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.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
October 2011 TriTrogs General meeting
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.
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.
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