Introductions

The 20 people in attendance:
Ken, Max, Nick, Maria, Emily, Mike B., Lisa, Zeke, Sam, Bodoni, Melanie, Alex H., Alex M., Kyle, Eli, Ben Taylor T., Piotr, Mark, Michael N.

Business

• Pay grotto dues. TriTrog membership is only $15 a year for individuals, $22 for families. Right now, for the low, low price of half off, you can be a member for the rest of 2023!
• Many thanks to everyone who volunteered at BugFest this year.
• If anyone is interested in being the youth group contact for the grotto, please let the officers know.
• Who wants to host our Halloween or Winter Holiday potluck party? The host gets to pick the date and time!
• Please offer any suggestions for year-end donations that the grotto should make.

Trip Reports

• Culverson Creek Cave – Grotto Trip Day 1
  • Maria noticed a large, chunky salamander, very deep mud, and lots of crayfish. She really enjoyed the mesmerizing reflections off the water onto the cave walls. When Melanie’s students saw a photo of the culvert, they thought she got to slide down it. Taylor posted some nice photos on Discord.
  • Zeke wasn’t mentally prepared for the climb down after the culvert entrance. This was Bodoni’s first wild cave, and maybe Sam’s if we don’t count lava tubes. Bodoni enchanted the Northern Spring Salamander. Emily poked it to see if it was dead. Nope. There was also something about Gordon throwing a couple packs off of a high ledge to see if they could fly. Nope.
• Piercy’s Mill Cave – Grotto Trip Day 2
  • Piotr would like to see the giant rimstone dams when the water level is higher, but maybe not as high as when Taylor was there last. There were some really pretty formations and some fish. Everyone appreciated being able to wash gear off in the stream.
• Perkins Cave – ACC Open House
  • Melanie thought the 30-foot belly crawl presented a nice challenge. She saw an impressive variation of formations on a trip to the Forest Room. A second excursion that day took her to the historic section.

Upcoming Events/Trips

• Sept. 30 – Rehoboth Church Cave photo trip
• Oct. 5-8 – TAG Fall Cave-In (Menlo, GA)
• Oct. 14/15 – Vertical Practice
• Oct. 20-22 – Last Chance VAR (Antietam, MD)
• Oct. 27-29 – Orientation to Cave Rescue (Morgantown, WV)
• Nov. 11 – Hancock Cave and trail maintenance (Smyth Co, VA)
• Spring 2024 – VAR Conservation Trip Sinkhole Cleanup

Program

Cave Packs – Taylor led a presentation and discussion about cave pack options (shape, capacity, durability, etc)

Introductions

In person: Ken, Peter, Emily, Mike B., Zeke, Mark, Vinnie, Melanie, Nick, Christian, Diana, Stephan, Taylor O.
Via Zoom: April, Taylor T., Maria, Dmitri, Mike Y., Matt J., Lacey, Justine, Lisa, Martin

Business

• Pay your 2023 dues if you have not already done so. Dues pay for food and campground fees for the annual grotto trip and for new lights and helmets that the grotto loans out.
• Check your inbox for an email from Peter about BugFest, an exciting opportunity to volunteer at the museum that offers us free meeting space each month.

Upcoming Events

• Sept. 16 – BugFest at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences (Volunteer!)
• Sept. 23-24 – caving presentation to Boy Scouts
• Oct. 27-29 – Orientation to Cave Rescue (Morgantown, WV)
• Various dates – Rescue Training Level 2 (Blacksburg, VA) Level 1 is full and is a pre-requisite.
  • https://ncrc-er.caves.org/events for more information about Cave Rescue Training events.

Upcoming Trips

• Aug. 31-Sept. 4 – Old Timers’ Reunion (Dailey, WV) You must be a TRA member or a guest to attend.
• Aug. 31-Sept. 5 – Cave Fest (Sewanee, TN)
• Sept. 15-17 – ACC Open House at Perkins Cave
• Oct. 5-8 – TAG Fall Cave-in (Menlo, GA)
• Oct. 20-22 – Fall VAR (Antietam, MD) https://var.caves.org/index.php/events/fall-var
• Nov. ? – Hancock Cave (Smyth County, VA)

Trip Reports

• Sully (absent) went to Memorial Day Cave.
• Zeke and Family visited Lost World Caverns. Albeit a show cave, the tour is self-guided. His daughter’s first cave trip featured sightings of a salamander and a tree frog.

