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.

Introductions

In attendance (in person or online): Louis, Ken, Ashwin, Emily, Taylor T., April, Taylor O., Stephan, Peter, Robert

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.
• Look for a Treasurer’s report in your email soon.
• Last year the NSS revamped its website, and now some things may not be where one expects to find them. There are some new pages, though, so head over to caves.org to look around. Also, the next time you’re on YouTube, be sure to check out the NSS’s Virtual Topics in Cave Rescue playlist and the NCRC’s videos.

Trip Reports

• Stephan joined Peter et al at Lost World Caverns where Stephan enjoyed rappelling and climbing rope in a cave for the first time. They had intended to visit Organ Cave afterwards but found it still permanently closed. What they did find was a small museum that contained, among other things, a list of saltpeter caves. The group then visited Bone Cave, which was dry and dusty enough that they were happy to wear masks. Peter had forgotten about the nice walking passages – and about the crawling passages in between. They did the Devil’s Pinch into Norman Cave, then turned around and came back. The first bat that they encountered in Bone had obvious signs of WNS. There were dozens of bats, many flying around, farther inside. When they arrived at Bone, there was a beam of sunlight reaching about 200 ft inside.
• Stephan went into a frozen glacier cave in Iceland. It was absolutely awesome and beautiful and he recommends it to anyone who visits Iceland between November and March.
• Ken and Emily were joined by Laura of Virginia on a bat count at Hancock Cave. They saw only six bats, but that’s not disappointing when they’ve been there and seen zero. In addition to the usual bat count route, Ken led them into the Vertical Maze which was both vertical and mazy. Escaping from the cave proved more harrowing, or at least more muddy, than usual given that it had been raining into the entrance all afternoon.
• April dragged her coworkers to Great Canyon Cave in Kosovo. Yep, Kosovo! It had been raining so the waterfall near the back of the cave was really gushing. Her coworkers had not believed that it was possible to get muddier than they had on their previous cave outing and had perhaps unwisely brought along a nice camera and camera bag.
• Peter went caving in TAG, but he’s unwilling to share any more at this time.

Upcoming Events

• JAN 28 – sport trip to Low Moor Cave
• APR 22 – Earth Day Restoration (sinkholes) near Covington, VA
• APR 21-23 – Orientation to Cave Rescue in Elkins, WV
• MAY 12-20 – weeklong rescue training in Mentone, AL
• JUN 26-30 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Elections

We held elections. The 2023 officers are:

CHAIR – Ken W
VICE-CHAIR – Stephan F
SECRETARY – Emily G
TREASURER – Mike B
WEBMASTER – Taylor T

Introductions

In attendance: Zeke (Dead Air), Emily (Lowmoor), Michael (Boone’s Cave), Erin (Enchanted Caverns), Peter (El Sapillo “the brush”), Louis (Worley’s), Stephan (Devil’s Ear), Ken (Death Pit), Mariana (Golondrinas), Robert (Clover Hollow)

Program

The Name That Room challenge. Louis and Ken were in cahoots. Oh! I’ve got dibs on ‘Cahoots’.

Business

• Dues reminder
• Holiday party! December 10 chez Carlin and Laurel.
• Donation to RASS and … officers to convene

Trip Reports

Emily, Ken, and Vardell surveyed 468 ft or so in Perkins Cave. The mice would have been cute if they hadn’t started following us around in gangs. Ken posted a trip report.

Erin and Michael recently went to Boone’s Cave near Lexington. They also did some urban tunneling near DC, which doesn’t even involve digging.

Upcoming Things

• December 10 – Holiday party in Durham
• January 24 – grotto elections
• April 21-23 – OCR in Elkins, WV
• May 12-20 – Weeklong NCRC training in Mentone, AL
• June 26-30 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Introductions

In attendance: Zeke, Mark, Jack, Louis, Stephan, Ken, Diana, Emily, Peter, Mike B, Lisa, Jeno, April

Program

Brandon Kowallis, cave photographer, gave us “6 Ways to Improve Your Cave Photography”. You can read an article written by Brandon in the August 2019 issue of the NSS News. Visit his website to see some of his photos.

Business

• Dues reminder
• Holiday party
• Diana has a really nice quality 4 season 2-3 person tent with 2 large vestibules that needs some TLC that is free to a good home.

Trip Reports

Ken and I got roped into a (ropeless) trip to Crossroads Cave by Miles Drake and his Terrapin Trail Club members. They all took to caving very well and had no problems at all. We were under for about 5 hours.
At VAR Mark got to hear a first-hand account of a couple people who spent about 20 hours in Crossroads once because they were lost. He went to Subway Cave and to Watersink. Watersink is fairly short and mazy. There’s a little squeeze followed by some nice clean formations and flowstone. Subway looks like a huge volume of water drains through it. There were some fossils and nice formations, too.

Upcoming Things

• Oct 29 – Perkins Cave survey (Ken)
• Nov 12 – Darwin Day
• April 21-23, 2023 – Orientation to Cave Rescue in Elkins, WV
• May 12-20, 2023 – Weeklong NCRC in Mentone, AL
• June 26-30, 2023 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Introductions

In attendance: “Larry” (green), Joe (purple), Maria (purple), Stephan (mud), Louis (navy), Michael (orange), Matthew (red), Matthew L (cerise), Emily (cornflower), Ken (Zoom, no), Mike B (Zoom, slate), Lisa (Zoom, purple), Mark (Zoom, pumpkin spice), Peter (Zoom, green), Lauren B (blue), Lee O. (Zoom, yellow), Carlin (late)

Program

Dr. Hazel Barton gave a presentation on her research into microbial communities in cave environments.

