Due to a sewage leak the museum moved this month’s meeting to a room on the fourth floor. In attendance were Emily, Martin, Zeke, Carlin, Sarah, Mark D., and Ken.

Past Business
Carlin is building an electronic survey instrument. He has a pile of pieces. The next step is to construct a housing worthy of East Coast caves.

As of this meeting the new website was not yet in use. Carlin gave a quick tour of the new layout. It should be up and running soon.

The Annual Grotto Fun Trip: Carlin was hoping to have it near Perkins, in southwestern Virginia. Sarah pointed out that it would be nice to have a place with some basic amenities, particularly if there’s going to be a feast or a large number of attendees. We settled on August 14-16.

New Business
Ken brought up the museum’s annual BugFest. The date is September 19. The theme bug is the cicada. Peter might not be exhibiting this year due to some climbing thing.

Trip Reports
Beaver Creek survey trip: [Ken and Mark took turns reporting this in a deliberate and successful attempt to confuse me.] Ken, Mark, Dave, Matthew, and Michael went to Beaver Creek Cave. One team intended to survey some of the lower passages, but they spent much of the day stooping through upper-level maze. Matthew contributed by absorbing a puddle that the others would have had to crawl through. Elsewhere, Mark and Dave descended a hand line into some ankle-deep water. They decided that it probably floods fairly often so they took the opportunity and surveyed 350 feet, a lot of nice, long shots through walking passage with well-decorated walls. Ken [and some others] returned [either the next day or the previous day] and saw some pretty rimstone dams that are easy to access. While investigating water sounds Ken squoze into an area that he thought would be horrible to survey, but Dave was able to get a 45-foot shot through. There’s a mud slope, no, a Slope of Mud, and water of unknown depth. It looks promising. Ken’s team surveyed 300 feet and 200 feet.

Martin joined Baltimore Grotto at Grand Caverns. What he expected to be a dig turned out as a leisure trip instead, so it was fun.

Upcoming Trips
July 13-17 – NSS Convention
Aug 14-16 – Annual Grotto Trip
Sept 3-6 – Old Timers Reunion

Program
Carlin Kartchner gave a presentation on the interesting history of Kartchner Caverns.

In attendance: Carlin, Rob, Ken, Dave, Peter, Emily, Mark D., Mike, Lisa, Howard, and Hayden.

Business
Carlin led a brief discussion regarding interest in procurement of a SurveyBat, an electronic survey instrument which, reportedly, is not a flying drone. It’s more expensive than something, less expensive than something else, and the magnetic sensor is separated from the battery and electronics. Ken wanted to know if SurveyBats can swim. Carlin will look into that.

Pete brought up the possibility of group transportation to the NSS Convention, then sabotaged that plan by reminding everyone of the large quantity of gear that he will be taking. Renting a larger vehicle is still an option if there are enough other interested parties. Several other TriTrogs expressed their intentions to attend, but so far only one person had actually registered from NC.

Carlin announced that the TriTrogs will be transitioning to a new website. He didn’t have a date in mind, but it will probably be soon. This will likely mean switching email providers again. The new website design is WordPress-based so it’s more of a blog format. It will make it even easier to post trip reports, announcements, and meeting minutes, and will consolidate the above in one place. An announcement will be made when the time comes. Meanwhile, anyone interested in helping with content should contact Carlin.

Location ideas were casually tossed around for Summer Grotto Trip consideration. Mid-August.

Trip reports
Sport: YTR at the RASS field station. Mark and Rob reported an incident of tree-on-human violence that occurred during the night before the cave trip; it resulted in a broken nose and the loss of a tooth (neither of which belonged to Mark or Rob). They went to Crossroads. Rob got to the cave entrance before realizing he’d left his helmet back at camp. Apparently it was that kind of weekend. Eventually they saw some pretty parts of the cave, but they couldn’t say how much. They also went to Breathing Cave and ate good food.

Boring stuff underground: Mike and Lisa went to Butler Cave for the Memorial Day work weekend. They helped get the outdoor shower working and did some other surface work. Then they went to Pat’s Section of Butler Cave. It’s really pretty, high, dry, kind of canyony passage. There were also some low belly crawls that the trip leader didn’t remember from previous trips. According to Lisa that is The Way of Trip Leaders. They worked on a dig for four hours. The lack of air flow wasn’t promising, but the wall sounded hollow when tapped on with an E-Tool (which, sadly, is not an electronic digging device). Mike climbed into an isolated spot where someone had written “Don’t rise up” on the wall. Suppressing his inner revolutionary, Mike looked upwards and saw a large anthodite looming above his head.

