived at Bristol Campground for the joint SERA/VAR at the same time the rain arrived. It poured, and then I set up my tent. The rest of the weekend was warm but not unbearable.

Saturday I led a horizontal, intermediate trip to Hancock Cave with Dave and Nick Socky, Andrew and Ann Hindman, Witt Reddinger, Karen Willmes, Susan Burr, Patrick Simms, and Winnie Miller. After the drops the group traveled to the Octopus Room and waited for me to lead. In order to start them off right, I led them into Harrington Hall and up the long slope into the Anastamoses Maze (I know that some TriTrogs recognize that this is the harder way into the maze). We then slid down the Corn Cob Crawl and discovered that Nick has outgrown his cave suit.

Pat, Nick and Susan checked out Echo Hall and Hickory Dickory Pit (through the tight slot), then we headed down to the junction between TJ's Trap and the Breakdown Staircase. Nick and Witt followed me down one tight slot that appears on my map. The survey notes had been confusing but were quite accurate. Unfortunately the other seven laughed at us as we struggled our way out of the slot. So I sent them up into the High Root as a punishment; I think the seven that climbed it found a short climb considerably challenging.

Everyone dropped successfully down the Breakdown Staircase, but few recognized Harrington Hall. I ran them out toward the back entrance, and Karen was the only one silly enough to follow Nick into a hole back near the Long Room. I remember when that hole was marked by a wooden dowel to remind a nutty traveler of a hard way to close a Hancock loop. They rejoined us shortly back into the crawlway, and then everyone went down the sliding board.

From the overlook we watched the group shrink. I then asked the remaining group to find their way back to the Corn Cob Crawl; close enough. We dropped down it again and headed for the top of Which Glob Pit. Susan wasn't willing/able to squeeze into the blowing hole at the top of the pit, but Karen Willmes was able to get inside. She found a virgin room within the breakdown, but the blowing lead would require a prybar to go further. To get Karen out, I had to reach in and pull her by her coveralls. That is one tight lead.

We slid down TJ's Trap and then crawled upstream back to Harringon Hall. I then led the group up into the Vertical Maze. I had forgotten that the easiest route through the maze required me to crawl on my side, but Karen asked "What tight passage?" I found my way back to the lead that Melanie McCullough, Yu Liu, Dave Duguid, and Mike Davidson had surveyed last year. The way out of the maze from there was supposed to be straight ahead, but all I saw was a tight canyon. I worried the whole group when I consulted my draft of the map; could the passage have gotten thinner? I slowly pushed my body into the slot and stepped over an old beer can. It opened up after it couldn't have gotten tighter.

Susan followed me through, and I asked her to kick the beer can in my direction. It seemed like a good idea, but her kick punctured the can. I picked up the Bud Lite can that started spraying all over me. I held it up to my mouth, but the spray covered my face. The group found it easy to follow the smell of beer back to Harrington Hall where I packed up the can. Easy trip out followed by dinner at Marion's Tuscan Italian Grille.

On Sunday Dave West wanted to borrow my chair for the VAR meeting, so he traded Karen for the chair. We ended up going to the Gray Fossil Site Museum (just opened). I know that the five rhinoceroses, the pandas, unhumped camels, tapirs, etc. should've really impressed me. However, it was also fun to challenge my dung beetle against George Dasher's, to learn that elephants poop my weight every eleven hours, and to discover that Karen can identify every type of scat you throw at her. The fossil site and its incredible discoveries are really a must see for everyone in eastern Tennessee.

April Showers

2008-04-09T23:23:00.001-04:00

One of the most prevalent events affecting the weekend to varying degrees was the weather. Mother Nature taunted meteorologists, which in turn hampered planning from a technology dependent group of cavers. Rain it did, and significant amounts; surprisingly enough the rain had little effect on the caving. In the end the weather provided comic relief as the weather related jokes and playful jabs were plentiful.

The basic plan was to cave with several Duke students on Saturday and exploration on Sunday. Ok for those that know me, the plan was more elaborate than that. But as we all know, plans change…my excuse; it was the weather’s fault!

We (Ken, Mike, and Dave) met the Duke students (Jake, Justin, and Charlie) Saturday morning as planned and drove to our predetermined destination, James cave in Pulaski County Virginia. After a quick rundown of the cave and the perceived objectives, done with a significantly reduced cave map, we entered through the main entrance.

We took the passage toward the “original” entrance first, said direction as a few options. As expected, we ended up in the low, crawling passage rather than the walking passage. Fortunately the crawl was brief, back in the walking passage we traversed the downstream passage with ease; popping briefly out into the daylight. Back in the cave we retraced our steps, well not the low crawl. Soon we were at the culvert used years ago to gate the pretty section of the cave off.

The upstream side is more expansive than the downstream side and generally contains two levels. To stay out of the water we chose the upper level whenever possible. The upper level was actually fun; it provided an interesting array of walking, climbing, crawling, and canyoneering. It also provided many formations to admire. There were several cascades of water where rim stone dams overflowed into flowstone. Further back in the cave, the formation become more prevalent and more pristine.

One interesting observation was a monitoring station in the cave; the exact intent of the setup was not known. But the general conclusion was the intrusion of water entering the cave through the ceiling was logged; how much water flowing through several formations was being tracked as well. We later found a monitoring station on the surface used to monitor precipitation.

The tour of the cave lasted approximately five hours; the cave was a cave worth returning too. The Duke students enjoyed the caving, but had to retreat to Durham as final’s are rapidly approaching.

Ken, Mike, and myself continued to Marion Virgina for the evening. Saturday evening resulted in enjoying some fine home brew and hours of fun playing the “Cave Game”. The revised plan for Sunday was rather adhoc; check out a possible new cave and go over to Rowland to determine what we could do there.

The new cave lead was, as Tanya mentioned, across a swollen Holston River and quite high on a steep hillside. We would not be getting to the cave today; the river was the major deterrent. But rather we conjectured whether or not the entrance would actually result in a cave; that discussion would only be settled when the possible cave entrance could be reached.

After confirming a topographical map of the hillside Rowland Creek cave is in, we opted to do some ridge walking. Ken, having an eye for possible dig locations, found two potential spots rather quickly. I worked on one while Ken and Mike on the other. I stopped the dig I was working on, slow going, in favor of checking out the other dig.

Mike broke into a small passage before calling it a day. There is more digging needed; but it was exciting to find there could be more cave passage on the hillside. The new found cave has been named Sentinel cave; named such as Mike was describing the two formations one has to squeeze through, it was like two sentinel’s guarding the cave.

A quick peek in the upper section was done; Mike had not been in that portion of the cave. The screech owl was inside the cave; the cave must be his/her nesting ground as it has been seen in the cave multiple times over the last 15 months. Also a quick peek in the lower section was done; wanted to check the stream level given the amount of rain over the last few days.

Weekend Ending in Tragedy

2008-03-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

From Chapel Hill to Staunton we traveled
To watch how plot twists slowly unraveled.
Characters were scheming but phony
In Ben Johnson’s play called Volpone.

Just a short distance to Grand Caverns Park
Did we find cold cavers camped in the dark.
We rose next day to find frost-covered tents,
Clear sign that we lacked any good horse sense.
Next morn past tour groups did we travel
As we hauled our buckets of gravel.
We spread the stones beneath the tourists’ feet
Whilst staying silent to remain discrete.
Free lunch did salve the strain felt in our arms.
Repainting stairs to stop rust’s future harms.
Limestone walls tightly clenched the screws of old
With our vise grips we cried “Out, out damn bolt.”

A sumptuous feast of shrimp and beef burgundy,
An evening tour that lasted near to Sunday.
Some guesses at my age did flatter me,
Enjoyed Easter breakfast at Batterby.

From Grottoes to Staunton did we make way
To relish performance of the Bard’s play.
The ASC matinee was splendid
And so our Shakespeare weekend was ended.

