TriTrog Secretary Blog

TriTrogs General meeting January 2012

2012-01-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences
January 24, 2012

Previous meeting: November 22nd (Minutes available online)
Last “meeting” Holiday Party Dec 10th

Attendees: 18 Cavers: Howard Holgate, Greg Dahlin, Mark Little, Norm Bedwell, Jen Bedwell, Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Martin Groenewegen, Matthew Weiss, Michael Caslin, Carlin Kartchner, Peter Hertl, Ben Gaspar, Ken Walsh, Mark Daughtridge, Matthew Lubin, Bithika Khargharia, Amar Chawla

General socializing 7:30 to 7:41
Meeting start 7:41

Old Business-
Discussed T-shirts and posting a voting mechanism on line.
TriTrogs are making a donation to our host, the museum. It’s ready just need to send it- Mark L
Vertical- Pete almost ready, needs a brief work day to setup new ropes etc
Pete, Ken, Pete, Martin and Mark L have equipment for beginners to learn on. Pete targeting March.
Review of Treasurer’s Report (Mark L) No questions were raised.
Payment of 2012 Dues (All, we hope) Many folks paid for 2012, please contact Mark L if you still need to pay dues for this year.
Join the NSS! Why to join, etc- A few folks mentioned good reasons to join such as the NSS Journal with great photos etc each month, contributing to conservation, eligibility for benefits such as some activities/caves that require it and discounts on others like convention etc

NSS Annual Report/Info Updates (Mark D) brief mention of how we update our officer info etc each year and the need for a new paper mail address to give them.
e-mail from Student, Amy Y. looking for March 10-18 cave trip (conservation) near Great Smoky Mts NP Ken and a couple of others have responded, mainly referring them to other grottos such as the western NC grotto Flittermouse.

New Business-
Elections deferred to later in the meeting as a few members had called to say they were on the way.

Upcoming Trips1-27 Paxton’s again Mark D to lead, Pete, Greg, Matthew, Martin interested, maybe not this wknd though, some prefer 2/18
Feb 11 Survey Trip to Cold Sink Cave- stay at Tanya’s house in Marion VA, tight spaces/crawls for shots coming up. Possible digs/leads Carlin leading
March 29-Apr 1 Cave Rescue Class Harrisonburg, VA See www.er-ncrc.org Just the orientation, but full weekend
4/8 Grand Caverns Restoration –Easter wknd
Ben Gaspar- educator w/ Northern High School Adventure Ed , took 8-9 high school seniors to simple cave , looking for another to do. Worley’s in TN suggested, could do cleanup during the trip, Tanya M knows conservation opportunities too. 4-21to 22, 5/5-6 dates preferred

4/27 – 29 Spring VAR Poor Farm Festival Grounds, Williamsburg, WV See varegion.org
6/24-29 NSS Convention- Lewisburg/ Greenbrier Cnty WV (5hr drive) See www.nss2012.com consider going beyond stated dates for geology, history, etc sessions,

Program (this month the program consisted only of trip reports over the 2 months since last meeting, as there was enough to discuss for the meeting after that interval)

Trip reports
Paxton’s - 10 TriTrogs descended on Paxton’s Cave near Covington, VA on January 2nd. Throne room had cool helictites, a small translucent drapery, and an impressive small bacon formation. Also a stalagmite that reportedly is crystallized enough to reflect very bright light for a second or so after they are extinguished. Without a powerful flash we didn’t get it to display this trait. We also visited the big room, found some cool fungus, and explored the breakdown room but failed to find the helictite room. It was cool to come out and find snow on the ground. The maze of this was fun challenge for navigating back to the waterfall entrance too.

Burnsville cove- Lisa & Mike, layers of limestone, looking at exposed rock, geology survey, no drilling, are looking @ road cuts etc. old books disagree about how formed. USGS geologist there. Butler cave and others in area had sandstone cap, multi layer, showed them 6hrs on surface 1hr underground tidal flats, fossils, where layers of cave ceilings and floors emerge aboveground outdoors, will name some rocks after the area possibly.

Carlin- Thanksgiving wknd, went to Santee Lakes State Park , SC found some sinks, ridgewalking, were ½ mile off from where cave turned out to be. Cave closed by USFS. Very wet at entrance, largest cave in SC? Other sinks nearby.

Carlin reported on Germany Valley- camped in cave, had a great lead climber who helped set up water collection system. Huge room with 300 foot ceiling, 600 ft below ground, lead in nearby dome room explored too. Carlin’s 1st camping trip underground. Need experience and vertical experience w/ re-belays etc. for this cave
On way back stopped by Smokehole caverns commercial, didn’t do the tour; Luray- did do the tour, wishing well impressively full of coins, donated to charity

Carlin also showed pictures from a southwest cave he’s been meaning do for a while, Southern AZ, near Mexican border, Alan Pressler only one he knew who’d been there. Very deep, Havelina droppings outside, not sure if animals inside cave such as rattlesnakes. Large bat- Townsends? 7” or so? Nice fossils, one team member studying climate change/cave research, one mine engineering, so good info. Dolomite rock. Found scorpion in the wall crack. Found fox skeleton in cave
Very tricky vertical pit, tight, 325 tied to 125, with decent place to do knot crossing.

N. Raleigh hole discussed on e-mail turned out to be small and probably from storm drain leak

Michael and Matthew described Worley’s TN trip with great pics with portable flood light

Election of Officers (Howard)
With the last 3 members now present we quickly elected a new slate of officers for 2012:
Carlin Kartchner- Chair
Ken Walsh- Vice Chair
Mark Daughtridge- Secretary
Mark Little- Treasurer
Mike Broome- Web Editor

Meeting done at 9:30
After the meeting- Fox and Hound at North Hills, courtesy of Matthew Lubin! Thanks! About 10 folks went and enjoyed free wings, pizza and non-free beer.

November 2011 TriTrogs General meeting

2011-12-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Recorded by Ken Walsh (Secretary Mark Daughtridge unable to attend but added minor edits to this post)

NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Attendees (14): Steven, Travis, Ava, Howard, Hayden, Mark L., Bryce, Laurel, Allison, Carlin, Pete, Ken, Steve and Grant attended the meeting. Rob’s floating head in Charlotte appeared on Ava’s screen and occasionally spoke.

Howard Holgate led the meeting and conducted the business in short order. The Holiday Party on Saturday, December 10 will once again replace the December meeting. Howard plans to host the Holiday Party again this year at his home nestled amid Cary/Holly Springs neighborhoods. He will send out an Evite to the TriTrogs list serve to ensure that he doesn’t end up with the multitude of desserts that were generously provided last year (and left at his house). The leftover desserts did apparently find their way to a sorority house during Finals Week.

Howard plans to display the potential T-shirt designs at the Holiday Party and have everyone vote on their favorites. [He did not mention whether or not he is still accepting submissions for designs]

In terms of upcoming trips, the following two were discussed:
December 3 – Travis is planning a sport trip, possibly to Worley’s/Morrell Cave in Tennessee
December 31 – Ken, Steve, and Grant may be planning a sport horizontal trip

Ken mentioned that the grotto had not made a charity donation this year. Suggestions were made to donate money to WNS research, the museum where we hold meetings, or cave conservancies. After a short discussion and a proposal, the TriTrog members voted to donate $200 to the Friends of the Museum. Pete H. will get Mark L. in touch with the right person.

Carlin shared a trip report about surveying in Cold Sink Cave (Smyth County, VA). His weekend plans had fallen apart, so he contacted Dave Duguid about joining that trip. The cave had been listed as Big Spring Cave on previous maps, but the lack of a spring or even a resurgence point suggested that this title had been a misnomer. The frost in the sinkhole at 11 AM on a warm fall day warranted the name change to Cold Sink Cave.

Carlin reported that two teams began the survey on Saturday and that they returned to the cave on Sunday. They netted roughly 850 feet of surveyed passage, with Rob always crawling backwards as he surveyed. The D survey (Snail Shell Squeeze) ended in a wide passageway that was only six inches high and likely connects with a surface sinkhole.

On Saturday Carlin dug at the C Survey passage with just a rock, trying to reach the sound of flowing water. On Sunday he easily cleared the mud away with a crowbar in less than fifteen minutes. Rob and Dave had to dig fifteen minutes more before they could join him. They found a passageway with flowing water, but the leads from there are additional digs.

Grant and Steve described their trip during the bat count at Hancock Cave. Two groups had little success at finding bats (only 4 or 5 were counted all day). The scouts were especially impressed by the Breakdown Staircase, and Preston led them into small squeezes (including the Flying Zamboni Passage), including one that led to an overlook that dropped down fifteen feet. The scouts crossed the Toilet Bowls but found water filling the Funnel Tunnel. The Comic Book (Cartoon) Hole offered amusement, and the scouts found navigation (even with a map) a challenge when they were seeking the exit.

Rob Harris shared a brief version of his bat count team’s experience in Hancock Cave. They found it tough to go up the Breakdown Staircase, and one member refused the climb up. One at the top refused to climb down. To reunite their team, Rob discovered that 30-foot deep fissures would not work. Instead he relied on the scouts’ team to lead them to the Corn Cob Crawl (a difficult climb up) to get them back together.

After a two-minute break, Howard lowered the lights and introduced the program. Ken Walsh shared a presentation by Dave Socky about the CRF exploration of Gap Cave, Virginia, formerly known as Cudjo’s Cave.

After the meeting gathering was held sitting outside in balmy November air at Armadillo Grill.

October 2011 TriTrogs General meeting

2011-12-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Attendees: 18 Cavers: Mark Daughtridge, Howard Holgate, Ava Pope, Hayden Holgate, Gordon Bolt, Carlin Kartchner, the hovering head of Rob Harris, Martin G, Mark Little, Brian Sakofsky , Steve Molnar, Grant Molnar ,Bithika, Ken Waslh, Lisa Lorenzin, Mike Broome, Matthew Lubin, Scott Bellavia

General socializing 7:30 to 7:41
Meeting start 7:41

Old Business- T-shirts- Art submissions!! One more from Martin, one from Mark D, Howard suggested delegating it to a committee, but none was appointed or further discussed. Suggestion to use online polling software to finally settle the question.

New Business- Holiday party to be determined by e-mail

Trip Reports-
Carlin went to TAG. 1100 ft of rope work including Fantastic Pit . Balcony is sketchy for rigging rope, bolts have moved due to fracture, rig off BFR (Big Rock) instead. Cemetery pit, other lesser known pit. Slot rock

Mark Little ACC board mtg Bristol plus 1.5hr drive. Reopened caves, not requiring decomm between- applies to ACC owned caves- Gilley cave. Visited Gilley with extremely elaborate, impressive welded gate, tricky to open/find locks. Lock caves behind them as they go in- made nervous about getting stuck so someone stayed behind. Few thousand feet explored, nice formations, pictures. Near entrance has been vandalized with graffiti etc. 115 miles beyond Marion VA. Near Pennington Gap, VA Key got stuck in lock when re-locking for about 30 minutes.

Rob Harris went w/ VPI grotto near Blacksburg, VA, trip leader injured at a party so changed caves to SmokeHole, wet exit about 300 ft of swimming in cold water to go out that way. Boot driers worked well, Rob enjoyed the dip. Pack stayed fairly dry.

Upcoming Trips
Nov 5 Hancock bat count
Nov 6 Lovers Leap/Worley’s survey
Nov 12 WV Cave Conservancy Banquet
Nov 19 Survey trip? Dave Duguid organizing
Nov 19 Cavers Learn WNS in TN- see e-mail. Eastern TN see TriTrogs site for details

Vertical training- date to be determined
First Aid 10 interested, TBD

Program
Carlsbad Caverns- video of swallows emerging
Cave Research Foundation. Well lit pictures with electric lights (parts commercial, Ken got into wild parts too.)
Sulfuric acid formed the cave so unique formations very different from East Coast
CRF founded in 1957. Cooperates w/ Nat Park Svc, Dept of Interior
Gates, monitoring, surveying, cataloging entrances, restoration trips, etc.
Membership required, Svc hours from cavers count toward grant proposals for NPS

Active projects listed
Re mapping because 1960’s map was done quickly and lots of errors
Natural entrance zig zag to big pit. Carved a new entrance. Hotel right above the natural entrance

Nice weather in late Sept. Big Ampitheatre near it. Walkways steep
Bat flight at night viewed from ampitheater no cameras allowed at all!
Lots of Guano and cave swallow droppings. Hosed down every Wednesday
Desert Centipede seen.
Cave over 27 miles long. Some still not explored yet. Most exploration is going on in Lechuguila
Papoose room lots of cool formations. Surveyed .
Queens Chamber. Tours stand in the dark for 15 minutes while rangers lecture, so no surveying or lights allowed during that time.
Helictites, covered in gympsum
Sten lights made great pictures long exposures
Kings Palace room also impressive
Some leads in Carlsbad are stout climbs.
7 people on the survey
Had to leave someone on the trail to keep visitors on track.

Boneyard section was lots of round solutional holes, hard to photograph, leads to lower levels without rappelling.
Looks a lot like Swiss cheese.
Appetite Hill formations stalagmites very sharp and straight come up and covered and water evaporates quickly. Humidity about 60% in Lechuguila, unknown in Carlsbad

The BIG Room Largest Cave chamber in the US by area.
www.Caverbob.net lists all the superlatives for caves.
Surveying the big room, lots of time for good Photos

Used Aquasocks to protect floor formations in some spots. Shoes were clean each day, white dust fell off easily, and no brown mud anywhere

Cave Trays. Maybe form on top of water on shields? Shelf hanging from stalagtite
Celery stalk, Lions Tail, very unique formations
Resurveying is improving the trails already.
38 foot high totem pole formation
Breast of Venus formation about 8 ft across
Final survey stations good shots.
White sands New Mexico just acres of gypsum, powdery sand.

Applause for the presentation
Some survey stations marked with embedded brass markers.
Surveyed 1/5 of mile and ½ big room trail. All together mapped about 2 miles of easy survey. Did not inventory formations. Used Distos and tape. Ceilings over 200 ft high, disto couldn’t go quite that high.

Next month, more depth on Gap cave by Ken, another ACC owned cave

Meeting done at 9:04
After meeting meeting was held at Armadillo Grill.

September 2011 TriTrogs General Meeting

2011-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Note: There was no August 2011 meeting as a rousing pool party was held instead. Trip reports from August include that no one tripped and fell into the pool. A couple people may have been pushed but most jumped in willingly.

Attendees: 15 Cavers: Howard Holgate, Ava Pope, Hayden Holgate, Bryce Schroeder, Carlin Kartchner, the hovering head of Rob Harris, Martin Groenewegen, Peter Hertl, Brian Sakofsky, Neil Brooks, Cassandra Houston, Steve Molnar, Grant Molnar, Amar chawla, Mark Daughtridge

General socializing 7:30 to 7:44 including Howard manning the door since guard was away and we didn't have the sign to call the room Ken normally posts, but we made one on the fly and stuck it up just as the guard came back and Howard went down to start the meeting anyway.

Meeting start 7:45

Old Business- T-shirts- Art submissions!! 3 are in from Martin. Others originally due and decision to be made by September Meeting.- Extension of 2 more weeks to submit designs to Howard by e-mail. Then e-mail voting will commence!
Receipts from Grotto Trip still to be re-imbursed

Red Cross training desired 8 people at previous meeting would be interested in a course. Mark D will ask Danny M about options, cost, dates, locations 10 tonight expressed interest, assuming that includes the original 8.

New Business- none

Trip Reports
OTR- Brian reported on another trip to Shovel Eater cave
Peter talked about his OTR experience too, competed in vertical skills and did a few hours of caving

Carlin went to Gap Cave – gear provided including new vertical gear. Vertical section only open 4 months a year. Historic signatures beyond the gate, civil war era etc. Surveyed, documented pictures, long 3.5 hour retreat with a strained shoulder. Gap Cave is near VA/KY/TN border

Upcoming TripsGrand Caverns trip with Baltimore Grotto 1st weekend of October- survey training

10/6-9 TAG Fall Cave-In (http://www.tagfallcavein.org)

10-14 to 16 Fall VAR- Bath County, marvelous caves- Breathing Cave,Wishing Well, etc
11-5 Hancock Bat count
11-19 Cavers Learn WNS in TN- see e-mail.

Vertical training- date to be determined, Pete and Mark D
First Aid 10 interested, TBD, Mark D.

Program
Bryce presented on Lava Beds National Monument.
Elevation 4000 ft? orhigher. In CA near Oregon Border. Nearest city is Klamuth Oregon, 40 min away
Volcanic activity as recently as 1000 years ago. Most tubes 30-40K years ago. Come vertical connections with collapses between.
Historical artifacts, lots of Native American activity historically
Lots of Bats, packrats, and some snakes
World’s only confirmed site of aerosol rabies from Mexican Freetail bats. That cave is closed!

North of Modoc Nat. Forest
Caldwell Trench is a collapsed lava tube about 60 ft deep at some spots. Open top now with vegetation
750 caves in the area
Soil is pumice and terrain above is desert, high elevation and cold
Several developed caves along cave loop road. CCC put in trails, stairs, rails etc in 1930’s. Also brought in pumice which moved around and detracts form caves’ natural beauty
Caves still being discovered.
Holes around above ground so be careful. Deer fell into one developed cave and distressed tourists.
No gold, only algae.

A few formations, and a few secondary from later water flow, but nothing like limestone caves
Lava tubes are newer and still collapsing, and more dangerous. Older caves have had eons of earthquakes etc to stabilize them
Lava sicles like ice cicles of rock. Neat webbing patterns
Some caves have chimneys built as lodges or smoke houses.
Bat Superhighway is one cave name.
Rare rubber boa snake that only eats crickets.

Sentinel was hot. Caves small enough to vary with outside temp. Most very dry unless it’s actually raining.
A few caves have year round ice, but closed in summer to protect the ice
Don’t rely on cheap helmets sold in the gift shop

Meeting done at 8:52
After meeting meeting was held at nearby watering hole of Armadillo Grill which seemed to lack the normal kitchen staff but managed to feed us well anyway.

July 2011 TriTrogs General meeting

2011-08-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Attendees: Mark Daughtridge, Ken Walsh, Mark Little, Howard Holgate, Lisa Foley, Ava Pope, Matthew Lubin, Hayden Holgate, Bryce Schroeder, Yuan Li, Carlin Kartchner, and the hovering head of Dr. Robert Harris attending via Skype from Charlotte

General socializing 7:30 to 7:37
Meeting start 7:38

Old Business- T-shirts- Art submissions!! 3 are in from Martin. Any others designs to be considered will be due and decision to be made by September Meeting.

Receipts from Grotto Trip still to be re-imbursed

New Business-
Red Cross training desired? 8 people would be interested in a course. Mark D will ask his friend and ARC instructor Danny M about options, cost, dates, locations
No NCRC Training announced currently.

New members should give Mark L. membership forms
Matthew Lubin will mail check to Mark L. for dues.

Trip Reports
Carlin went to Germany valley Karst survey at ShovelEater Cave in West Virginia near Hell Hole cave. Went to end of diamond canyon. Long crawl/chimney, goes to station 43 as a crawl. 52-60 year old tough, good cavers. Followed stream passage, broke through to a pit but no way beyond that. Used micro blasting for a bit but now not even plausible for that.
Got to see the nice parts of the cave too. 14 hour trip. Had to pull fixed rope on the way out. Mark Minton, Bob, Dwight Livingston also on the trip.

Bryce presented Martin’s pictures of the grotto trip. Formations, salamander, kitten, muddy cavers, foggy shots, stream, Caleb the exotic bird on arms- from nice cave owner lady. Luna moth. Again, a good trip with good food.

Upcoming Trips
8/6 Fountain Cave Photography trip – Ken shared photos that they want to re-shoot with better technique. With Ericka Hoffman (near Grand Caverns commercial open since 1804) easy cave, nice formations. Access to Grand Caverns too. In Grottos, VA Pictures given to the cave establishment. Possible midnight tour with history of Grand.

9-1 to 9-5 Labor Day weekend OTR- Old Timer’s Reunion, Thurs-Sun 8 hour drive from Raleigh, lots of vendors, bands playing music, lots of caves around, $35 covers it all including beer. Must register early. See www.OTR.org for details. Peter will most likely go. Need to go as a guest of a TRA- Robertson Association member to restrict to cavers.

Setp 17 Bug Fest contact Pete Hertl to volunteer
September 24-30 Kan is going to Carlsbad Mapping with CRF
10-14 to 16 Fall VAR- Bath County, marvelous caves- Breathing Cave,Wishing Well, etc
10/6-9 TAG Fall Cave-In (http://www.tagfallcavein.org)
11-19 Cavers Learn WNS in TN- see e-mail.
6/25-29, 2012 NSS Convention (West Virginia TBD)
Vertical Training -? Pete and Mark D to determine dates
Red Cross Training?- Mark D. to get details from Red Cross

Program
2nd half of National Geographic Special on “World’s Largest Cave”

After meeting meeting was presumably held at a nearby watering hole although the humble TriTrogs secretary did not make it to the post meeting festivities.

TriTrogs General Meeting June 2011

2011-07-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Attendees: Mark Daughtridge, Ken Walsh, Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate, Bryce Schroeder, Peter Hertl, Zeke Van Fossen, Ava Pope, Martin , Patrick Craft, Bithika Khargharia, Amar Chawla, Carlin Kartchner, Mike Broome, Matthew Lubin

Welcome 3 new members!! Bithika, Amar, and Carlin!!
We had 4 members total pay dues this meeting.

General socializing 7:30-7:49
Meeting start 7:50

Old Business- T-shirts
Pete rigging rope at his house, near fairgrounds for vertical training/practice

New Business
NSS Member Manual discussion, general consensus is that we would be in favor of on line version with pay for print option.

