I wrote almost all of this right after the trip, and then waited six years to edit and post it.

Peter, Ken, Emily, Julie, Sergey, and I left Peter’s house in Raleigh a little before six on Friday evening, February 14, 2020. We stopped for dinner at Los Tres Magueyes In Danville, and got to the RASS Field Station at around midnight.

After a mild to warm week, and entire winter, in Raleigh, it was scary-cold in the Virginia mountains. When we arrived it was 19°F under a clear sky, and the Milky Way could be seen. I stepped out of the car long enough to determine that enough people were looking for the key to the cabin, and that I would probably just be in the way, so I got back in. Eventually the cabin was opened and made habitable, and we got settled for the night. There seemed to be a skunk situation, likely under the rear of the cabin, but this was practically a non-issue in the face of the bitter cold. Note: if you are having to heat the cabin, that there is a small, round duct that collects air from above the wood stove and pushes it to the far room. We didn’t discover until the next day that there is a fan inside the wall, it works, and can be turned on from a nearby switch.

The next morning, we took plenty of time eating breakfast and getting ready. The cave is not a very long drive from the field station. There was another small group getting ready to go in when we arrived. No one in our group had ever been to Crossroads Cave before, but we had two different maps, and some beta from Mark. The main entrance leads into a broad room with a short ceiling. We went around in circles a lot, trying to figure out how to get into the farther reaches of the cave. The actual passage seemed not to correspond to the maps, and it was discussed that perhaps some breakdown had occurred since the original survey, closing a key passage. We had seen signs above the entrance indicating that there was a survey in progress.

It became apparent that a few people in the cave were named Emily. The other group wasn’t sure of where to go either, and they were splitting up and scouting around, while we were trying to make sense of the map. The leaders talked and figured out where everyone would go, and then our group let them go on ahead while we took a break. We crossed through the entrance room again, and three of us popped outside. It was still brutally cold, but the sun was shining. Emily talked to someone who was waiting topside. 

We went back in and poked around some more in the first room. The upper part of the cave that we had been exploring was only about 50°F, and it wasn’t until we got to the lower parts that it was typical cave temperature, around 55°F. Another group, including a few kids, came in and passed us. One of the kids leapt or jumped noisily, and Ken mentioned something to them. We saw a bat. We were able to get to an end point before turning around.

Our group definitely took the more challenging route in a place or two, since it was intended to be a sport trip. We arrived at one spot where Ken announced that it was “a junction to remember”, but I failed to do that, and I was baffled when we got back there an hour later. I think I’d been leading the way out for several minutes, up until that happened. 

Ken, Julie, and Emily headed out of the cave, while Peter, Sergey, and I delayed for a few minutes and looked for signs of life. Peter found some flatworms in the stream trickling through the entrance room. The top part of the cave wasn’t getting any warmer, so we decided to head for the car as well. After that, we also decided to drive back to Raleigh instead of braving the cold again in the RASS cabin.

We were told that Crossroads was a beginner cave that attracts church groups, but it was actually a tricky maze with some intermediate obstacles.