Paxton’s Cave: February 23, 2008

2008-03-02T21:56:00.001-05:00

After nearly two and a half years and nine caving trips, I am finally writing my first trip report. I suppose it is time…

Howard and Hayden Holgate and I had all had to cancel a caving trip just three weeks earlier, so we were anxious to get underground. Ken Walsh was gracious enough to organize a photography trip to Paxton’s Cave in western Virginia for Saturday, February 23.

The four of us met on Friday evening and began our adventure. After stopping for dinner at Los Tres Magueyes, where Hayden dined on a plate of rice, we continued our journey to Covington, Va.

Words can’t really describe what awaited us at the lovely and rustic Pinehurst Motel. Really, they can’t. I should have taken a picture so that I can share it with all of you. However, with my camera buried in my Pelican case with my caving gear in Howard’s truck, I will just have to rely on the memory of the décor emblazoned in my mind.

The first thing that Hayden noticed was that the dark wood paneling on the walls was actually real wood. That wood paneling was on the bottom four feet or so of the wall. It’s what was on the top portion of the walls – and the curtains – that have my eyes still straining to see a 3-D image in the patterns. Yes, that’s plural. The wall paper was a very busy pattern consisting of two- or three-inch shapes in brown , turquoise and black. The curtains, surrounded on three sides by the lovely wallpaper, was a very different – and also very busy – pattern in various shades of red and blue. It was a sight to behold. Next time you take a trip to Paxton’s Cave, I recommend room 32 (I think) at the Pinehurst Motel.

While the decorations were not what I would have chosen (which is good, since those patterns have not been sold during my lifetime), the room was comfortable and clean, so we got a good night’s sleep before heading into the cave the following day.

After loading up on carbs for breakfast on Saturday, we headed to Paxton’s Cave. We briefly met the landowners, signed the log book, and headed to the cave. There was a nice waterfall at the cave entrance, but we managed to get into the cave without getting wet.

Ken had studied the map, but warning us that this was a cave he struggled with finding his way around, turned over the navigation duties with a shrunken map to Hayden. The first objective was to find the Throne Room.

Well, we didn’t exactly accomplish that mission in a timely manner. After what I would guess was about two hours of walking around in various circles (and watching Ken trip over the same rock three or four times), we finally pulled out a compass, studied the map (which was not overly helpful) and determined to head generally southeast. That got us on track. We moved away from the rock that kept jumping out and tripping Ken, and eventually found some passages that did not look familiar to us. Well, to me, Howard or Hayden, who were in our inaugural voyage to Paxton’s Cave. We welcomed Ken’s shout of “This looks right!” as we finally neared the elusive Throne Room.

We had enjoyed exploring along the way and had paused for a few photo opportunities here or there, but the Throne Room was a welcome sight. It did not disappoint. The Thorne Room had all kinds of interesting formations. Ken and I pulled out our cameras and started taking a lot of snapshots. Climbing over breakdown while trying to protect my camera proved to be the greatest challenge of the day. But it worked, and I took photos of helictites, soda straws, bats (there were quite a few in this cave), various unknown formations and a couple of stalagmites. As Ken and I snapped away, Howard did some exploring and Hayden rested. Eventually Ken and I recruited Howard and Hayden to pose for some photos as we attempted manual cave photography. I’m definitely a novice at this, and my snapshots on auto function still turn out better than those in manual settings. I’ll keep working on that, though.

Once on his feet to pose for photos, Hayden joined in the exploration. He discovered a stalagmite that glows for a couple of seconds when illuminated with a flash, so he and Howard showed that off for us a few times.

We took a few more pictures, explored some more and then headed out of the Throne Room and back, we hoped, toward the cave entrance.

Ken had told us upfront that he had an easier time finding his way out of the cave than into it, and this held true. While we managed to throw in a few more wrong turns, and gave Ken the opportunity to trip over the same rock one more time, we did get back to the entrance without too much trouble. We noted the breakdown that looked (a little) like a set of jaws. As you enter the cave turn right there, toward a passage with a very large rock, and you’ll be going toward the Throne Room.

Anyway, after a few wrong turns we pulled the compass back out and headed northwest. We got to the entrance with just a little bit of daylight remaining. Ken took one last picture at the cave entrance and we headed back to the Pinehurst Motel.

After taking a few minutes to get cleaned up at the motel, we feasted on pizza (except for Hayden, who continued his all-carb diet with plain spaghetti) at Cucci’s. With full bellies, we went back to the motel, enjoyed hot showers and a game of movie trivia that Ken had brought along for entertainment.

The trip back on Sunday was uneventful. Hayden put his new driver’s license to good use and drove us home, and Ken helped me compile a list of all the caves I’ve been in. With his help in recording those caves, I decided it was time for me to give him a break from writing the trip reports and give it a shot for the first time. I still have a lot to learn about cave photography, but the exploration and photo attempts were a lot of fun.

New River Cave Beginner Trip February 1-3, 2008

2008-02-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

So I was really aching to get back into caving and now I am just aching. Thank God for knee pads and gloves! My name is Andrew Donadio and I have the pleasure of telling you about our trip of Feb 1-3, 2008, to the New River Cave near Blacksburg(the true location being a tightly guarded secret). We started out with 9-10 interested cavers and left with 5 in one car. This was actually nice in terms of money and camaraderie, as four of us had never really met.

We left from the Cisco parking lot at 6:00pm on Friday headed to Chapel Hill to pick up Matt Lubin. Matt L. had organized a little navigation quiz to see if he really wanted to trust Ken in a cave. Ken(I got something against cell phones) Walsh fell for the old left turn at Albuquerque, but recovered and we found Matt after just about ten minutes. I asked every Carolina girl I saw, "Can you take me to Matt Lubin?", but they were totally useless! So we picked up Matt and headed north on 86 to good old Martinsville and a tasty Mexican dinner at Los Tres Maguyueres or something like that. All I understood was that Mag....whatever it is, is part of the Guava plant, which has something to do with Tequila.

One highlight, we did stop at a gas station with a remarkable amount of electronics associated with the Men's room. They had an unusually large"OCCUPIED" light/sign above the door and a big red button (like you would push to launch a torpedo or WWIII) to push inside if you were in any way displeased or without anything. It was so tempting!! According to the attendant, they were planning one of those bank drive thru suction tubes to deliver emergency TP but they needed to find a way to plug that pesky hole in the middle of the roll. So it would be a pleasant place to drop the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean. And then we all discussed the many ways you could say that like sending an ambassador to Iraq...etc., etc.

So we got to near Blacksburg and it was just cold and windy, so we(Andrew, Matt W., and Ken) thought, "Gee, we need some beer." We hoped we could find some close by, but alas Christiansburg was aptly named, so we drove into Blacksburg where we found an aptly named bar, "The Underground". After a few beers, we decided that sleep might do us all good and we returned to the hotel around 1am. I think the beds at the Knights Inn were super! Matt, Matt, and Mark also thought so. Ken on the other hand said the floor was not quite up to his standards. Something woke me up Saturday morning and it sounded like a Walsh Horn. After 4 hours of listening to us sleep like angels, Ken had had enough!

Denny's gave us just the right mix of protein and carbs for breakfast.

We arrived at the cave which is near a beautiful, almost ideal, camp ground by the New River, I am guessing, and we started putting our equipment on. We started up the railroad tracks but before we could get to trail we were overtaken by a really freaking long freight train -- that's why the campground is nearly ideal. Ken says the trains come through every 20 minutes all night long!

We hit the trail and went up a good distance, found the entrance and went in around noon. We saw lots of really neat things, but the thing that stands out the most for me is the really tall waterfall room and the climb/crawl from there into another very large room where we would like to start next time when my teleporter is complete. At that point we crawled and climbed back to the waterfall using Ken as an anchor to belay us all. Then Ken came down with out belay, shame on him!