Program

Mood Lighting: How Simple Post-Processing Improves Cave Snapshots
With photo comparisons, Ken demonstrated that adjustments to cropping, saturation, tint, highlights, shadows, and temperature could drastically or subtly improve the look of an image.

Introductions

In attendance: Taylor T., Diana, Mark, Justine, Peter, Rob, Taylor O., Emily, Vinnie/Savage, Lauren, Phil/Sully, Lisa, Mike, Stephan, Maria, Ken

Business

• Thank you to Zeke for hosting the June meeting.
• Membership dues for the year are now reduced to half-price ($7.50 for an individual).
• Mike and Lisa brought two old TriTrog grotto shirts to the meeting and they found good homes with other members.
• Per a show of hands, there appears to be some interest in Emily’s “Trog Luddite” design, so we’ll look into pricing.
• A Boy Scouts event on Sept. 23-34 wants a short presentation on caving. If you’re interested, consider taking the squeeze box which is currently at Lisa and Mike’s.
• Taylor reports that we have 27 responses to the communications survey. 67% would like to be able to communicate using an app other than email/texting. Discord is preferred over WhatsApp. Discord can be used from a computer’s web browser or downloaded as an app. In addition to planning trips, it could be used to swap gear and make other announcements.

Past Trips

NSS Convention

• Stephan went to Smokehole and Seneca Caverns as part of the Geology Field Trip at the NSS Convention. He got a cool geology guidebook and learned some tricks from George Dasher.
• Mike visited about fifty feet of Dreen Cave as part of a sketching class. He learned to sketch digitally using TopoDroid, and he highly recommends the class.
• Mike, Lisa, Ken, and Emily went to Tolly’s Secret Cave. We were told it’s the largest sandstone cave in the country. Access was granted to members of the NSS during the week of Convention only. The rock had strange ripple patterns in places and pretty colors. They encountered lots of spiders and a monorail worm.
• Ken took a class in cave formation repair, partly at Hamilton Cave. The work appeals to people who like details and DIY stuff.
• Stephan, Ken, and Emily visited Sharp’s Cave. The entrance was not where we left it. The cave contains an extensive and impressive sculpture gallery and a noisy waterfall (which we heard but never saw). A huge, massive block that had fallen from the ceiling was huge and massive.

Other Past Trips

• Lisa and Mike and about 40 other people attended the post-convention camp at Butler Cave. On a separate trip, they took Bram to Butler to do some vertical stuff in the Bean Room. On Day 2 they surveyed for 5 hours, and on Day 3 they scoped out nearby Fossil Sink Cave dig. The dig goes about 40 feet down and hasn’t been worked for 5 years. There’s tons of mold and some of the wooden shoring is rotten, so it will take some work to get it going again.
• Phil went to Carpenter-Swaygo Cave and did a little surveying.
• Vinnie surveyed in Perkins Cave for his first wild cave trip. He was surprised at the size of the cave and how much there was to study. 10 out 10. Would do it again.
• Diana went to Grotte di Castellana in Italy. It’s quite decorated, but they don’t let you take your own photos. It’s about a mile long. A 50-minute trip makes a nice tour of about half the cave. She also attended mass at an underground church. They mine a lot of limestone in this area.
• Mike and Lisa took Lisa’s mom into Butler Cave for her first wild cave trip. She got to take a camp chair in and sit and admire the formations that they pointed out. She entered and exited in style on a sled rigged to the Subaru.

Program

Culverson Creek Cave, in Greenbrier County, WV, is about a 4.5- to 5- hour drive from here. Group camping at Blue Meadow. We can access water at the nearby campground. Expect no cell service at the campground due to its proximity to the observatory. We’ll use the Wildcat Entrance, which has a culvert and ladder. The water gets possibly waist-deep in places. The stream reaches probably 60-65 degrees in the summer. Culverson Creek water flows under the Buckeye Creek system and emerges at the Spring Creek resurgence. Stephan has a book with more information than you could ever want, including history, maps, and photos.

