BLUE RIDGE
GROTTO of the NSS
Monthly Meeting Minutes – Jersey Lily’s Roanoke
August 16, 2019
Attendance:
Susan Burr, Chair |
Jen Suggs* |
Lynn Ott |
Nick Schmalenberger* |
Marian McConnell
– Secretary |
Trish Geiger –
Treasurer |
Jeff Huffman |
Doug Feller |
Bob Gulden |
Jacob Whitlock* |
Zander Lenoir* |
Martin DiLeggi |
Dusty Gulden |
Nicole Gulden |
Odin Gulden |
MarySue Socky |
|
|
*Guest
1. TRIP
REPORTS:
·
Porter’s Cave, VA 8/3/19: (Susan Burr) - Susan
Burr - Doug Feller, Trish Geiger, Jennifer Suggs, Dustin Womack (son-in-law),
Braven (6 yr. old grandson), Brian Brindle Jr. (Dustin's friend who has been
caving before), Karla Teeter (co-worker who has been caving before), Taylor
Thorp (Karla's boyfriend who use to help lead the park & rec cave trips) -
We went to Porter's Cave. I was prepared with tools just in case, to dig out
the entrance. Apparently that was a good idea. Doug had to dig out a little
along the bottom part. Problem was the key we had would not open the lock. The
lock appeared new & we had told the owner they needed a new lock. I went
down to the car to call the owner & see if the lock had been changed &
asked if I had the correct key. She said that the lock had been changed, but
she couldn't remember the grotto that did it. She said she thought that was the
correct key, but she ended up checking & found 2 keys together in a drawer.
I took off back to her house to pick up another key. Meanwhile while I am gone,
the guys are trying to remove the gate from the pipe because it was loose. That
was a no go BTW! I get back with a shiny new key only to find out it doesn't
work either. We had to abort that cave & headed over to Crossroads since it
was close by. Couldn't tell my grandson that we weren't going caving after all!
I am not terribly fond of Crossroads, especially with kids. We only managed to
do the entrance area. Probably in the cave only 1-1/2 - 2 hours total. Doug,
Dustin, Brian & I were very attentive to watching & helping Braven out.
I also made sure at the more difficult places to stop & make sure everyone
got through ok. Trish was great at helping out & bringing up the rear. From
what I heard everyone had a good time even though it wasn't the trip I had planned.
We are still working on finding out if there is a key out there that will open
the gate or we may go back & replace the lock ourselves & make sure the
owner has a key that works!
·
CA, NM, VA, WV caves by Nick Schmalenberger
in July and August:
o
In
California I first went caving in the Marble Mountains for June 30 - July 6,
and went in Trail Junction cave, Snail Home cave, Bigfoot cave, and several other caves I can’t remember right now.
The caves were cold and mostly with streams running in them so it made me think
of the lyric in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald "In the rooms of her
ice-water mansion”. The second week of July I went rafting on the Rogue River
in Oregon with some cavers and other people, then spent the last 2 weeks of
July working at my company’s office and visiting my family in California. July
27 and 28 were Avalanche and Kloppenberg
caves in the northern Sierras of California, then I started the drive back by
way of Carlsbad, NM.
o
Near
Needles California, it was getting hot already around 8 in the morning but I
got to see the interesting patterns raked into the rocks on the ground by the
Mojave Indians called the Topock Maze. I also noticed on the topographic map I
was next to “Bat Cave Wash”, so I
scrambled over there and found a rock shelter around where a cave (Y symbol) is
marked on the topo, so I assume that was the cave. It was also quite close to a
big PG&E natural gas facility and I read a report on the bats from PG&E
"Bat Surveys of the Topock Compressor Station Soil Investigation and
Groundwater Remediation Project Areas” http://dtsc-topock.com/sites/default/files/Final%20Topock%20Bat%20Report_07July2015.pdf
o
The
trip to Christmas Tree Cave on
August 1 with Sonia Meyer (a Virginian!) was in New Mexico, in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. 2 other
members of the Carlsbad grotto, Michael Moffitt and Melanie Ruegg,
were also on the trip and it was their first time vertical caving so it was fun
talking about that. It was pretty hot out and the cave was sort of hard to
find, we didn’t have a GPS point, but the park’s description of the cave had a
nice drawing of where it was on the slope above the wash, and there were lots
of cairns so we eventually found it. The formations were very beautiful,
including the “Christmas Tree” which was a stalagmite shaped like its name. We
also had a plan to go to Wen cave after but it was 4pm by the time we had to
decide so we went to swim in the Black River instead which was very refreshing.
The channel got fairly deep right at the bank, there was a swimming pool ladder
there and a nice rope swing. I also had some beers to share that were sort of
warm but nice, and a cantaloupe we shared, before going to eat pizza and drink
cider in town where we also met Michael’s fiancée.
o
August
2 was Sonia’s last day working at Carlsbad and she gave a nice talk in the
afternoon about her project monitoring the CO2 levels in the tourist cave
related to the number of visitors and previous studies from the 1970s and more
recently but with lost data. In the 1970s the CO2 levels were around 400ppm
which is normal for outside atmosphere but now are around 1500ppm. If they get
up to 4000ppm they will be dangerous to people and also inhibit formation
growth. I caught up with work in the morning and then went on the tourist route
in Carlsbad, it was just really amazing how big it was
with giant formations everywhere. It felt like Luray caverns but much bigger
for the same number of people. I took the elevator both ways to see the tourist
part of Carlsbad, so then I had a few hours before Sonia’s talk and I became a
Carlsbad junior ranger by doing a crossword puzzle and answering questions
about the cave. After Sonia’s talk I watched the bat flight, said goodbye to
Sonia and drove a ways into Texas before finding a nice place off the highway
next to an oil well to sleep in my car for the night.
o
Separately
from all that, Sonia was also organizing a group of California people to visit
caves in West Virginia and Virginia this week, so I joined them for some of
those. First was Windy Mouth on August 10, but we got lost and ended up just
swimming in the river. In Scott Hollow
on August 11 we met another group from the VPI club in the cave, including
Jason Delafield and Eric Steinberg. Eric also joined the trip to Pig Hole on August 15, then food after
at El Rodeo in Blacksburg. I had to work the rest of the days this week, but
the others went to at least Maxwelton, New River, Links, Tawney’s, Smokehole, and Clover Hollow.