We then started the walk, climb, crawl out, which went pretty well until the second to last room where we found the way to forrest room rather than the exit. Eventually we kept following the room in the right direction and found the exit. We came out at about 6:30pm. We went down the hill and changed into our Guns and Roses outfits(Ken and I) and then went to dinner. Matt L. decided to wear his dirty clothes and skip the whole clean thing, so I gave him the name "Pig Pen" and by the way that jacket really was a pretty shade of blue! His before and after pictures are going on the "what to bring" page of our new website.

We all ate like we had never seen food before at BackStreet? I think it was called BackStreet. I don't remember much cause I got really hypothermic and peaceful until all that Pizza warmed me up again.

I am thankful to Ken for leading and standing guard through the night. I am thankful to Mark for helping us climb and making sure everyone -potentially-had a bed. I am thankful to Matt L. for the great conversation we had. I am thankful to Matt W. for incessantly talking about how great married life is. Check better be in the mail. And I am thankful that I found the Triangle Troglodytes and got back into Spelunking.

Andrew "My left arm works again" Donadio

Exploring Peacock

2008-01-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

Tanya McLaughlin had insisted for years that she had explored the back way into Hancock Cave (not beyond the Funnel Tunnel) back in 1999. She, Paul, and Linda had found a place high on the rock wall thatled underground and dropped down a steep climb. It seemed like a reasonable Sunday goal to help me improve the map to Hancock Cave.

In our streetclothes, Dave Duguid, Tanya, and I were greeted by the landowner's dogs, and we discussed his hunting season with him for a while. Then we started poking around at the rock wall. High up Dave and I found nothing but wet leaves and slippery slopes. We circled around to explore the area where the water disappeared.

I found a crack that seemed to head into the hillside, not too far from the ice column. I tried to maneuver sideways over a rock to see if the crack opened up low. No luck, so I took my wallet and keys out of my pockets and tried again. This would've been an easier effort in my caving coveralls and boots. This still didn't work, so I thought I would slide my legs over the rock first and shove myself in.

Dumb idea but the right direction! When I slid my feet in, I noticed a hole in the floor of the passage where I had been sitting. It dropped down about six feet and out onto a balcony. Time for coveralls.

We suited up and surveyed the cave, despite the freezing temperatures. At the bottom of the balcony, the passage widened out to six feet but ended in a muddy drain in the floor. At least it mapped out at sixty feet.

I came back home and looked at the 1985 sketch (in meters) by Tom Moss of the Peacock Entrance to Hancock Cave. Tom Moss, Greg Kramer, and Jay Cox didn't use back sights or sketch to scale, but their drawings looked as though they had entered the cave near the garbage dump at the left side of the wall. We found no signs of cave there any longer.

Two days later, I wondered how their sketch would close with our survey of Hancock Cave (because we had completed a surface survey). I entered their data into the computer, noticing a lot of downhill shots. However, how could they be shooting down five meters below stream level? I shifted their data over to find that it matches reasonably well with our survey of the new cave.

It turns out that Tanya, Dave and I surveyed to the drain that is just about fifteen feet travel distance away from our survey inside the cave (based on the 1985 survey). Just a short dig to connect!

The Best Laid Plans…

2008-01-08T23:45:00.000-05:00

The survey of Rowland Spring cave continues. A plan intended to yield the maximum data derived; and it may have been a good plan if everything remained constant. Constant, things were not. Despite the ever-changing environment, the trip was a success; fun and safe caving, additional survey data, and a renewed understand of the cave system.

To set the stage: It had rained in the Marion area two weeks prior, it also happened to have been bitterly cold only days before, and there was even snow on the ground. We know there is an active stream in the cave, but it has been dry for some time; and we know the cave had a tendency to be cold due to the significant flow of air between the two entrances.

Walking to the cave Saturday morning, there was evidence of the recent rain. The streambed outside the cave was decorated with an array of fresh leaf dams formed from heavy rains. The good news however was the stream was dry; if there was any connection between the outside stream and inside stream, the dry streambed was an encouraging sign.

Inside the cave the interior stream could immediately be heard, not that surprising given the stream in only 50ft from the entrance. Climbing down to stream level resulted in two observations; the stream was higher than ever seen before, but still below boot level. And the lower level of the cave was downright cold; in fact, the mud on the floor was frozen in a honeycomb of ice crystals a few inches high.

The pit was rigged and Ken descended first; his goal was to check out the stream level at the bottom of the pit. His initial report was satisfactory to continue into the cave. However, two leads in the stream passage were immediately scratched from the agenda.

As the remaining team dropped the pit, Ken’s continuing report became a bit less appealing. "The water could not be avoided, and the water was up to his knees." Knowing the remaining leads were out of the stream, we continued. Side note: the height difference between Ken and Lisa is such that water level for Lisa was well above her knees.

Out of the water and the settled cold air, the team initially set out to tackle the first lead. The lead presented an interesting climb; Mike managed to climb up with encouragement from Lisa and an excellent belay from Ken. Fortunately the lead looped back to one of the three leads we skipped in the stream; from this vantage point the second lead in the stream could be better viewed, the lead did nothing. Three leads knocked out!

The next lead was another promising pit, dropping mud into the pit resulted in a plunk rather than a splat…water. Ken found the deepest section in the big room to have water; at least 5ft of water. The pit would be done another day.

The next lead was a climb up a chimney; Mike continued to demonstrate his solid climbing skills. I on the other hand, opted to climb the rope. The lead ended in a solid rock hole that even Lisa would not be able to get through, disappointing as what little could be seen there appeared to be at least an additional room. Another lead completed.

As Mike and I wrapped up the lead Ken and Lisa investigated a different lead; their lead was a small vertical crack. Their effort, confirmed by a visual connection, brought the lead into a previously surveyed room. Once more lead down.

Mike and I investigated a lead near the graffiti in the big room; the lead has excellent potential and leads into some new passage. It was determined a team of three would be preferred, otherwise the survey effort would be hampered by one individual doing instruments, book, and sketching.

Instead, we found Ken and Lisa in time to check out a high lead. Sending Lisa,we were able to get a visual connection; in the process, Ken found a section of the cave I had previously hand drawn, he thought best to survey. In one section, a stream could be heard beyond a narrow, soda straw infested restriction. Yet one more strong candidate for continued cave, that came to an end.

Knowing what lay in front of us we opted to exit the cave. The exit went smoothly despite the bone chilling water. Before long we were all out of the cave enjoying warmer temperatures, a good Italian meal, and Mike’s home brew.

The good news, the cave continues to grow. While we knocked off quite a few leads, there are four remaining. The pit, a climb, a low muddy crawl, and the continued passage confirmed this trip. I am looking forward to seeing what other secrets this cave may reveal.

240ft surveyed, cave length now at 2840ft.

It should be mentioned that on a previous trip an unusual concentration of dead bats in a very localized part of the cave was found; Ken contacted a biologist whom recently published an article regarding an unknown bacteria that seems to be effecting bats to see if there could be any connection. The biologist was provided pictures and reported to Ken what to look for. We did not find any live bats showing any signs of the bacteria, nor did we find anymore dead bats.

Sunday’s caving put us back at Hancock; Ken had one more unconfirmed report of cave that needed to be investigated. After talking to the landowner regarding the status of his new house and a few other things, we looked around the rock ledge for something that fit the description. Ken found a passage, and it fit the description he had.

As we started the survey, the rain also started; fortunately we were soon protected from the rain once inside the cave. However we were not protected by the cold; this cave still had ice from the recent cold snap.

The cave had a large daddy long leg population; I was very surprised to find the “spiders” actually moving. I have no knowledge of spiders, but I would have thought they would be frozen solid like the surrounding water.

The survey didn’t take long, I don’t have the actual survey data, but I would estimate the cave is under 50ft in length.

Hancock Celebration (photo by Rob Phelps)

2007-11-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

Tying Up Loose Ends

2007-11-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was pleased to be joined by Bob Alderson, Rob Phelps, Robbie Spiegel, Karen Willmes, and Dave West at Hancock Cave Saturday morning. I was especially pleased that Howard and Hayden Holgate had already rigged handlines at the entrance drops, so we flagged them to let them know to leave them in place until we exited the cave.