VA big eared bat count largest population ever recorded there since 1983 in Sinnett-Thorne Cave.
BugFest- Peter could use volunteers. No caving/bug knowledge needed, Peter will teach what you need to know. This is reciprocal for the museum allowing us to use the space. Sept 17 2 hr shifts 9a-7pm needed. Get Bug Fest T-shirt and lunch and/or dinner (pizza, sandwiches etc) here at the museum.
Had 35,000 visitors last year.

Trip Reports
6/25 -26 TriTrogs Grotto trip – Ava reports it was really fun, asleep by 1, breakfast tacos, caved all day in Buckeye Creek Cave, soaking wet, couldn’t go through due to sump. 11 people attended. Cool Formations, side passages. Bryce and friend made awesome huge dinner- amazing stir fry. Food was great all around. Facility great and in good shape, weather was also great, mid 70’s outside. Resident there had several large exotic birds. Saw a salamander, pigmented crawfish, etc, they get washed in from outside or migrate upstream.

New River cave- Ken, Martin, others went. Navigation was interesting and challenging. Waterfall was flowing well. Martin’s new powerful 3xpG home made light doubled as a laser cannon. Camped at Claytor Lake. Ava warns of the shower on the left being temperamental. Trash, squirt gun, golf ball etc found in cave. UVA has sensors in there now.

Carlin visited lots of national park and other caves on the way while moving to Raleigh/Durham. Did a restoration trip in one cave with lighting. "Beware" Cave only 50 ft but lots of water in Utah near Nevada. Near Crystal Ball cave.

Upcoming Trips
Vertical training- date to be determined

7/18-22 NSS convention in Colorado, Glenwood Springs, in mid western CO. No one from TriTrogs currently planning to go.

8/6 Fountain Cave Photography trip With Ericka Hoffman (near Grand Caverns commercial open since 1804) (in August to avoid the Civil War re-enactment event at Grand in July which may also be of interest to some) easy cave, nice formations. Access to Grand Caverns too. In Grottos, VA
Pictures given to the cave establishment.

Labor Day weekend OTR- Old Timer’s Reunion, Thurs-Sun 8 hour drive from Raleigh, lots of vendors, bands playing music, lots of caves around, $35 covers it all including beer. Must register early. See www.OTR.org for details. Peter will most likely go.
10/6-9 TAG Fall Cave-In (http://www.tagfallcavein.org)
6/25-29, 2012 NSS Convention (West Virginia TBD)

Program
Patrick Craft talked about Cave Rescue, Medicine and Safety.
Patrick is a family Doctor, has his own practice and works for Duke.
Brief highlights from the slides and discussion follow, Patrick can share copies of the slides if interested.

Perkins Cave owned by ACC, Washington Co VA
11,000 NSS members 80 commercial caves
8600 in TN.
4378 in VA
White Nose Syndrome discussed briefly, no affect on humans
Spread
Difficulty with Cave Rescue- patient status- ambulatory, pre-existing conditions, hypothermia, consciousness,
Guy fell 600 feet (tumble) rescue took 11 hours on Mount Hood, similar or worse in caves
Caves dark, wet, cold, long, deep, breakdown, chimney, crawling, swimming, vertical drops,
400ft from entrance took 1 hour in one case
Communication, cave navigation, time of day/night to get resources in rural area, rescuers struggle to find entrances
Floyd Collins story mentioned
2007 Union County TN near Knoxville
27 year old fell 80 feet, head injury, many mistakes made
Simmons Mingo cave near Snowshoe WV, injury, those who went for help got lost in cave. Wearing cotton,
Lost for 2 days before found
“Daring” Cave Rescue in Orme Tenn. Couldn’t do the climb out.
Claxton TN- Guy breaks leg 1hr to go 400 ft
VT Student in Feb 2011 in Stay High cave, wedged in v shape crack, 12 hour rescue, crush injury
Emily Mobley in 1991- in NM, broken leg
Cave Fatalities. Nutty Putty Utah

Getting a litter out very difficult.
Incident Commander
Organization communication, scene control
Personnel-Equipped? Trained?
Equipment- litter, 1st aid kit, packaging, ropes, hardware
What is the cave like?
See Auerbach- Wilderness Medicine
Gave Cave rescue contact #’s
Call 911, NCRC, and local known cavers. Can get local politics etc involved

Possible medical issues associated with caves:
Rabies, Lassavirus, 55K deaths /year, mostly in India. Raccoons most common vector in US, and skunks
May be possible to transmit through feces etc. vaccine only lasts a few years.
One bad case from 5mm bat bite not treated at first ended up in medically induced coma to save the girl. Became same temp as the room- ambithermic. Recovered but with some long term problems like speech.
Working on better vaccines.

Histoplasmosis (Ohio Valley Fever)
Can seem like common cold. In soil, bat litter, chicken litter etc. Treated with anti-fungals. Usually not serious, most likely in those with other complications. One variant causes permanent partial blindness.
Bad Air
Volcanic gases- Mt Hood asphyxiated some. Flame test- candle extinguished at 15% Oxygen
Rarely in limestone caves

Hypothermia- kills folks in SE
Described several methods of losing heat
Air draft, direct contact, etc
Mild: body temp 95-89; moderate: 89-78.9; severe: <78.8
Symptoms similar to bad air, hypoxia, intoxication, AMS, etc.

Trauma- lacerations, abrasions, dislocations, fractures,
Clean and cover
Splint, Improvise
Time to definitive care
Evac can be very hard and slow

Vertical often multiple injuries poly system
Keep warm.

Evac even harder

Standard equipment for safety
1st aid kit. Duct tape and wits.

Never change plan without telling surface watch directly

May 30 2011
TN- Got on wrong end of rope, rappelled off end.
450 ft uphill to entrance
200’ stream passage
300’ etc etc, no cell coverage near entrance approach for miles

Fell 23 feet
Took 15 hours to get him out
T12 compression fracture, l5, pelvis, wrist fractures

Feb 2011 death – wearing cotton, rappelling in waterfall, got tangled couldn’t unfowl descending system. Couldn’t unweight rope and ascend

For boy scouts,stick to EASY caves, commercial etc limit group size, limit to age 14 and up
See guide to safe scouting
Leaders in good physical condition and truly qualified

Recommend 1st aid, WFA, National Cave Rescue Commission training, etc.

Festivities continued at Armadillo Grill with a large, jovial group.

TriTrogs General meeting May 2011

2011-06-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Attendees: Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate, Zeke VanFossen, Martin G, Luke Mitchell, Bryce Schroeder, David T., Ava Pope, Mark Daughtridge, Lisa Foley, Robert Harris, Ken Walsh, Peter Hertl, Melissa Swazey, Marcie Rush, Trevor Rush

General socializing 7:30 to 7:41
Meeting start 7:41

Old Business- T-shirts- no real progress, still want a design
Pete rigging rope at his house, near fairgrounds for vertical training/practice details still TBD

New Business
Bryce asked about getting carbide through the mail? May get in small quantities through special shipping. Miner’s grade is good, nut grade is less desirable. (Used for light underground, dirty burn but bright.)

Trip Reports
Spring VAR 4/29- Amanda went.
Ken, Dave, Tanya- Worley’s survey continued, new section sloppy, low getting in, but opened up after. Live raccoon blocked way to waterfall. New section smelly, raccoons have been living there. Map shaping up, runs along a straight plane, about 23 degrees, lots of chert, 23 stations, 300ft of survey. Racoons seem far from any entrance or light source. Landowner suggested new cave possibilities too including other landowners, including a sinkhole that locals have cleaned out for scrap metal. They pulled out 15 cars. Now clean enough to clean further and look for entrances.
Also explored other minor caves in the area and a nice hiking area on Sunday.

Robert knows a guy who thinks he may have caves in his land.

Upcoming Trips
Vertical training- date to be confirmed
May 28th weekend, Lost World Caverns in WV celebrating a long time caver who died of old age recently.
5/26-28 Kentucky Speleofest
6/4 Ken wants to go caving. Anything but vertical

6/25 -26 TriTrogs Grotto trip Howard and Bryce organizing, cave TBD, fun, horizontal about 6 people say they can go.

SERA summer cave carnival in TN, in mid July

Gilleys, part of ACC is closed for WNS, so that trip won’t go.

7/18-22 NSS convention in Colorado, Glenwood Springs, in mid western CO. Howard is going, Ken probably going, Peter might. Howard can pick folks up at airport.

8/6 Fountain Cave Photography trip With Ericka Hoffman (near Grand Caverns commercial open since 1804) (in August to avoid the Civil War re-enactment event at Grand in July which may also be of interest to some) easy cave, nice formation
Labor Day weekend OTR- Old Timer’s Reunion, Thurs-Sun 8 hour drive from Raleigh, lots of vendors, bands playing music, lots of caves around, $35 covers it all including beer. Must register early. See OTR.org for details.

Program World’s Biggest Cave video
Watched the first half (20 min), 2nd half for next month.

Meeting ended with some folks heading for food and beverage.

TriTrogs General Meeting April 2011

2011-04-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

TriTrogs General meeting
NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Attendees: Howard Holgate, Mark Daughtridge, Lisa Foley (1st meeting!), Robert Harris, Ken Walsh, Susanna Clark

General socializing 7:30 to 7:45
Meeting start 7:45

Old Business- Nothing new on T Shirts or Vertical Training/practice
New Business- None

Discussion of gear and other things to know for new cavers. List of gear is on the web site.

Trip Reports
Lover’s Leap- Ken, Mike, Lisa See trip report on web site. Very interesting surveying in the deep slot. Pretty formations within the slot. Found 2 more pits at the bottom . About 30 feet of floor between the new/lower pits. Surveyed 2 other leads, one concludes, one needs digging. The other passage went to a nice room with 12 foot ceiling and small drain hole. Rain outside made it very tricky getting back up the hill outside the cave. It snowed as they descended the hill to drive to Pizza Hut.

Near Pittsboro/Siler City old Iron Mine- Revolution/Civil War used, about 12-18 mines on Conservancy land to look for bats and identify which species if any. Old iron furnace. Pics on web site. Potentially good place for vertical training? Spotted about 9 bats, and some turkey vulture eggs underground. A vulture startled Ken as it flew out. All bats were Tri-Color bats (Eastern Pipistrelles). No evidence of WNS was found.

Upcoming Trips
This weekend:
Spring VAR 4/29
MVOR Missouri 4/29
Dave/Dawson 4/29 may go caving/ridge walking

Survey trip for 5/8 or 5/15?? Dave Duguid considering
Vertical training- date to be confirmed
5/26 to 28 Kentucky Speleofest
6/25 TriTrogs Grotto trip Howard and Bryce organizing, cave TBD
Mark Little to look into Gilley’s Cave for some future trip.
7/18-22 NSS convention in Colorado, Glenwood Springs, in mid western CO.
8/6 Fountain Cave Photography trip With Ericka Hoffman (near Grand Caverns) (in August to avoid the Civil War re-enactment event at Grand in July which may also be of interest to some)

Program
Howard previewed the NSS convention in Colorado
Glenwood Springs was a mining town in 1890, changed from "Defiance" to GS at request of a homesick resident
Large geothermal pool there was used to treat TB, hospital for WWI and II.
One of first electrified hotels is there, Hotel Colorado. Teddy Roosevelt enjoyed the area.
Glenwood Canyon Highway construction started in mid 1960’s and is most expensive per mile in US. Has a heated road surface reportedly. Rafting/canoeing, bicycling in the area.
Airports in Grand Junction, Denver (cheapest), Montrose. Nice drives from the further cheaper ones. Nice gold mine in Idaho Springs on way from Denver
Commercial Glenwood Caverns is nicely decorated and has tourist and wild trips.
Doc Holiday’s Grave is up on the mountain, high lake, and gondola rides to top of mountain.
Part of Green River formation. Huge Oil deposits in Shale, difficult to extract
An experimental nuclear explosion was done there to try to extract the oil.
Wild horses and other interesting natural resources atop Grand Mesa and beautiful views. Good trout fishing in the lakes
Marble Colorado is there, best marble in world. (Says Howard who grew up there :-)) Used in Tomb of unknown soldier and lower half of Washington Monument. (finished with cheaper marble from Alabama). Town was wiped out repeatedly by avalanches, floods, etc. Scary gravel road to the marble quarry. Redstone Mansion is there, home of mine baron. Checkered past, not sure if it’s open to tourists now.
Colorado Monument in Grand Junction, cowboy museum, dinosaur museum.
Dinosaur National Monument park is a day’s drive away in Utah
Aspen is 2 hrs north with Maroon Bells park etc.
Convention provides cheap camping, cave gear is available to rent- check the website and avoid bringing protentially WNS infected gear.
See details of convention at www.caves.org
Geology field tour precedes convention. Lots of educational sessions at convention. Fascinating new exploration reports, technical sessions, cartography, etc , etc Thursday night slide show competition is great. Big banquet on Friday night with awards and great food. Hosts are very welcoming. Lots of vendors for gear discounts. Howard will be out there early and can pick us up at closer airports.

After the meeting dinner was at Armadillo Grill on Glenwood at about 9:30 pm

March 2011 TriTrogs General Meeting

2011-03-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

3/22/11
NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Attendees: Ken Walsh, Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Howard Holgate, Bryce Schroeder, Martin Groenewegen, Melissa Sweazey, Rob Harris, Mark Daughtridge, John Plyler

General socializing 7:30 to 7:45
Meeting start 7:45

Trip Reports
Last weekend Mike & Lisa went to Butler cave pancake weekend, dug down 8 ft total, came back deciding those leads were not interesting. No blasting was done. Digging in the direction of a known cave.
Also did a commercial cave trip in Cueva Clara in Lares, Puerto Rico, which they enjoyed. Some nice formations. Mostly dry. Wild tours also available but other sightseeing beckoned.

Wiley PTA Science night thanked Ken and the Tritrogs for participating. The kids learned a lot. Ken brought the posters for us to peruse during the break, which seemed well done with interesting facts about bats.

Upcoming Trips:3/26 Lover’s Leap Vertical Survey
4/23-24 Grand Caverns Restoration
4/23 -24 Rob going to Blacksburg caving party that people are welcome to join him for, will include some caving
4/29-5/1 Spring VAR, Durbin WV

5/14 Vertical Training?? - who’s interested? students: Bryce, Ken, Rob, Martin, Melissa, Mike & Lisa for another date Suggested instructors John Plyler, Pete Hertl, Diana, Mike/Lisa. Mark D will continue to pursue putting this together
5/28 (Sat workday, 5/29 Sunday caving) - Memorial Day weekend Butler Expedition Weekend
5/26-28 Kentucky Speleofest
6/25? Grotto Trip ? Crib cave? Others??
? Gilley’s - Mark Little investigating, though busy with non caving stuff now. Part of Appalachian Caving Conservancy (ACC). In VA near Smyth Co, large passages, horizontal
Missouri VOR also coming up, google for info if interested

T-shirts. Martin will check into finding an artist. All are encouraged to submit ideas for design etc.
Howard will get preliminary pricing.

Break 8:16- 8:25 General mayhem ensued. (not really)

Program : Cave Map Reading, led by Ken Walsh

The book “On Station”, with key codes was recommended
Handouts given with descriptions of several cave map symbols.
Ken then proceeded with a well done presentation projected from a laptop which explained symbols and concepts. Ken will post the presentation separately on the TriTrogs website.

Topics and map symbols/notations covered included:
Strike and Dip - tells the tilt in relation to the earth's surface
Slope- crows feet on map widen to bottom
Also explained:
Ledge, Passage height, Ceiling Change, depth below datum (entrance),
Height above datum, stalactite, flowstone wall, Drapery, flowstone, water depth, pool, Rimstone dams, tick marks to show direction facing for cross section call outs.
Breakdown, cobble, dirt or clay, intermittent sump, stream, ceiling height, pit depth etc

The presentation concluded with a very fun exercise with 3 teams competing. Mike, Bryce and Howard won delicious locally made chocolate bars. All 3 teams struggled to piece together a map and then plot a trip through the cave based on verbal instructions given before the cut up maps were available. Understanding the meaning of the symbols and discovering a path to go past interesting features gave the exercise the feel of actual caving as well as re-enforcing our new knowledge about map reading.

The traditional after the meeting gathering was outdoors at Armadillo Grill with all meeting attendees making it for the nice weather.

February 2011 TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes

2011-03-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

February 22, 2011
Ken Walsh, Robert Harris, Steve Molnar, Grant Molnar, Zoey Shepherd, Mike Broome, Matthew “Zeke” Van Fossen, Howard Holgate, Mark Daughtridge attending

Meeting began about 7:30
T- Shirt discussion- Majority present interested in making/buying a new t shirt design.
“Mythbusters” booth run by at Wylie Elementary March 10th, ?? pm till

8:05 pm Mark D was duly elected as secretary and began taking minutes at that point.

Zeke reports Bic lighters 10 years old from Hancock cache did not work, in fact sprayed butane when attempting to light. Candles worked fine. Butane was still flammable but starters did not work. Conducted experiments at his desk, suggests outdoors for further experiments.

Trip Reports:
1) Ken, Mike, Lisa, and Dave Duguid went last weekend to Smyth Cty VA, stayed w/ Tanya, arrived Saturday, got to cave at 1pm after bbq lunch w/ Tanya. Copenhavers Cave survey added 22 stations, 600 ft, went back on Sunday, 8.5 hrs total Big muddy room left hand wall primary survey target. Cave is on a farm. Many cows and a goat supervised changing. Some Ninja black cows appeared under cover of darkness. Climbing and belaying needed to get to a pool they struggled to measure as at least 2 ft deep. Saw hell bender lizard about 10 inches long. (grew 2 inches during tonight's meeting . . .) Tanya and Lisa did surface surveying and found interesting sinkholes on Sunday. Wrapped up several leads, ~12 survey stations / 80ft on Sunday. Hail and rain while underground nearly got Ken’s car stuck getting out. Tanya wisely parked at the top by the road. Finished cave with about 1700 ft. Could be some high climbing leads or submerged leads.

2) 4 ppl went to see Sanctum on Super Bowl Sunday

Upcoming Trips:

What types of trips are desired? Photo, Survey, Digs, Sport ?
May 1, Spring VAR , vendors expected, Durbin WV, link at Tritrogs web site in calendar (may not work)
July 19-22 Convention in CO
Ken is Looking for NCRC rescue classes
Gap Cave at TN/VA/KY border. survey trip last weekend of each month- CRF, must join CRF to participate. Easy to join now.

Rob heading to Blacksburg around Easter
Grand Caverns cave Restoration April 23-24th (Easter) weekend. Great food provided. Make walkways, change light bulbs, list of projects. About 40 cavers usually show up. Spend all day in and out of tourist cave. Shenandoah Valley in town of Grottos. Last year went to Shakespeare play in Staunton afterwards

Break 8:37

Robert passed around National Geographic cave article
Program:
Ken led discussion about safety based on mistakes from the movie, Sanctum:
Attitude/Machismo /respect for life
Didn’t bring backup tanks as assigned
Pushing rebreather through restriction
Waiting too long after losing surface contact
Failure to respect weather forecast
Weather problems
Long Hair loose on rappel
Novice- Failure to listen to leader
Improper warmth gear
Hypothermia- failure to wear deceased persons gear even when crucial to do so
Knife near rope
Food shortage
Going off alone
Ran out of light
Improper rest
Couldn't dive, got bends
Didn’t tell anyone where he was going,
Leaving a member behind
No backup plan if weather did go bad or cave in blocked exit
One member not mentally up for the dive, pressured to go anyway
Poor diving/buddy breath technique,
Poor climbing technique- Rig point moved
Cable ladder in a waterfall

1) What are duties of surface support team? Are they stated or just “Understood”?
Suggestion that we may want to refine suggested instructions for surface watch.
2) What cave obstacles will you introduce to novices? How should they be coached?
Discussion suggestions: Don’t have someone get on rope for first time underground.

3) What should you consider when rigging ropes, hand lines, and cable ladders? What about handling knives?
Learn good techniques for anchor building, self rescue, etc. Be accountable for your own safety. Don’t just assume leaders know or are using safe techniques.
4) How can spectators disrupt a complicated move?
Too many voices. Distracting. Don’t shine light in someone’s eyes
5) How should you react to the weakest links? Leave them in back?
Have a strong person as the sweep position. No one ever gets out of earshot from the group. Everyone is responsible for the whole team.
6) How do you prevent the onset of hypothermia?
Dress properly, stay dry, keep moving, cover with garbage bag, body heat, (a body on either side) Plan wet stuff for last
7) When packing gear for a trip, how many hours of food, water and light do you plan?
More than you need for the hours you expect to be gone.
Recommended book: Deep Survival talks about general survival ways of thinking that work and those that don't

Meeting concluded with debate on where to eat afterwards, and a few ended up at the Diner on Glenwood.

January 2011 TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes

2011-02-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

Howard Holgate, Mike Broome, Mark Little, Martin Groenewegen, Duke Dooley, Rob Harris, Melissa, Bryce Schroeder, Pete Hertl, Mark Daughtridge, and Ken Walsh attended the meeting.

Dues go to Mark Little ($15 for regular members and an additional $7 for family members). Mark then shared the annual Treasurers Report. He reported that we are running a balanced budget, but we still had allocated $100 for conservancy donations from a VAR door prize a few years back. The treasurers report did not include some wear-and-tear fees collected for borrowed grotto gear.

Mike Broome had no news about changes to the web site.

Howard thanked everyone who brought desserts to the Holiday Party. However, he insisted that they should go home with people in the future.

Wiley Elementary School will be holding its Science Night on the evening of March 10, and the TriTrogs are invited to come back to talk about caves again. The theme this year is Mythbusters, so Pete Hertl and Ken Walsh are soliciting input about what myths we should try to bust.

Howard announced that the NSS is now offering a membership category titled Conservation Life Members. A five-year donation of $1000 will be going toward cave conservancy efforts.

