Dave Duguid (Chair) welcomed everyone to the meeting and then asked everyone to introduce themselves. They included Dave Duguid, Will Summer, Matt Westlake (Vice Chair), TJ Smith, Mark Little, Janell Lovelace, Ken Walsh, Rob Phelps, John Plyler, Lindsey Carey originally from the Chicago area, Susanna Clark with the advice to avoid baby showers, Susan Bullers who began wild caving in Colorado and drove up from Wilmington, Howard and Hayden Holgate, Christian Lindqvist, and Mark Daughtridge. Linda Waters-Lindqvist, Matt Jenkins, and Brian Bolt joined the meeting later.
To cover Business, Mark Little (Treasurer) planned to accept dues during the break. Dave mentioned that the web host transition is an ongoing project. When Dave brought up the holiday parties, Susanna Clark volunteered that she might host the Halloween Party. There was no other business.
Dave Duguid led off the trip reports by talking about his July trip to Rowland Springs Cave. Robbie and Jason helped Dave survey up through some formations. They ended up surveying back up into an area they didn’t expect and covered about 250’ of survey. Sentinel Cave needs to be dug out some more and may lead further into the hillside, so Dave described the dig in Sentinel Cave and was interested in suggestions on how to lift out the dirt.
Matt Westlake described the TriTrog Annual Cave Trip to James Cave. We popped out the second entrance and saw some salamanders. We climbed through the culvert formation poised with a convenient pool of water at the bottom. It’s a horizontal cave with some climbing, and we got out faster than we got in. Dave added that Diana, Dave, and Dawson sped out of the cave in 45 minutes, with Dawson getting wet up to his waist.
Dave made me give the trip description to Tawney’s Cave, so the minutes are sketchy. Dave, Dawson, Mike, Lisa, and I took lots of photos in the first room, and then the intense fog confused me for a while. Dave posted a photo of the back entrance from the cave with the trip report.
Dave shared a trip report from his trip to a North Carolina cave reputed to once be the home of a famous explorer. Dave and his youngest visited several low passages that have been filled with dirt since the 1960s. The cave is right beside the river, and the dirt was easy to move. His photos showed far less room than could have held the 24 people that once were purported to live there, but there were once seven rooms. The county park would be willing to let us remove the graffiti and the dirt in order to discover more about the cave. They’d also appreciate a map.
Janell went caving with an organized group. They went out near the Sinks of Gandy (probably to Stillhouse Cave) for a concert. They held well over a hundred people there after telling them to dress like they’d be wrestling pigs in Seattle. [I didn’t realize that Seattle was a pig wrestling mecca.]
Upcoming Trips
OTR: John Plyler and Pete Hertl are going up on Thursday morning to this event for 1500 cavers.
Fall VAR—September 19-21 in Covington: Ken, Howard, and Hayden are planning to go
Annual Conservation Trip—October 4-5: Clean up the Peacock Entrance to Hancock Cave in the morning and cave in the afternoon. Stay at Tanya’s house, present the map to the landowner, and hear a Bob and Sheri radio interview about a trip into Hancock. The owner will be bow hunting starting that weekend, but he promised not to shoot at us.
Cave Survey in Santee State Park, SC—September 13: Dave hasn’t heard for sure about this date
NC Cave described above in the trip reports: contact Dave Duguid
Venture Crew 888 wants to reschedule their trip for Nov. 15. It would help to have more leaders for this all high-school group. Mark Little is the contact person.
BREAK
Ken Walsh shared a presentation titled Hancock Cave: Survey, Cartography, Recollections, and Recognition. After getting a nice plaque from the TriTrogs, he passed out copies of the map to the surveyors.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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