I led the survey team of Bobs over to the high leads that remained in the Noogah Way while Dave and Karen admired the formations. The sticky crawl through the Noogah reminded me of the waves of ingredients in the Milky Way commercials, and it left me pretty muddy. I set the Bob/Rob/Robbie team up at their leads and headed back to Karen and Dave in the main passage. By the time I led them to the other leads, we were joined by the original Noogah boys, Gordon Bolt and Matt Jenkins.

Gordon drew the short end of the stick and was assigned to cave with me. Matt joined Karen and Dave in the survey of the Transportation Wing. Gordon and I began a profile of a section of the cave, beginning at the Earthworm Gym and extending back to the Funnel Tunnel. While I sketched, Gordon tried to find the survey stations we had set ten years earlier. Along the way we encountered Brian Bolt's sport trip that had chosen a particularly difficult route to begin; they turned around at the entrance to the Noogah, before their opportunity to see the real pretties.

After Gordon and I got all the way back to the Funnel Tunnel, we returned again to the Earthworm Gym area. The other two teams hadn't yet emerged from their leads, and I took this as a particularly good sign that they'd found lots more cave. Gordon and I then started checking leads ourselves. Because we only had two people, I chose the least promising lead first, a low passage that we had breezed by on an earlier circuit trip.

Breeze was where the debate came. Gordon saw little hope for the passage, but I was sure that it wasn't just dead air I felt when I wedged my body into the hole beside the mud wall. I pulled out Tanya's mini-pick-and-shovel and started digging at the dirt. I eventually got far enough in the dig that I could see that the passage continued forward at least a few more feet before turning right, but it was going to be a long left-handed dig. Before I was ready to quit, I sent Gordon back to the other side of the mud wall. He peered down a small hole, and we managed a voice connection. That killed the lead, but it really was live air I felt.

Next Gordon and I started a short survey into the flowstone above the passage where Karen and Dave had gone. We were hampered by only having one set of survey instruments, but the Bob team showed up shortly after we began the survey. They helped us get the readings. When I climbed up so that Gordon could show me the survey point, he sat down to get out of the way. Unfortunately he was practicing his Cornhole game at the time and left some of his coveralls atop a stalagmite (ask him for the fool story).

I gave the Bob team the choice of the remaining two leads from this room, and they chose the Earthworm Gym lead because it was blowing air. Gordon and I surveyed the opposite lead over some beautiful rimstone dams and up a flowstone slope. By the time we reached the second station, we could hear Karen and Matt excitedly rejoicing in the big walking passage that they had just discovered. Gordon enjoyed talking to them through a small hole in the wall, and they asked if they could be in passage that was already known. Although they sounded as though they were above us, I responded that the only walking passage I knew of there was the one where they started their survey. Dave West made Karen and Matt feel silly when he told them to tie their survey back into the existing station (at least the loop closure was good).

Gordon squirmed sideways beside a flowstone mound as we surveyed uphill. Beyond the pretty decorations the room transformed into a dank passage with broken ledges similar to the Harvest Domes. It petered out in a sharp bend. As we descended past the flowstone mound, Gordon discovered that his cheek muscles had recovered and were again functioning properly. However, I think that the Bob Team found the discussions amusing.

We gathered up all of the teams when the leads had all been surveyed and exited the cave together. We celebrated the survey conclusion with a bottle of champagne. Forty-five surveyors made nearly fifty trips into the cave to close 58 loops. The cave length now stands at 13,153 feet, just 47 feet shy of 2.500 miles, and I have a big map to produce. Thanks for all the assistance with surveying over the last eleven years.

Caving Opportunity

2007-11-01T23:51:00.000-04:00

With a date having been set, a crew of cavers found, caves and objectives known, the wait began. There had been little rain all summer and very little this fall, perfect conditions for the caves planned (though the local citizens of Marion would disagree).

· Hancock – Funnel Tunnel sumps after it rains
· Atwells Tunnel – hoping the low water levels would reveal a passage through the sump
· Rowland Spring – surveying the mud passage would be slightly more pleasant without having to get wet as well as muddy.

With heavy rain resulting from a low passing through the southeast, all plans seemed in jeopardy; there was talk of not going, rescheduling, of mutiny before Ken even got anyone underground…could it even be possible? Fortunately we had some hearty cavers, or just cavers desperate to get out of town. The plan progressed forward, though backup plans were quickly being assembled.

A group of cavers left Friday and caved Hancock cave Saturday, their report can be read in a different posting. I left Saturday morning; my plans were to check out Atwells Tunnel. I had initially planned on bringing my dive gear along as a backup if the water levels were not low enough. I was certain I’d need it now given the inches of rain received.

I met up with Brian, Tanya, and Dale in Marion; after lunch we drove over the mountain and to the cave. It had been two years since I had been there; it seemed much further away than I remembered it. We walked to the cave and found the water level to be the same it has been on previous trips. It wasn’t worth hiking to the sump; I knew there would be no visible duck under.

Gear assembled and hauled to the sump within the cave; here it was donned, return time agreed to, I started the swim down the visible part of the sump. The silt was heavy and suspended in the water column, tying line along the way the sump was inspected for a duck under. None was found; instead the sump progressed to the depth of 23ft where the roof and floor pinched to less than 10 inches. Given the visibility, the plowing of mud to continue forward, the dive was stopped.

Mystery solved; the idea of a quick duck-under and continued dry passage found to be completely untrue. The rumors of school-aged kids traversing the entire cave now suddenly didn’t seem all that realistic…just rumors.

After packing up Tanya mentioned a sink on the property she had been meaning to investigate. With the weather being sunny, bright, and warm who could pass up an offer to walk. The sink was clearly evident; better yet it has to natural drains in the basin. Some digging would be in order, but with the amount of water that must collect off the surrounding landscape there is probably cave there.

Afterward we hiked more of the property; Brian found a small cave while I found a dead cow. The cave entrance was small and looked like a bear den (given the proximity of the carcass further entrenched that thought). Brian scooped his find; the cave was only 35ft or so in length, ending in a small room.

No further caves were found; the relaxing hour hike was a spectacular consolation prize. We then drove over to Hancock to see how the other team was doing. Finding the hand line in the main entrance signaled the team must have gotten back the Funnel Tunnel. Not knowing their timeline we didn’t suit up to join them; but rather went and had a delicious Mexican meal.

Sunday at Rowland Spring consisted of Brian, Ken, Robbie, and myself. The objective was to finish surveying the large room. The cave was dry; the stream that runs through the cave had no water.

We managed to finally get the exterior wall completed and then preceded to fill in the interior content. In addition, we dropped into the breakdown and found a few smaller passages underneath; this area is the lowest spot in the cave by 4ft. Good thing the cave was as dry as it was.

Brian brought his camera, he had time to explore and photo document a majority of the big room and its splendor. I have yet to see the pictures, but will try to post a few on the web page.

The statistics for the day:

· 40 stations for 535ft
· We closed four leads
· Have two new leads.

There are a few promising leads for the next trip. The date for the next trip is not yet known, but hopefully we can locate a few additional cavers to assist with this beautiful cave.

Wanta Buy a Hammer?

2007-10-30T22:18:00.000-04:00

A bad cold, the flu, eight inches of rain. The odds were again against me being able to finish the survey of Hancock Cave on October 13, 2007. I had even proposed to Dave Duguid that I would trade survey dates with him with the hopes that water levels in Hancock Cave would drop down after last week's drenching. Mark Little, Melanie McCullough, and I woke up Saturday morning at Tanya's house to a much clearer day than we had seen all week. Still I had plans to take photographs in the front part of the cave and maybe dig above Which Glob Pit because the rain had been so severe.