·
Tawney’s Cave, VA – 8/? – Jeff & Hillary
Huffman and Jason went to the viewing of “The Descent” hosted by VPI Grotto in
the cave. The movie was projected on the cave wall which made it hard to see;
next time they will bring a screen. About 20 people were there.
·
Maxwellton
Cave, WV 8/16-18
(Dave Socky) – Dave was not at the BRG meeting since he’s on his way to cave in
Maxwellton until 9p Sunday.
·
Culverson
Creek, WV 8/17/19
(Doug Feller leading) – tomorrow’s trip will be to the SSS Entrance, an
intermediate trip. Doug is leading, Susan has the list and waivers. Any non-BRG
members must sign a waiver and get details from Susan.
·
September’s
BRG trip to be determined.
2. TREASURER’S
REPORT (Trish
Geiger) – same as last month:
Cave
Bucks 31.64
Conservation 110.64
Equipment 169.65*
General 3,357.49
TOTAL $3,669.42
*Susan
mentioned that we may need to purchase some new lights to replace some that are
no longer working. She’ll let us know how many; we have money in the equipment
fund.
3. NEWSLETTER (MarySue
Socky) – Dave and MarySue were able to get an August
issue out. Great job! MarySue gave Susan her ribbon
for honorable mention for a Carbide Dump
cover at this past convention. Marian received her ribbon from Blake in the
mail for her honorable mention re Illustrations.
4. MEMBERSHIP – Nick Schmalenberger
had submitted his request for membership at the last meeting with an
endorsement from Wil Orndorff. Note that
he has Level 3 NCRC Cave Rescue Training.
A vote was taken and he was unanimously voted in as a BRG member.
Welcome!
5. ROCKS – Nothing.
6. SAFETY
& TECHNIQUES
– Nothing; Dano McConnell says “hi,” and has been
having to travel a lot for his job.
7. OLD
BUSINESS –
Nothing.
8. NEW
BUSINESS –
·
2019 Fall VAR updates – Will be at Friar’s
Hole; see the info in the current Carbide
Dump. No water – bring your own! No cell phone service; very primitive
camping and porta-potties, but it is next to the cave. Jeff asked if there
would be a “quiet” camping area; not sure! Note there will NOT be a trip to
Lobelia Saltpeter Cave due to closure for bat hibernation.
·
NSS Memberships – There is no printed NSS
Membership manual this year; the member database crashed and they are trying to
restore; also, many of us have not gotten a reminder when it’s time to renew
our membership! Marian and Dano lost theirs in May
because they were not notified, and had to renew by calling the NSS office.
Check your membership card (which now has to be printed out from the
members.caves.org website) and/or your NSS News subscription label to see when
your membership expires. You may want to consider paying for a lifetime
membership.
·
Church Mountain Cave, VA – In Rockingham County, cavers
have respected it but spelunkers have built fire pits, broken formations, and
left trash. So there is a bat-friendly gating project going on next week – it’s
up near Harrisonburg. Contact Wil Orndorff for more information or if you want
to help.
·
Porter’s Cave, VA – See trip report above by Susan.
Doug Feller will work with the owner to get the lock cut off and put a new one
on with extra keys. Susan was unable to find out which other “Grotto”
(according to the owner) put a new lock on with no key available.
·
Goodwin’s Cave, VA – MarySue
has been in communication with former owner, Lee, about the new owner, who
apparently wants to sell half of the land and build a cabin on it. We still
have a key (Wil Orndorff has it right now) and can do a trip in until the new
owner takes possession; be sure to invite Lee! We will try to connect with the
owner to educate him about the cave, and see what his access policy will be.
·
Lobelia Saltpeter Cave, WV – Closed due to bats.
·
Bat Closure dates - In Virginia Bat Hibernation
closure is October 1 – April 15. In West Virginia it is September 1 – April 15.
·
WNS (White Nose Syndrome) – Lynn Ott sent some information
to MarySue to share with BRG members regarding an
article from Virginia Tech about WNS.
9.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
• Please submit written cave trip reports to
the secretary. Thanks!
• Next BRG meeting September 20
• OTR August 29 – September 2
·
MAR
60th Anniversary – September 20-22
• Fall VAR September 27-29 – Friar’s Hole Cave
Preserve.
·
2019
BRG Caver Calendar:
Aug
29 – Sep 2: OTR
Sept
7, 2019: Virginia Cave Board – next meeting will be at Luray Caverns, VA; the
public is invited. [Marian will not be able
to attend, but it is open to the public.]
Sep
20: BRG Meeting
Sep
27-29: Fall VAR Friar’s Hole Cave Preserve
Oct
7-11, 2019: NCKMS meeting in Bristol, VA
(see flyer)
Nov
3, 2019: 11:30a, VSS Meeting, Natural Bridge State Park, VA
10. PROGRAM – Bob Gulden shared slides from
the 1970’s about the old NSS Headquarters, and a Pink Panther visit. Then Jen
and Nick did a cave pack and cave coveralls demo.