Friday, March 1, 2013

TriTrogs February 2013 General Meeting


Introductions/Attendees:

Martin G., Mark D., Pete H., Dianna G., Jacob J., Carlin K., Ken W., Rob the floating head (aka  Space Lord), Howard H. came too!


Old business:     
We discussed the minutes from the officer’s meeting

In response to the officers deciding that the membership list be removed from the website some people would like hard copies of it or perhaps PDF copies of it.  Decided we would talk to Mark Little about how to best go about disseminating member info

Martin finally received his awards from the X-mas party, two thumbs off award for his uncanny ability to slice his fingers while doing seemingly harmless tasks and also the Youth Group Leader Award (for his demonstration of the delicate and polite use of very important words they’ve probably never heard before!)


New Business:
Discussed giving the instruments and helmet to Tanya
Dianna brought some old stuff caving publications for us young folk to fight over

Trip Reports:

Higgenbothms # 4 with Martin, Ken, Jacob and Erika
They got pulled over in the hotel parking lot for making an unsignaled turn, but escaped the wrath of the law despite a lack of proof of registration and insurance
Jacob says it was a very pretty cave, cool formations, set up 7 or 8 good shots
Jacob was excited for the opportunity to take his car off-roading
Ken posted pics on the web and photoshopped them a little

Carlin discussing his trip this past weekend to Smith County
Carlin, Jacob, Dave D., Dawson, and James Armstrong (new guy)
Originally Carlin and Jacob were going to go ridgewalking/exploring Wythe county trying to find new stuff, but Thursday night Dave D. hopped on the trip, decided to switch to Buchanan Salt Peter.  Landowner was already at the cave, left Carlins at 6 am Saturday, started at marble cave then to Buch. Salt Peter.  Very spectacular, large passages, one little climb and one little crawl.  (WHY DO WE GO TO COLDSINK !?!?!) Scouted some other stuff after the cave, hung out with Tanya in the evening, headed back Sunday

Rob went to SERA and Cumberland caverns, it was a commercial cave with lots of passage for more exploration (38 miles? Not sure if that’s the right number). He met a guy who was on storm stories for being in a flooding cave who he was trapped and had to get rescued, he thought it was cool to talk to him. He went with Lee Olson from South Carolina.  Used a figure 8 for some drops it was fun. 

Ava explored some old aqueducts underneath New York City.  That was very cool.

Diana brought up using dowsing sticks to find things (like caves/holes/water etc.).  Ava was very skeptical but Ken thought it was extremely funny and entertaining to annoy Ava by continually bringing up the topic.  For more info on the lack of scientific evidence supporting dowsing see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

Upcoming trips:

March 8-10 = orientation to cave rescue
March 22-24th = Surveying in Smyth County – possibly Doanes?
March 29-31 = Easter – Grand Caverns restoration weekend
May 17-19 = spring VAR
Rob may try to get a new castle murder hole on Easter weekend—keep bothering him so he actually does it!

Ken started surveying New River Cave back in the 90s, but now will have the opportunity to finish it up.  Map has been drafted, Ken has been asked to lead trips back in there to clean up and finish up survey, resurvey a little bit.  Going to try to get trips up there the 1st and 3rd weekends of the months. Hopefully the first trip will be in April? He’ll definitely need people to help out.

Break:

Program: 
Carlin gave a presentation on things he doesn’t know and isn’t allowed to share about his experiences in the area where there are no caves to speak of.  It was called Caving in Arizona.

Then the group headed to Armadillo Grill for a final farewell to Jacob.  We’ll miss him a ton!  

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