My plans to dig required tools, none of which anyone brought to Tanya's house that weekend. After a leisurely breakfast, we stopped at the local hardware store where we bought a four-pound hammer, cold chisels, and center punches to help with the dig. Then we drove out to the cave. Apparently the drought had been more severe than the rain. I noticed that Bear Creek was still way down, and I returned to my original plans. Mark, Melanie, and I found the creek outside Hancock Cave to be dry, so we headed for the Funnel Tunnel.

I was utterly amazed that the Funnel Tunnel hadn't changed since our last visit there in August. It was still dug open over ten inches high, and I opened it up even more to make it easy for everyone to get through. I think Melanie could've gone through on her hands and knees. We had gotten a late start because we expected so little, but now we had some goals to meet.

I dragged Mark and Melanie back to the Tortoise Shell Room and our first leads. We lucked out again because the lower lead (would've been six shots) tied right into the upper lead and saved a painful survey start. Although the survey dropped us down to a five-foot belly crawl, it opened back up into walking passage that tied back into the known passage after eight shots total.

We headed back to the Chocolate Wall, and I found the next lead (a two-foot high crawl into a flowstone mound). On the second long shot in, Mark was already standing. This lead had opened up into big walking passage. Too bad Mark and Melanie wanted to drive back to Cary that evening. In this new passage we found rimstone dams, cave coral, and a four-foot long strip of cave bacon. It also had Hancock's signature pendants and large breakdown, but the really amazing thing was the flowstone shelf suspended four feet off the floor by the pendants. No one else may have noticed it, but I saw it form the outline of a viking ship with an unexplored passage beneath.

Our goal was to knock off the seven remaining leads. Instead on Saturday we surveyed 310 feet (cave length now 2.39 miles with 56 loops--38th longest in Virginia), knocked off three leads, and created two more. Too bad I couldn't have kept Mark and Melanie in there all night long.

On Sunday I joined Dave Duguid's survey trip to Rowland Springs Cave. We surveyed a lot of footage through fins and formations but never seemed to get far from the big room where we started. There I discovered that my new frog system falls into the class of "sit-stand-bang your shoulder-repeat" single rope techniques.

VAR/MAR 2007--Alpena Cave

2007-10-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

Friday morning was mighty damp. As I helped Philly Grotto set up for the 2007 VAR/MAR, the sky sprinkled every hour or so. I looked down at the cave description for the survey trip I was planning to lead to Middle of Nowhere Cave, and I added the phrase "may be damp" to the entrance description.
At 10 PM the signup sheets went out, and people hurriedly scribbled their names beside the trips they wanted. At least three people came over to me at Registration to announce that no one had signed up for my trip yet. By the morning, I couldn't even find one of my sketchers and we were down to the two leaders. Cancel the trip.
I myself then signed up for Barry Horner's trip to Alpena Cave. We had a blast with just six people making the through trip. Barry had dug open the back entrance, surveyed the cave, and used chemical persuasion to make the connection large enough for humans. Therefore, our trip included full descriptions of the exploration of the 2001 connection all the way through.
As for the character of the cave, I was a little reluctant about my ability to make the through trip because the description read that a 44-inch chest size was the limit, but Barry convinced me I'd fit. As it was, I don't really know where the tightest spot was because I never had any difficulty with a squeeze.
We entered by climbing down the breakdown in the sinkhole entrance and then spent most of the time following a downstream passage. The ceilings were often high, and we crossed over and through very little breakdown. The most fun part was descending the cascading stream as it plunged from one pool to the next.
The least fun came when the ceiling dropped down near the stream. We laid down in an inch or two of water and scooted along. The scooting was easy, but the wait for the people in front of me made my legs cramp a bit. Fortunately the stream was low enough to avoid the passage becoming an ear dip, but unfortunately the stream belly crawl was about fifty feet long. Still a lot of fun because it didn't get tight until I was near the end and could see people standing in front of me.
We popped out of that hole and headed straight for the entrance. After putting on dry clothes, we spent some time bouldering around Bear Heaven before heading back to the TRA site. The Lions Club dinner and dessert were tremendous (not to mention the sheet cakes), the presentations by Doug Medville and the Japanese Exploration Team were fun (with some great photos by the Japanese), and Ericka's superb performance with the live bluegrass band astonished everyone. Overall a great VAR/MAR with good, cool weather in the end. Happy 60th Anniversary to Philly Grotto.

Back To Grand Caverns

2007-09-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

It had been almost a year since having been to Grand Caverns; this time was to be a new experience. I took my two oldest boys with me; I had promised a caving adventure and some camping since spring. Our family trip to West Virginia during the summer months didn’t produce any caving opportunities and for camping, it’s just been far to hot.

Even though the typical format for the caving weekend is to arrive Friday night, we left Saturday morning; insuring we had avoided a front that produced a significant amount of rain throughout the entire region. We entered the park around 2pm and found no one around; there was only one camp set up. The ranger indicated that Carol had retrieved the key to Fountain cave. The ranger provided some additional detail to the lightening strike on Grand Caverns and the damage done; Carol mentioned in an earlier email that we wouldn’t be in Grand Caverns this weekend.

Concluding someone must be in Fountain, we geared up and hiked the hill. We found no sign of anyone at Fountain; the gate was locked and no key was sitting on the ledge. Not having a clue where anyone was at, we hike the remaining hillside to Jefferson Cave and then continued to the top. We wandered around the hilltop before returning back to Fountain; still no one. We then hiked over to Madison cave on an off chance the group was working a different cave today.

We returned to the park and goofed around until dinnertime. We ate at the Wood Fired Oven, Pizza of course. Returning back to the park no one had arrived; again we goofed around in the baseball field until bedtime. The kids tried their best at ghost stories amongst all the laughing until lights out.

In the morning we met up with the other campers, three. The group ridge walked a piece of property Saturday; the effort yielded no new cave. We ate a good breakfast and got Scott on the phone; he was interested in taking one of his kids into Fountain. A small group entered into Fountain cave. The kids enjoyed fountain and wanted to explore all passages; Dawson was sure he’d found a new part of the cave and wanted to map it. Next time I go into Fountain with the kids I need to bring a stronger light; I think the cave would have been much more interesting if the lighting was better.

Scott mentioned he had the key to Madison and we could go over there quickly. Dawson immediately remembered an earlier discussion revolving around George Washington’s signature. He was overjoyed knowing he would get an opportunity to see the signature. Madison is a much smaller cave; we found Washington’s signature surrounded by a slew of others. The three boys enjoyed reading the various signatures and wanted to leave their own; I don’t think they fully understood why that was no longer the proper cave etiquette.

Thanking Scott, we headed down to Crozet Tunnel. Crozet Tunnel was built in 1858; it was the first tunneling effort in the US where teams dug from both sides and met in the middle. A significant engineering accomplishment considering the year accomplished and that the effort yielded only a few feet of error. The tunnel is no longer used; there is a larger tunnel beside it for today’s larger trains.

Dawson and Dylan enjoy trains; yes we have a large collection of “Thomas” paraphernalia. Due to time constraints we didn’t bring lights; we would just hike to the tunnel and go in just a little bit. The boys thought it was cool; even though they were hoping a train would come through the parallel tunnel. No luck. Not hiking through left the opportunity for a future trip.

How to Beat Down Surveyors (or How to Knock Off Fourteen Leads)

2007-08-30T14:46:00.000-04:00

We had had a wonderfully productive survey trip last December in Hancock Cave, but then the rains and snow melt kept us from passing through the Funnel Tunnel for many months. On August 11, Dave Duguid and Will Summer joined me for another survey trip into Hancock Cave. This time we meant business. I knew that when Dave vigorously started widening the Funnel Tunnel to a size that allowed Will and me through (Tanya loaned us a great shovel).

I was really impressed that Dave and Will had their readings agree right from the start. There was a little bit of grumbling when I suggested they always choose passages to the right (because it was more likely to lead away from known cave), but they went along. The first right passage turned into a decorated stoopway but widened out before it joined in with a walking passage.

The end of the walking passage found us in several short domes, including the highest point beyond the Funnel Tunnel (almost 33 feet above the cave entrance). After surveying the domes, Dave discovered a survey marker we left in the 1990s. When I pulled out all of my notes, I realized that we had discovered the back way into the famed Noogah, closing a really big loop.