Introductions

In attendance: Ken, Emily, Taylor O., Tom, Philip, Mike B., Lisa, Mark, Peter, Zeke, Stephan, Matt W., Ashwin, Martin, Lee

Business

• Zeke will host our June meeting (not at the museum) (possibly at Raleigh Brewing Company).
• Is there interest in a TriTrog Discord channel? Lisa says Discord is friendlier than Slack and she’s willing to help set it up. If anyone thinks another option like WhatsApp (messaging app) would be better, we can look at that, too.

Trip Reports

Oh no! None since last month’s meeting!

Upcoming Trips

• May 26-29 – Paxton’s
• June 26-30 – NSS Convention
• Pre-convention and post-convention field trips
• TBD (July?) – Hancock Cave (Mark)
• June/July – Scott Hollow Cave (Matthew W and Mark D)
• Aug 25-27 – Annual Grotto Trip

Program

Proyecto Espeleológico Sistema Huautla: Exploration with Lisa and Mike

Stephan Francke, Ken Walsh, Mike Broome, and Emily Graham were in attendance.

The meeting began with brief noncommittal conversation about how to get the banner and canopy to Convention.

Annual Grotto Trip

Based on the Blue Meadow Campground availability and the officers’ schedules, we agreed on the last weekend of August. Stephan made the campground reservation.

Upcoming Programs

It’s May, so we need five more programs for the year. Ideas include Peter’s Mexico trip, hydrology of a specific cave, things to do underground with webbing, worst-case scenarios, cave pack solutions, and how to find your way back to the car after exiting the cave.

Online Platforms/Communications

We seem to be leaning towards trying a newer platform. Deciding which one will be the fun part. During the monthly meeting, we’ll take suggestions. Any official announcements concerning grotto business will continue to go through email.

Membership Contact List

Wouldn’t it be great if we automatically had the contact information of the people we’re going caving with each weekend? So, how do we make that happen? How do we get consent from members?

Other

Mike paid the bill for the website.

Introductions

In attendance: Ken, Stephan, Diana, Emily, Peter, and Ashwin

Business

• Zeke will host the June meeting at a location to be announced later.
• Is there interest in a TriTrogs Discord channel? Also, what is Discord? Ken proposed looking at Discord as an additional method of grotto communication as more people are depressed by the idea of checking email these days.

Past Trips

• Emily, Piotr, and Ken continued the survey in Perkins. After all the rain the previous day, Ken chose to park at the top of the long dirt road leading to the property. The rain made for a very drippy, muddy trip. Piotr rallied even though the angles were steep and all the stations Emily set were too low. When they emerged to find it snowing, Emily’s spirits soared until she remembered that they had to hike all the way out.
• Peter recently returned from his annual trip to the Florida panhandle worm fest. He didn’t do any caving, but he was introduced to a cave diver and got to tag along (above ground) to the site of an exploratory dive. He also met a photographer and a captive albino crayfish.
• Stephan, Ken, and Emily mustered up the courage to clean out sinkholes for the VAR Earth Day event. The gusty winds nearly blew Stephan’s tent into the nearest sinkhole before he could pack it up. As promised, the rains came and went for much of the day. Two tractors and lots of people helped remove dozens and dozens of rolls of wire fencing. It took only an hour and a half to clean out the first sinkhole. Lots more interesting stuff came out of the second one. The tractor removed a tree from a small hole from which air was blowing right next to the second sinkhole, but we didn’t get to explore it.

Upcoming Trips

• May 19-21 – Spring VAR
• June 26-30 – NSS Convention
• TBD – Hancock Cave (Mark D.)
• June/July – Scott Hollow Cave (Matthew W., Mark D.)
• TBD – Annual grotto trip

Program

That Sketchy Group in the Park
Ken showed us the basics of being a sketcher on a survey team, making use of an amoeba-shaped walk-through sculpture and a break in the rain to let us attempt it ourselves.

Introductions

In attendance (in person or online): Ken, Stephan, Zeke, Emily, Mark, Matthew W., Carlin, Taylor O., Lisa, Peter, Robert, Piotr, Maria, Lee O., Mike, April

Business

• It’s time to pay your yearly dues again! Dues are a mere $15 per person or $22 per family (people living under the same roof). Pay in person by throwing your money at an officer or pay online via PayPal. Membership benefits include access to maps and publications from our library. Dues pay for loaner gear upkeep and camping fees for our annual summer grotto trip.
• See the minutes from the recent officers meeting.
• The 2022 grotto officers made donations to the Richmond Area Speleological Society ($100) and to the NSS Nature Preserve Fund ($100).
• Stephan may ask for meeting program presenters. Help him out by committing to a date.
• Thanks to Peter, Mark, Ken, and Emily who assisted with the Mines of Moria at the Museum’s “Social in the Shire” event. Look for additional opportunities to volunteer later this year.

