Fall VAR 2012

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            We
started off the trip by meeting at Carlin’s Friday after work – we were Jacob,
Carlin, Ken, Diana, and Ava.  The boys
rode up with Ken and girls rode in Diana’s car (boys smell bad anyway).  After quite a search we stopped for
food in Danville at an Italian place, Jo and Mimmas.  We recommend this for future groups looking for a decent meal
on the way to caves, it was delicious.

            After
food and coffee we headed down the road toward Rockbridge County, Va.  We made a last stop for gas, bathroom, and
beers in Lynchville just before midnight. 
Diana stepped in to use the restroom and not long after they turned off
all the lights and locked the doors! 
Luckily, (as might be expected of a caver heading to a caving event) she
had a headlamp on hand so continued to wash her face and came out (very much to
the surprise of the workers) a few minutes later.  We all had a laugh. 
VAR was ~ 20 minutes away down back roads.  We followed maps, gps, and finally the signs to get there.  Upon arrival there were several people
hanging around registration and sign ups for trips the next day.  Because we were so late most were trips
were full, but someone (maybe Bob?) recommended a couple of caves a little ways
north, Belles Valley Wet and Dry caves, for us to check out on our own.  

            We
decided to figure out the details in the morning and then headed toward the
back of the property to camp.  We set-up
tents and the grotto flag, had a beer, and chatted while scanning the
beautifully clear sky for shooting stars. 
Some of us saw several, Ken wasn’t having any luck so he went to
bed.  No less than 2 minutes after
he was in his tent we saw one that was so bright Diana had time to see its
reflection in the car window and turn around to see it!  Moral of the story: don’t go to bed.  Then, against our better judgment, we went
to bed.

            The
next morning Ken had the fixins for French toast and Diana brought fixins for
coffee (with a French press).  It
was a French morning.  Tanya found
us. We shared our breakfast with her and afterward Carlin helped move her tent
near the rest of us.  

            We
geared up and stopped for directions on the way out.  After some GPS difficulties we headed on the way (Carlin,
Jacob, Ken, Tanya, Diana, and Ava). 
There were lots of dirt roads, we were definitely in the middle of
nowhere.  Both caves were right on
the road so we parked at the intersection to get changed and went for the dry
cave first.  Carlin tried to take
some photos of the entrance but he didn’t have his SD card. He takes better
photos than I do so I loaned him mine.  Therefor, all photos are courtesy of Carlin (and also do not show him, but I promise he really did come along).
            Diana
and Jacob were the first ones in. It opened up into a little room and then to a
belly crawl a few yards long.  Then
on to kneeling passage with lots of rimstone pools with a few inches of water. 
 


We saw several bats on the way in.

  


We continued on to a small room in the
back, nothing too special.  Ken
thought there was a lead, Carlin checked it out and said no go.  So, naturally, Ken (the largest person
in the group) proceeded to shove himself feet first into the hole to see if Carlin
was right.  When he was chin deep in
mud he decided it didn’t go–that was the end.  Carlin took some nice photos of Jacob on the way out, Ken
helped with lighting.
               

            We
exited for the wet cave only to find more cavers at the parking area. They were
about to check out the dry cave too.  We were warned that the wet cave was REALLY wet and that we’d
go in, start swimming, and swim until we were too cold to swim anymore.  It started off in dry walking passage
for a few yards where we found a salamander and took pictures, then as expected
it got wet really quick.  We were
waist deep in 55 degree water almost immediately. 

Soon
we were seeing salamanders everywhere!
And wading in water that was approaching chest deep!  We were able to get up a little higher
to straddle the deep water by keeping feet and hands on the walls. The water
was relatively clear, clear enough to see to the bottom in some spots.  We followed the water upstream for
quite a ways, there was some nice flowstone and tons of salamanders.  So many that even I stopped pointing them out. They looked similar to cave salamanders but their coloring was more dull
than usual.  

            We
continued on, switching between swimming through, wading in, and straddling
over the water until Ken got to a point where he said we would have to duck
under and possibly get our heads/chests wet.  But, Carlin wanted to check it out and pushed through without
getting too wet (ie. he didn’t have to submerge his head).  The cave continued up a flowstone
waterfall to some rimstone pools and into walking passage.  The rest of the group followed.
We
saw a dead bat in the water, gross!  Then came to what appeared to be a sump, checked it to the
point that my right ear was very wet and very cold.  Decided not to push it so we headed back toward the entrance.  It was a lot of fun! Some of our packs
were less waterproof than others. 
On the way out Jacob was sending his swaygo pack sailing on top of the
water through people’s legs as they straddled the stream passage, others had
soaked lights and food that wasn’t as fun to watch.  We stopped near the entrance to take some photos, see
below.
 
Daily workout
Diana had just told Ken to close his mouth, he obeyed. 
 
 
No comment
  
Ken and Diana headed out
the way we came in, Carlin, Jacob, and I headed out the other entrance where we
could hear the other group of cavers. 
Jacob saw a froggy on the way out. 
            After
trying to convince the other group to get wet and check the cave out we headed
up the road a piece to scope out a few other holes in the side of the road.  None of them seemed to go so we headed
downhill towards the creek to look for another cave we’d heard about.  We didn’t find it but did make it to
the creek where we waded/swam upstream looking for the cave in the hillside
bank, no luck. 
Ken, Ava, and Diana traveling up the creek
 But, Jacob did find
an alligator snapping turtle! 
            On
the way back we were halted by a road block…of cows.  Seems they liked being out of the
pasture blocking the road better than life inside the fence.  We made it back for dinner, beers, and
a presentation about caving in Mexico by Tony Akers.  There was a nice campfire after the presentation.  Then we headed back to the tents to
look for shooting stars before we went to bed.  Ken saw 2!  In
the morning we packed up camp and Carlin attended part of the regional
meeting.  Then we headed toward
Lexington to find breakfast.  After
some trouble finding any open restaurants we found one, a place called Niko’s
(for future reference).
            Then,
at Ken’s suggestion, we made our way toward the Devil’s Marble yard to do some
hiking on the way home.  It was a nice
1.5 mile hike up to a huge boulder field on top of a mountain.  Solid boulders for almost ½ mile!   
Ken, Diana, Ava at on the Devil’s marbles
We climbed on every single one of them
and then kept going toward the summit. 
 We hiked back down and
headed for home.   We stopped for Mexican in Danville and
then back to Carlin’s.
            Seems
like everyone had a great time, I know I did.  Let’s go caving!