There were several leads in the Noogah area that we knocked off the map from there. One involved a climb up to a mouse nest with six mice surprised be Dave's visit. Another low lead was too small for me, but Dave pushed his body through and sketched the room. We looped up and down to close some other loops in that area. The remaining lead in the Noogah area involves a high step-across onto an iffy rock, and we chose to save that one for a fresher start.

Instead we went back near the beginning of our survey that day and surveyed down a long water-sculpted passage with at least one shot over forty feet long. Dave and Will liked these long shots, so I next to them to the other side of the main passage to mop up the dry stream leads. It was easy surveying for Will, but Dave was the one who had to drag tape from one station to the next. Will and I just walked around in the main passage.

Nearest the Funnel Tunnel the stream passage got extremely low. Dave couldn't even drag his body along the cobble after a certain point. Fortunately we could visually connect the stations from both sides, so I'll be able to sketch that to the final map.

It was late when we got out, so we were stuck with the Pizza Hut. One would think that the only customers in the restaurant could've been fed in less than 50 minutes, but the staff seemed to be in no hurry. Around 12:30 AM, we bedded down at Tanya's.

Dave, Will, and I managed to survey 760 feet of passage on that trip with more than fifty shots. Everyone knows that Hancock Cave is the longest surveyed cave in Smyth County, Virginia. The surveyed passage is now up to 2.33 miles in length (depth of 170.5 feet) for the survey we began in December 1996. This length means that Hancock is now longer than Patton Cave (2.040 mi), Buchanan Saltpeter Cave (2.060 mi), Clover Hollow (2.103), Cave of the Winds (2.147 mi), Cave Mountain Cave (2.200 mi), Kennamer (2.326 mi), and Sinnett-Thorn Mountain Cave (2.329 mi). It's approaching the lengths of Trout, Fletcher, Ape, and Low Moor Caves, but there are only about seven leads left to explore this fall.

The Deal, Survey Style

2007-08-16T23:06:00.000-04:00

Anxious to continue sketching Rowland’s, Ken and I stuck a familiar deal. I would help him in Hancock if he helped me in Rowland’s. A date was selected; we set out to find others to assist; Will helped us on Saturday and Tanya and Robbie on Sunday.

Hancock

After a home cooked breakfast, thanks to Ken, we set out for Hancock. Ken had a plan already in place; the leads he was interested in were past the funnel tunnel. The funnel tunnel can only be passed when there hasn’t been, nor will there be, rain. Obvious to most all, the southeast is under near drought conditions.

Even though Hancock is currently over two miles in length, getting to our initial lead did not take long. The lead took us generally north and not into anything very tight. The lead eventually took us into a room that had been surveyed to via another direction; closing off another lead on Ken’s list.

While in the general area Ken had a few other leads. One high lead led into a formation choke; through the formations gray field mice could be seen milling around. One of the leads seemed very promising but in the end looped back to the room we had surveyed to earlier. There was one high lead, with a deep crag below, that I opted out of; it might be more appealing as the first lead on fresh legs.

Ken had one more lead to survey, a low stream passage; and the correct motivation, another home-prepared breakfast if we could break 750ft of surveyed passage. With 50ft to go, who could resist! I pushed in, however low meant really low. While lying on the bed of mud-glued coble stone, trying to dig it up, I simply called it quits. We surveyed what we could; fortunately it amounted to more than 50ft.

We exited the cave around 10:15 to a hot, humid, sound invested night. Receiving very low service at Pizza Hut landed us back at Tanya’s around 12:30. Keeping to his word, Ken made breakfast the following morning.

Rowland Spring

Pulling up to the owner’s house we were rewarded with a bit of information. On the last trip we found a signature in the cave; asking the owner if he knew any of the names, a gentleman standing next to him confessed to being one of the guilty party. The individual provided details of using a rope and climbing hand over hand through the known pit; all the wild speculation of how the signature got there came crashing to an end.

Rowland’s is not a large cave at this point, however to get back to the survey area takes some time. There’s a series of climbs and of course a pit to drop. There was no water in the stream and the mud exceptionally sticky.

The start of the survey immediately put us into a large room, which we never surveyed out of. I don’t think we surveyed but thirty percent of the room. The room is very impressive; it is difficult to define where the walls are, our lights where not bright enough to penetrate to the opposite side. The room has very large blocks of breakdown making traversing the room quite interesting.

The survey tally for the day was 416ft; the remainder of the room waits to be surveyed and any leads off of the room.

Tight Squeeze: Five Cave Trips in One Weekend

2007-07-16T14:18:00.000-04:00

I left my office around 4 PM on Friday afternoon. I enjoyed an easy drive past and through Boone out to Blountville, Tennessee. I expected to meet Zoey and the Girl Scouts at their camp at the commercial Appalachian Caverns. However, no one was in camp when I arrived. I did notice two people in coveralls up by the cave entrance, so I went up to talk to them. They were the trip leaders for the Girl Scout wild cave trip that hadn't left yet (it was almost 9 PM).

I threw on my coveralls and joined Wes and Tanya and walked in to meet the scouts. Wes and Tanya had a lot of experience making wild cave tours as sporting as one might hope. They began by pushing the willing through a side loop that finished with a tight squeeze. They claimed that it was 7-1/2 inches at the tight spot, but I'm guessing it was more like 8-1/2 inches (since I fit). Wes had the girls crawling through the sides of walking passages, and they didn't care that I kept meeting them as they exited the squirmy crawls. He even poured water from his bottle to make a sliding board that he had to pull the girls down. Near the end of the trip that evening, we found a mud puppy (a creature I never see in Virginia caves). We exited the cave around 11:30 PM Friday evening.

Everyone was awoken Saturday morning at 6:30 AM to begin the next day. This Girl Scout trip was being set up as a 5-day-long caving camp, so there were lots of things to learn. Teaching the drowsy scouts about cave maps at 8 AM was not my shining moment; the early hour really prevented them from showing much interest.

A local caver named Jared and I followed Zoey's car out of the campground to head toward the cave (about an hour later than expected). However, the van full of scouts took about fifteen minutes more before they joined us at a nearby intersection. We then headed to Renfro Cave where we were allowed to split into two groups. The old saltpeter cave is marked by pinnacles exposed by the mining, and the girls in my group had a good time clambering around and testing their climbing skills. We headed back to the room nearest the entrance, and I passed out map outlines of the cave and keys to NSS map symbols. The object was for the girls to figure out where they were on the map and then fill in the map's blank spaces. Blank stares. I think they later appreciated that sketching a good map isn't easy.

We had an extra half hour to go explore, so I led my group to a dead end. They then took us high up in the cave where I spotted the alternate entrance. We were all too big to exit that way, so we returned to the vans a little bit later than the other group. The van took off for lunch, and then we headed to the same park to meet them. Unfortunately the park had multiple parking areas, so we ended up in different places. This led to a late arrival at Morrill's (Worley's) Cave.

I think we managed to enter Morrill's Cave around 4:30 PM. We stayed in one long line as we trampled along the trunk passage. My group stopped about a half mile in with buckets and scrub brushes. The girls learned how to clear graffiti from the cave walls in their conservation efforts, and they were dedicated workers while we waited for the other group to return. The other group did not return. My group headed after them down the Railroad Passage, and I gave some advice to would-be cave photographers as we passed some pretty formations and deep rimstone dams. Everyone was back to the parking area by 7 PM, except the van driver and van. After a few wrong turns on the way to dinner with girl scouts, I skipped out and headed up to Virginia for Sunday caving with other TriTrogs.

After a good night's sleep, Dave Duguid, Diana Gietl, and Tanya McLaughlin took me back to the upper entrance of Rowland Springs Cave on Sunday morning. A warm breeze blew into this entrance, so no one got cold when we weren't moving. Dave improved his earlier survey notes, Diana balanced her tripod and camera on dolomitic flowstone, Tanya learned how to pose, and I cursed at blue flash bulbs. While we didn't do any entranceway shots, I think that Diana managed some nice formation photos (based on her 1-1/2 display screen).

