Introductions

In attendance: Ken, Stephan, Diana, Emily, Peter, and Ashwin

Business

• Zeke will host the June meeting at a location to be announced later.
• Is there interest in a TriTrogs Discord channel? Also, what is Discord? Ken proposed looking at Discord as an additional method of grotto communication as more people are depressed by the idea of checking email these days.

Past Trips

• Emily, Piotr, and Ken continued the survey in Perkins. After all the rain the previous day, Ken chose to park at the top of the long dirt road leading to the property. The rain made for a very drippy, muddy trip. Piotr rallied even though the angles were steep and all the stations Emily set were too low. When they emerged to find it snowing, Emily’s spirits soared until she remembered that they had to hike all the way out.
• Peter recently returned from his annual trip to the Florida panhandle worm fest. He didn’t do any caving, but he was introduced to a cave diver and got to tag along (above ground) to the site of an exploratory dive. He also met a photographer and a captive albino crayfish.
• Stephan, Ken, and Emily mustered up the courage to clean out sinkholes for the VAR Earth Day event. The gusty winds nearly blew Stephan’s tent into the nearest sinkhole before he could pack it up. As promised, the rains came and went for much of the day. Two tractors and lots of people helped remove dozens and dozens of rolls of wire fencing. It took only an hour and a half to clean out the first sinkhole. Lots more interesting stuff came out of the second one. The tractor removed a tree from a small hole from which air was blowing right next to the second sinkhole, but we didn’t get to explore it.

Upcoming Trips

• May 19-21 – Spring VAR
• June 26-30 – NSS Convention
• TBD – Hancock Cave (Mark D.)
• June/July – Scott Hollow Cave (Matthew W., Mark D.)
• TBD – Annual grotto trip

Program

That Sketchy Group in the Park
Ken showed us the basics of being a sketcher on a survey team, making use of an amoeba-shaped walk-through sculpture and a break in the rain to let us attempt it ourselves.