BLUE RIDGE GROTTO
Meeting
Minutes
July
17, 2020
Attendance (Jersey
Lily’s)
Susan Burr – Chair |
Trish Geiger – Treasurer |
Marian McConnell – Secty |
Doug Feller |
Bob Alderson |
Nick Schmalenberger |
Introductions & Trip Reports:
March
1-17 – Carlsbad Caverns, NM – Bob
Alderson went with Dwight Livingston, Mark Minton, Yvonne Droms – Mystery Room.
Found canyon with huge dogtooth spar. Did get photos.
May
23-24 – Roppel Cave – Bob Alderson
went with Bill Koerschner, Dave Socky, Nick Socky, Alen Founco.
June
9 – Lowmoor – Bob Alderson went with
Bill Koerschner, Dave Socky.
June
11 – Windy Mouth – Bob Alderson went
with Bill Koerschner, Dave Socky.
June
13 – Lambert’s Air Blower – Bob
Alderson went with Rick Lambert, Kyle Mills, Mark Hodge, Amos Minice. In Germany Valley, put in culvert and did 380’ of
surveying in trunk passage.
June
14 – Butler – Bob Alderson went with
Mark Minton, Yvonne Droms, Dwight Livingston.
June
26-29 – Mammoth Cave – New Discovery
– Bob Alderson went with Bill Koerschner, Hannah Haffring.
New Discovery – with Rachel Sakar, Miko Raynard, Bill
Koerschner, Mike Titzer, Jen Tison.
New Discovery – with Bill Koerschner, Rachel Sakar, Mike Ketzner.
June
27 - Patton Cave, WV – Jeff Huffman
& Bill Walker- leaders, Susan Burr, Trish Geiger, Nick Schmalenberger,
Sharron Vass, and Chuck Vass. “Doug Feller was originally going to be our
leader. Friday night he called me to let me know his helper may have been exposed
to COVID-19, so he felt he should stay home. This left us in a bind since I
can't read a cave map & I was the only one left who had ever been to the
cave before. The last time I was there was back in 2014. I sent Jeff an email
of the map & he agreed to be our leader with the help of Bill Walker. We
never did find the only room I actually remembered in the cave, the Football
Room. We will have to go back with Doug sometime to find that! We did see
several nicely decorated areas. We had a good 3 hours & 45 minute cave
trip.” Note: Owner passed away and cave
is now managed mainly by the woman owner who is very nice. Susan left a nice thank you letter after the
BRG trip; the woman called to check on the trip and Susan learned she does not
leave at the house where the letter was left.
June
30 and July 2 – Roppel – Bob
Alderson went with Bill Koerschner, Rachel Sakar, Mike Ketzner. Then with Bill Koerschner, Tim Green, and Bob
Thurne. Noisy with complaining by the ladies who
brought very large packs with climbing ear; had to move through very narrow and
“bottomless” canyon passages. Named the canyon “Princess Bitch Canyon.” Bob ended up carrying 3 packs.
July
3 – Ferguson – Bob Alderson went
with Aaron Bird, Alex, and Rachel Sakar. Aaron had a drone flying over the
sinkhole. 60’ drop. Surveyed 80’.
July
4 – Colossal – Bob Alderson went
with Tom Bucker, Bob Thurne. Went in to correct
survey on Bedquilt.
July
12 – Lambert’s Air Blower – Bob
Alderson went with Rick Lambert, Mark Minton, Yvonne Droms.
July
13 – Windy Mouth – Bob Alderson went
with Bill Koerschner and Dave Socky.
July
15 – Catawba Murder Hole – Midd Hunt (now from Herndon, VA) explored the cave while at
Roanoke College in 1960-65. Caving turned out to be his primary vocation for
many years. In 2018 he shared some
photos with Marian, and said he brought an editor of National Geographic and
they rappelled down the 120’ foot side.