We exited after several hours and then regrouped at the lower entrance of Rowland Springs Cave. The cold wind was roaring out this entrance, and I could see my breath plummet down the hillside. This was new cave to me. We climbed down to the stream level and then back up a cable ladder into a huge room. Dave and I discussed how to sketch the room, and then he began a massive cross section to capture the immensity of this relatively short cave. Meanwhile Diana rigged Dave's new rope to drop a 30-foot pit.

After Diana discovered passage at the bottom, Dave, Diana, and I surveyed down the pit, with me in the middle setting station. While hanging on rope, I measured 95 degrees for the azimuth down to Diana, and her reading was 30 degrees off from mine. What a way to start a survey! However, the fact that both our clinometers read 85 degrees vertical drop meant that the trig works out to less than a foot in error. With me hanging on rope and Diana sliding down a slope with nearly vertical measures on a compass, that was the best pair of readings Dave could get from us.

The three of us found an active stream passage at the bottom of the pit, and a few high leads would've taken us back up to other levels. We continued surveying away from the known cave passage, and the stream eventually gurgled into a small hole in the wall. The stream-level passage ended shortly thereafter in mud plugs, so we headed uphill. It was nice to leave the wet stream, but a cool breeze took over at the higher level. Diana took us up a dry slope until we arrived at some incredible formations. Delicate white rimstone dams and thick draperies were much prettier than anything else I had seen all weekend.

We stopped surveying at big borehole-like passage, with promises of lots more formations for the next survey team. Unfortunately my time lying in the stream and the prospect of driving back to the Triangle that evening made us turn around at that point. The next sets of surveyors have a lot to look forward to. We also did pretty well with our survey, eighteen stations covering about 275 feet in under four hours. Overall, I sure can't complain about a regular weekend with five cave trips.

Rowlands Continued

2007-06-14T23:26:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning was a bit of a mix-up, the restaurant we were to meet Robbie as was closed due to a family emergency. It took a bit to get things straightened out, and was soon at the property talking to the landowner. His brother and himself were outside; they both are very friendly and supportive of our effort. He is very appreciative of the work we are doing to clean up and protect his cave. Both have plenty of stories about caving in Rowland as boys. That cave has real significance and memories to both of them.

We started the survey from the lower level; near the cable ladder climb, as it has become known. In some of the breakdown there was a hole in the floor, which led into tall canyon-like passage. The passage is actually the continuation of the canyon before the cable ladder climb. It was not noticed as such previously due to the amount of suspended breakdown. The canyon continued until reaching a short climb to the right (and a dead raccoon to the left).

The climb looked very promising; at the top of the climb the cave T’ed. The right passage was one terminal shot, darn. To the left, we were presented with another entranceway into the big room we started to survey on the last trip. The survey continued into the big room. It was nice to complete the big room and to knock off two leads, but disappointing the leads didn’t continue on. In the big room there is one lead that was not surveyed. This lead will require vertical gear; it is a pit. The stream can be heard from within the pit; while the bottom was not visible the depth the streambed would be estimated at about 25ft below.

We ventured to the upper level to check out three other leads; one lead was declared not safe to attempt with the current equipment with us and will require another try, with a 12ft ladder. The other lead did just as I suspected, looped back into a lower room we had previously surveyed. The last lead wasn’t really a lead, we knew the passage; the brothers used to traverse a rather creepy pit. The passage leads to the big room below. We surveyed the small section to add to the map for completeness.

Much of the cave surveyed was not nearly as decorated as other portions of the cave. However, the cave continues to impress me; it is not a long cave but has tremendous volume given the two large rooms. I remain optimistic the pit will provide more passage, only another survey trip will reveal the truth.

Middle of Nowhere (Spring VAR 2007)

2007-04-29T23:15:00.000-04:00

Some may consider Durbin, WV to be in the middle of nowhere, but fans of the Green Bank Observatory, old-fashioned railroads, and caving know better. I showed up Friday night after registration closed, during the party where Smiling Bob Gray and his wife were spinning the tunes. It was incredibly cold, and I lost one leg of my convertible pants, the only long pants I had brought along. The folks I knew at VAR were mostly already signed up for trips and weren't planning pickup trips of their own. I didn't think my options were looking very good unless I wanted to join Dwight Livingston on a Cassell Cave through trip.

However, I was pleased to find a cancellation on a horizontal trip with Doug Medville with possible surveying or ridgewalking. Score! On top of that, it was only a few minutes drive away. A drive up a forest road until the cars could penetrate no further and then a 1.5-mile hike. Normally that long a hike in caving gear would be unpleasant, but the cold temperatures and heavy clouds made the suit quite comfortable. The hike along the forest road was filled with foot-deep mud puddles that the ten of us avoided whenever possible.

I was hiking at the front with Doug when we neared where he thought the cave might be. His only trip into the cave had been in 1973, and the surface drainage had changed a bit since then. He knew that a pit was nearby but didn't know if it went anywhere, so Van carried along a cable ladder. We found the pit easily, and I free climbed down without any problems. At the bottom the echoing lead with water beyond it was too small for me to fit into. I spotted a shorter person down the climb, but it was too small for her as well.

Just up the stream from there, Doug remembered the cave we were headed for. Unfortunately it seemed to terminate after about 20 feet. Maybe he was wrong. In any case, the hillside hadn't been well ridgewalked, so we had lots of opportunities to find the cave. Doug found another entrance just below a pair of springs. I dropped down into it, saw a lot of water dripping from the stream above followed by a 9.5-inch high crawl. We elected to save this lead for the hike out.

We ridgewalked for another hour or two, finding lots of springs but no reasonably sized caves. Five of the party had headed back to the cars, not that Cheryl Suitor had a key to get her clean stuff from my car. Back at the wet tight lead, two folks explored it while I dug at one of the nearby springs. As it turns out, they found the place we were aiming for: Middle of Nowhere Cave. It was fun naming the other FROs we discovered along the way: East Edge of Nowhere, Going Nowhere Fast, etc. We chose not to survey that afternoon since half of the party had already departed. Everyone liked the idea of going back at OTR or Fall VAR when it's drier. Maybe Lisa should add that cave to her trip list for the Fall VAR.

When we returned to camp early in the afternoon, Ericka Hoffmann and I wandered through Durbin with her camera shooting some interesting black-and-white shots of the railcars and store fronts. I put on one leg of the convertible pants and explained to the Baltimore folks that it seemed that the best way to find the other leg was to advertise the missing one. Fifteen minutes later someone returned my missing leg. I now have my own Cinderella story.

I got even luckier later that evening. Gordon Birkheimer set up a poster showing twenty different cave entrances, and the goal was to name as many as you could. I teamed up with Ericka, and we nailed ten of them. That was enough to tie Craig Hindman and Carol Tiderman, and a coin toss won us a T-shirt, some stickers, and the title.

Continuation of Rowland Spring Cave Survey

2007-04-25T22:42:00.000-04:00

Diana and I left Durham around 2:30 on Saturday amidst one of the more beautiful sunny days we’ve had in some time; the weekend was to be so nice there was a brief right side / left side struggle in my brain. Perhaps the weekend would be better spent outside than underground. But the desire to connect the two entrances prevailed, even if we had to connect the two by a surface survey.

Getting into Marion around suppertime was a pleasant variation to most trips. It was nice to enjoy a relaxing dinner and conversation with Tanya, and still get to sleep before 11pm. I even got a chance to walk Tanya’s dog, Daisy, that evening before the sunset. Our start was a bit slow on Sunday, but after breakfast we rolled out toward Rowland Spring.

The plan was to continue to survey in the upper entrance. There were two leads to complete before trying to figure out how to navigate into the lower section. And, of course, to leave ample time to perform an overland survey should it be necessary.