Cave News

• The owner of Worley’s Cave in Tennessee passed away. Before visiting, please check the access status.
• WVCC acquired the original Boarhole entrance to the 10-mile Boarhole-Portal Cave System in Greenbrier County.
• Before visiting New River Cave, please notify the cave preserve manager (currently Travis Coad) at NewRiverPreserve[at]caves.org with the date and number of people in your party.

Trip Reports

• April, Ashwin, Emily, Ken, and Peter went to Low Moor Cave. Peter would go back. The vastness of the mine impressed him, especially when viewed from the cave through a series of high windows. They found a couple cave rat nests and even a sociable cave rat. The trip lasted about 5.5 hours.
• Mark, Matthew W., Piotr, and Brian stopped for a quick trip to Lynx Cave on their way to Paxton’s. Their mission, as always, was to find Paxton’s elusive Christmas Room. Piotr agreed that the maze section was very mazy.
• Lisa and Mike have been training for their serious Mexico cave trip by caving and camping in Butler Cave where they’ve also been getting in lots of rope practice. Sleeping in the cave wasn’t comfy but they did not die. They’ll return to help with the resurvey.
• Carlin took two little caver offspring underground while visiting the Bat Ranch. They survived and had fun.

Upcoming Events

• New owner of Little Hancock Cave wants to visit Hancock Cave
• MAR 18 – survey trip to Perkins
• APR 22 – Earth Day Restoration (sinkholes) near Covington, VA
• APR 21-23 – Orientation to Cave Rescue in Elkins, WV (FULL)
• MAY 12-20 – weeklong rescue training in Mentone, AL
• MAY 19-21 – Spring VAR weekend near Franklin, WV
• JUN 26-30 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Program

Underground in Middle-earth by Emily Graham

Ken Walsh, Emily Graham, Stephan Francke, Mike Broome, and Taylor Tibbs were in attendance.

Future Programs

We threw around ideas about programs we’d like to see this year. Among those were “Name That Room,” cave diving, Peter’s Mexico trip, Mike and Lisa’s PESH trip, survey or sketching practice, map reading and analysis, some sort of vertical program, post-processing photos, and nighttime orienteering. We agreed that a gear swap can wait until a future year to give people more time to accumulate stuff and in hopes of better attendance. Emily volunteered to give the February program.

Annual Grotto Trip

Officers briefly discussed desirable elements of an annual grotto trip: caves with really nice formations, destinations, or specific features; culvert entrances or cave gates; communal group camping.

2022 Donations

After some discussion, Mike proposed $100 to RASS and $100 to NSS Nature Preserves Fund. A donation to Proyecto Espeleológico Sistema Huautla (PESH) is under consideration for 2023.

Other Cave Trips

We named some specific caves that we’d like to visit this year, such as Buckeye Creek, Bone-Norman, Scott Hollow, Perkins, Buchanan Saltpeter, Butler, Lowmoor, Dead Air, Patton, etc.

Communications

Officers agree that Asana works sufficiently well for our needs.
Some discretion should be used when approving new Facebook members to the grotto Facebook group. Mike added Taylor as an admin. Under consideration: switching from public to private, reinstating questions for joining the group, pinning a post about how to join the grotto.
There was some discussion about making it easier for new people to post trip reports. We decided that cavers might email trip reports to the grotto or just to the webmaster. Then the webmaster can post the trip reports to the website.
Lastly, Taylor will add a note to the website that tells whom to contact for adding an upcoming trip to the calendar.

Meetings

At this time, no changes will be made to the general agenda structure.
We agreed that the grotto should continue to hold hybrid meetings when practical. Stephan is prepared to allot sufficient time for set-up before meetings. Mike volunteers to assist with advice and troubleshooting.
Officers discussed at length the masking protocols for meetings. Taylor will add wording to the website to point people to the hybrid information if they don’t feel well. For the time being, we continue to request masking for indoor meetings.

Other Topics

An updated, though not current, version of the constitution and bylaws has been discovered.
Officers agreed to document the process for transferring officer positions at the end/beginning of each term.