Survey: Carlin returned to Perkins Cave with Martin and some members of Walker Mountain Grotto. This was Carlin’s first time camping there; it was extremely convenient to be able to camp close to the entrance, especially since they spent a little over 12 hours in the cave on the first day. In total for the weekend the two teams surveyed 2000 feet. Carlin’s team started in a really pretty part of the cave. They generated a lot of leads, particularly while surveying through some large breakdown. [Walker Mountain Grotto’s trip report]

Upcoming trips
June 6-7 – Survey, Beaver Creek (Dave)
June 20-21 – Survey, Perkins Cave (Carlin)
July 13-17 – NSS Convention

Program
We watched part of a long (but interesting!) video [8 Days of Cave Diver Training] that followed two divers undergoing training at some pretty cenotes near Quintana Roo.

In attendance were Rob, Emily, Carlin, Ken, and Pete.

Business? What business? We dove straight into trip reports.

Ken was among the 25 volunteers who hauled gravel, painted, cleaned, sweated, and flexed for the tourists at the Grand Caverns Easter Restoration Camp. The tour guides are very appreciative of all the hard work, and they help get the word out to the public. [Here’s the trip report.]

Rob went picnic caving. He went to Newberry-Banes. Again. He’s looking forward to going to Banes Springs for a change, some day. It might be horizontal-ish?

Ken, Rob, and Emily attended Spring VAR at Natural Bridge. They and a few other TriTrogs went to Brady’s Cave and Brady’s Hidden Cave, which were a short drive away and yet devoid of other cavers. One of the caves either did or didn’t have an interesting climb. The other cave smelled really bad, either like raccoon, or not. Ken attended the VAR meeting. [Here’s the trip report.]

Pete was on rope in West Virginia, and it was cold and rainy and then rainy and cold.

Upcoming trips
May 1-3 – Perkins Cave Survey (Carlin.)
May 7-10 – SERA Cave Carnival
May 15-17 – Young Timers’ Reunion (Rob, maybe.)
June 6-7 – Survey: Beaver Creek? Snow Cone? (Dave.)
July 13-17 – NSS Convention

We decided to save the exciting program for a time when more people could enjoy it.

There were no newcomers at this meeting, so we skipped introductions. In attendance were Ken, Martin, Emily, Carlin, Mike, Lisa, Matthew, Sarah, and Mark D.

There was an impromptu sale of the one remaining 25th anniversary t-shirt. Some dues were collected.

There was some discussion about making donations to support New River Cave. The officers will make an announcement about the best way to do that. UPDATE: You can donate using the online NSS donation form. Select “Cave Acquisition Fund” from the fund drop-down list and then be sure to type “New River Cave” in the comments section.

Trip reports ensued.

Dig: Lisa and Mike went to Butler Cave for Pancake Weekend. They were put to work on the Back Door digging project which involved eight or nine people hoisting many, many 5-gallon bucket loads through some less than hospitable passages. Lisa had the most miserable four hours underground of her entire life. Mike wore a wetsuit and was happy. They recommend going up for a project trip to admire the engineering in use (something about a Mars Rover).

Survey and sport: Ken has posted a trip report on surveying in Beaver Creek Cave with Dave and Dawson. Carlin, Matthew, and Rob made up the other survey team on that trip. The steep approach to the cave was actually less nasty with the foot of snow on the hillside. They spent eight or nine hours surveying. While Carlin sketched Matthew followed the sound of running water through a small triangular opening to find a nice deep-looking pool about 15 feet below. Tanya joined them the next day at Boxwork Crystal Cave and Dead Air Cave. The entrance of Dead Air was draped in pretty ice formations. Matthew’s camera batteries died before he got to the really big room, but it was really fun anyway. [Carlin has posted some pictures on the Trip Reports Blog.]

Bat count: Ken and Emily joined four cavers from Walker Mountain Grotto for the Hancock Cave bat count. They counted six live bats and found the remains of one dead bat. They saw no obvious signs of White Nose Syndrome. [Here’s the posted trip report.]

Sport: Carlin, who has recently been certified as a Wilderness First Responder, Laurel, and a few other people met up with Ava at the Bat Ranch for a trip through Tawney’s Cave. Because Ava was with them they “geeked out over every living thing they could find” including some mysterious red, spotted salamander. Carlin ran through Lynx, too. He saw a few bats, including one with visible signs of WNS.