Mark Little made a motion to donate the previously dedicated $100 for cave conservancies to ACC Gilley’s Cave Capital Fund. The motion was accepted unanimously.

At least five members were interested in the TriTrogs producing T-shirts in the next year.

As the first trip report, Melissa described her first caving trip in Starnes Cave with Rob Harris. They enjoyed a formidable mud wall, an interesting waterfall, and lots of climbing on rocks and ropes last October.

Mike Broome described a BCCS expedition trip he took the previous weekend with Lisa Lorenzin. Nittany Grotto joined the expedition, so they had seven different trips headed to three different caves. Lisa and Mike changed clothes in a neighbor’s garage and then descended into Wishing Well Cave. Mike shared how the dig through sandstone was now shored up using polyurethane foam. His team surveyed for 8 hours and 550 feet of passage across a very muddy room. The Romper Room had a dry sand floor and trended downward at the same dip angle as the rest of the cave. The team took a side trip to the well-decorated Sugar Run before exiting after ten hours underground.

Mike also shared a description of the first survey into Copenhaver’s Cave in Smyth County. Dave Duguid, Matt Jenkins, Trina Cooke, Ken Walsh, and Mike stayed in the warmth of Tanya McLaughlin’s house the night before, after shoveling a few inches of snow from her driveway. They met a nice landowner and an icy cave entrance with some spectacular icicles. Matt, Trina, and Ken surveyed the upper cold part of the cave while the other three dropped the cable ladder down twenty feet. Tanya did fine going up and down the cable ladder, and Mike’s team worked their way down to a room full of breakdown blocks. Mike found a way to climb up through the breakdown to another open room before they quit surveying for the day. Mike’s suit was freezing on him as he returned to the car in 16-degree weather. While Matt and Trina went snowshoeing the next day, Ken, Dave, and Mike went back to the open room. While surveying the Zen Garden, they found a duck under lead that led into a major mud-filled room and down to pretty rimstone dams and a larger flat-bottomed room. They exited without crawling back up the mud mountain.

After the break, the officers described their duties, and elections were held. We welcome the newly elected board: Howard Holgate (Chair), Ken Walsh (Vice Chair), Bryce Schroeder (Editor/Webmaster), Mark Little (Treasurer), and the empty seat (Secretary). Anyone wishing to run for Secretary should contact one of the officers.

Upcoming trips include:
January 29—Smyth County survey (Ken)
February 6 – 3D viewing of The Sanctum at Crossroads Cinema (4:30 PM and dinner afterwards)
February 19-20—Copenhaver’s Cave--leave on Saturday morning (Dave?, Mike, Lisa, and Ken)
May 1—Spring VAR
July—Convention in Glenwood Springs

Ken Walsh shared the program “Caving with CRF in the Ozarks” where he explained what the Cave Research Foundation is and then shared vacation slides.

The After-the-Meeting Meeting was held at Armadillo Grill.

October 26 TriTrogs General Meeting

2010-11-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

Minutes recorded thanks to Mark Little.

Meeting started at 7:40, Howard presiding.

Copies of the agenda were distributed to attendees (your draft).

Howard noted the program to follow (video on caves in Italy).

Attendees introduced themselves.

Dues of 7.50 to Treasurer were announced for those who had not paid.

The holiday party will be at Howard’s house on 11 Dec. and will start at 6:00 PM. (Note that decision on the time is new.)

Howard noted that election for Grotto Officers will occur in January, and nominations are invited.

The November program will be on a lava tube cave in New Mexico.

Trip reports: None.

Trips Planned:

Conservation trip to Hancock on 20 November, with bat count on the 21st. Diana described cleanup plans. Count is now 9; plus 3 or 6 more possible. Some people who may attend will not be able to stay for Sunday and asked for a short Saturday trip into the cave.

Break before program.

Program – short video on caves in a region of Italy.

Adjourned.

TriTrog Officer Conference Call October 14, 2010

2010-10-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Mark Little, Mike Broome, Diana Gietl, Ken Walsh, and Howard Holgate held a conference call beginning at 8:22 PM to discuss three topics.

Howard agreed to host the Holiday Party on December 11. It will be a potluck affair, and Howard will handle the paper supplies. Howard will share a google maps link (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=3536+Pinnacle+Drive,+Cary+NC+27518&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=3536+Pinnacle+Dr,+Cary,+Wake,+North+Carolina+27518&gl=us&ei=Aam3TOrQEYGClAeB9amLCQ&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA&z=16), and Mike will add the event to the Google calendar. Ken will send out a notice asking for RSVPs by December 4, and Diana will help by suggesting type of dishes (sides, desserts, salads, etc.) that are needed. Howard will call Dick Webb to invite him to the party.

The conservation trip to Hancock Cave is on for November 20, and Duke will bring his truck for hauling stuff. The owner knows that we’ll be there, and we shouldn’t have to worry about hunters. Diana will send out an email this weekend about the trip to get a headcount by October 24. Howard will arrange the lodging, hopefully in a Hungry Mother cabin or two. If not, then we may resort to the Rodeway Inn in Marion. We’ll worry about food issues later. We should also bring cameras along for the bat count and cleanup efforts, and Ken will print out copies of portions of the cave maps so that teams can write the number of bats (healthy and infected of the different species) in each room. The convenience center is open until 5 PM on Saturday.

The October program will be Lucio dAlberto’s video "The Karst Aquifers of Veneto", a donation from Lucio, a former TriTrog.

Minutes from September 28, 2010 TriTrogs General Meeting

2010-10-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

Meeting attendants included Mark Little, Pete Hertl, Mark Daughtridge, Ken Walsh, Sam and Sharon Freeze, Howard Holgate, Rob Harris, Benjamin Espanoza, Steve and Grant Mollner, Preston Schofield, and Andrew Linsenmeier. Howard Holgate presided.

Dues are half price to Mark Little for the remainder of the year ($7.50). No web updates were shared from Mike Broome.

Bugfest had 35,000 people in attendance this year. Pete Hertl had solicited help from the TriTrogs with his orthoptera display and encourages more TriTrogs to volunteer next year. Ken had a great time introducing kids to the mole crickets.

Howard may be able to host the Holiday Party and plans to present a possible date at the next meeting.

Mark Daughtridge and Rob Harris described the trip they took with Dave Duguid and Ken Walsh to Lovers Leap Cave, Easy Way Down Dig, and Cotton Cave. Mark cited the good trip report on the web site and stated that the muddy climb was the highlight of the trip. His midway piece pulled off, and it turned out to be a free solo up 35 feet. He climbed a collection of boulders and mud that went up at an angle, and none of the holds were real. An ice axe would've helped him climb Raccoon Ridge and into the Smart Car Show Room, but fish flopping worked for Mark. Mark would rate Raccoon Ridge as a 5.10R climb but wouldn't expect the same climb twice. After exploring at the top, he rappelled back down to Ken and Dave.

At the other end of the room in Lovers Leap, Dave dropped down into a slot pit. He found a 1950s-era flashlight at the bottom.

Rob found that a very round, smooth pack will roll and open when dropped from a cliff. Dave rappeled down for Rob's gear.

The next day the team dug at Easy Way Down Dig but discovered no way into the cave. They also went into Cotton Cave but found no way to do the flowstone waterfall climb. It's too pretty to want to set permanent rigging.

Pete Hertl mentioned his trip to Old Timers Reunion as the only rep from the grotto. They had great weather and found it to be warm enough. Pete won his rope climbing contest, and attendance was around 1500 this year. He met Buddy Penley's relatives at a small meat stand outside Hillsborough on his drive home.

Ken discussed his 17.5-hour trip into Gap Cave beginning in Virginia and surveying in Kentucky. [ed. I did not take notes while giving a trip report].

Pete also described the Vermont Convention and odd events that occurred.

Sam Freeze shared a description of a commercial wild cave tour into Raccoon Mountain.

Preston and Steve Mollner talked about a trip to Oxbow Cave near the James River. The memorable feature was the birthing canal.

In terms of upcoming trips, we discussed the Fall VAR/MAR, TAG Fall Cave In, and the upcoming grotto conservation trip to Hancock Cave in Virginia.
After the break, Howard shared the promotional video from Glenwood Springs 2011 National Speleological Society Convention, but the sound was turned down too low.

August 24, 2010 Minutes TriTrogs General Meeting

2010-08-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Daughtridge, Diana Gietl, Mark Little, Howard Holgate, Matthew van Fossen, Robert Harris, Pete Hertl, and Ken Walsh were in attendance. Howard Holgate presided over the meeting.

Howard mentioned that dues can now be paid at half price to Mark Little. Mike Broome had no news about he web site development, but Ken mentioned that new photos have been added to the online photo gallery.

BugFest will be held on Saturday, September 11 this year, and Pete Hertl encouraged the TriTrog members to sign up for two-hour shifts. If you work two shifts, you get lunch and a t-shirt. His display is about orthoptera--junping insects. Pete described the event, mentioned that the TriTrogs should be helping out the museum, and then discussions turned to insect consumption.

Dick Webb donated several books to the grotto, and Howard wants to send him a thank you. However, Howard hasn't found him yet and would like help from anyone who might know him.

Hannah Reynolds solicited the TriTrogs a few months ago for information about WNS before a mycologist's roundtable discussion. However, we never heardd back from her about how the discussions went.

Discussion turned to Final Jeopardy while we waited for Diana's arrival.

Peter Hertl drove to the NSS Convention (2000-mile round trip). Pete arrived Sunday, participated in rope climbing the first two days, went to sessions on Wednesday, the photography salon, banquet, international exploration session, and rope training. He also described the stealth beer drinking from kegs in the parking lot and the bonfire that the fire department hosed down before 9:30 PM.

Upcoming trips include:
August 28—Lovers Leap Cave survey trip
September 2-6 –Old Timers Reunion
October 1-3—VAR/MAR at Friars Hole ($30 at http://varegion.org/var/events/FallVAR/FallVAR.shtml--preregister by September 10 to get the guidebook and bring your own water)
October 9-11--TAG Fall Cave In
Conservation trip to clean up Hancock Cave—Diana is working on coordinating a date in early October or late November (likely Nov. 20)
July 16-22, 2011--NSS Convention in Glenwood Springs, CO (Howard may reserve a cabin)

Ken agreed to find the convention promotion video (youtube link at http://nss2011.org/info.htm--under 14 minutes) and to bring the book Caves of Colorado to the next meeting. By the way, the book indicates that Glenwood Springs is the biggest cave formation area in Colorado.

After the break, we watched some of the Planet Earth video about caves.

July 2010 General Meeting Minutes

2010-08-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Rob Harris, Mat van Fossen, Duke Dooley, Mike Broome, Pete Hertl, Mark Little, Ken Walsh , Brian Bolt, Diana Gietl, and Howard Holgate attended. Howard presided over the meeting.

Mike Broome mentioned that he has thanked Dick Webb on our web site for the new library books. Howard will track down Dick Webb’s address to thank him for his generous donation. Mike will update the online library catalog and post the Volunteer Values feature on the web site.

Rob Harris shared a description of the visit he and Ken Walsh took to the Old Lead Mine (actually graphite) inside the Raleigh Beltline. They traveled 60 feet to the back, and the walls were clay-like and soft with quartz veins. It’s said that it was an old Civil War Mine. Rob and Ken surveyed and photographed the mine.

Howard described the trip to Paxton Cave with Dave Duguid, Ken Walsh, and coworkers and family. Howard talked about the new cavers and not about getting lost. Howard brought the old sister and the young kids. Highlights included Hershey’s ice cream and smores.

Mike Broome described his BCCS trip over Memorial Day weekend to Butler Cave. Saturday they worked aboveground at the site. Lisa Lorenzin and he ended up going underground on the 30th around 9 AM. They went back to work on the Air Dig, a 100-foot long straight passage. The Air Dig turns and drops into a dig with air blowing. The diggers have added a pulley system with a suspended system (flying dragon) and a thin piece of webbing to pull the dirt buckets. The Flying Dragon runs with a 4-minute round trip, and they spent 8 hours digging— estimate of about 65 buckets (at 4 gallons each). Although Mike tried to lead the way out afterwards, Mike Kissler’s comments about the scenic route kept him on his toes.

Upcoming trips included the NSS Convention, Old Timers Reunion (Labor Day weekend), and a grotto trip during the MAR/VAR event at Friars Hole (October 1-3). In terms of cleaning out the back entrance of Hancock Cave, Diana will help coordinate a date in September.

Rob Harris shared a trip report and slides from his Nicaraguan trip to the Caribbean plate where he explored lava tubes. It was tough breathing at the top of the volcano, and he brought his own light into the lava tubes. He saw insect-eating bats, fruit bats, and vampire bats. Indian artifacts were found in the back of the lava tubes.

Rob also shared some photos of the work to improve the gate at Tawney’s Cave. He carried cement up and water. They added 12-15 bags of cement so that no one can slip under the gate.

Howard Holgate then shared a great presentation titled “Saltpeter Caves: Strategic Assets in Early America.” We all learned a lot about the saltpeter mining industry in the United States, and we learned that “lixiviate” means “to leach.”

June 22, 2010 TriTrogs General Meeting

2010-06-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

Diana Gietl, Hayden and Howard Holgate, Duke Dooley, Ken Walsh, and Dick Webb came to the meeting. Dick offered old books from his collection to the grotto library.

We had no discussion about improvements to the web site, but Diana noted that the Volunteer Values section of the web site has not yet been posted. Something was mentioned about cleaning old events off of the web page, but that may have just been the way the user scrolled through the Google calendar.

Diana mentioned that Hannah Reynolds of Duke University is headed for a mycology conference and is looking for input from the TriTrogs and the caving community about the WNS roundtable discussions.

Ken shared Dave Duguid's trip report about bat observations with his kids and Mary Frazier (NCDOT) at the Cole Mill Road bridge in Durham. He mentioned that they saw at least 220 big browns in about 30 minutes as they emerged from the bridge expansion joints. If you know off any other bridges in the state with bat populations, Mary Frazier would like to know.

Duke Dooley described the difficulties with entering Lovers Leap Cave and talked about a squealing, flailing pig. He then shared that in Worley's Cave we surveyed to the left side of the passage. Dave Duguid found his way into a small dig that led to 300 yards of passageway that he and Rob Harris explored. His muscles were too sore the next day to participate in the Easy Way Down Dig, so Ken described that muddy effort in very soft limestone that roots helped break into a nice slot. Unfortunately the current lack of air flow left it difficult to determine which way to go next.

Diana was in New Jersey recently and described digs near Albany, NY. Her friend Tony dug down 60 feet toward what will be a really big cave once they find their way in. He is convinced that there is at least 15 miles of cave beneath the surface.

We then began discussing the graphite mine inside the Raleigh Beltline, and Dick Webb shared where some of the former "lead" mines are. We also discussed the friability of graphite and the dangers of radon.

In discussing upcoming trips, Diana mentioned that she may decide to travel to the Vermont Convention, but it will be a last minute decision.

We then discussed the possibility of combining this year's grotto trip to the Wildcat Entrance of Culverson Creek Cave with the VAR/MAR being held on October 1-3. The cool temps and low water levels should make the trip a good time for all, and no one would need to prepare the dinner.

When we began talking about a conservation trip, Duke Dooley asked if anyone had a flat trailer that could be pulled. We're thinking about cleaning up the rest of the back entrance to Hancock Cave on a weekend when Duke's truck could pull up the old appliances. Diana will propose some dates for the trip to Duke and try to get a date set.

Howard is looking for an easy caving trip in July for family members. I think he's settled on Paxton's Cave around July 24. Diana, Dave, and Ken may also go.

The meeting adjourned early, and much food was enjoyed at The Diner on Glenwood Avenue.

May 25, 2010 General Meeting Minutes

2010-05-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

Mike Broome, Matthew van Fossen, Rob Harris, Duke Dooley, Lisa Lorenzin, Howard and Hayden Holgate, Diana Gietl, Mark Little, Mark Daughtridge, and Ken Walsh were in attendance. Diana Gietl presided over the meeting and announced that the evening's video program would be "Tag, You're It!" Attendees were encouraged to ask about possible future programs or volunteer to do them. The June slot is still available.

Mark Little accepted dues. Mike Broome announced that he began work on the Volunteer Values portion of the web site and that he hoped it would be available by the end of the week. It will likely be posted in the Members Only section or on the Trip Report page. Mike shared the Members Only section access information.

Diana sent out the letters regarding the CBD petitions on May 24. Only eleven people responded to her email requests, so she signed only her name as the TriTrog Vice Chair. She sent the letters to the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Agriculture, Senators Hagan and Burr, and Congressman Price. Ken will send a copy to Congressman Miller, and Diana will send a copy to the NSS through Peter Youngbaer. This item will be taken off the agenda for future meetings.

Diana announced that there is still a Chair position available in the TriTrogs.

Rob Harris reported on a Raleigh mine near Ridge Road that he explored as a child. It was supposedly a graphite mine from the Civil War. Duke suggested that Rob consider a Geiger counter to screen for radon. Rob may have a look at the mine this week.

In terms of trip reports, Ken Walsh and Rob Harris reported that Piercy's Mill Cave was in flood stage, so Phil Murray instead led them to Higginbotham's #4 Cave. Rob decsribed Higginbotham's #4 as mostly walking through water and it got colder. His shoes are still really wet, and the water was thigh deep. He learned to carry extra clothes in plastic bags. Conversation then turned to how to get water out of boots. Diana advised that one never remove all of the water, but leave a little bit in stay warm. A second flush of cold water in a stream is not the result if one leaves some water behind.

A side discussion arose from there about the grotto ordering neoprene and making our own pieces at a tech shop. A parachute rigger may have access to neoprene, and rubber cement might work as a sealant after the stitching.

Mark Daughtridge described a cave he found near a Mt. Mitchell footbridge near I-80. It was filled with water but looks like it goes back a ways (at least 20’).

Upcoming trips were discussed:
—Lovers Leap and Easy Way Down in Marion, VA on June 11
—SERA Summer Cave Carnival in Monteagle, TN on June 17-20
—NSS Convention in Essex Junction, VT (marble caves) on August 2-6
—Grotto trip--possibly to the Wildcat Entrance to Culverson Creek Cave

Diana introduced the TriTrogs to the Quebec Vertical Training School. It has a weekend training class in French (maybe next year a class in English) and features a wall bolted many different ways. Classes will teach you how to be autonomous on rope, how to rig, how to self-rescue, and both horizontal and vertical rescue techniques on different weekends.

The program was the TAG--You're It! video from the NSS Library.

The after-the-meeting meeting was held at The Diner on Glenwood Avenue.

April 27, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-05-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

Rob Harris, John Plyler, Howard and Hayden Holgate, Matthew van Fossen, Peter Hertl, Mark Daughtridge, Ken Walsh, Rob Phelps, Mike Broome, Matt Jenkins, Trina, and Diana Gietl were all in attendance.

Before the meeting began, Rob Harris described caves in Raleigh he remembers from his childhood. This possibility intrigued grotto members, and Rob agreed to check into which neighborhoods he might be remembering.

Everyone introduced themselves, and Mike Broome agreed to collect dues in the absence of the Treasurer.

Mike announced no changes to the web site. However, the Volunteer Values signup is the next item to go up on the site and will keep a log of volunteer activities over the year. The NSS gets grants based on volunteer hours. Members should look for an email across the list serve when it’s ready for use.

Diana acknowledged that programs from grotto members are better than those from the library, but she asked that people suggest topics of interest for future programs that may come from the grotto library.

Regarding the Center for Biological Diversity, Diana has been working on the letter to government officials in the Department of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service. It will also be sent to Senators and Congressmen for the local area, and she’ll cc the NSS. She passed the draft around for comments. Discussion then turned to the best way to share the letter with the government officials. I think we ended up deciding that Diana will share the letter with the entire list serve and invite members to add their names and addresses as signatures. Diana will then send the letter out electronically.

There is still a spot on the executive committee. Howard will take over in July as the Vice Chair. Diana will be arriving later at the next two meetings so will be unable to run the meetings.

There was discussion about how to treat the remaining grotto materials that came out of Brian Bolt’s house. Look for an announcement about organizing it, indexing it, serving it with beer or a cookout. We’ll rip out the cave maps and throw the rest on the grill. Mike will kill us if we wait 2-3 more years. Look for an announcement soon.

Mike read an email from Dr. Elwyn Simons about collecting giant lemur skulls from the pits in Madagascar. Ken filled in the rest of the details about how Dr. Simons plans to take two cavers on the August expedition, and he and Linda Waters put their names on the grant proposal Tuesday morning. Others were interested in traveling as well [sorry but Dr. Simons said that there are reasons he needs to limit the expedition size beside expenses].

Diana began the trip reports by describing how Dave Duguid, Ken, and Tanya McLaughlin went to document an historic saltpeter cave. Despite stories of an elaborate works, they found only old signatures and wooden plank boards. Dave and Ken surveyed just 350 feet of total cave while Diana and Tanya photographed.

The same group also checked for bat activity near the entrances of Buchanan Saltpeter, Marion Quarry, Worley’s, Hancock, North Fork, and Little Hancock. We saw bats near the entrance during our ½ hour stops but no activity indicating a chance of WNS. We also found out that the owner of Buchanan Saltpeter is amenable to letting trips visit the cave.

Mark Daughtridge and Matthew van Fossen gave a brief story of the sport trip to James Cave.
We were in Virginia. They went hiking at 1 AM. We made it to the cave by 1 PM.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant. Mark’s group couldn’t find our group. Mark kept us waiting while their group tried to find their way out of the cave. Fun trip.

A discussion about the Anabat training on May 5 in Asheville then began. Bat species may be separated by voice, but no one knew if such a device could be used as a remote bat counter at a cave entrance.

Dave Duguid will let us know if he hears more about a bat count at a bridge in Durham.