We started the survey off of station C20 that lead us generally west for a few shots before ending. We proceeded to the lead off of station C12, leading general southeast. There were several deep rim stone dams along this passage, and a formation choke that was blowing copious amounts of air; I would guess air from outside based on the location.

The second lead brought us back to the hole in the floor that leads to the lower section. Since Diana and I brought our vertical gear we decided it would be better to drop the vertical section and determine the best route to safely get all cavers to the lower level.

As Diana prepared to drop the pit, the airflow passing though was clearly evident by Diana’s carbide flame curling in the direction of the pit regardless of which way she faced. The pit ended up being much deeper than expected, 48ft to be exact. I was going to drop the pit and help her look for the lower entrance climb; but she found the station left from survey B quickly. We opted to pass Diana the cable ladder and rig the other side. Tanya and myself cleaned up our gear and left for the lower entrance.

Upon getting to the climb, there awaited the cable ladder. Soon we were all in an enormous room. From this room we were able to detect the sound of the stream on the northwest side of the room. While taking a break; I checked out a possible lead to the north of the room and found continuing passage, and a dead possum.

Getting back to the survey, we had the task of trying to sketch the room. We started with the south end since it appears to have no going leads. It wasn’t long though before the continuous airflow in this room chilled us to the bone. We opted to connect the two entrances and call it a day.

We surveyed 292ft of passage, with only one set of instruments…that is another story. The surveyed passage is now over 1000ft and has a vertical drop of 116ft. The most significant statistic though, there is more cave to be surveyed!

From 0 to 80 in 24 Hours

2007-03-12T00:16:00.000-04:00

March 10-11, 2007

The best laid plans are still subject to nature’s whims. Dave Duguid had assembled two teams of experienced surveyors willing to brave the Funnel Tunnel in Hancock Cave for the expected booty on the far side. Our December survey had indicated that we’d have lots of leads to survey through major maziness. Such was not our fate.

Bob Alderson, Gordon Bolt, and Matt Jenkins formed one team while Dave and Joe Fortuna joined me. The six of us arrived at the Funnel Tunnel to find water pouring from it. There was no air space at all in the low part. After some stream clearage there may have been an inch of air at the lowest part. It hadn’t rained or snowed all week, but the Funnel Tunnel flowed full charge. Gordon speculated that some of the Funnel Tunnel’s flooding likely reflects seasonal changes rather than just weather changes. Maybe winter snowmelt had finally thawed and trickled down Walker Mountain from near the top.

This left me with the difficult task of figuring out what else the teams could do. My team had vertical gear in the cars with them, but the others did not. My survey notes for the near side of the Funnel Tunnel had been left at Tanya’s house in Marion. I sat down and concocted a plan that avoided letting Gordon and Matt leave the cave to see the pretty weather outside.

Bob, Gordon, and Matt headed for Not-in-the-Face and You-Don’t-Know-Jack Pits, places where vertical gear can be more of a hindrance than an aid. They had digging tools, a bag of assorted vertical supplies, and two leads to survey. Dave, Joe, and I chose to exit the cave, retrieve vertical gear and a cable ladder for the others, despoil my first rope, and head for Hickory Dickory Pit.

Dave and I descended the pit while Joe listened to our gruntings. The pit drop is more a series of lips than any free pit. At the bottom of the drop, we found a mud wall that I dug my way up to get into the passage. I had never been down there before, and I finally understood why Linda Andrews had sketched the passages down there in such a strange way: they all overlap one another. It was very pretty and remained pristine, so I worked hard to avoid making muddy tracks across the formations. I was able to determine that the area really had no remaining leads, a fact that I was pretty sure about but unable to totally discern from the three-dimensional nature of the sketch. I applaud the survey efforts by that group through twisty, muddy passages with undisturbed formations.

The climb over all of the Hickory Dickory lips with a stiff, muddy rope was a real challenge for me and my ropewalker. When I reached the top, the steam I generated became so thick that Joe and Dave lost visual contact just ten feet apart.

Our next hurdle was the Whine Cellar. Dave yo-yoed it three times until he convinced himself that the right way was definitely that tight hole where the rope naturally dropped. When Dave got to the bottom, Joe was sure that he heard Dave’s voice from the direction of the Toilet Bowls. Joe found Dave below him in that four-inch crack that only Linda Waters will fit through. Not even Joe could climb down that, and so we knocked those off as potential leads. No new survey but useful notes to help complete the map.

The other team managed to survey one of the leads at the base of Not-in-the-Face Pit during that time. Sixty grueling feet down an additional pit. We found them giggling about the connection over to their other lead. Matt and Gordon seemed unwilling/unable to make the connection. Eventually their team joined us outside.

The next day took us to Rowland Springs Cave. Tanya McLaughlin, Dave Duguid, and I surveyed beginning at the upper entrance to the cave while the underground screech owl surveyed us from his perch. He was quite safe halfway up the wall, among the thirty-foot high flowstone formations. I was surprised to see such a well decorated dolomite cave.

The survey began easy, until we discovered passage beneath formations. We surveyed past many rimstone dams and the dolomitic stalactites, marked by their stubbiness. We Sunday-surveyed 336 feet in just over four hours, roughly 80 feet per hour. Meanwhile, Joe had generously watched the stream launder my vertical gear and new rope. Returning to Raleigh with clean gear is always a plus.

A Good Weekend to Be Underground

2007-02-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

February 17-18, 2007
Diana was interested in photography, and Hayden and his buddy Rick were more interested in sport caving. To please them both, I took Ericka Hoffmann up on her invitation to join her on a photo trip during the Sligo Grotto trip to Franklin. I figured that Hayden, Rick, and Howard would cave over at the John Guilday Preserve on Saturday where they could stay dry. I got most everything wrong.
Diana backed out, along with the folks that planned to go to the John Guilday Preserve. Instead Howard, Hayden, and Rick joined Meredith and Alan on a trip to Mystic Cave, the same place the photographers planned to go. Pretty brave of them considering that the temperatures the previous night went down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ericka, Steve Rexrode, and I entered Mystic Cave near Seneca Rocks with Howard's group. Ericka laid down in the stream to photograph some ice-mites, but I wasn't ready to get that cold that soon. I waited until we got further inside and pulled out my camera in a room where we heard Hayden and Rick chasing crayfish. Unfortunately the last time I'd done cave photography was Labor Day, so I had a tough time figuring out why I couldn't get the flash to work in bulb mode. I read the manual for a while and then just used the flashes I was carrying in the Pelican case.
Ericka and I took turns setting up my camera and remote on the tripod for room and passage shots, so I didn't dare change the settings back to snap closeups. After an exhaustive series to get one good shot (see the TriTrog photo gallery), I needed a break from posing. While Ericka did a lot of closeup photography in that room, I wandered off to scope out my next shot in the trunk passage.
I set the camera up on a tripod and practiced how I'd get the shot when Ericka and Steve joined me later. I think I like these practice shots better than the well-lit one because they just show my shadows and a yellow streak from my carbide lamp moving down the passage. I captioned the photo "Tinkerbell chasing Peter Pan's shadow."
After another series in the main passage, Ericka posed for a set of shots for me. I had to explain to her that both Steve and I were too tall for the shot. I managed to backlight a waterfall in a strange way, and the flash decay actually makes the water drops look as though they're dripping up instead of down. Too bad I can't remember which electronic flash we were using for that shot.
We then sport-caved for a while, and I got wet up to my waist (Ericka and Hayden up to their chests). However, we found one more shot to set up (notice the dampness of my bottom half) and didn't leave the cave until 6:30 PM to a chilly 17 degrees.
The next day we wandered into the New Trout maze and were duly impressed by the walls covered by brachiopods and other fossils. I chopped ice in an attempt to get us up to the Trout Cave entrance but determined that we could walk to Hamilton Cave faster than I was making progress. We spent just a few minutes in Hamilton before Hayden and Rick led us back out and down the hill. Then the long drive back home.