Off-topic awesome: Recently back from Tanzania, Sarah regaled us with a trip report that made up for its lack of caves with a description of her breath-taking ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. While hiking elsewhere in Tanzania, she did see “some sign for some cave at some point” but elected not to investigate due to a lack of appropriate footwear. Sarah promises to bring pictures next time, and she’ll weed out the selfies taken during the badass surgeries she performed while working at a Tanzanian hospital.

Upcoming trips
April 4 – Grand Caverns Restoration (Ken. Maybe Matthew.)
April 24-26 – Spring VAR at Natural Bridge (Emily. Maybe Ken.)
May 1-3 – Perkins Cave Survey (Carlin.)
May 7-10 – SERA Cave Carnival
July 13-17 – NSS Convention

The scheduled program, a video about sinkholes (available online), was scrapped in favor of food, beer, and conversation.

Rob gave the rundown of the agenda as people continued
wandering in. The meeting eventually began with introductions and a question
about the number of cave trips each person plans for 2015: Rob (8), Emily (5),
Carlin (12), Ken (12), Matthew Weiss (8), Glen G. (6), Eric (2), Jason (6), Peter
(12), Mark (1), Dan (1), Lisa (6), Mike (6-8), Dylan (>1), Laura (>1),
Mark D. (all the trips), Dustin Healy (as soon as possible), Kaven Healy (just
as many), Alex (as much as possible), and Erin Kirkland (whenever they go).
It was mentioned that the officers would collect WVCC
donations during the break. Carlin explained that WVCC has recently acquired
the longest cave in Smyth County (Hancock
Cave
).
The email list was broken when it disappeared on January
1.  The officers need to update the web
site so that people can get on the email list [completed the next day]. Facebook
posts have been effective.
Mark D. and Dan then began a discussion of their calendars
in which they determined that they have no free weekends in common. The rest of
us were bored.
Ken and Pete solicited help for Darwin Day. Matthew Weiss
and Mark D. agreed to help Ken in the morning at Darwin Day.
Trip reports came next. Both Ken and Carlin wrote trip
reports. Rail Valley Cave was new to
us—and oversold to us. We overwhelmed Joel (or so we thought) with Rail Valley,
but he liked Little Hancock Cave.
The weekend focussed on survey in Snow
Cone Cave
.  Bolt-climbing or
small-people-only trips are the only ones in the future to this cave. Brian Williams
posted a photo of thirty little salamanders in the eft stage in a rimstone
pool. Carlin’s trip traveled 250 feet deep in the cave. We had to hike all the
way up the hill to Snow Cone Cave to avoid losing the vehicles.  Dave and Carlin also began a survey in Beaver Creek Cave. It will be easy to
survey. It’s a great one to learn in.
Martin, Matthew, and Matthew went on a trip in Martin’s
Volkswagen. He stalled the car seven times. When they went over the bump, and
Matthew could feel the ground beneath his feet. Higginbotham’s #1 Cave was a disappointingly short trip because
Matthew didn’t have his camera.
Pete went to TAG for big vertical pits over Thanksgiving
weekend and post-Christmas. He stayed in a caver campground the first time, and
the second time Pete crashed in a friend’s house packed in like cord of wood.
They dropped Mystery Falls (belled
out a huge chamber 400’ drop) on both weekends. A blue nylon rope with a
polypropylene sheath was used and had no stretch (no bounce). Valhalla Cave is a famous drop in TAG
but requires four-wheeling with big trucks (truce with the hunters keeps them
in until after dark). Tumbling Rock Cave
is a gated, horizontal cave—nice walking cave with massive air flow. They
spent six hours in there seeing all the sites: prehistoric bear scratchings in
the mud, the Christmas Tree stalagmite [they actually decorate without touching
the tree with lights], the tumbling rock in the ceiling, and equipment for
cleaning the formations and saltpeter works.
Upcoming trips include SERA, Hancock Cave Bat Count, Grand
Caverns Restoration Camp, VAR at Natural Bridge, SERA Cave Carnival and Missouri
trip to Convention.
Rob shared photos and video from his Israeli trip
underground.
We held elections and welcome the new officers: Chair—Carlin
Kartchner, Vice Chair—Rob Harris, Web Master—Mike Broome, Treasurer—Mark
Little, and Secretary—Emily Graham. They were elected unanimously.