Other upcoming trips:
May 8—VAR Cleanup of Crystal Caverns
May 15—NRO in Cobleskill, Scoharie, NY
May 22—Spring VAR
June 11—Surveying Worley’s/Lovers Leap Caves and maybe some digging too
June 17-20—SERA Summer Cave Carnival
August 2-6—NSS Convention

After a break and a few switches in projectors, Peter Hertl entertained us with stories about his February trip down Fantastic Pit in Ellison’s Cave.

The meeting adjourned to The Diner on Glenwood Avenue.

Minutes for the March 22, 2010 TriTrogs General Meeting

2010-04-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

Attending: Ken Walsh, Diana Gietl, Mark Little, Mike Broome, Mark Daughtridge, Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate, Zeke van Fossen, Pete Hertl, Melanie McCullough, Brian Bolt

The meeting began when Mark Little shared membership lists with everyone present, and he copied down updates that were shared. The updated membership list will be posted to the web site.

Regarding web updates, we discussed the inclusion of a new feature where members can enter their volunteer hours. The NSS uses this information when it applies for grant monies, and it's important for the grotto secretary to report the numbers for conservation, exploration, survey, and outreach. Mike Broome will develop something that matches the NSS Volunteer Values spreadsheet, but we’ll need to announce it to the membership in general and remind them to enter their numbers.

Pete Hertl will share the April program about his recent trip to Ellison’s Cave in February 2010. Photos will include the North Pole and Angel’s Paradise, and Diana agreed to add some photos of her own.

Discussion then turned to some of the upcoming national and regional events:
NSS Convention in Vermont—August 2-6
VAR—May 21-23 in Lewisburg, WV
SERA Summer Cave Carnival—June 17-20, Monteagle, TN
Kentucky Karst-o-Rama—July 15-18

When asked about how cavers have been received outside the Northeast, Mark Daughtridge (?) suggested that "WNS is just a polite way to say “Yankee”."

Diana Gietl has worked on a WNS letter from the TriTrogs and will send out a letter to some members for corrections. The NSS has made a formal notification to the US government about its current recommendations for WNS research and a public-private partnership. Ken mentioned that the TriTrogs continue the WNS monitoring efforts in Smyth County, Virginia and outreach to scouting groups (3 groups with more than 75 scouts so far this year).

Ken announced that Dave Duguid has identified several bat monitoring efforts with the state DOT biologist for bats, Lisa Gatens. [Dave later sent out an update with some limited dates]

Diana found no interested members to fill the remaining spot on the executive committee.

Regarding trip reports, Diana announced that the blizzard predictions prevented the bat count project in February. Pete Hertl will talk next month about his February trip with John Plyler to Ellison's Cave in Georgia as a program.

Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin joined the BCCS for a trip to Burnsville Cove. They attended the pancake weekend to raise money for the fire department and found themselves digging on the surface. Forty people met there for five to six days. Mike and five others dug in a scary pit on Phil Lucas’s property that dropped 10 degress in temperature as one descended. Four large rocks were supported with bolt hangers. Mike broke big rocks into smaller rocks, but the dig needs a backhoe to go further.

Mike then went to visit the Wishing Well dig, just off the road next to a house. The dig was opened up and then closed to be considerate of the nearby neighbor. However, the owner is anxious to discover cave. On the third visit, they dug Wishing Well with a backhoe. It’s now a forty-foot pit that starts with an oil tank atop a culvert, with a winch and hauling system to pull up the rocks. A very big rock pile is now on the front yard beside this posh dig.

Regarding upcoming trips, the list below reflects those mentioned:
March 27 trip to Smyth County, VA for bat counts and documentation of saltpeter cave -- contact Ken Walsh
March 27 trip with Venture Crew 469 cancelled
April 10—Sport Trip with Justin Noia and Duke students to James Cave
May 8—VAR Cleanup of Crystal Caverns
May 22—VAR in Lewisburg, WV
NSS Convention in Vermont—August 2-6

The March "program" of Archive Digging involved file cabinets of information from the grotto archives. Meeting attendees were encouraged to route through old materials from other grottoes, the NSS, the TriTrogs, and other sources to find historic artifacts, cave maps, and general interest materials that would be useful to grotto members. We pitched a lot of materials and had some interesting finds that brought back fond memories.

General Meeting Minutes from February 23, 2010

2010-02-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

Rob Phelps, Mike Broome, Ken Walsh, Jon Plyler, Ko Takamizawa, Joan Johnson, Warren Pusak, Pete Hertl, Howard and Hayden Holgate, Brian Bolt, Justin Noia, Charlie ?, and Diana Gietl were in attendance. Vice Chair Diana Gietl presided and welcomed the former VPI cavers.

In the absence of the Treasurer Mark Little, Mike Broome agreed to collect dues. A brief discussion established that an updated members list needs to be compiled by the Treasurer and posted on the web site. Mike will send out a notice when the new list is posted.

Mike reported no recent changes to the web hosting. Diana reminded members that they could find a calendar, trip blog, meeting minutes, and the photo gallery all at www.tritrogs.org.

Diana introduced the open Chair position as an Administrative figurehead with no duties other than running meetings, but this approach did not result in volunteers. She threatened to draw a name out of a hat at the next meeting if no volunteers come forward.

In response to January petition of the Center for Biological Diversity to close American caves to prevent the spread of WNS, Diana and Melanie previously volunteered to help draft a letter to Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior. Their effort will focus on making a letter more personal to the Triangle Troglodytes' past and present conservation efforts (e.g., Hancock Cave). Diana plans to share the draft with select grotto members and then the whole grotto. She emphasized that the caving moratoria in the East Coast already has limited caving activities by NSS members and asked TriTrogs to contact her if they want to help more.

Pete Hertl shared some communications that he has had with the museum's mammologist, Lisa Gatin, as she makes preparation for the arrival of WNS in NC. She asked the caving community to share landowner contacts and cave locations. Even a few NC contacts would help them get started. Pete also passed on that bat biologists want to work with cavers as they face the WNS threat. Diana mentioned that several Flittermice members have been active on the cave chat forum and would likely be helpful contacts for Pete to connect the museum to.

Ken mentioned that the NSS Safety and Techniques Committee has developed an online survey about grotto training techniques. He asked if anyone in the grotto would be interested in being the TriTrog contact point for this NSS committee. He also offered contact points for the conservation and youth group committees.

Brian mentioned that the grotto owns two two-drawer filing cabinets that are located in his garage with materials before 1993. He asked that the grotto find a solution as to where it should reside so that members can actually access useful information. Brian agreed to bring the contents to future meetings so that TriTrogs could help empty the cabinets.

Pete Hertl clarified some points about his friend Dave Lent looking for worms. He is looking for someone to take him to a cave entrance with a stream and leave him at the entrance to dig for this worm species. Ken suggested the caves in Sugar Grove might be good.

No one shared any trip reports.

Upcoming trips include:
Bat checks at cave entrances for the Feb 27 weekend
Venture Crew 469's trip to Cribb Cave on March 27 (Warren has gotten permission and will post a notice asking for volunteers to help out)
Duke students caving on April 10-11 weekend (led by Justin Noia; Howard suggested they consider going to New River Cave for some adventure)
Grand Caverns Restoration weekend sponsored by the VAR on April 3-4 (Easter) -- expect good food and no caving gear required
VAR cleanup of Crystal Caverns near Strasburg, Virginia on May 8

After a short break, Diana Gietl shared her slides from her exploration of Greenland ice caves.

Minutes from the TriTrog General Meeting January 26, 2010

2010-01-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

Mike Jones, Warren Pusak, Mark Daughtridge, Mike Broome, Pete Hertl, Jon Plyler, Diana Gietl, Melanie McCullough, Dave Duguid, Ken Walsh, Howard Holgate, and Matt Westlake were in attendance.

Dave Duguid began the meeting by thanking Mark and Rhonda Little for hosting the 20th Anniversary Party that went late into the evening. Mike collected dues during the break and agreed to send them to the absent Treasurer.

Mike entertained discussion about changes to the TriTrogs web site. We talked reinstating the WNS links, the web site introducing the officers, and how the emails will be forwarded to officers.

Ken mentioned that the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has petitioned the U.S. government to close all American caves and mines indefinitely because of the WNS threat. Included in their petition would be the closure of all caves on Federal lands (including places like Carlsbad Caverns), the criminalization of any landowners who allow access to their caves, and the acquisition of caves with significant bat populations. Dave shared a letter written by Peter Youngbaer, NSS WNS liaison, to the CBD. Diana described six web pages on the CaveChat forum dedicated to this one action and described that the NSS has asked grottoes to send letters to the Departments of the Interior, Department of Defense, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to block the action, as well as a letter to the CBD.

The absurdity of enforcing the proposal was discussed with speculation of police stationed at tens of thousands of cave entrances and descriptions of cave gates being destroyed month after month in New York.

The TriTrogs discussed informing the state fish and wildlife organizations about this petition. Diana agreed to draft letters to the Federal agencies, and Dave said that he will apprise Mary Fraser and the museum about the situation. Melanie agreed to help draft a press release, but we will likely hold onto it until a story develops through other challenges.

Mike Broome agreed to reply to Bill Bussey’s offer to share his old caving publications. The TriTrogs would be particularly interested in adding WV cave maps to its collection. Matt Westlake suggested that a university library might be interested in the old publications, but other members noted that libraries no longer accept such donations.

Mike Jones had asked if grotto members other than Steve Simmons have squeeze boxes that could be used at a scout meeting. No one knew of other local squeeze boxes, but we began discussing the construction of them in the grotto.

From the mailbag, Mike mentioned a SERA Summer Cave Carnival survey. He also suggested that extra money could be spent on the 3000-sq.foot residence in Highland County, Virginia as a fieldhouse for just $1.3M.

Pete Hertl mentioned that Dave Lennott is working with a guy on worms (mostly aquatic in moist environments) and is interested in looking in cave waters. Seeps and springs would be okay too. Pete asked if we thought that we could make a list of caves where they might find mature specimens. Members rattled off several possible locations.

With regard to trip reports, Dave Duguid described the trip he and Ken Walsh took to Smyth County on January 1. More details are in the Trip Report blog. Dave added the details about his cave suit freezing to his body in 6 degree weather. When discussing Easy Way Down Dig, grotto members starting discussing the possibilities of using electronic equipment to explore before people move enough rocks to get inside.

Upcoming trips include:
Feb. 27 return to Smyth County with Diana, Ken and Dave
Mar. 27-28 trip to Cribb Cave with Warren Pusak and his venture crew
May 22 Spring VAR in Lewisburg, WV

During the break, members paid dues.

Elections pulled Diana Gietl and Howard Holgate into the positions of co-vice chairs. Mike Broome, Mark Little, and Ken Walsh will continue their roles as editor/webmaster, treasurer, and secretary. A chair will be elected at the February meeting. The February meeting may include a Greenland program from Diana Gietl.

We adjourned to the after-the-meeting meeting at The Diner, a tasty new place on Glenwood Avenue.

November 2009 General Meeting Minutes

2009-11-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

Warren Pusak, Ken Walsh, Mark Daughtridge, Zeke Van Fossen, Matt Jenkins, Diana Gietl, Gordon Bolt, Lisa Lorenzin, Mike Broome, Pete Hertl, Brian Bolt, and Mark Little attended.

To accommodate Warren’s schedule, Mike and Lisa began the meeting with their program describing Burnsville Cove surveys and the exploration of Basswood Cave so far. Lisa also indicated that they have been together as a couple a long time when she described her anniversary gift to Mike. More photos of the Butler Cave system can be found on John Sweet’s web site.

Warren Pusak proffered that former member Bill Mattocks is willing to teach TriTrogs more about safe rock climbing techniques (e.g., proper rigging), if anyone is interested.

Mike and Lisa offered to host the 20th Anniversary/Holiday Party on December 12. Gordon suggested that the program include puppets, and Mike and Lisa insisted that they would not accept pee gifts under their tree.

There was a brief discussion of the TriTrog Facebook site and how open its content should be (it was already fully open). Dues are half price now, and Mark Little agreed to start accepting 2010 dues now.

There will be no December meeting. January’s program will include elections and discussion about a topic (e.g., choosing a helmet for beginner caving). Lisa suggested that the February program could be a discussion of the effectiveness of WNS decontamination techniques.

Matt Jenkins shared a description of the closed caving signs placed before Aqua and Marshalls Caves. Although the caves were not obvious before, the signs make the entrances easy to find.

Pete Hertl described his trip to the NSS Convention. He won vertical competitions and found the facilities really nice. Instead of taking his regular cave gear along, he visited Goodwill and visited some “nasty, dusty caves.” When they entered the last one, they were told “By the way, this cave has potential for bad air.” On the way in, everyone started panting. They labored to breathe in the warm caves. When the group was ready to turn around, the formations were still much further down the passage. The healthy ones took a run into the cave and saw the formations. Pete did get a headache and bruised his shoulder when racing along. He concluded his trip report with “Why even go to a known bad air cave with all the caves in the U.S.?”

Upcoming trips include:
A New Years weekend trip to Smyth County to look for active bats and ridgewalk
An Explorer Scout trip to Cribb Cave on March 27 (volunteers are welcome)
Possible vertical practices this winter

October 27, 2009 Minutes TriTrogs General Meeting

2009-11-04T18:41:00.000-08:00

Dave Duguid, Diana Gietl, John Plyler, Mike Broome, Warren Pusak, Ken Walsh, Dawson Duguid, Pete Hertl, Matthew Lubin, Mark Daughtridge, and Martha were in attendance.

The 20th Anniversary celebration is set for December 12 . It was suggested that we continue to promote the event bigger with past members. Dues are still half price.

Mike Broome affirmed that the new web link is working. He will work on a new pics notification that gets sent to the membership. He will also post links to the Virginia WNS protocol and the FWS decontamination protocol.

The November program from Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin will examine exploration in the Burnsville Cove area and promises to be a dynamite presentation.

The Trip Reports portion of the meeting began with Mark Daughtridge’s photos from caves in Washington State. He was able to ascend to 8000 feet but not summit Mt. Shuckson and Mt. Baker because of weather. So he drove further east to the impressive scablands where he visited Polluz Falls and Soap Lake. Mark visited the Lake Lenore Caves that were once used by Native Americans. He went looking for leads in the biggest one he found there, and he decided that one diggable spot held promise. Mark also visited Boulder Cave in Natches, Washington to find popcorn on the ceilings, a gated bat colony, and some trash that he removed.

Matthew Lubin and Ken Walsh shared a report of their survey trip to Lovers Leap Cave.

Dave Duguid described his recent trip to Busted Turtle Cave with Tanya McLaughlin and Robbie Spiegel. Several big leads just didn’t go, but they managed 370 feet of survey. One passage had many helictites and other formations, but one wall was totally cleaned of the formations. Tanya wants to place a sign there about the Virginia Cave Law protecting the cave from vandalism. There are still several leads left to explore, with some especially for small people. One corner needs some work to get past, but it lies in two inches of water.

Dave spent Sunday ridgewalking in gorgeous fall colors but still found it very vegetated. With a little digging, he managed to find a cave in a spring. Explorers will get wet.

Mike Broome talked about his rappels at Bridge Day. It was a cold nasty wet weekend with Pete Hertl and snowflakes.

The previous weekend Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin went to the Burnsville Cove area and entered Basswood Cave on Saturday afternoon. They went to survey into the Little Girls Room and started from the base of a cable ladder. Lisa found a wet puddle at the beginning of the trip, so she wasn’t with the guys when they found a tall narrow passage that doesn’t give up its secrets readily. Mike had to go past two-foot long soda straws in the narrow passage. It led to a walking section with a 15-foot high flowstone formation that was perfectly white. They surveyed 240 feet of passage.

Regarding upcoming trips, Ken mentioned that he may help the Virginia cave biologists collect samples in Hancock Cave in November. He may team that with a trip back to Lovers Leap Cave. Warren Pusak is planning a Cribb Cave trip with scouts on January 30 or February 20.

Dave Duguid shared a program about Cave Diving.

TriTrog General Meeting Minutes August 25, 2009

2009-08-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Howard and Hayden Holgate, Mark Daughtridge, Matthew van Fossen, Warren Pusak, Ken Walsh, John Plyler, and Rob Phelps attended the meeting. Howard presided and covered the business issues in record time (half-price dues, web hosting, sign outside the museum, and upcoming programs before I had time to type).

Discussion then turned to White Nose Syndrome once again. The Virginia cave specialists confirmed that Hancock Cave bats were infected. They will begin a monitoring program this fall and winter and are looking for volunteers to help observe bat behavior in Smyth County (possibly at Hancock and Buchanan Saltpeter Caves), and Ken will serve as a contact point for volunteers. Warren expressed some interest in scouts helping with the monitoring efforts.

[Why Dave Duguid should come to meetings]

Rob Phelps shared a trip report and photos about his survey in Busted Turtle Cave with leader Dave Duguid. The upper level dropped 45 feet followed by a 15-foot nuisance drop. The team aimed to get to the bottom, so they passed by walls covered by giant flakes of dirt and clay. The giant flakes looked as though they could easily fall off, but Dave pressed the team to go lower.

When they reached the stream passage, Dave laid Robbie Spiegel in a few inches of water to check out the downstream area until a rock blocked his way. Robbie got cold quickly after this coating in mud and water, so they sent him out of the cave.

Dave Duguid scooped forty feet of passage headed upstream and then ordered Rob and Brian Williams to survey it. Dave contended that he had cleared the passage out by shoveling the dirt to the sides of the passage. The bottom of the passage was U-shaped, so all of the dirt had fallen back to the center after Dave used his trowel. Rob crawled backwards twenty feet in order to survey the passage. He could not turn his head, stopped several times to be sure he could breathe, and found that the cave suit cut into his scrotum. He could only move backwards three inches at a time but eventually found a spot too tight for him. At least it wasn’t muddy there.

Instead they found a shorter stream crawl that let them come out in the same place, a little bit wetter. Beyond this they left a blowing lead for someone fresher than themselves.

The ropes were incredibly muddy as the crew ascended. The crew needed to clean their ascenders with each step. During their exit they passed a number of leads on the first level and noted that the back canyon had some interesting possibilities if they could traverse it. The photos showed that the upper section of the cave was quite beautiful with 50-foot-high canyons. The team surveyed 472 ft in 21 stations to a depth of 145 ft.

Upcoming trips were discussed:

Ken Walsh is organizing a trip to Lovers Leap Cave for August 29
John Plyler has seats available to Old Timers Reunion Labor Day Weekend
Fall VAR will be held September 25-27, but no caving trips will be organized
Ken suggested that anyone looking for a sport trip organize a trip to horizontal Cribb Cave
Ken will share more details about the bat monitoring when they are available
Mark Daughtridge announced that he hopes to explore lava tubes near Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens.
Dave Duguid is hoping to return to Busted Turtle in October

Meeting adjourned at 9 PM.

TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes 7/28/2009

2009-07-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

Howard Holgate, Bryce Schoeder, Janell Lovelace, Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Hayden Holgate, Matt Westlake, Mark Little, Matt Spears, Mike Dooley, and Ken Walsh were in attendance. Howard ran the meeting quickly, so the minutes are short.

Mike announced the new web hosting and photo gallery is up on the new service and the old site at rtpnet is now redirecting.

Howard is still building the sign to place outside the museum.

The Region Record lists a proposal to save a population of the endangered Virginia Big-Eared Bats and is looking for donations. Mike Broome will contact Bob Hoke and establish a link on our site to notify members.

Bryce, Howard, Ken and Mark talked about the survey trip to Flat Ridge Cave and the Potato Bin. Good formations were found, but the caves don't appear to join. Spiders in the cave were delicious treats because the Sugar Grove Diner is closed while the town is without a water supply. Howard recommends not eating Mexican food before caving. We also found a 72-inch-diameter pipe that leads 100 feet into a cave entrance. The pipe protects the road above from the cave spring.

Old Timers Reunion (Labor Day weekend) will include entrance cleanup trips, and the Fall VAR wil be held in Middletown, Virginia on September 25-27. Many upcoming trips (Boone's Cave wrapup, Lover's Leap Cave survey, and Cribb Cave sport trip) did not have firm dates established, so we may need to do a member survey to get some dates set to coordinate. Ken shared notes about Lovers Leap and Mike about Cribb Cave, an easy dry maze with more than 8000 feet of passage.

After a short break, Bryce Schroeder shared an excellent program about his exploration in Lava Beds National Monument.

June 23, 2009 General Meeting Minutes

2009-06-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

John Plyler invited everyone to a hike down to Crabtree Creek after the meeting.

Vice Chair Howard Holgate began the meeting with introductions: Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate, Ken Walsh, Giselle Lõpez, Sam Garvey, Bryce Schroeder, John Plyler, Melanie McCullough, and Mark Daughtridge were all in attendance.

Howard announced that the sign for outside the museum would likely be constructed in July, but the labor negotiations seem to still be underway.

Ken shared Mike Broome's announcements about the web transition. They included the switch to Tiger Technologies, the move of the list serve, the reposting of the Photo Gallery (hooray), and the Facebook page (try http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=123950503288&ref=mf).

Before the trip reports, we recapped that Hancock Cave is closed due to the likely sighting of WNS there. Mark D. encouraged new attendees to send money for research and learn more.

Ken shared a long trip report about his survey trip to Worley’s Cave with Dave Duguid and Tanya McLaughlin. The highlights include very thin layers of separation between the diagonal layers, a long easy dig, a climb up the waterfall, bootsucking mud, and stubbon horses. Speaking of stubborn, Dave Duguid turned a 2-foot-deep cave into a fifteen-foot tube through sheer determination.

