Introductions/Attendees:
Martin G., Mark D., Pete H., Dianna G., Jacob J., Carlin K.,
Ken W., Rob the floating head (aka
Space Lord), Howard H. came too!
Old business:
We discussed the minutes from the officer’s meeting
In response to the officers deciding that the membership
list be removed from the website some people would like hard copies of it or
perhaps PDF copies of it. Decided
we would talk to Mark Little about how to best go about disseminating member
info
Martin finally received his awards from the X-mas party, two
thumbs off award for his uncanny ability to slice his fingers while doing
seemingly harmless tasks and also the Youth Group Leader Award (for his
demonstration of the delicate and polite use of very important words they’ve probably
never heard before!)
New Business:
Discussed giving the instruments and helmet to Tanya
Dianna brought some old stuff caving publications for us
young folk to fight over
Trip Reports:
Higgenbothms # 4 with Martin, Ken, Jacob and Erika
They got pulled over in the hotel parking lot for making an
unsignaled turn, but escaped the wrath of the law despite a lack of proof of
registration and insurance
Jacob says it was a very pretty cave, cool formations, set
up 7 or 8 good shots
Jacob was excited for the opportunity to take his car off-roading
Ken posted pics on the web and photoshopped them a little
Carlin discussing his trip this past weekend to Smith County
Carlin, Jacob, Dave D., Dawson, and James Armstrong (new
guy)
Originally Carlin and Jacob were going to go
ridgewalking/exploring Wythe county trying to find new stuff, but Thursday
night Dave D. hopped on the trip, decided to switch to Buchanan Salt
Peter. Landowner was already at
the cave, left Carlins at 6 am Saturday, started at marble cave then to Buch.
Salt Peter. Very spectacular,
large passages, one little climb and one little crawl. (WHY DO WE GO TO COLDSINK !?!?!) Scouted
some other stuff after the cave, hung out with Tanya in the evening, headed
back Sunday
Rob went to SERA and Cumberland caverns, it was a commercial
cave with lots of passage for more exploration (38 miles? Not sure if that’s
the right number). He met a guy who was on storm stories for being in a
flooding cave who he was trapped and had to get rescued, he thought it was cool
to talk to him. He went with Lee Olson from South Carolina. Used a figure 8 for some drops it was
fun.
Ava explored some old aqueducts underneath New York
City. That was very cool.
Diana brought up using dowsing sticks to find things (like
caves/holes/water etc.). Ava was
very skeptical but Ken thought it was extremely funny and entertaining to annoy
Ava by continually bringing up the topic.
For more info on the lack of scientific evidence supporting dowsing see
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing
Upcoming trips:
March 8-10 = orientation to cave rescue
March 22-24th = Surveying in Smyth County –
possibly Doanes?
March 29-31 = Easter – Grand Caverns restoration weekend
May 17-19 = spring VAR
Rob may try to get a new castle murder hole on Easter
weekend—keep bothering him so he actually does it!
Ken started surveying New River Cave back in the 90s, but now
will have the opportunity to finish it up. Map has been drafted, Ken has been asked to lead trips back
in there to clean up and finish up survey, resurvey a little bit. Going to try to get trips up there the
1st and 3rd weekends of the months. Hopefully the first trip will be in April? He’ll
definitely need people to help out.
Break:
Program:
Carlin gave a presentation on things he doesn’t know and
isn’t allowed to share about his experiences in the area where there are no
caves to speak of. It was called
Caving in Arizona.
Then the group headed to Armadillo Grill for a final
farewell to Jacob. We’ll miss him
a ton!