Triangle Troglodytes Treasurer’s Report
 January 18, 2015
(Mark Little, Treasurer)
  Beginning
Balance (January 23, 2014)
1628.39
Income
  Membership Dues and Donations Collected (*)
 348.50
  Gear Rental Fees
  43.00
  Checking Account Interest
    .12
  Misc. (**)
    .02
  Total Income
 391.62
Expenses
  Web Site Hosting (Mike Broome)
  83.40
  Maillist
hosting (DeltaForce, Robert Harris)
  60.00
  Grotto Trip Expenses
(Robert Harris)
 109.00
  West
Virginia Cave Conservancy Donation
 200.00
  Total
Expenses
 452.40
  Net Change
 -60.76
  Ending
Balance (January 18, 2015)
1567.63
(* There is
a $13.00 discrepancy between dues deposited and payments recorded; I may have
missed crediting someone with a dues payment. Also, some members donated change
when paying in cash, and I may have missed noting such a case in the dues paid
list.)

(** We
seem to have gained $0.02 in the trial transactions for PayPal payments.)

Okay, so I skipped the October meeting minutes, but they were pretty boring. The best part may have the description of a New River Cave survey. Below you’ll find the minutes from the November meeting.

No introductions but threats of food being shared. In
attendance were Mark D., Glen, Mark L., Pete, Ken, Emily, Mike, Lisa, Rachel,
and Rob. The calendars have all been claimed.
Mark D. recommended that the “I’ve always wanted to try
that!” Meetup Group should wait until warmer weather, but Pete felt that they’d
get to know one another better if they packed into 2-3 hotel rooms because overnight
bonding is a plus.  Mark D. expressed
uncertainty about the winter trip because he plans to tie an untie-able knot in
the very near future.  Even if the trip
is put off until springtime, the best approach might be a slide show about
caving followed by sign up list for the trip.
With regard to the anniversary/holiday party, ice, cups, and
utensils will be provided by the Littles. The party starts at 6 PM and then
dinner sometime after 7 PM. Rob’s action item is to solicit more responses to
the online RSVP. Ken is trying to arrange to have Steve Simmons’ squeezebox at
the holiday party.
Lisa suggested that she might be interested in hosting a
squeezebox assembly party to build one for Lisa and Mike.
Glen offered a donation to the grotto and thanked us for
leading him on the Hancock Cave trip.
Ken mentioned three items proposed by the museum and then
opened discussion:
  1.  Presentation topics should be shared in advance
    with the museum staff so that they can post them on their web site (agreed to
    by membership).
  2. Meetings could be moved to Thursdays when the
    museum stays open late to make it easier to find your way in (met with
    reluctance by the membership because Thursday are packing nights but agreed
    that holding events on Thursdays once or twice a year might be appropriate).
  3. Outreach help with an exhibit at Darwin Day at
    the museum February 14 this year 

Most discussion revolved around the last item. It ranged
from the micro-superhero Tardigrade Girl to cutout boards with people’s faces.
The museum’s mammalogist might need help with a bat display, but Pete suggested
that blind crayfish and fish might be available for preserved exhibits through
the older scientists at the museum.
Regarding recent trips,we began with descriptions of three
teams during the Hancock Cave bat
count.  Glen really enjoyed his first
caving trip and found it a lot more physical than he thought. He carried
buckets of water into the cave and washed graffiti off the walls. He was
disappointed in not seeing any bats. His group chased some false leads, and
Glen’s mom did not approve of the trip.
Pete’s group found the only bat during the bat count, and it
was probably just a little brown and not yet in hibernation. He found it easy
to spot because it was on a light-colored part of the wall.
Emily’s niece found the Hancock Cave trip awesome but was
sore afterwards. They wandered around a lot, but Emily couldn’t reconstruct the
order that they visited all the rooms. While going down the Breakdown Staircase,
Emily’s pack landed fifteen feet in the air but was handily retrieved from a
fortuitous angle.
Mike and Lisa discussed their recent trip to Butler Cave where a new cartographer is
comparing the output of 18 miles of cave data. 
They dropped a rappel line into the lead, and it led into an out-and-back
loop ending in a round room. The forty-foot waterfall yielded just a few drips,
and they couldn’t get to leads across the top of the waterfall.  They were underground for seven hours, but
Mike was miserable in some passages that were almost the right size for
Mike.  In the two tight squeezes, Mike
could move through using only hips. Part of the cave passage was much colder,
so Lisa would like to find a new surface entrance.
In terms of upcoming trips,
  • Thanksgiving Weekend – Pete headed for TAG caves (maybe Fern
    and Valhalla)
  • Dec. 13—Carlin and Dave cancelled their plans, so Ken is
    free to go caving if anyone is interested
  • Jan. 1 – Cave survey in Smyth County
  • Israeli caving –Rob’s been facetiming with Israeli cavers
    and plans to join them.  Rob may visit
    salt caves, gravesites and archaeological digs.
Then we watched the rest of the John Cole NSS Luminary talk. The officers voted to make a grotto donation of $200 to West Virginia Cave Conservancy thanks to their acquisition of Hancock Cave.