Mark Daughtridge waited until after the presentation to share a trip report about his trip to Seneca and Stratosphere Caverns. [ed: Because he was using this computer to show photos, I don't have any notes about this]

Howard also mentioned the upcoming cave trips:
--Boones Cave on June 28 with Dave Duguid
--Ken suggested that the Hancock Cave surface cleanup trip be postponed due to the WNS issue
--Karst-o-Rama will be held in Kentucky this weekend
--NSS convention held in July
--Ken may try to organize a sport trip for July 18, and Bryce and Howard expressed interest in going along.

John Plyler mentioned that his proposed trip to Lechuguilla Cave was cancelled before it began because the National Park turned down his application for a service project.

After the break, Bryce Schroeder shared his slides from a trip to the caves in the Marble Mountains in California.

May 26, 2009 General Meeting Minutes

2009-05-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Dave Duguid apologized for starting the meeting a bit late and began the meeting with introductions: Mike Broome, Maddy, Kevin, Diana Gietl, Howard Holgate, John Plyler, Ken Walsh, TJ Smith, Warren Pusak, Mark Daughtridge, and Mark Little were also in attendance.

Mark Little continued collecting funds for the NSS White Nose Syndrome Rapid Response Fund. [In total the Triangle Troglodytes donated $460 from their month-long campaign.]

Mike Broome announced that the new web site is up and running. He has been working on restoring the photo gallery but is being too picky about how the old photos should be organized [his own claim]. It was suggested that he examine the amount of hair to determine the age of the photos. He will share the new password for the photo gallery site when he is ready. He also plans to install plugins that will let you link to Flicker to Picassa sites and upload your photos directly.

Howard Holgate announced that he will start working on the new sign to put outside the museum in July. Dave and Howard promised to get back on the stick with regard to programs. They will get the programs listed on the web page send out notices. When Ken suggested a program about lamp maintenance, the electric cavers joked about just banging it on the ground until it worked again.

Mike Broome and Diana Gietl had spoken about caving to Venture Crew 469, and that was successful for trying to understand what people new to caving might ask.

Warren, Kevin, Matty, and Ken went with Venture Crew 469 for a trip to Atwells Tunnel Cave in Smyth County. Unfortunately Maddy took a spill at the entrance before she went inside and cut her hand. The crew members especially enjoyed the freedom to explore rather than just follow a leader through the cave and would like to go again. Ken remained informative during the trip, and Warren discovered why we wear helmets.

Diana visited natural bridges and an impressive sea cave in Capri. She also went shopping for cave harnesses in Italy and discovered one for a frog system that allows the wearer to undo the delta in the front to stand up straight while in the harness.

Mike and Lisa went up to the BCCS property over Memorial Day weekend and listened to the discussions about the BCCS position on the WNS situation. BCCS voted to adopt the Virginia guidelines.

Ken then described that Matt, Linda, Christian, Gordon, and Brian had recently discovered a fungal growth on bats in Hancock Cave. They reported it to Ken, and he passed on the information to the landowner, Virginia cave specialist, Virginia bat biologist, and VSS county director. The state workers collected pipistrelle samples a few days later and sent them to Madison, Wisconsin for laboratory testing. When discussing WNS later, one suggestion about vertical gear was to dedicate a rope to exploration in a particular cave.

Upcoming trips (with more details on the web site) include:
SERA Summer Cave Carnival—May 29-31
Hancock Cave Cleanup—put on hold based on the bat situation
Worley’s Cave—Dave Duguid (June 5)
Karst-o-Rama—still on (June 26-28)
NSS Convention in Texas in July
Boone’s Cave wrap up—June 28 (Dave Duguid shared a new rumor about the road fill leaking into the cave)
John Plyler planned to propose a service project at Lechuguilla Cave and it was discussed briefly.

Side discussions included using Mr. Bubble for stream tracing and having a grotto program teaching people how to be calm in a rescue litter.

March 2009 Meeting Minutes

2009-03-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Howard Holgate opened the meeting with introductions: Diana Gietl, Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, John Plyler, Howard Holgate, Ken Walsh, Melanie McCullough, Pete Hertl, Warren Pusak, and two Venture scouts (Kevin P. and Madeline C.).

Howard instructed members to check the Secretary blog for minutes from the Officers Meeting. He also shared the statement from the officers about the April WNS collection:
“Along with the April presentation the TriTrogs will begin their matching collection for the NSS White Nose Syndrome Rapid Response Fund. The TriTrog officers have agreed to match up to $200 of the donations from individuals. The collection will run from the April meeting through the May meeting. This plan resulted after discussion about our budget, charitable donations from the grotto, and matching gifts from corporations. The officers decided to hold off on further helmet and lamp purchases because several members have volunteered their extra gear.”

Mike indicated that the Web site transition has been on the agenda since last year [Ed: actually I found it on the May 2006 agenda]. Mike began transitioning to Tiger Technologies as the new server with more space and room for the photo gallery. The mailing list will be moving to the new hosting site (@tritrogs domain) over the next month. Mike plans to introduce all the cool new things in April, and some are posted in the officers meeting minutes.

Lisa and Mike talked about their trip digging in a sinkhole. One wall was frozen gravel, similar to concrete. They dug down ten feet, and it was still frozen gravel. They dug down twelve feet, and the hole needs some shoring. They are digging at the hole not based on air flow but based on the location relative to other caves. The theory is that they got below the frost line where frozen gravel should have stopped, but the cave was still elusive.

John Plyler agreed to host a vertical training/pot luck on April 11 in Raleigh to celebrate the end of hibernation season. More details to follow.

Howard listed the upcoming trips, and others are expected when hibernation season ends:
Easter Grand Caverns Conservation Weekend—April 11-12
Spring VAR—April 24-26 at Grand Caverns
NSS Convention and International Congress of Speleology in Kerrville, TX– July 19-26
Boones Cave wrap up—contact Dave Duguid for dates
Grotto trip—September 19-20

Ken shared photos from the photography trip that Mark Little, Ericka Hoffmann, and he took to Fountain Cave and Grand Caverns. He shared some of his fuzzy shots and explained that his focusing skills improved tremendously when he removed the polarizing lens from the camera. He’ll share the photos on the photo gallery when it re-opens.

Prompted by questions from the Venture Crew, members responded to queries about cave clothing, helmets, lamps, food, and other gear.

After the break, Diana Gietl shared the Exploris presentation she gave several years back that includes a good number of her amazing cave photographs. It covers concepts like why we study caves, why we protect caves, and where we find them. Howard described how gunpowder is made from guano with a detailed description of saltpeter processing.

We then entertained suggestions about how to set up a program to share with outside groups:
1) put the pits at the end because the caves should get harder as you go through the presentation
2) include the web site in the slides at the beginning and end
3) explain how some of the formations grow
4) show the words beside some formations
5) include cave fauna (Pete Hertl may have some photos to share)
6) describe activities like digging, surveying, and conservation
7) include more photos from regional caves
8) share photos of a properly clad caver, before and after a trip (maybe even at the car wash)

TriTrog Officers Meeting on March 17, 2009

2009-03-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

Howard Holgate, Dave Duguid, Mark Little, Mike Broome, and Ken Walsh all enjoyed Guinness and pizza.

Dave first reviewed the action items from the last meeting. We have interconnections at the meeting place fast enough to support video links and WebEx. Howard has the sandwich board underway, and it should be ready blank by next month. Ken will contact Steve Simmons about ways we might attract Venture Scouts to the TriTrogs (and ask him about bringing the Vliminator to the August pool party).

With a few asides about outreach efforts, the conversation eventually turned to fully developing a calendar for 2009 programs. The TriTrog officers presented ideas for each of the upcoming meetings through November and will follow up with the speakers. December will mark the 20th Anniversary celebration for the TriTrogs. We will post the calendar when the officers have confirmed with the speakers.

On March 24 Howard will present the slides we once shared at an Exploris event. He will be seeking input from the grotto members about ways to share it as a canned presentation to other groups, such as a lunchtime presentation at Cisco or NetApp.

April will likely feature a discussion about bats and their threats. Dave and Howard are inviting several bat experts (e.g., Melissa Miller and the museum bat specialists). Along with the April presentation the TriTrogs will begin their matching collection for the NSS White Nose Syndrome Rapid Response Fund. The TriTrog officers have agreed to match up to $200 of the donations from individuals. The collection will run from the April meeting through the May meeting. This plan resulted after discussion about our budget, charitable donations from the grotto, and matching gifts from corporations. The officers decided to hold off on further helmet and lamp purchases because several members have volunteered their extra gear.

We briefly discussed outreach issues (bulletin boards, REI caving classes, college recruitment, etc.), but those discussions were tabled until we published our calendar and finished the canned presentation.

Members should look for changes to the web site now that the Tiger Technologies site is set up. Mike will be setting up an area to post upcoming programs as well as presentations from meetings past.

Howard also suggested that the web site should show photographs about how exactly to find our meeting room. Members should volunteer to help or look forward to an interesting production.

The photo gallery will be a priority for Mike to put up, but he’s not sure the folders will be associated with the archived photos. Mike will also handle posting events like regional and national events on the Google calendar when they’re posted in the NSS News. He’ll also fix the links on the new FAQs page, post the membership forms on the web sites, and add some links to the WNS info pages.

Ken will work on content for a web page describing the officers and providing contact information (probably through alias addresses for each officer). Mike will let the members know what other content he’s looking for.

The officers tentatively set the weekend of September 19-20 as the time for the grotto trip. Ken suggested that we consider a visit to Culverson Creek Cave during that dry season. We also talked about scheduling other trips in advance.

Ken is also looking into a Celebration to the End of Hibernation season on April 11. Hopefully the local party will include vertical work.

February 24, 2009 TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes

2009-02-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ken Walsh, Dave Duguid, Mark Little, Hayden and Howard Holgate, TJ Smith, and Mark Daughtridge were in attendance. Before the meeting Howard discovered that the internet connections in the museum were 5 Megabits down, 1.5 Megabits up and thus video capable. We could connect long-distance speakers to our meetings, even in Antarctica.

Discussion turned to the purchase of new lamps and helmets, an item that was dropped from last year’s agenda when someone had promised a donation. After talking about the types of lamps that we thought beginners could rent, Howard agreed to price them out and give costs at the next meeting. We also opened up the possibility that we could purchase used gear directly from members.

Another previous purchase approved was the book Cave Minerals of the World, and Dave plans to purchase it for the grotto library. The grotto also thanked Dave and Sandy Duguid for hosting a great holiday party with lots of delicious food.

Mike Broome plans to transition the web hosting to Tiger Technologies when he returns from Greece. He has also posted a Frequently Asked Questions page to the grotto web pages; hopefully he will fix the links that now point to www.askmmikebroome.org. Ken asked that any members with comments share them with him.

Ken also suggested that the FAQ page be spiced up with some doodles or cartoons. Ken will contact Barbi Bailey-Smith for some drawings.

Hayden proposed that the grotto should produce bumper stickers and magnets again. This item will go on the agenda for the next general or officers meeting.

To make the meeting location seem more inviting, the TriTrog officers have chosen to begin leaving a greeter or two at the door as well as set up a sign near Jones Street. Howard promised to spend two months preparing a white sandwich board sign, and the members discussed the appropriate size that could be brought to the meetings as well as to caving events. Then the ideas started flying (LED lights, bonfires, stenccilling, motion sensors, and the need for NORAD approval).

Mark also introduced a discussion about finding a new location to meet, and he asked the members to look for other locations that could compete with the museum.

Howard mentioned that he is working on a new presentation that can be shared with other groups and businesses in an effort to grow the membership.

TJ mentioned the 1000-foot Clinch River overlook in Breaks Interstate Park where he’s working to get access to unexplored caves.

Ken shared a cave trip report written by Linda Waters-Lindqvist. She described a volcanic origin to the cave with an icy floor. The only decorations came from penguin poo, and elephant seals guarded the entrance.

Upcoming Trips
--Ken is planning a cave photography trip to Fountain Cave from March 7-8.
--Spring VAR April 24-26
--SERA—May ??
--Spring VAR April 24-26 at Grand Caverns
--Easter Grand Caverns Conservation Weekend—April 11-12
--NCRC Weeklong training—May 1-9 in Harrisonburg, VA
--Dave plans to survey Boones Cave and produce a map for the kiosk that gets constructed (hopefully the map will list www.tritrogs.org)
--Grotto trip
--NSS Convention and International Congress of Speleology in Kerrville, TX– July 19-26
--Blevins, Worleys, and Rowlands Spring Caves still need surveying in Smyth County, Virginia—interested members should contact Ken or Dave

Mark Daughtridge mentioned that rock climbers use an online meetup group and suggested the cavers consider using their methods for setting a class and then going on a trip to use what one learns. He might be able to promote the event on the meetup group if it would be of interest to the climbers.

Howard will organize a TriTrog lunch in RTP some time in the near future.

Before closing, members shared some thoughts about White Nose Syndrome.

TriTrog Officer Meeting (February 11, 2009)

2009-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Mark Little, Dave Duguid, Howard Holgate, and Ken Walsh were in attendance. Some members find the 7:30 PM general meeting time to be difficult, but I-40 rush hour traffic in the eastbound direction prevents an earlier start time. Discussion will be held at a meeting before the times are changed. However, Dave reiterated his intention to begin the meetings on time.

The officers discussed the possibility of moving the meeting place somewhere else in the Triangle. However, no other place in the Triangle came to mind that would have the same desirable qualities found in the Museum location. The officers think that the meeting place needs to feel more welcoming above the surface. Howard is going to ask a member to build a sandwich board that we can sit near the street before meetings and maybe even include LED lights to make the sign easy to see. We will also start asking a member or two to stay upstairs and act as greeters for possible new members.

Discussion turned to programs for the coming year. With more coordination at this challenging task, the topics can be announced at the previous meeting, across the list serve, and on the web page. Some officers proposed that programs should be aimed toward attracting and sticking new people to the grotto. These two programs would include geology, flora, and fauna. Other topics include the exploratory cave dive videos (e.g., Wakulla Springs), materials from the NSS Library, open forum, blasting, and conservation.

Outreach was the next subject of discussion, beginning with an identification of key demographics that might be attracted to caving as a sport and where to find them (e.g., Cisco). Grotto activities would be considered a good socialization for young people, and Howard suggested that a canned program could be presented with these groups.

The officers also discussed advertising across the web by sharing external links with other local outdoors groups (e.g., rock climbing groups, Carolina Canoe Club, Sierra Club, cycling clubs, outdoors stores, and BOK). A way to get more hits on the web page would be to say “Cave locations” and then follow it with “…are not disclosed on the web. Come to our meeting.”

Discussion then turned to participation on trips. Several alternatives were discussed (family trips, combining trips with the Virginia Creeper Trail or other activities, and alternative departure times). These activities could be improved with college leaders and people hoping to excite their children about the outdoors. It may even be possible to recruit people at activities such as the Eno River Festival.

Action Items
· Howard will test the internet speed at the next meeting to understand if streaming the meetings would be possible.
· Howard will ask a member to build a sandwich board to place outside before meetings.
· Ken will try to identify a graphic artist to help us design the sandwich board message.
· Dave will work on a program presentation that describes how running a kids trip is different than one for adults, including items such as the parent:child ratio and picking an appropriate cave.
· Dave will repeat his cave diving presentation at some point this year. Perhaps scuba groups would also be interested in attending that meeting.
· Ken will contact Steve Simmons about ways to reach out to Venture scouts who are looking for outdoor activities outside the scouting groups.

Agenda Items that Were Not Discussed
· Membership (spending funds on sure advertising and monetary incentives)
· Green/environmental activities
· Vertical training sessions
· Claiming long weekends for cave trips
· Web site improvements (showing larger presence, FAQs, contact names, and listing upcoming trips)
· Grotto donation to the NSS White Nose Syndrome Fund

January 27, 2009 Minutes from General Meeting

2009-02-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

Introductions were skipped because everyone already knew one another.

Mark Little led discussion on the Annual Treasurer’s Report. He discussed the undeposited funds from the grotto trip (corrected by Mike) and how we spent slightly more than we took in due to charitable donations.

Ken Walsh mentioned that he spoke to a Cary Boy Scout troop in January. They planned to head out for the wild cave tour in Mammoth Cave over the MLK weekend. Dave Duguid mentioned that Organ Cave also gives wild tours.

Memberships are up for renewal, so everyone was encouraged to re-up. $15 for individual members.

Mike Broome announced that the web hosting transition would serve as his 2009 platform when he ran for editor/webmaster.

The National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) is building its staff by hiring a director to establish, lead, and coordinate their Education Program. Anyone interested in the position should contact Ken for more details.

Mike Broome agreed to check with Keith Wheeland about how to deliver the TriTrog blogs as records of annual publications.

Ken announced that Hamilton Cave in Pendleton County, West Virginia had shown signs that White Nose Syndrome has reached that southern extent. [The bat count on January 30 confirmed that the cave is showing clear signs of a WNS outbreak, including five dead bats found on the trail to the cave entrance] The Guilday Cave Preserve (Trout Rocks) is closed to cavers until further notice.

Some discussion led to the conclusion that the TriTrogs should decline to participate at Wiley Elementary School’s Science Night this year. Caves don’t really fit easily into this year’s theme of Air.

Dave Duguid described the New Years weekend trip to Marion with Ken Walsh, Mark Daughtridge, and Tanya McLaughlin. While rescuing coon dogs, Tanya had met the daughter of a cave landowner who wanted to descend into the pit on their property. She led the group out to the cave entrance where they encountered another group exiting the cave with a rudimentary sketch. Because of the late hour to the day, the group instead surveyed horizontal Cotton Cave with a 2-foot wide entrance. They left one 30-foot-high lead up a flowstone slope for another trip. The return trip at night was riddled by briars when the landowner’s daughter turned too early.

The next day the group found Fasell Cave, marked it on the GPS, and left because there was just 25 feet to see. The group then mapped Ward Saltpeter Cave completely. They then went to The Flat behind the door in Flat Ridge and surveyed its two leads. The survey ended Saturday evening at two smaller leads.

On Sunday that group went back to Worley’s Cave in Smyth County after six years away. The cave is really wide and slopes down 25 degrees. The group began survey from the streambed and then headed up hill to the back area with the monorail worms.

Ken began a trip report about his next trip to Smyth County with Mark Daughtridge, Tanya McLaughlin, Justin Noia, and Hannah. Because the 1952 map of Roberts Cave was just compass and pace, Ken, Mark, and Tanya began resurveying the cave o Saturday morning. After a good lunch at Smokey’s Barbecue, Mark and Ken joined Justin and Hannah over at Hancock Cave. They stopped at the second Toilet Bowl because of the scare factor and headed instead toward the Long Room. Back there Justin and Mark squirmed into the hole high in the wall, much to Hannah and Ken’s amusement. Mark finished the trip report by describing the Echo Chamber, the inch-thick false floor, his squeeze at the low end of the formations, the white isopod, roots that were mistaken for iron, a virgin room that is not shown on the map and pure white formations beyond that, Hannah’s recognition of the Octopus Room, 23-degree weather outside the cave, and good Mexican food.

The following day Mark, Tanya, and Ken went back to Worley’s Cave. Mark mentioned that racing through the entrance room avoided a disgusting experience. The sandwich of the 18-inch high crawl didn’t bother Tanya at all, and the group surveyed to the waterfall. Three leads went out from the waterfall room, but the short survey didn’t get the group back into the main passage. Mark got lessoned about how to set surveyed stations, and Tanya learned not to wash hers in the waterfall. Mark discovered that the black formations up the waterfall were merely mud, but the shelves and Ken’s shoulder let him climb to the top to find some leads and a second waterfall. Worley’s Cave now seems to be getting quite mazy.

Mike Broome described the trip he and Lisa Lorenzin took to Basswood Cave. They stayed with Keith Wheeland and spent three days digging with chemical persuasion, but Mike still doesn’t fit. On the first trip he learned to use a mechanical ascender to pull the muddy rope attached to the sled, and he drilled and set charges on the second trip. Lisa had squeezed through and sketched the room she found, but the multiple ledges kept others from joining her. Lisa’s helmet cam was underlit, and the weather outside was incredibly cold.

Now Mike Broome is looking for an excuse to buy a hammer drill.

Mark Daughtridge mentioned that he did two commercial tours of Mammoth Cave over the holidays.

TJ Smith shared photos from his family trip at New Years to Hardin’s Cave (Junkyard Cave). His six-year-old nephew loves having his photos taken. After a short crawl they spent most of the time in a newer section discovered during the survey of this formerly sacrificial cave.

After a break, there was quick discussion about the upcoming trips:
February 6—Grand Caverns
February 20—vertical trip to Smyth County
Easter—Grand Caverns restoration weekend
Spring VAR
Boone’s Cave
Weeklong NCRC in Virginia
SERA Summer Cave Carnival in May
Breaks Park in icy Virginia

Elections were held, and the members unanimously elected Dave Duguid for Chair, Howard Holgate for Vice Chair, Mike Broome for Editor/Webmaster, Mark Little for Treasurer, and Ken Walsh for Secretary.

TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes November 25, 2008

2008-11-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

Dave Duguid welcomed the fourteen members to the last grotto meeting of the year.

TriTrog membership dues for 2009 will be collected again for all members in January.

The issues associated with web hosting had not yet been resolved, but Mike Broome was working on them while the meeting was going on. Mike had contacted Tiger support about transitioning our existing site to the new system. Tiger would prefer that the whole system be transferred to their system, following their step-by-step instructions. Issues would be simplified if anything went wrong, and there is no financial difference between the choices. Fortunately we have not received two bills for the same services this year.

Dave Duguid will host the holiday party on December 6. It will once again be a pot luck celebration, and Dave encourages carbide pumpkins but hesitated at the mention of song books. Ken will roast a turkey, and others are encouraged to bring appetizers, sides, and desserts. The party will start around 6 PM with food served beginning around 7 PM. Casual dress in a kid-friendly home.

