During the 2025 Spring VAR, we visited Hamilton Cave, which is part of the NSS’s John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve (3 adjacent caves: Trout, New Trout, and Hamilton). The group included Stefan, Taylor, Piotr, Cat, Jacob, Jillian, Jake, Melissa, and I. The cave is located in Pendleton County, West Virginia.

Hamilton has a maze-like structure once you pass the initial entrance crawl. It is well-known for the diverse collection of fossils, which include Pleistocene-era saber-toothed cats, jaguars, and vampire bats.

Originally, we wanted to make it to the Airblower room, which is a 25 foot long tube/squeeze. However, admiring the vast quantity of embedded fossils along the way took up most of our time in the cave. Most of the maze portion is standing room with very few crawls. I believe we were close to the New Room before deciding to return. A sample of fossils we saw on this trip are included below. 

To exit, you must navigate the mazy section. It is a complex area so we got a bit lost. A good tip if you get lost in Hamilton is to choose larger passages and to go uphill in order to reach the cave entrance. I learned afterwards from a separate group, that you can place poker chips in strategic spots to mark your way back. Of course, you take the chips with you on the way out.

We had a vertical cave weekend on September 6 and 7, 2025. Both Pig Hole and Clover Hollow are located in Giles County, Virginia. We camped at the Bat Ranch.

Pig Hole

Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin led the trip. Jacob and I were the acolytes. This was the first cave I got to use my new climbing rope in.

The main rappel is about 120 feet. It is a beautiful moss-covered rock wall leading to a large room of breakdown to explore. From there, we climbed down towards the Mud Bridge and Hess’s Hollow for a second descent. On the way there, a few challenging climbs to different levels will await you. No webbing is needed, but one will want to be careful when navigating the climbs, as they are done on to narrow ledges, with a significant fall if you were to slip.

Hess’s Hollow is another impressive vertical section to explore. There’s a giant stalagmite (pictured) that’s used as part of the rigging. Once we were all at the bottom, we signed the register and saw that many other Tritrogs had also visited this area. At this point, we decided to return to surface.

Clover Hollow

Mike, Lisa, and I did a short trip into Clover Hollow. It was basically a pit bounce, as we did not bring additional rope or webbing for crossing the two drops (8 foot and 20 foot) which lead to the rest of the cave. Before those drops is a fun little traverse that we did. At the end, I decided to haul out a hubcap I saw near the entrance to be claimed as cave booty.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The 2026 Florida Cave Cavort was organized by the Florida Speleological Society and was held at Jerry’s Farm near Archer from March 26-29, 2026. I wanted to highlight the critical need to protect the Florida aquifer, which directly affects access to, and the health, of Florida’s cave systems as well as the entire region. Why is the aquifer so important? The Southwest Florida Water Management District reports:

Most of the freshwater supply in west-central Florida comes from groundwater in the Floridan aquifer system. The Floridan aquifer system is divided into the Upper Floridan aquifer and Lower Floridan aquifer. The Upper Floridan aquifer is the primary source of water supply in most of north and central Florida. In the southern portion of the state, the Lower Floridan aquifer is deeper and contains brackish, or slightly salty water that needs additional treatment to be used for drinking water.

During my trip to the Cave Cavort, I had the opportunity to visit two caves: Warren and Crumbling Rock

Warren Cave Nature Preserve

Warren Cave in Alachua County is the longest known dry cave in Florida with more than four miles of mapped passage. The cave was dissolved out of limestone and limey sandy clay at a time when the water table in the region was at or above the present level of the cave, around 30,000 years ago. The cave was donated in 1991 to the NSS. Warren is a vertical cave with a two-part drop and a climb almost immediately after that. They added a rebelay to the climb, which I feel helps navigate the multi-angled pitch of that section. Some consider Warren to be the premier cave in Florida, as it presents many challenges for the experienced caver.

Scott Thompson led the trip. We navigated the vertical section and moved on past two squeezes: the first, Cashew (“catch you”) and the unnamed second squeeze. Once past these two squeezes, you enter the main part of Warren. Before the squeezes, the passages have ample standing room. However, once you pass the second squeeze, it becomes mostly a crawling space which requires worm crawl/belly crawl, as well as stoops and traversing various canyon-type sections. 

We went to the Sand Room which contains a register. Then, we did a loop around the mud section, the Flat Room, and past the Virgin Rooms. Near the Flat Room, you can see a dugong (manatee) bone embedded in the rock as well as a shark tooth. There are fossilized shells throughout Warren as shown below.

The cave does continue southward from the loop that we did. However, it becomes progressively difficult to navigate as you have to crawl essentially the entire way to the end. Thus, sheer fatigue limits who can access the farther sections. 

There are resurvey efforts, as well as active digs to open new sections of the cave. A dig has also been completed towards the southern end to bypass the aptly named Agony Alley.

An interesting story about Warren is that they ran telephone cable into a part of the cave. Some cavers were in the cave when the JFK assassination occurred. To commemorate the event, they installed a plaque in an obscure area.

Crumbling Rock

This cave is located near Floral City. Due to drought conditions, the water level was very low and you could call this mud city in such conditions. Billy Renkaur (sp?) led the trip along with Derek. 

Crumbling Rock is one of Florida’s more recent cave discoveries. In contrast to most caves in the region, it features well-developed speleothems, many of which are periodically submerged as water levels fluctuate with the local aquifer. The cave’s namesake comes from its unstable, friable limestone, which can break loose if handled too roughly.

The cave has two entrances. I descended on a cable ladder and exited through the side rigged with a rope. Did I mention that the cave was muddy? It also has a lot of crawls. I didn’t see many formations in this cave beside a small flowstone and a small helictite growing on a stalagmite. I didn’t bring my phone for pictures in the cave, as it was almost unbearably muddy.