Meeting started at 7:42 PM. Glen, Pete, Rob,
Emily, Mark D., Carlin, Martin, Mike, and Ken were the few in attendance. Rob
skipped discussion of the NSS building fund.
Ava and Rob and Pete will help Mark plan his
outreach efforts to outside meetup groups. 
A destination may be in the Blacksburg area.  “I’ve always wanted to try that” and a local
rockclimbers group both want to cave. 
The numbers of people might get high. The rock climbing gym was
enthusiastic about the program. They might set up a wait list with a
fifteen-person limit. Suitable helmets might be an issue.  The might use VPI area helmets and borrow
from grotto members. If it doesn’t happen until spring, Mark wouldn’t die.
Bugfest recap from Pete H.—33,000 people visited
BugFest and it went off pretty well.
Holiday Party—Figure out who will host the event
and then send out a poll with the possible dates.  Rob will send out a poll. [ed. Mark and Rhonda L. agreed to host the party on December 8]
Next month’s program suggestion—understand how
batteries work. Other ideas included stuff from convention. John Cole from the
NSS web site on the Luminary series—inventor of the rack. Some videos are
better to watch in a group. 
Trip reports—Ken described his window-washing
descent into the 4000-year old volcano Thingnookagigur
in Iceland.
OTR—Pete, Carlin, Rob, and Mark D. did Stillhouse and Sinks of Gandy through trips. 
A Northern long ears may have been spotted at the entrance.  They went downstream first where no one
wanted to follow.  They eventually found
their way to the big room.  They also
encountered Mennonites in dresses in the Sinks of Gandy right before they’d be
getting muddy up to their knees.
This group also visited Sharps Cave and found pack rat nests were very active. They found
the waterfall and the sculpture gallery and both sides in under 3 hours, not to
mention the Giant Flying Gourd Room and Halloween Hall.
Missed
Opportunity Cave
—Dave D., Carlin and Mark D. surveyed up to the
2700 feet mark, but the furthest station is only 1000 feet from entrance.  There may only be one more full day trip to
the cave because they’ve now found all the walls. The stream is not passable,
but you can travel above it.  Brian
Williams and Steph Petri with Carlin jovially complained about the survey.  The four different levels from a very well decorated
cave with a few places to sit up.  A
jumble of breakdown sits in some areas, but Dave and Mark could stand up
occasionally during their survey. Carlin kept on his wet suit the whole time,
and it was really necessary. It’s the squeeze and maneuver that gets you wet.
Carlin also reported on a small cave in Marion. Stairstep Springs Cave had 3 entrances.
A decent amount of water was flowing out, and they needed wetsuits. In the main
entrance they found a cave salamander tail inside a spring salamander, as well
as a bunch of salamanders and frogs. They finished the survey (80 feet).
Upcoming Trips
Sept. 27 – New River Cave survey (Ken, Pete,
and Ava)
Oct. 4—Over the Edge (Mark D.)—Wells Fargo
building in Raleigh (32 stories)
Oct. 9-12 – TAG Fall Cave-in near Menlo, GA
Oct. 10-12 – Fall VAR at Rich Mtn
Battlefield, Beverly, WV
Oct. 18 – New River Cave survey (Dave West)
Oct. 30 –Bat Ranch Halloween (Rob)
Nov. 8 – Hancock Cave Bat Count (Ken)
Others?

For the
program, we joked around while watching a video entitled Secret Cave. Then Mark
treated us to the video about caving unicyclists, or were they unicycling
cavers?