Ken encouraged any members to share any information about 2008 activities of TriTrogs in the areas of exploration, protection, and education. This will be included in the NSS annual corporate report.

John Plyler shared that fellow caver Ed Kehs Jr. had been in a serious car accident. He is in pretty bad shape, and the TriTrogs send him their best wishes.

In terms of trip reports, John Plyler talked about the trip he and Pete Hertl took to OTR. They took second and third places in the ropewalker competition, third place in cable ladder, second place in knots, honorable mention in the obstacle course. When competing in beer drinking speed competitions, they learned to get their face down in the beer, remove the foam, and drink it warm and flat to down it in under two seconds. Pete did not recall where he caved on OTR Friday but did not indicate if the beer drinking influenced his recollections.

Dave Duguid described the digging trip to a North Carolina cave found in a county park. He, Tanya McLaughlin, Linda Waters-Lindqvist, Christian Lindqvist, and Ken Walsh found the first lead into the hillside closed down to an impossibly tight lead. Dave, Linda, and Christian did manage to dig two connections using a hoe, kitty litter buckets, and snow saucers. Dave described that we could dig for eternity in the cave in the loose soil, but it likely will not yield much. Odds are that the cave was not filled by the state as was once rumored.

Dave mentioned that Cato Holler shared the the 1970’s map of the cave, and that and the NSS article from the 1950’s described the same cave that we found. It’s probably not worth digging further in this cave, but we could go up and survey for a high quality map that covers the new connections.

Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin went on November 8 to Burnsville Cove with the Butler Cave Conservancy Society. They stayed at the homestead with BCCS members. They entered Basswood Cave at the base of an award-winning tree. Saturday they went in for a dig 10 minutes from the entrance. They microblasted dinner plate-sized rocks. A crawl led 25 feet to a dogleg in a thin crevice from 5 to 7 inches wide. They felt huge amounts of air blowing and stayed in the cave from 11 AM to 11 PM. There is another low lead down a cable ladder. Lisa bellycrawled through 2 inches of water for 20 feet to the turnaround point. Forty or fifty feet further she could have wiggled her chest through but had to turn around. They microblasted with soda straws and black powder. Two drills ran through the batteries pretty fast, but they could recharge at Nevin’s house just outside the entrance. The sounds they liked to hear while microblasting were “Woomph, crumple, crumple, crumple.”

Dave mentioned the possible upcoming trips to Boone’s Cave or the first weekend in January.

After the break, TJ Smith shared Jody Bailey’s presentation on their weeklong class of Level 1 certification from the National Cave Rescue Commission.

TriTrogs October meeting - 10/28/08

2008-10-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

Recorded by Mike Broome

meeting started at 7:50pm
10 people in attendance

Notes on attendance:
- only 1 person there at 7:30pm
- only 7 of the final 10 there by 7:50pm
- only one officer in attendance by 7:50pm
(note 3 of 5 officers were present by half-way through the meeting)


Old Business
- web site
. going with Tiger Technologies
    - need to move the domain from GoDaddy to Tiger, but they help with that
    - won't cost any extra
. discussion of picture gallery

New Business
- Mark Little setting up trip for Explorers
. Mark can't cave right now
. need another person
. weekend of 11/15 ?
. Rehobeth Church w/ backup of Paxton's
. have about 12 scouts lined up

- suggestion to change meeting time to 8pm
. for a while now, the meeting start time has been drifting later due to
  people showing up late
. a later start time would make it easier for people to get dinner before
. there was a concern that with a later start time, if the meeting runs for
  2 hours like it often does, we won't get out until very late; perhaps the
  meeting could be run more efficiently
. alternate suggestion: actually *start* the meeting at 7:30

Upcoming Trips
- Explorers trip - 11/15 ?
. to Rehobeth Cave or Paxton's
. see "New Business" for details of needing additional trip leader(s)

- Rowland Spring - this weekend
. might or might not require surveying and vertical skills
. contact Dave Duguid for details

- Halloween party at Susanna's - Friday, 10/31
. wear a costume (but not a caver!) or get painted when you arrive


Trip Reports

- TAG Fall Cave-In (Lisa)
. TinY and Nikky's wedding on Friday
. went to Flowing Stone Cavern on Saturday
    - "we went so you don't have to"
. 1-2 hour hike over hills and around quarry through poison ivy fields
. 225' cavern that we rappelled into
. pretty at the bottom with pool with large salamander and fossil shells in the wall
. TAG Fall Cave-in is a great event, and looking forward to going back

- Conservation Trip (Susanna) - early October
. Hancock Cave Peacock entrance
. where the stream flows into the cave
. 15' of "stuff" to remove that had been dumped in the entrance
. appliances, etc.
. land owner let us use his truck
. still more to be picked up
    enough for another conservation trip
. Ken *never* said there was a car in there

- Rehobeth Cave (Lindsay)
. friends Mom who caves a lot to her and her boyfriend
. did top part first and went all the way back
. optional tight squeeze - ladies only
. cave back through and went down to the stream part
  got really wet crawling in the stream despite the low water level
. one of the people on the trip fell in and got really wet which was the
  end of the trip
. about 4 hours underground
. lots of wildlife - salamanders, crayfish (white), crickets, spiders (way back in)

- Hancock Cave (Ken)
. after conservation trip Ken, Mark, Dave, Dawson went in
. found a hole near Peackock entrance
. from top of sink hole, Dave climbed in
  really drops, but he saw daylight
  Ken went around to main entrance and could see Dave above him (~18')
. Dave was afraid to take Dawson down breakdown staircase; solution was to
  tether the two of them together (8-10' leash)
. Dawson was getting worn out (there was disbelief at this), and they left
  the cave when he got tired
. Dawson was very excited about having done an arm rappel

- Rowland Springs (Ken)
. day after the conservation trip
. Dave wanted to take Dawson to the cave
. stuffed Dave down holes that Ken and Tanya hadn't fully explored previously
. found a hole that drops down into the stream that is probably a couple more
  survey shots
. another room (Rock and Roll room) that needs to be surveyed
. went up to upper entrance; took some pictures
. then went to Sentinel Cave
  had found a long piece of rebar/screw in the upper entrance that was a great
  digging tool; left it with Tanya
. Tanya found another hole in the hillside lower down from Sentinel
. hoe was a great digging tool
. Dave was able to get his whole body in; needs more digging

- Bridge Day (Mike)
. great weather; had a good time
. Mike got 4 rappels; Lisa got 3
. there were 2 dedicated ascent ropes this year and they climbed together once
. have not heard of any injuries or fatalities from this year

Break

Program
. National Geographic Channel show: "Giant Crystal Cave"

Meeting Minutes from September 23, 2008

2008-09-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Attendees: Mark Little, Christian Lindquist, Ken Walsh, TJ Smith, Melanie McCullough, Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate, Matthew Lubin, Matt (who won’t cave with us), and Mark Daughtridge

It was suggested that the TriTrogs wouldn’t mesh well with North Carolina Gem and Mineral Club, another affiliate with the Museum.

Mark Little led the meeting, in the absence of the Chair and Vice Chair. Mark mentioned the dues for the second half of the year and that the grotto had $1800+ in its treasury.

It was agreed that Susanna should send out directions and a date for the Halloween party. Several volunteered to host the holiday season party.

Ken described why the TriTrogs had changed their minds about surveying Santee State Park: a map was already completed, dry cave was limited to 200 feet, no cave diving allowed, etc.

Trip Reports
Ken described a fantastic trip to Culverson Creek Cave at the VAR. The trip to the Echo Tube was his big reward but Melanie wondered how he got so muddy.

Howard mentioned Phil Lucas's VAR presentation about Water Sinks Cave and said that everyone enjoying the presentation would surely want to visit this most impressive cave that opened itself last year. Howard talked about his personal first trip to Scott Hollow Cave. Peter and Ann Bosted took photos of the Double Waterfall, and Howard watched Melanie descend from the Chess Room with too short a piece of webbing.

Melanie described Scott Hollow Cave as having more breakdown than she had ever seen. Her trip report included the W Room, Omega Pit, the natural bridge 75 feet in the air (which Cheryl Jones strode across), Volcano Pit, and the Chess Room for pictures. Melanie wasn't sure she'd recover from all of the climbs and crawls, but it was certainly a good workout. After connecting with Howard's group, they checked out Craig's Creek and then up the steep breakdown piles to the entrance.

Mark Daughtridge shared disposable camera photos of his sixteen-person trip to Norman Cave, but they featured far more formations than people. He described that one woman had had shoulder surgery a month earlier, but her doctor had given her the go ahead to do whatever she wanted. Caving shouldn't have been on the list. With a creature swimming by his shoe, Mark got wet up to mid-thigh before they got to the Great White Way. To find the Great White Way, Mark mentioned that they had to turn around 180 degrees and then crawl into the lead. He even shared a photo of something he called a coral head, described as coral replaced by chert.

On Sunday only 3 out of 16 people showed up for Mark's trip to Crossroads Cave, led by Mark Morton. With a small group and armed with a map, they were able to visit the lesser known parts of Crossroads Cave and were rewarded by nice formations in the very mazy cave. Mark got some very nice photos here too which he shared, including good passage shots. They went down the "very narrowest passage" and found tree roots hanging 10 feet down from the ceiling. Mark was also impressed by the sea shells in the rocks on the “beach.” The experienced cavers indulged Mark and allowed him to explore dead ends. He even got a nice shot of a splattermite formation.

Upcoming Trips
Boone’s Cave this weekend
Cave conservation trip to Hancock Cave
Geology field trip along the Saltville and Pulaski Faults -- Contact Howard if interested
TAG—Pete Hertl and TJ plan to attend this event held at the permanent TAG site, 80 minutes south of Chattanooga
Venture crew youth group trip at Nov. 15—Contact Mark Little if interested

General Meeting Minutes for August 26, 2008

2008-08-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

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.

July 2008 General Meeting Minutes

2008-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Diana Gietl kindly volunteered to lead tonight’s meeting. She began by allowing everyone to introduce themselves: John Plyler, Jing Niu, Mark Little, Lisa Lorenzin, Mike Broome, Mark Dautridge, Diana Gietl, Hayden and Howard Holgate, Will Summer, Matt Westlake (late arrival), Ken Walsh, and Matt Meyers.

Mark Little (Treasurer) asked anyone who had not yet paid dues to pay them now ($8/half year, $15/year). Discounts for the grotto trip were based on the dues that were paid.

Ken announced that the August program would deal with the survey and cartography efforts associated with Hancock Cave. The final map will first be shown at the NSS Convention in Florida next month, and the local surveyors will be able to get their copies of the map at the August TriTrog meeting.

In thinking about future programs, Diana suggested that we consider a barbecue gathering in the early fall. Ken suggested an auction to raise money for research into White Nose Syndrome, and he shared some items that he thought would be good for the auction. Diana also offered to share her Greenland or France slide shows for a future meeting.

One of the auction items was a copy of the recent VAR/SERA guidebook, and someone asked if the TriTrogs could get a copy for the library. A motion was made and passed (with no opposition) to purchase a copy for the library.

Trip Reports
Mark Little talked about his trip to Perkins Cave (John Matthews of ACC invited him). The ACC meeting was held in an old barn that Tanya McLaughlin helped him find. John Wilson led Mark, Ellen Hofler, and Theresa Matthews on a cave trip. Mark described an elaborate entrance gate, ladders, and about ten miles of cave in Washington County Virginia. John Wilson has been adding ladders for people with short legs; snap-together ladder segments were carried in and through the drops into the first room. After the work in the entrance room, they went into the Humming Room. In one spot, the room actually hums with more than an echo, more like a reverberation of the walls. The group went through the entrance crawl (wide) and to the Junction Room where they crossed an exposed ledge. The ledge was rigged with three bolts and a rope. This led into the Toothpaste Crawl. The mud there is two feet thick, so they’ve added a plastic sheet to slide across. The ACC wants to make the cave available to cavers but still minimize the damage to the passages. The First Discovery Room is where they encountered the first really impressive white formations. The Forest Trail is a borehole passage through formations.

Mark mentioned the resurvey of Perkins Cave that is going on right now, and he was told to bring some TriTrogs back next time for the survey.

The minutes get sketchy on Ken’s trip reports (because I don’t talk and take minutes well simultaneously). I talked about my sport trip to Hancock Cave during the SERA/VAR (lotsa loops, the last dead end, and beer spray), Morrell’s Cave with Amar, Fayekah, and Avinash (climbing up to an out-of-the-way lead above the Waterfall Room), Rodas-Wolters Cave with Dave Duguid and Tanya (discovery, exploration, shingle cleanup, and survey all in one morning), Chip on Her Shoulder Cave (trip included river crossing, a skylight, stinging nettles, hissing bobcats at Five Goats Cave, wasp nests, ticks, and all the reasons not to ridgewalk in the summer), and Mosquito Den (a dead end after the rock was removed).

Upcoming Trips
There was considerable discussion about details for the upcoming Grotto trip. Mike expected 10-15 people camping at Douthat State Park in Virginia. He would begin emails between those persons discussing trips to Breathing Cave on Saturday and Crossroads Cave on Sunday. There is also the possibility of mountain biking or rock climbing (with poison ivy, mosquitoes, and ticks) nearby for Sunday. The camping and food costs would be covered for grotto members with a $25 fee for others.

The upcoming NSS Convention was covered in the meeting program so not discussed.

Mark Little mentioned an upcoming Explorer Scout trip for August 15.

Old Timers Reunion will be held Labor Day weekend.

The Fall Virginia Area Regional event will be held in Covington, VA September 19 weekend.

The NSS Convention next year will be held in Texas along with the International Congress on Speleology.

Susanna and Dave will share more details about the upcoming Hancock Cave cleanup trip in October.

A cave survey opportunity in Santee State Park in South Carolina might be coming up in September or October.

Diana may be going down to TAG in the Fall for cave photography for as long as a five-day trip. She may visit the Huntsville area or Scottsboro and maybe in conjunction with the TAG Fall Cave In.

May 2008 Meeting Minutes

2008-06-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

Mike began the business by sharing details about the web site. He just needs a credit card number to go forward with the web hosting through Tiger Technologies.

Mike found a straightforward way within Blogger to link our trip report blog postings up to the list server. He could also make the blog appear within the TriTrog framework but didn’t see the need to change the appearance. Mike will post a trip report to the blog to test the list serve connection.

Mark shared a list of 2008 members that will be added to the grotto web page.

Mike shared a detailed trip report about his trip to the Butler Cave 50/40 Celebration. He began by describing Lisa’s shrimp cocktail (boiled shrimp, raw onion, pepper, and salsa) at Los Tres Magueyes but eventually arrived at the BCCS fieldhouse around 11:30 that night (after Ken’s car ascended the driveway).

The facilities were most impressive with a little 100-year-old bunkhouse, added roof deck, hot shower, sandstone patio, and amphitheater. Mike, Lisa, Diana, and Ken camped on a hillside beside some heavy snorers. Fortunately Saturday morning treated us to blueberry pancakes. While Ken and Mike cleaned the dishes, Diana and Lisa headed off to scrounge up a trip. Any trip into Butler Cave requires at least one BCCS member to go along.

They managed to hook us all up on a trip for twelve led by Eddie Kehs into the Stubborn Old Farts Access (SOFA) entrance. A culvert leads visitors down wooden slats for an easy entrance to the cave. Mike and Lisa followed Lee back toward helictites near the original entrance, but they were further than they expected. They eventually joined the rest of the group who were escorting Roy Charlton (see The Caves Beyond) through the 90-Ugh crawl and down to Sand Canyon. Along the way the group learned that the original rappel devices were created by a few wraps around former bowling pins as Bill described how he made them.

From Sand Canyon most of the group headed to the Moon Room. Most of the cave isn’t highly decorated, but the Moon Room was well decorated. Mike described the Hanging Dong as exciting; it is a really massive folded flowstone formation that looks like a hornet’s nest 20 feet high. The group came back to the Sand Canyon and traveled rapidly upstream to the Natural Bridge where Mike and some others climbed up on it. The group left around 3 PM.

That afternoon a plaque was unveiled that declared Butler Cave a national natural landmark, and the Butler Cave Conservation Society received accolades from the Governor and the Virginia House of Delegates. At the homestead, the BCCS revealed a stone carved by Ed Kehs, Sr.

On Sunday Mike was planning to go caving on a through trip, and they worked that out around 11 AM. However, plans kept changing, so they went rock climbing instead. Other highlights included two free barbecue meals, a telescope through which they saw Saturn and M-81 and M82 galaxies. Sunday night Mike and Lisa went into a garage observatory with a full clock drive, 17” lens, and a fold back roof. They were able to see a doughnut nebula through it.

Ken shared a trip report about his trip to Hightower Cave, but I was too busy talking to take minutes.

Discussion then turned to upcoming trips, including the VAR/SERA event in Bristol, Tennessee, the Hancock Cave cleanup trip on July 19, and the NSS Convention in Florida (John and Pete might go). We also discussed the grotto trip on August 2. A special email will be sent out to members, and Mike will make the reservation for Douthat State Park. We’ll likely visit Breathing Cave, but the Sunday trip may go to one of Phil Lucas’s caves, Marshalls, or Aqua Cave, depending on interest.

General Meeting Minutes 3/25/2008

2008-03-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Dave Duguid passed out the agendas and skipped the introductions (we went back to these later when all had arrived). Dave went straight into Business.

Dave shared that the Family Science Night at Wiley Elementary School was a success. The Veeliminator is a force to be reckoned with and attracted so many kids that we ran out of Pop Rocks in five minutes. Steve Simmons made the squeezes easier for some kids and nearly impossible for others. Hopefully the kids had a good time.

As a birthday treat, contributions to Susanna Clark’s annual dues were received by Mark Little.

Mike Broome had no statement to make about the web hosting transition but indicated that it should be pretty easy. Mark agreed to invite Mike to GoDaddy again. Mike will also look into the possibility of integrating the TrogBlog with the mailing lists so that a script will be sent out when an update is made. With the new web host, Mike may start to use alias email addresses for officers.

Dave will be working on a letter to be sent to lapsed members still living in the Triangle area, listing dates for big upcoming trips (Annual trip, conservation weekend, SERA/VAR, etc.).

Mike has made significant updates to the TriTrog web site, most of which are made on the Members Only page. That page now includes access to the membership list, library list, cave maps, and the available grotto gear (will be updated soon). Some of these may be moved out of the Members Only section, and Mark will update the membership list. Regarding the photo gallery, Mike fixed the dead link and is exploring ways to get the photo gallery back online.

Dave mentioned that he’d like to get more members involved with activities like the Annual Trip and caving. Ken Walsh offered a talk to a Raleigh Boy Scout troop to anyone interested. If not, he’ll plan his standard slides for April 21. If anyone has issues that they’d like brought up at the NSS Congress of Grottoes meeting this summer, bring them up with Dave.

Unlike the TrogBlog, Ken described the Shakespeare Caving weekend without subjecting the attendees to rhyming couplets. He talked about his cave restoration efforts at Grand Caverns Park, as well as the trips to see productions of Volpone and Macbeth at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton.

In terms of Upcoming Trips, the March 28 sport trip was cancelled because only three who prefer surveying had signed up. Dave will lead the April 5 survey trip to Rowlands Creek Cave (vertical experience required). For the April 19 weekend, Ken, Mike Davidson, his friend, and some Duke students are planning a novice trip (likely to Breathing Cave).

TriTrogs are planning to descend on the VAR/SERA event (June 3-5 in Bristol, TN-VA). The best parts are the caving equipment vendors, and Dave may tow the Veeliminator up for the event where up to 800 cavers are expected. Ken may head off July 4 week to join the Mammoth Cave CRF expedition surveying the park caves. Susanna agreed to put together a cave conservation effort this year, likely to Hancock Cave. Dave is still working to pick dates for the grotto trip, and the NSS Convention will be held in Florida in August. There will also be an NCRC weeklong training class from May 3-10 in Alabama.

After a short break Matt Westlake presented the group with 11-12 questions about caving safely. He drew some of the questions from the 2006 American Caving Accidents report just published by the NSS. A lot of discussion was going randomly around the table, so I’ll just give you some bulleted highlights (and preserve the anonymity of the commenters):
· Accidents in cases of insufficient light were common
· One "experienced" group carried just two flashlights for a group of five
· To find your way back out of a cave, feed your puppy cyalume sticks
· "Extra batteries aren’t necessary for trips under 100 hours if you use Petzl Myo LED lights" (pretty sure this didn’t come out the way it was intended as a discussion of emergency lamp settings)
· Strobe effects from weak batteries can create dangerous conditions
· No one presented an answer to the question about when to stop when you’re pretty lost but not completely lost in a cave. There was consensus that everything starts to look very familiar the fourth time you’ve passed it.
· An extended discussion found most in agreement that someone should always know when to expect you back from the cave and which cave you’ve gone to
· Matt suggested that a logbook outside the cave would be useful, and Ken thought a car served the same purpose. Others disagreed.
· One officer sometimes asks people about their medical history and first aid skills before trips because it’s worth knowing who can help him.
· Don’t drink cave water. Not as silly a statement as it sounds.
· Carry enough water with you. One current grotto chair recalled running out of water during a survey trip; fortunately Will Summers had ten gallons to loan him some.
· Kneepads are crucial.
· It’s wise to contact people before you leave for the cave area. Cell phones don’t always work near cave entrances.
· Where are the car keys? Everyone should know.
· Most caves were formed by water. Passages do flood. Cold water causes hypothermia. From the ACA reports, a pull-down vertical cave trip in a wet cave led to an accident.
· Army surplus wool pants are better than jeans. Long-sleeve shirts and layers—synthetic instead of cotton. Nylon works okay and helps one officer slide through passages. No clothes will be good enough to wear outside again.
· No Tevas.
· What goes into your first aid kit? Sterile gauze and bandages, tape--medical tape, CPR mask, gloves, handwarmers, old tube of triple antibiotic, ibuprofen, allergy medication, pencil and paper, shears, and alcohol wipes.
· Communication equipment discussion: at pit drops, you may need whistle systems and walkie-talkies.
· Leave a cell phone outside the cave for rescuers. They can determine how long you’ve been missing from the last made call.
· Backup equipment that is carried: extra polypro shirt, 2 extra light sources, piece of webbing (at a minimum 30’), carabiner, emergency harness, waterproof lights in wet caves, heat source such as a candle or carbide, handwarmers, extra gloves, 1-3 garbage bags as wind and mud barriers, space blanket, knife, leatherman mini, and spare glasses
· Duct tape is stylish
· A compass isn’t useful without a map. Flagging tape can help you recognize places after you’ve gotten lost, but wooden dowels are not recommended.
· When you enter a room, turn around and look.where you just came in.
· Carry a pack that doesn’t rely on zippers.