Business

• Dues reminder
• A holiday party

Trip Reports

Stephan drove down some crazy long road in Idaho, but first he went to Lewis & Clark Caverns in Montana. It’s a really nice cave and he recommends it. He then visited Craters of the Moon and went into the 800-ft Indian Tunnel lava tube. It was good to get out of the heat.

Carlin went to New England with his family and caved in ME, NH, and NY. In Maine, they went to a sea cave called Anemone Cave in Acadia National Park. All the sea caves there were short. There was not much limestone in NH, but talus fields with granite caves. One of the polar ice caves still had ice in it. In NY, they went to Howe Caverns and another show cave that’s a hippie-esque UFO-ology vibe cave called Secret Caverns. The wild caves they visited were Bentleys and Spider Cave. Gavin gives caves a thumbs down. Spider Cave has a gorgeous entrance. I guess that makes up for the name.

Upcoming Things

• Oct 1 Sinkhole cleanout in Leesburg, VA
• Oct 6-9 TAG Fall Cave-in in Menlo, GA
• Oct 21-23 Fall VAR at RASS Field Station
• Oct 29 Perkins Cave survey (Ken)
• Nov 12 Darwin Day
• June 26-30, 2023 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Introductions

In attendance: Zeke, Emily, Louis, Taylor O., Ken, Mike (new guy), Stephan, Martin (Zoom), Mark (Zoom), Peter (Zoom), Kyle Compare (Zoom)

Program

FSU PhD candidate Kyle Compare gave us an introduction to Karst Hydrogeology and told us about some of the research he’s been doing. Just like everything else, the stuff that water does is even crazier in Florida!

Business

• Dues
• Bugfest
• Darwin Day

Trip Reports

Breathing Cave – There were five of us, and we all agree that the hike was all uphill the whole way to the cave and most of the way back. Stephan posted a trip report. He’ll be more suspicious of obstacle names now that he’s encountered the nutcracker. Turtle hiking?
Crossroads Cave – Ken duped Zeke into going down some passage. Again.
Blowing Cave – Mark, Jack, and Stephan went to Blowing Cave. Afterwards, Stephan found online a paper than included an actual surveyed map of the cave. Mark appreciated the tilting of the rock layers and the mud. He wants to push some high leads and find a lot of cave. “Lots of pretty stuff in there, especially if you like mud,” said someone.
Perkins Cave – Mike the New Guy went to the ACC open house and enjoyed the Ghost Town.
Sink hole near Lexington – After a recon mission to this ginormous sinkhole from hell, the VAR conservation committee will probably not recommend a full day of 40 people cleaning it up. Also, there’s no indication of underlying cave.

Upcoming Things

• Survey trip to Perkins some time in the future
• Sept 1-5 – CaveFest (TN)
• Sept 17 Bugfest
• Oct 21-23 Fall VAR at RASS Field Station
• Nov 12 Darwin Day
• June 26-30, 2023 – NSS Convention in Elkins, WV

Introductions

In attendance: Zeke, Emily, Stephan, Peter, Ken, Lisa, Mike, Mark, Alex, Maria

Business

• Dues are now half-price! $7.50 for individuals, something else for families.
• The annual grotto trip will be the weekend of August 13 at RASS Field Station. The sign-up sheet will be e-mailed this week.

Trip Reports

Peter and Stephan went to try to unclog the Spencer entrance to Buckeye Creek Cave. The effort was unsuccessful, but they made a trip into the other entrance which was nice if you’re willing to get your reproductive organs wet. From there they went to the dry end of the cave and saw some incredible formations of hexagonal shapes. They also went to the Norman side of Bone-Norman Cave where they also got to walk in a stream passage.

Upcoming Things

• July 30 – Horizontal sport trip to Breathing Cave
• Aug 13 – Annual Grotto Trip
• Aug 20 – ACC short tours at Perkins Cave
• Sept 1-5 – CaveFest (Tenn)

Program

Gear Swamp! Swap!

Introductions

In attendance: Zeke, Emily, Stephan, Peter, Ken, Lisa, Alex, Diana, Louis, Carlin, Mike, Taylor O., and Ann

Business

• Yearly dues go to half-price at the beginning of July: $7.50 for an individual or $11 for a family.
• The grotto officers will have a meeting primarily to discuss the annual grotto trip scheduled for the weekend of August 13.

Trip Reports

Peter, Ken, and Stephan went on a sport to Hancock Cave. Stephan found it easier getting in than coming out. It probably didn’t help that he had formed himself into a spineless corkscrew at some point in between. They went to the top of Witch Glob Pit to see if anything had opened up near the surface; nothing had.

Mike and Lisa went to Gneiss Cave at Chimney Rock State Park. They appreciated the shade.

Mike and Lisa explored Blue Grotto, a sea cave in Italy. They had to lie down in a rowboat to get inside. The guides sang.

Upcoming Things

• July 30 – Horizontal sport trip (see Ken)
• Aug 13-14 – Annual Grotto Trip
• Aug 20 – short tours of Perkins Cave (offered by ACC)

Program

Louis conducted a casual interview with 2nd and 3rd generation cavers Taylor Orr, Carlin Kartchner, and Emily Graham.