Emily G., Mark D., Mark L.,
Pete H., Rob H., Martin G., Ken W., and Ava P. were in attendance (either in
the flesh or in the cybersphere). Because folks seem to know one another, Rob
forewent/foregoed the introductions.
Mark D. began the meeting by
describing one member’s imminent protests to a local municipality about his
mosquito problem. Mark D. then told how this problem might be related to the
lack of a drain under his shower and the impenetrable French drain beneath it.
Somehow this led to a Happy Birthday song for Pete Hertl with the gift of a
rubber ducky that shoots a laser from its mouth when it quacks.
Then we worked out the t-shirt
and camping reimbursement issues with Rob. We only spent a few moments admiring
Mark L. in the new T-shirt.
Mark D. then shared his
vision for a beginners cave trip meetup. He plans to hold the information
sharing meeting at Triangle Rock Club and then pick a cave to visit in late
October or early November. He is looking for helping planning this, and Ken
offered to share the slides he uses with scouts.
Doug Leapley is looking for
someone to speak to a scout troop about caving. Ken will contact him unless
someone else would like to.
Rob will fix the web site so
that upcoming meeting dates are better displayed.  Mark L. shared the membership list and worked
on getting updated on the membership list.
The next discussion was about
problems with various LED headlamps and dealing with manufacturers when they
break.
The TriTrogs are now looking
for someone to host the 25th Anniversary Party in early December.
The date will be based on the host’s schedule.
Trip reports followed. The
grotto trip marked the first wild cave for 4.5-year old daughter of Mark’s
girlfriend.  He related that they got a
little bit lost in the maze in Paxton
Cave
. In a key junction Mark chose the wrong way 5 out of 6 tries. Several climbing
attempts didn’t go well for Lisa.  She
eventually climbed up with footholds in the webbing.  When they explored the room, they found that
there was an easy way to skip the climb just a few feet away.
Salamanders marked Mark’s
trip to Friars Hole Cave. Emily had
a different experience by entering at the Snedegars
Saltpeter Entrance
and didn’t see salamanders as she slogged through the
sump.
Pete related the story of the
grotto vertical trip to the Crookshank
Entrance
—getting there was an adventure. They wandered for hours before
consulting the topo map. Then they short-rigged the pit, and Mike went down
first.  Pete enjoyed the crawl through an
earthworm bed. They crawled along the surface and occasionally got mashed by
the crawling cavers. They got close to the waterfall, and the first pool was
the commitment point.  It wasn’t that
bad, but only Pete and Mike made it all the way. They found spring salamanders
and something like the Jefferson salamander.
Martin said that his team got
lost in the Snedegars Saltpeter Maze [ed.
I would’ve described it as thorough exploration of the maze
].  The base of the waterfall was a good place to
finish the trip. Martin forgot his camera card, but he would’ve gotten good
pics there. His brother Doug was wide eyed at one point, amusing Martin.
Ken shared a description of
his two survey trips to Saltville Quarry
Cave
, surveying in cold water up to his hips. The survey topped out at 1202
feet. Pete mentioned that this is the season for blow out sales on wet suits.
With regard to upcoming
trips, see the list below:
August 28-Sept. 1 – Old
Timers Reunion
September 13 – Carlin and
Dave in Missed Opportunity
September 20 – Bugfest
(contact Pete Hertl if you can help)
September 27 – New River Cave
survey (Ken, Ava, and Pete)
October 10-12 – Fall VAR at
Rich Mtn Battlefield
November 8 – Hancock Cave Bat
Count (Ken)

After a long break, Mark D.
shared a fast forward version of the Amazing Caves video and the Making of
Amazing Caves.