After-the-meeting meeting held at Armadillo Grill

TriTrog Meeting Minutes 2/26/2008

2008-02-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

Before the meeting began, our museum contact person taught Dave Duguid and Ken Walsh how to use the new A/V system. It’s easy.

Dave began the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves and tell him what our expectations are. Dave Duguid (Chair) has been caving for 4 or 5 years now. Howard and Hayden Holgate disclosed nothing about themselves. Ken Walsh was briskly typing as the TriTrog Secretary, and Zoey Shepherd introduced herself as a person who works with scouts. Diana Gietl cited her expertise as cave photography, and then we moved on to the back row. John Hennert was dragged along by Bob Smith, as were Jordan Diem and Caulfield Patrick (who had caved in an Austrian glacial cave). They hoped that The Descent was not an indicator of how our cave trips went, and this launched a discussion about the comedy The Cave. Bob Smith had done some lava tubing near Portland, Oregon but hasn’t yet been in a limestone cave. Matthew Lubin and Mark Dautridge were both on the trip to New River Cave, and Matt Westlake (Vice Chair) and Melanie McCullough wandered in late.

We then discussed the Wiley Elementary School’s Family Science Night. Several members met before the meeting to plan for the event. This year’s event will be more interactive for the kids and parents with 4-5 stations, each one with pertinent cave information. Topics include conservation, cave formation, erosion, habitat, and formations. Zoey suggested that we could push chairs together to teach the kids to go over and under, but we also plan to have the crab trap and a squeezebox. Howard will bring a projector and last year’s slide show.

Dave announced that the officers plan to buy new headlamps for the grotto loaners and are looking for suggested models. Three-watt LEDs are sure to blind the surrounding cavers, and Howard described headlight etiquette to the new people. Zoey pointed out that Energizer lamps can be purchased at Walmart and Lowe’s for just $15. Jeff Howe has volunteered to donate some helmets to the grotto, but we don’t have further details.

Dave also announced that he plans to buy Cave Minerals of the World for the grotto library.

Grotto members who did not pay their dues should expect a reminder from Mark Little.

Mark, Matt, and Matthew described their trip to New River Cave. After the train finally went by, the trip got to be a lot of fun. They enjoyed the six-mile long cave with lots of interesting sections, including a 100-foot high waterfall. The group climbed 20 feet up the waterfall to reach the tightest squeeze of the day; unfortunately the big room it led to was filled with fog. The group belayed each other down the waterfall and also followed the stream way down where the formations were impressive. Diana pointed out that the last thing you want in a cave is an accident. The trip lasted just under eight hours with about two miles of caving. It’s always challenging to see everything. The group saw a few bats covered in dew and knew it was dusk when the bats were waking up. Mark also added that he could smell the outside as we approached the entrance and found it a good way to navigate.

Howard and Hayden described the trip to Paxton’s Cave after sharing Ken’s photos on the new screen. They described the cave as a huge maze and shared the map. This somehow led into a discussion about finding human remains in caves, and Diana mentioned that she had seen some ancient remains in Russell Cave in TAG.

Some formations will never come back because water flow stops, but others can grow back at a centimeter every hundred years. Howard shared that the group took the opportunity to see a lot of the maze through quite a few loops in the 7.2 miles of cave. To find our destination, we had to choose one side passage among thousands. There was little vandalism in the cave, and everyone was encouraged to treat caves like their grandmothers’ living rooms.

Upcoming Trips
March 14-16 NCRC Weekend orientation. Diana suggested that everybody should be in the stretcher at some point during the weekend.
March 21-23 Grand Caverns/Fountain Cave cleanup—Ken may join this with a trip down to the American Shakespeare Center.
March 29—Venture Crew trip to Breathing Cave
April 19—Sport trip for novices
June 5-8 VAR/SERA event in Bristol, TN
July 4-Mammoth Cave survey with CRF
Aug 11-15 NSS Convention—Dave Duguid

Dave will be pushing more caving trips this year of various types: conservation trip, vertical trip, photo trip, more sport trips. He encouraged members to keep trips on the calendar.

Zoey added that she plans to lead a Girl Scout trip to four different caves, including sleeping overnight in Lost Cave. She needs help at Appalachian Caverns on the Saturday, August 2 trip with the kids. She is also planning a second trip the weekend of October 3-5.

Dave announced that the Annual grotto trip will be chosen from 3-4 weekends that work best for members.

After the break, Ken introduced the group to TriTrog Hoopla. We learned that:
1) Zoo-ie Shepherd doesn’t recognize her own name.
2) Hayden likes ferocious cave turtles.
3) Gibbs ascenders go Clang-Clang-Clang.
4) Croll sounds like crawl.
5) The Eiffel Tower is built from French tinker toys.

TriTrog Officers Meeting Minutes 2/12/2008

2008-02-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

[Action items shown with the designee’s name in bold]

Dave Duguid, Matt Westlake, Mike Broome, and Mark Little were all in attendance at the Tandoor Indian Restaurant in RTP, NC.

We began the meeting with discussion about the web issues. Mike described the web site transition as involving two elements: updating the website (all content is in hand) and handling the web hosting. Mark suggested that GoDaddy may offer a discount and offer 4-5 email addresses. Mike described setting up alias addresses (e.g., chair@tritrogs.org) as a way to handle the web pages long term and suggested that the list serve may actually be run through such an address.

After the discussions, the officers authorized Mark to get paid for the domain name. Mike is authorized to make the transition for web hosting and will do it in March. Mike will aim for the end of March so that we’ll be sure to have the system altered before the rtpnet account runs out in May.

Later the officers discussed new ideas for the web site. Dave suggested that the Members Only section should add locally produced cave maps. Mike will look into integrating the mailing list with the blog so that notices of new postings are sent to members. Matt suggested Flickr for the photo gallery, but the upload time of the current photo gallery might be restrictive.

The officers also discussed more participation from past and present members. Those members who don’t show up for the next meetings will get a dues reminder from Mark. In terms of reaching back to older members, the officers have chosen to send invitational letters to those we can still reach. Mark will provide addresses, Dave the form letter, and Ken the personal notes.

In terms of officer meetings, everyone was happy with quarterly meetings after work, accompanied by dinner. Other club members are encouraged to attend. Dave will try to have an agenda beforehand and will poll officers for input to the meetings.

Mike will handle ordering two new (electric) lamps for the grotto supplies and an Ecrin Roc helmet.

The officers talked about the grotto library holdings and their lack of a lot of recent material. Mike expressed that the library storage bin is heavy. Dave asked the NSS about electronic media for the library and will ask again to better store the information. The officers agreed that Dave could purchase the copy of Cave Minerals of the World he was authorized to buy several years ago. Mike assured the officers that the list of the library materials would be going on the web with the updates. There was also a discussion about getting NSS county bulletins for nearby states and a cool book that Mark saw offered by the NSS.

Mark indicated that the outstanding money promised to conservancies as VAR/MAR door prizes but never claimed would remain on the books for one year.
Rosters need to stay more up to date for the active members, and Mark agreed to continue making updates.

Discussion of officially changing the officer descriptions in the Bylaws was tabled until the next officers meeting.

Ideas were passed around for upcoming meeting programs: Knots, the V-squeezebox, Ken’s team trivia twist, lessons in hypothermia, A/V programs from the NSS, and white nose fungus. Ken will handle the February program while Dave and Matt figure out the new A/V equipment. Ken shared the contact information at the Museum with Dave and Matt so that they can learn how to use the new equipment at the museum.

To prepare for the Wiley Elementary School Science Night, Ken will hold a dinner immediately before the next meeting to discuss. The officers approved reimbursing that group up to a set amount if they have any production costs for materials that can be reused at future outreach events.

A brief discussion was held, asking whether the grotto should assist with the production costs of cave maps. However, the cartography production discussion was tabled until a future date.

Some discussion was had about promoting more caving activities this year, especially getting people underground. Perhaps through more conservation trips, a grotto annual trip, quarterly photography trips, or other such activities.

The officers discussed outreach to the rock climbing community. Matt asked if trips had been advertised with the Climbing email group, but Mike responded that we had not tried this yet and should accompany it with an announcement of novice trips. The mailing list includes hundreds of people, so the trips may have to limit numbers. At a minimum, the TriTrogs should likely post a flyer at the local rock climbing gyms (“Helmet too shiny and clean?”).

Mark Dautridge and Matt Westlake had discussed caving one day and then climbing the next for some weekend trips. Mike added that caving weekends have been combined with hiking, mountain biking, and kayaking in the past.

Officers feel the need to push more grotto members to get involved and lead caving trips. They then engaged in a short discussion about how to make this happen. Matt suggested that we set up a system to allow people to sign up for trips instead of responding to the planner with emails, and Ken made a wise crack about putting the signup sheet outside the museum. Officers generally agreed that Evite is not the system to use, but some of its features might be worth emulating.

Dave stated that setting up a trip isn’t that hard and only entails picking a location, date, and overnight accommodations, as well as arranging landowner permission. He suggested that the grotto should have more sport trips going out. Mike has some novice friends that he wants to take caving, so he’ll set up a trip after April. He wants to navigate via the cave map.

The officers discussed how to approach members about leading trips. Making the trip you’re soliciting into a reality includes specificity about the type of trip (vertical, photography, etc.) and getting a tentative date set.

The conversation then turned to different types of cave trips. In terms of conservation/cleanup efforts, the trip to clean up Hancock Cave’s back entrance began the discussion. We might propose half a day cleanup followed by half a day caving on the property. Dave asked if there were any possible cleanups that might help the TriTrogs gain access to a closed cave, and Ken suggested Flat Ridge Cave. There was also interest in visiting a cave multiple times for cleanup trips, but no cave name was suggested.

Dave volunteered to organize a kid-friendly trip for parents and their children. Target ages would be under ten years old. Howard and his coworkers may be interested in getting some teen trips on the calendar (which may still involve some parental supervision).

The officers plan to hold the traditional TriTrog parties again this year (Pool Party, Halloween Party, and the Annual Holiday Party) but did not want to start having food and drink at the museum meetings. The feeling was that the After-the-Meeting Meeting is an important part of the club activity, and we should not take away from its time.

Grotto auctions aren’t necessarily good fundraisers, but they can be entertaining programs. However, there wasn’t much enthusiasm about having one this year unless meeting attendance increases. The officers expressed that they would rather see Charles McEachern at a meeting than his gear (for auction). The officers did not show interest in obtaining his vertical gear for use or profit. Officers agreed that they’d rather focus on outreach than fundraising this year.

The discussion then turned to awarding grotto members for active participation in the grotto. Mike mentioned that he was willing to provide homebrews for trip reports as he has done in the past, and the grotto could reimburse him. Dave and Ken also presented the notion of a point system with awards when the grotto members each reached a benchmark, perhaps something to celebrate 20 years of TriTrogs. Mark played off of this idea and suggested Appreciation Awards that could be given for the overall points winner, who led the most trips, etc. He suggested that an awards ceremony could be held (perhaps in March each year) to honor the previous year’s recipients. Ken compared this to some awards for Best Teacher, Best Photographer, etc. that the grotto has awarded in the distant past. The feeling was that it is healthy to acknowledge participation and encourage some competitive spirit, and possibly offer gift certificates as awards. Mike might ask Matt Jenkins about ways that scores could easily be tracked and posted online for the grotto membership. This awards process would best be handled by a committee separate from the officers, and Dave plans to try to establish an awards committee at a future meeting (March at the latest).

There was a short discussion about a grotto calendar and how that might fit in with a photo salon program, but no action items were raised.

The meeting closed shortly before 9 PM.

Annual Treasurer's Report

2008-01-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

Triangle Troglodytes Treasurer’s Report

21 January 2008

(Mark Little, Treasurer)

Item Amount ($)

Beginning Balance (January 31, 2007) 2170.13

Income

Membership Dues 312.00
Checking account interest 1.00

Total Income 313.00

Expenses

Newsletters 0.00
Programs and trips 0.00
P.O. Box Rental 40.00
RTPNet (Website / Mailing List) 60.00
Donations (WVCC,8-Rivers,SECC) 350.00
Mar/Var door prize (Donation, WVCC) 50.00

Total Expenses 500.00

Net Income -187.00

Ending Balance (January 21, 2008) 1983.13

Less Liabilities (Mar/Var door prizes) 150.00

Net Assets 1833.31

Minutes from the TriTrog General Meeting January 2008

2008-01-23T18:30:00.000-08:00

John Plyler presided over the meeting and apologized for his triple email reminding the listserve of the meeting.

The meeting began with Introductions from John Plyler, Mark Little, Ken Walsh, Matthew Lubin, Andrew Donadio, Randy Bernstein (Venture Crew 888), Michael Harrington, Aaron Bernstein, Matt Westlake, Dave Duguid, Melanie McCullough, and Jennifer Bonacci.

John reminded members to pay dues to Mark before the elections began.

Mark gave the Annual Treasurers Report and mentioned that the income came mostly from dues and the grotto had only minor expenses. We donated approximately $400 to cave conservancies, and Mark explained that cave conservancies serve to protect caves from development and keep them open to cavers.

Ken has to submit the Annual Report this month to the NSS. He thought that he’d need to submit more information about the outreach and conservation efforts, but the NSS no longer asks for that information.

John thanked Mark and Rhonda Little for hosting the holiday party this year.

If anyone is interested in developing a grotto patch, Ken can put them in touch with the person offering some good deals.

Ken mentioned that the 2005 Speleodigest will publish two maps and a cover photograph from the 2005 Troglodyte Tribune, as well as our logo.

Wiley Elementary School has invited the TriTrogs back again for their annual Science Night on March 13. Dave Duguid and Ken were tossing around ideas, and they may have a good place to rig a cable ladder. Steve Simmons indicated that he’d be willing to bring the squeezebox and/or the V-squeezebox if someone helps him. John Plyler suggested that prussik knots could teach the kids, but others thought that might be too much work. Andrew Donadio said that he’d be willing to come out to help, and John Plyler volunteered his big outdoor lights if we needed them.

When we moved to Trip Reports, Dave Duguid began by describing the small project of Rowland Springs Cave that he started a year and a half ago. The surveyed cave now exceeds a half mile. On this particular trip the first weekend in January, the cave had a lot of air movement, and the crawl below the bottom entrance was frozen. The stream was two feet deep and very cold. We did mop up survey. Mike climbed across with a belay that could have been a ten-foot drop. Ken sent Lisa into a narrow crack where she couldn’t quite fit. We ventured back out through the water, but Dave managed to keep his feet dry.

Sunday morning we went to Hancock Cave’s back entrance and surveyed into the cave. We ended up just fifteen feet from the known surveyed cave inside, but a mud plug blocked us. It was cold and rainy that day.

Randy asked where cave maps ends up, and long-time grotto members answered that they go to the NSS, the regional cave surveys, the US Geological Survey, and publications for cavers.

We next went into a discussion about what people should wear underground. Thoughts included helmet, three light sources, a pack, water, food, warm clothes, kneepads, and shoes with tread.

John then listed the upcoming trips:

February 2- Birmingham Grotto’s cleanup of Graves Cave

February 2- Horizontal sport trip for newer people in the grotto

February 12- Second Tuesday lunch

February 23 – Cave photography trip

Looking for a volunteer to coordinate a Spring/Summer Hancock Cave cleanup trip (we should invite Birmingham Grotto)

March 28-30 –Hillsborough Venture Crew 888 is looking for help leading 15-20 people caving

NSS Convention –Aug 11-15 Lake City, Florida 8.5 hours away.

Jun 5-8 SERA/VAR in Bristol, Tennessee

We took a short break while everyone introduced themselves and signed up for trips.

Elections went quickly, and the slate was accepted by acclimation:

Chair – Dave Duguid

Vice Chair – Matt Westlake

Secretary – Ken Walsh

Treasurer – Mark Little

Editor – Mike Broome

John concluded the meeting by asking people to recall things they carry underground that have been very useful on occasion. John described his flagging tape, Mark his biner and webbing, Ken his shoestring around his neck and the nylon webbing bag use to hold a boot together, Melanie her yoga mat to make kneepads for her suit, John his Zippo lighter that works after being underwater, and Matt recalled Bob Alderson’s rock hammer to make steps in the mud.

Minutes from November 27, 2007 TriTrogs General Meeting

2007-12-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

In the absence of Howard Holgate and John Plyler, Lisa Lorenzin volunteered to chair the meeting. She began with introductions, and the following persons were in attendance at the meeting: Zoey Shepherd, Mark Little, Diana Gietl, Dave Duguid, Christine ___, Brett ___, Matt Westlake, Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Pete Hertl, Ken Walsh, Gordon Bolt, Theo Bolt, and Uncle Brian.

Lisa pointed interested cavers to the trip calendar at the web site.

Mark Little announced that the Holiday Party would be held at his home on December 8. He and Howard will coordinate the food for the potluck supper that evening through the list server.

Lisa also mentioned the TriTrogs listserve as a good way to get information about upcoming activities; it has no archives and would be considered low traffic. Mark and Mike then discussed the future of the TriTrog web services. Because of the shutdown of the server for the photo gallery, we need more space than rtpnet will offer. Mark has registered the tritrog.org as a web domain that links directly to the web site, and Mike is investigating the migration of the web site, list serve, and photo gallery to a single new server that should cost about the same amount that the existing web site is offering.

The TriTrogs offered $200 in door prizes for cave charities at the recent VAR/MAR, but only $50 has been claimed so far.

The officers agreed to leave the wear-and-tear fees for borrowing equipment from the grotto at their current levels. The TriTrogs could use more equipment to borrow, so Howard is buying two new lights and a new headlamp. John Plyler withdrew his request that the grotto purchase a rope. The new web site will also advertise the equipment and the grotto library contents.

Howard Holgate is working to fill the slate of nominees for officers for next year.

Ken will share the NSS email about its new Conservation network across the listserve.

Ken mentioned the 15th International Congress of Speleology, to be held in Kerrville, Texas, is allowing grottoes to buy advertising space in the program.

In terms of Trip Reports, Gordon described his efforts during the final survey trip to Hancock Cave. He said that Ken tried to make every blowing lead into new cave. Ken and Gordon drew the extended profile while the another group of cavers managed to fall on their tailbones in a debacle trip. Gordon’s wife didn’t like the Toilet Bowls and left the cave shortly after she entered.

Cutting back a few weeks earlier, Mark Little, Melanie McCullough, and Ken went through the Funnel Tunnel for a survey trip. Ken has crawled it both forward and backward now, and Mark’s ass is getting bigger than it was when he first surveyed through the tunnel. Diana made some observations about the shrinking nylon fibers in cave suits.

Dave Duguid went into Atwells Tunnnel to dive the sump. It dropped 24 feet and pinched out into something small. This effort ended that task in Atwells Tunnel. Dave, Brian Williams, Tanya McLaughlin, and Dale Lofflin checked out some leads on the same property and found a 35 foot-long cave.

Dave also described a trip to Rowlands Spring Cave on Sunday he took with Brian Williams, Robbie Spiegel, and Ken Walsh. We finished off the low leads out of the big room. He still has one more pit to check out and some other leads.

Not many upcoming trips were announced for December, as per usual. There was a Grand Caverns project weekend on December 1, and Dave may not lead another Rowlands Spring Cave trip until 2008. Ken offered to lead a trip the weekend before New Years.

Lisa talked about Wide Mouth Cave and the possibility to explore some virgin cave there for small people.

After a short break, Mike Broome and Lisa Lorenzin shared pictures, videos and amusing anecdotes from their trip to rappel and ascend El Capitan (2650' drop) in Yosemite National Park in June as part of the Extreme Rappels 2007 expedition.

TriTrog Officer Meeting Conference Call Minutes 11/14/2007

2007-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

Participants: Howard Holgate, Mike Broome, Mark Little, John Plyler, and Ken Walsh

Jerry Reynolds of the museum is changing our meeting location to a third floor classroom this month only. We’ll need to post someone at the door. Mike will send out the meeting location change along with the notice.

Regarding running the photo gallery again, Mike discovered that we can do it with some new servers but not with RTPNet because they don’t offer enough space (we need 500 Mb). RTPNet has three different levels but never enough space (only up to 100 Mb). Mike found one place that uses Matt Jenkins’ gallery program company for $6/month with a two-year contract. We could have our own domain name with siteground.com. The price is good, and Mark said that we should register our domain name. Registration is on the order of $10/year. We should square all of that away. Our current registration with rtpnet.org goes through May, so we could have a link to the new site until then. The officers figured that the TriTrogs would be okay budgeting $100/year for web services.

Mark and Rhonda Little graciously volunteered to host the Holiday Party this year on December 8 beginning at 6 PM. It will include a potluck dinner, and the food is expected to be a highlight, as it has been in recent years.

Regarding the TriTrog donation to the MAR/VAR, Barry Horner was the only person who claimed his door prize so far. Therefore, to date the TriTrogs only paid out $50 to charity (WVCC) instead of the $200 budgeted.