He said, “This photo and other
cave photos to follow were the beginning of my full career in professional
photography. I was an early member of
the Potomac Speleological Society (PSC) based in NOVA. My extensive cave
photography was so well thought of that National Geographic offered me a job
right out of college at Roanoke College in 1965.” In one photo was Andy Park, whose father, Ted
Park, was at National Geographic and later with Smithsonian magazine. Midd also took photos of New River Cave and Clover Hollow. Midd and his friend Darrell ride motorcycles and recently
rode through the area and came up to see the Murder Hole cave on July 15th from
the driveway. Unfortunately due to
COVID-19, Marian was not able to offer them lunch, but she was able to “visit”
with them from her front porch. [Marian sent this and photos to Dave for
possible article in August Carbide Dump.]
July
18 - Norman Cave, WV - This Month’s BRG
trip – with Susan and Doug. Norman
is managed by WVCC.
BUSINESS MEETING
Treasury Report – Trish Geiger, Treasurer 7/14/2020 |
Cave
Bucks - 0
Conservation - 0
Equipment – 133.87
General - 2,969.45
TOTAL $3,103.32
Committees:
·
Newsletter
– CARBIDE
DUMP July was published. Thanks to all who contributed.
·
Membership
– None; however, Sharron Vass who has started coming to our meetings, used to
lead trips in Radford into James Cave and apparently has some cave safety and
rescue training? May possibly be
interested in joining.
·
ROCKS
– Nothing.
·
Safety
& Techniques – None at this time.
Membership Proposals:
Old Business
·
Resuming in-person meetings at
Jersey Lily’s as of the July meeting.
·
2020 BRG Rescue Roster - Randy
Michael wishes to step down as Rescue Contact.
He has given BRG a year to find his replacement. [Perhaps Sharron Vass?]
Ideally, BRG should have 5 contact people on the list. A contact person:
o
Needs to know the BRG cavers, and
can make decisions on who to “call”, and can quickly and discretely contact
those cavers who can respond to a rescue.
o
Does not necessarily need to be a
responder; a less active caver can help the grotto by coordinating from a
phone.
o
Knows how to work with BCRG,
NCRC, and local rescue agencies.
o
Knows how to work with media
inquiries.
·
Caves are slowly re-opening for
those who want to go caving. Caves on VA, WV State and Federal lands remain
closed to ALL caving (science and recreation).
New Business
·
Could we have in-person BRG
meetings offer ZOOM, too? Would offer the dozen or so BRG folk who cannot
attend the meetings a chance to be active in the grotto. Are there ZOOM
capabilities at Jersey Lily’s? Does not have to be ZOOM; can be a phone-in, etc.
Those present discussed this; but it is probably a Dave Socky item since he’s
tech savvy. We don’t know about the WiFi at Jersey
Lily’s or if this would work. Stick with in person meetings for now.
·
Goodwin Cave,
VA, has a new owner. New owner has not contacted
BRG. Mary Socky has asked previous owner
for new owner’s contact info.
·
Has anyone who has been on the Goodwin Property, or in Goodwin Cave in
the past 6 - 9 months and seen a carbide lamp?
Lee Slover (former owner) has misplaced his carbide lamp and thinks he
may have left it on the property or in the cave.
·
VDWR (formerly DGIF) still
refuses to allow caving on their property, but does not have authority to close
caves on private property – see Wil Orndorff’s email (Wil’s Take).
Announcements (also
see announcement packet & Caver Calendar on back)
·
Please
submit written cave trip reports to the secretary. Thanks!
·
Al
Stewart is now living at the Cave Spring Assisted Living facility on Brambleton
and cannot currently have visitors due to COVID-19, but enjoys cards and phone
calls (540-989-0483) before 8p. [Or if you send flowers, be sure to sign your
name on the card!)
·
Next
BRG meeting is August 21st.
·
Mountain
Lake Lodge Resort – the lake is filling back up again! This is a geologic
event; lake went dry around 2010.
·
Atlantic
Coast Pipeline has been cancelled!
·
NO
OTR, Fall VAR, Bridge Day or NCRC-OCR weekend classes.
Program: None
Cold Beer at 7:38p.
2020 CAVER CALENDAR:
·
NSS
2020 Virtual Convention on line – it is FREE.
You do not have to be an NSS Member There will be awesome content
presented all week!!! ! You can check
out the sessions any time at https://nsscon2020.org/ Dave Socky, Meredith
Weberg and Rich Geisler have worked SO HARD on this once in a lifetime
event!