The meeting began with
introductions. We discovered that Emily makes interesting sounds, Sue is
visiting her daughters, Steve was around when the local grotto was the UNC
outing club, Anuj transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill, Ken knew Sue when he started
caving, Mike is wearing a salamander, Pete was sitting there, Martin has been
here since 2011, and Carlin was born in a cave. 
Rob was born in an IHOP, but Rachel denied it. Mark D. has caved seven
years.
The member dues are $8 for
the rest of 2014, and half that for family members at the same address. Rob
shared the T-shirts, but the blue was too dark and didn’t contrast the black
enough for the cave to be visible. The company has agreed to reprint the
shirts, so Rob accepted new orders at $14 apiece.
Brick buying campaign for
the new NSS Headquarters. Mark heard the speech 1800 times at Convention. Each
brick will be cut with three lines of twenty characters each, and the TriTrogs
could get together to sponsor a block containing individual bricks. The
campaign does not seem to have an end date. Someone suggested TriTrogs bricks
carry the phrase “Caving ‘til extinction.”
How to Cave meeting: Mark D.
hasn’t thought about it much or the meetup group advertising he’d use. Matthew
Weiss is going to help, but Mark would appreciate help from anyone else who may
want to join them.
Pete is looking for
volunteers for BugFest at the museum on September 20. It’s organized into
two-hour shifts (reward of a nice T-shirt), and working two shifts or more gets
volunteers free food. Pete organizes the Orthoptera display and will teach
volunteers what they need to know at the event.
In terms of trip reports, Mark
D. mentioned that Sue, Emily, Lee Olsen, Tanya, and Pete went to the NSS
Convention. Convention was good, and Pete set records on rope climbing. He won
300 feet of rope, and Mark further awarded Pete the dead flower centerpiece
from the banquet. One seat had the carabiner under it.  Mark detailed his 137-foot entrance pit trip
to War Eagle Cave—the cry of Auburn University—
near the small Crimson Tide Cave. A
lower entrance had frogs and fish in it. 
One spot on the map is labeled 40-foot domes but Mark found some new
passage that was off the map if you climbed up.
Cathedral Caverns: Pete H. went on commercial cave tour with an ill-behaved mass of
school children. Pete’s camera was shaken by the kids who were jumping on the
railing. He related a good cave tour with reasonable lighting, although he
questioned its ability for a civil defense shelter with 10,000 people inside.
The tour guides can tell the weather in advance by a cloud near the entrance. The
$5 fee for NSS members was money well spent. Mark had a tenth-grade tour guide
who asked him questions about the cave, but Emily couldn’t understand her
guide’s speech.
The CaveSim broke when Emily
went through.
Pete went to Neversink Cave with double drops to see
the glow worms. He had to wait 15-20 minutes to see the modest, continuous
glow.  He even saw them on the cave floor
but mostly those close to him. Mark took the vertical workshop and learned
something at every station.
Hungarians, Australians,
Slovenians, and other countries were represented at the NSS Convention. Pete
mentioned next year’s convention in Missouri.  The 2016 Convention is in Nevada.
Carlin went with Dave and
Andrea to Perkins Cave.  Buford, Bill Grosse, and Carlin surveyed 500
feet.  Jason’s team surveyed almost 900
feet.  The weekend total was 1900 feet.  Carlin, Dave and Andrea also scoped out Water Cave for dive opportunities.
Mike Broome went to Grand Caverns with his family.  His family had fun, and the NSS discount was
good.  They let his family stay late to
see the movie and Mike shared survey stories with the tour group.
Ken described finding some
small caves in Hemlock Gorge near Prettyboy Reservoir.
Upcoming Trips
July 25-27 – Missed
Opportunity and Saltville Quarry Cave Surveys
-Harper’s Ferry climbing with
Rob
August 16 – TriTrogs Annual
Trip to Friars Hole Cave
August 28-Sept. 1 – Old
Timers Reunion
Oct. 10-12 – Fall VAR at Rich
Mtn Battlefield
Others?
After the break, the program
wasEuropean (and Worldwide) Cave
Photography – From a Publisher’s Perspective,” presented by Sue Widmer. Below
you’ll see the notes I took from her slides.
Sharpness
Composition
Lighting
Good model placement
Audience appeal
High res file
Purpose
Not in 72-dpi(stamp size)
sharpness
Tripod mounted
Model not moving
Focus
Perfection
Composition
Cave features prominent
(even for the critters)
Interesting perspective
Balanced
Contrat—photoshop can adjust
Scale (sometimes)
Lighting
-well placed flashes
(firefly triggered or radio triggered flash units)
-avoid burnouts (cannot be
fixed)
–ambiance (how do I feel in
a cave)
–use of assistants and
models to hold/aim flashes
—variety of models—give
credit to everyone who helped
Good model placemnt
–location in composition
–stance/action
–included for scale or to
demonstrate action
–patience
–facial epression-attitude
–experienced and trained
models/assistants
audience appeal
is it interesting to look
at?
Is the cave the main focus?
Is the formation or passage
special or unique enough to hold the viewer’s attention for a month?
Wow| factor
High resolution
Raw or tif file
Needed for printing, crpping
and enlarging (300 dpi)
Better for photoshop
enhancement
30-100MB
purpose
calendar
society/scientific/report
photo (as Sue publishes)
club newsletter
trip documentation
friends and memories