The officers agreed to keep the same system for borrowing grotto equipment with a wear-and-tear fee. Helmet and lamp are each $3 for the weekend. Howard did order the new Princeton Teks for the grotto but kept them for himself (no grotto reimbursement). Because we only have 3 helmets and 2 working lights, the officers agreed to buy two new lights (Princeton Tek) and a new helmet to raise the available equipment count to 4.

John Plyler posited the possibility of the grotto owning a rope. He agreed to contact VPI, Gordon Birkheimer, and the NSS to find out if this could cause any complications.

The officers concluded that no change in dues would be necessary this January. The dues should remain the same, but the surplus should be spent more freely in the coming year (parties, outreach, etc.).

The officers concluded that the TriTrogs should be recruiting more heavily. We’d like to be a larger grotto but need to figure how to accomplish that. Howard proposed a committee to increase our exposure in the local community and said that we should run more trips, including more beginner trips. We should also add the fact that we have a library and equipment for loan to the web site.

Regarding Officers and elections, the idea of Board members didn’t work as well organizationally as it did in the past with an established Chair. Officers felt that the best plan would be to return to the more traditional roles. The duties of the officers didn’t need to change much, but the Treasurer is certainly the keeper of the membership list. The TriTrogs officially have an Editor as a position, but that job likely needs to change to a sys administrator. Should we make that a formal role? Should we think about web master as an officer’s role? The jobs of a sys administrator doesn’t necessarily have to be an officer’s role, but the officers acknowledged that the traditional newsletter with upcoming trips, announcements, and written trip reports probably won’t return based on the success of electronic media.

Howard would like to see a full slate of potential officers by the November meeting, and John concurred. Volunteers to fill the officer slots will help the grotto do more, more effectively. Some officers volunteered to serve roles next year and will be soliciting individuals to fill the roles in the upcoming year.

ACTION ITEMS:
1. Mike will note that the meeting room has changed when he sends out the description of the description of the program.
2. Change the web site and mailing list over to a new service. Register a domain name for the TriTrogs.
3. Howard will solicit non-chefs at the next meeting to find out who would like to bring paper products, utensils, sodas, and/or ice to the Holiday Party on December 8.
4. Mike will add the December 8 holiday party at Mark's house to the grotto Google calendar.
5. Howard and Mike will coordinate ordering two new lamps and a new helmet for the grotto supply.
6. John agreed to contact VPI, Gordon Birkheimer, and the NSS to find out if grotto rope ownership could cause any complications.
7. Howard will start a thread on the list serve before soliciting individuals to volunteer to serve in offices next year.

Minutes from TriTrog General Meeting 10/23/2007

2007-10-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Attendees - John Plyler (Vice Chair), Kathy Thompson, Matthew van Fossen, Samantha Keating, Pete Hertl, Dave Duguid, Mike Broome (Editor), Howard Holgate (Chair), Hayden Holgate, Ken Walsh (Secretary), and Will Summer

John Plyler called the meeting to order and initiated introductions of those present. He announced that we'd be holding the meeting after the meeting at Armadillo Grill.

Mike Broome announced that Matt Jenkins' great photo gallery site for the TriTrogs was not going to be available any longer because the server was gone. Mike had them all on CD and agreed to look into options for getting the photos on another site linked to the TriTrog web site.

Mike had also received an email from Duke's TIP program looking for caves to lead teenagers to in the NC mountains; he pointed them to the Flittermice Grotto for more information about the appropriate cave to visit in that area.

We scheduled a vertical practice for 10/25/2007 at 7 PM at John's house in Raleigh (Will and Ken joined John for the practice).

Pete Hertl shared his trip report about his VAR/MAR trip. After prerigging the day before, he ran a five-hour trip for seven people. They didn't have to rush through the cave and went to the back where he saw more bats than he's seen in the last few years combined. He also described large salamanders at the bottom of the drop and a climb on a static rope that almost imitated a dynamic's spring.

Ken talked about his VAR/MAR trip that no one wanted to join him on (survey in Middle of Nowhere Cave), so he signed up instead for the through trip traveling to Alpena Cave. Barry Horner had surveyed, modified, and explored the new sections of the cave, so he led an excellent tour for six along and in the stream that is Alpena Cave. Ken mentioned that the delay in putting out signup sheets until 10 PM allowed people to arrange their own trips before the signups went out, but Pete thought that the mad rush at 10 PM was a bit extreme.

Mike and Pete also described their rappel at New River Gorge that went smoothly with no incidents.

The featured video was The History of Vertical Caving from the NSS Library.

Minutes from TriTrog General Meeting 9/25/2007

2007-09-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

Attendees – Mike Broome, Hayden Holgate, Howard Holgate, John Plyler, Ken Walsh, Matt Jenkins, Diana Gietl, Dave Duguid, Vincent Santagata, Patrick Kraft, Mark Little, Matt Meyer

After introductions, Howard jumped right into the Trip Reports part of the meeting. John Plyler described the contests at Old Timers Reunion. John won or placed in four contests (cable ladder, obstacle course, and 2 vertical competitions). Pete Hertl came in second on the 30-m climb. Anne Kehs placed in two of the beer chugging contests.

Hayden and Howard Holgate described their trip to Hancock Cave and told everyone how dry the cave was. The entrance slope was just sticky at the bottom with no pools. The new people (Heather and Scott) caved just fine.

Patrick Kraft described his survey trip to Perkins Cave. Robbie, Jason, and Patrick went surveying, but by the time they reached the lead two miles back, Patrick needed a nap while they surveyed. Perkins is located above the North Fork of the Clinch River.

Diana Gietl described Big Run Cave as a nice little cave for an OTR Friday survey trip. She shared accounts of lots of slave failure and mentioned that the batteries were all likely bad. Those flashes have been sent to California for further testing.

On Saturday Diana and Ken Walsh went with Bill Storage and Doug Medville to the Elk River area. Fortune Radish Cave was once again blocked with sediment. We went to Falling Springs Cave. Bill described the ceilings as 20 feet high when they surveyed the cave, but we were crawling because logging followed by a flood filled the cave. Near the back Bill said “Picture this: You’re in this large room and then there’s a pit here.” Now we stood near the ceiling with not so much as a depression. Diana described a beautiful entrance sinkhole with a waterfall that looked as though it dropped over tufa. However, the back entrance required us to dig our way out. Although Bill and Diana could’ve escaped in minutes, my size would’ve required hours for an extrication.

Diana also spoke about her trip to Nelson Cave on OTR Sunday. They photographed this fracture cave with great success that day.

John Plyler also talked about the vertical practice at Whitesides with 30 other people. Five ropes were rigged and looked as though they were hooked to the sky. Thick clouds made it easy climbing for those with acrophobia. Mike Broome had trouble with his access line and started to invert but managed to forget about hanging 650 feet in the air. The second day afforded plenty of sun and spectacular views.

Dave Duguid described his trip to Grand Caverns with his two older boys. He described the damage to the cave lighting systems by a recent lightning strike. It blew out most of the lights inside and melted the transformers. He arrived late Saturday while the others were ridgewalking so was unable to cave that day. Sunday Scott Davis took them into Fountain and Madison Caves. Heading back home, they stopped at Crozet’s Tunnel.

In terms of business, Mark Little described the TriTrog donation of door prizes for the VAR/MAR (four $50 donations to a conservancy/cave foundation of the user’s choice). Mark suggested that we might be able to find four different prizes, but no one presented any suggestions that gained strong support.

Ken requested that TriTrogs sign up for volunteer activities at the VAR/MAR.

Dave Duguid is renovating his house and was looking for volunteers to take over housing the library. Mike Broome volunteered.

<>In terms of Upcoming Trips, John Plyler posted announcements for TAG Fall Cave In, the VAR/MAR (Howard, Hayden, John, Mark, and Ken all indicated their plans to attend), Bridge Day, Hancock Cave survey this weekend, and Rowland Springs Cave with Dave Duguid on October 27.

After a short break, Ken Walsh shared a short presentation and quiz about identifying Eastern Cave Bats. Vincent, Howard, Mike, Mark, Matt, Matt, and Diana were all rewarded with cookies and a bat-danna.

Minutes from the TriTrogs General Meeting 7/24/2007

2007-07-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

With Howard Holgate presiding, the meeting began with a listing of upcoming trips:

Anyone interested might still be able to make the last three days of the NSS Convention in Indiana if they hurry.
Ken is planning a novice trip to Buckeye Creek Cave July 28.
Keith and Lea Turner have invited the TriTrogs to join them for Wormfest with the Kentucky cavers, staying at the WVACS field station near Renick. It will be held August 17-19.
OTR is coming up Labor Day weekend (Aug 30-Sept 3). Details at www.otr.org.
The Fall TAG Cave-In will be held Oct 4-7.
October 12-14 marks the dates for the Fall Joint VAR/MAR cosponsored by the Philly Grotto and the Triangle Troglodytes. Several hundred cavers are expected to attend, and the TriTrogs are responsible for making sure that anyone wanting to cave Saturday can find a trip. Lisa Lorenzin is coordinating trip leaders and the caves, so contact her now to ensure you can be paired with the cave trip you want to lead.

New faces at the meeting included Lee Marchman whose last wild cave trip was about 25 years ago and Ray Solo, a cave diver from Durham. Old faces at the meeting included Howard Holgate, Dave Duguid, Vincent Santagata, Matt Jenkins, Hayden Holgate, Mike Broome, Hilarie Nickerson, Ken Walsh, John Plyler, Linda Waters-Lindquist, Diana Gietl, Mark Little, Melanie McCullough, and Brian Bolt.

Trip Reports began with Ken’s description of caving with the girl scouts during their summer caving camp. He met them during their wild tour of Appalachian Caverns, taught them a little bit about sketching cave maps in Renfro Cave, and showed them how to clean graffiti in Worley’s Cave.

Dave Duguid and Diana Gietl described their photography and exploration of Rowland Springs Cave. Diana shared her preliminary photographs and described that she’d like to take a fall trip there to capture the natural light from the entrance. Dave Duguid described the survey down a pit into a stream passage. When the stream ended, the team headed up a slope into a fair-sized trunk passage where they stopped the survey and exploration. Good thing we surveyed down the pit on the way in.

Mike Broome discussed his non-caving trip to El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He, Lisa Lorenzin, and Peter Hertl rappelled and climbed the half-mile cliff in June. Mike talked about standing on the edge and the speed bumps along the rope splices. Pete Hertl climbed the rope in 67 minutes 3 seconds. Mike offered these teasers and promised a presentation about the trip in September.

Linda Waters-Lindquist offered to re-solder Ken’s carbide lamp.

Ken added an upcoming trip before the break. On August 11, he’ll lead a survey trip to Hancock Cave. Dave Duguid will lead a survey trip to the nearby Rowland Springs Cave on August 12.

After the break Dave Duguid described cave diving, the equipment involved, and the safety measures he takes. He presented the information in a way that made us actually believe that sane people may choose to cave dive.

TriTrog Officers Conference Call (5/9/2007)

2007-05-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Participants: Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Ken Walsh, Howard Holgate, and John Plyler

The agenda was set to discuss programs, VAR, and money allocated but not spent last year.

Regarding the May meeting, John discussed the plans for the vertical training at his house. He will send out an email the Friday before telling people when and where to come and what to bring. He will put a notice with directions to his place on the museum after 5 PM. He plans to include Knots stations (double figure 8, bowline, and prussiks), climbing along the rope on a pulley, switchovers to stationary rope with rappel, and call signals for belay. He plans to make it available from 5 PM until 12 midnight. People will be encouraged to bring what they want to cook, and the officers agreed that the grotto can fund the cookout.

Regarding the Fall VAR/MAR event, Lisa is on the mailing list and following the Port-a-Potty discussions. The responsibility of the TriTrogs is the guided trips. Lisa is forming a list of cave trips, but the grotto members didn’t volunteer to help out. Lisa will continue to ask people to volunteer. Howard and Hayden will lead a trip to Mystic Cave and get in touch with the landowner in advance. If Philly Grotto wants to make trip signups available to preregistrants, Lisa will provide the lists to them. Ken told Lisa to contact Jim McConkey or Carol Tiderman to get the list of contacts at the I/Os when she asked. John Plyler volunteered to lead a vertical trip to Cass Cave but only if he can find a 200-foot rope. Ken agreed to lead a short survey trip to Middle of Nowhere Cave. Lisa will make sure that the signup list will likely go up with the setup. Regarding the cave guidebook, Lisa is getting Philly Grotto the descriptions but not the directions to the caves.

Ken brought up the topic of the things that the TriTrogs allocated funds for last year but never spent. The officers unanimously agreed to spend the following after a brief discussion: $150 for the Eight Rivers Safe Development Inc. (www.8riverssafedevelopment.com/main/index.php), $100 for the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, $100 for the West Virginia Cave Conservancy, affiliate membership up to $50 for the NCSU Outing Club, two new Apex LED headlamps (4 AAs and not as water resistant as Duos) for up to $140, and around $70 for the Cave Minerals of the World book Dave Duguid requested for the library.

Mike was concerned that the library usage wasn’t substantial, and he agreed to get the library list up on the web site. Dave Duguid should get the book, Howard will handle the lamps, and Mark Little can handle the charities and NCSU (check with Matt Jenkins for the NCSU contact person). Mark may donate some headlamps, but we still could use at least one new bright light. Mike reported that the helmets are still serviceable.

We also discussed the program for the June meeting. We have the Grand Caverns video as a backup and discussed the possibilities that were discussed in last year’s officer meetings. Hopefully Howard can talk Dave Duguid into giving a cave diving presentation in June.

TriTrog General Meeting Minutes (4/24/2007)

2007-05-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Introductions of the fifteen attendees went quickly and smoothly once we determined that Howard was unlikely to show up.

Regarding the old business of redefining the officer’s role, the officers reported that it was a work in progress begun on email thread with a knot tied in the end. Howard had proposed a conference call defining officer’s roles and conducting other business. He apparently skipped the meeting for a cold.

It was suggested that the annual TriTrog trip should be held in late July or early August.

Next month the meeting will be held at John Plyler’s house instead of at the museum. Folks will learn to tie some knots (including a double figure 8), climb rope, switch over, belay, and cook out on a grill. Look for an announcement from him with times and directions.

Diana Gietl and Dave Duguid went caving with Tanya McLaughlin to Rowland Springs Cave. Dave wanted to confirm the upper connection, and they found a big room in the cave. They surveyed a lot of side passages. After the mapping, Diana would like to go back for a photo trip in this dolomite cave. There was a 48’ drop, and the rope was just long enough. Tanya had no vertical gear with her, so Dave and Tanya left Diana at the bottom while they left the cave and went around the other way. They let Diana rig the cable ladder and drop it down to them from the middle level. Cave access is very convenient, and there are probably at least two more survey trips to go.

Upcoming Trips
Spring VAR (April 27-29)
Memorial Day trip likely organized by Ken
[SERA Summer Cave Carnival (May 31-June 3)]
[Weeklong NCRC training in Salem, VA (June 16-23)]
July 14-15-Girl Scout camp—Blountville, TN area. Saturday on a wild trip into Renfrew Cave. Graffiti cleanup. Slides of bats Saturday night. Spend the night in Lost Sea Cave. Ten girls signed up.
Indiana Convention—Diana described the convention experience in detail and how it’s about learning. John mentioned the vertical climbing contest.

As the program, John Plyler shared his slides from the high and low points in Mexico. He described the accommodations and costs in a handout and shared his driving routes. Between his three-LED light and the GPS, John found his way solo up to the glacier at 2 AM to get an early start before the faster hikers. Other groups said that it was too icy, too soft, or too cloudy as reasons why they skipped climbing to the peak. John found that the clouds on the glacier helped avoid sunburn. He also shared photos of the concrete gardens that were obviously built by someone on drugs, all the way down to the concrete bamboo. At Golondrinas Pit, the locals brought you morning coffee for a fee. It only cost five dollars to camp and drop Golondrinas. One of the amazing sights were the chimney swallows and parrots.

General Meeting Minutes (3/27/2007)

2007-03-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Howard Holgate presided over the meeting. Attendees included Mike Broome, Lisa Lorenzin, Matt Westlake, Matt Jenkins, Gordon Bolt, Melanie McCullough, Mark Little, Hillary Nickerson, Chris Richter, Dave Duguid, Dawson Duguid, Ken Walsh, John Plyler, and Hayden Holgate. To begin, Howard announced that tonight's program would be Caves of the World from the Planet Earth series, to be aired in April in the USA. Mark passed around a contact information sheet so that people could update outdated information.

Matt Jenkins described the cave trip that didn't go. First Douthat Campground was flooded, then the cabins weren't available, then they found a campground buried in three inches of snow. Linda Waters has threatened to reschedule her trip with the NCSU Outing Club, so everyone should beware of that weekend.

Matt J. and Gordon then described their trip to Hancock Cave. The group entered the cave, headed to the Octopus Room, and turned left to head to the Funnel Tunnel. There was little to no air space in the Funnel Tunnel, and Bob Alderson began digging out the stream while the teams relaid their plans. Ken had left the survey notes for that side of the cave back at Tanya's house, so the leads were less obvious.

Fortunately Matt, Gordon, and Bob found that ladder acrobatics weren't necessary to cross Not-in-the-Face Pit. They covered just sixty feet of survey in seven hours of a passage that Gordon thought they were smart to mark as just a lead eight years ago. The drop was miserable and not quite vertical. It led to a very muddy passage with dripping water.

The topic then turned to crossing You-Don't-Know-Jack Pit in Hancock Cave, and Matt and Gordon described the need to pound rebar stakes into the mud for the crossing. Matt and Mark reminisced about crossing the pit with an ice axe and a "for-comfort-only" belay.

Dave Duguid and Ken Walsh then described their descent down Hickory Dickory Pit in Hancock Cave as an annoying set of lips, and they descended about ten feet too far. Dave then stated that the Whine Cellar is an aptly named pit. He traveled up and down it until convinced himself that the crack at the bottom was the way to go. He slipped out of his vertical gear and descended the last ten feet in a ten-inch wide hole. He found that it connected to Linda Waters' fist lead.

Dave Duguid also talked about the survey trip to Rowland's Spring Cave. He, Tanya McLaughlin, and Ken Walsh surveyed the grand large entrance at the top of the cave. He mentioned that there were still a couple of leads left to survey, and it should take at least one or two more survey trips. When Lisa asked, he mentioned that the tight lead at the back is still there to be surveyed, but the low area at the top is surveyed.

Howard mentioned the article in Sunday's News and Observer and the Science Night presentation at Wiley Elementary School.

We then moved to introductions. The new folks have caving experience, Chris Richter from his middle school days and Hillary Nickerson recently in a lava tube at Mount Lassen. Dawson Duguid described what he saw in the caves as well.

Next month John Plyler will present slides from Mexico. After the break, we watched a well done film that exposes us to many cave creatures around the world that most of us have never seen.

Genl Meeting Minutes (2/27/2007)

2007-03-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

(minutes recorded by Mike Broome and transcribed by Ken Walsh)

Sixteen TriTrogs attended the February meeting, welcoming new member Erin Amadon from Hanging Rock. She joins us from NNJG.

Mike Broome mentioned the updated web site. Many are impressed, but others lamented losing the bouncing bats. Mike will look into the possibility of a cookie that will allow users to turn on/off the bats.

In her final act as Treasurer, Lisa Lorenzin shared the Annual Treasurers Report. It took almost four hours to compile, partially spent finding the bank statements. The TriTrogs Treasury holds a balance of $2169.97 currently.

Lisa also shared details about the Fall VAR/MAR that the TriTrogs are co-sponsoring with Philly Grotto. The celebration of Philly Grotto's 60th anniversary will be held at the TRA site, and the TriTrogs are responsible for finding trip leaders. Philly Grotto requested that the TriTrogs man a security gate, but no one at the meeting felt that the TriTrogs could pull this off (and didn't know if a security gate was necessary). Lisa still needs to discuss whether the TriTrogs might receive a cut of the proceeds, but we would likely just earmark it for a charity.

Howard discussed the Wiley Elementary School's Science Night and the fact that he, Diana, and Ken will be manning a cave station there. He discussed the planned demonstration for March 15.

Some survey notes from Worley's Cave in Rich Valley, Virginia were returned to Ken last month, and this should allow continued exploration and mapping of this cave. Anyone interested in leading the novice cartography effort should contact Ken.

There was a prolonged discussion about the traditional TriTrog format of meetings and the executive board's role. We discussed the NSS requirements, low meeting turnout, the possibility of alternate social occasions, how to inform people about alternate meeting places, why it's good to have officers handle business, and our relationship with the museum. The consensus of members present at the meeting was that monthly meetings should be continued with the existing format and officers should start to define the executive committee roles differently in the electronic age. This will be handled by an interested group at a future date.

After a short break to pay dues, we discussed upcoming trips:

Aqua Cave with Matt Jenkins on Mar. 17
Rowland Springs Cave and Hancock Cave on Mar. 10 with Dave Duguid
Spring VAR in Durbin, WV on April 27-29
Girl Scout trip on July 15
Fall VAR/MAR on Oct. 12-14
Grand Caverns survey on Mar. 3
Easter Restoration weekend at Grand Caverns April 7-8

Cave trip reports were then shared:

Howard Holgate described his trip to Mystic, New Trout and Hamilton Caves with Ken, Hayden, Rick, Ericka, and Steve.
Ken put off his discussion of Australian caves to the program.
Pete Hertl and Mike Broome discussed trips to Organ and Grapevine Caves with Bob Handley.

Officer elections were held with the following slate winning by acclamation: Mark Little (Treasurer), John Plyler, Mike Broome (Editor), Howard Holgate, and Ken Walsh (Secretary).

Ken shared a program called Summer Caving in January, with cave slides from his trip to southeastern Australia and Tasmania.