TriTrogs Officer Meeting-Feb 2013

02-04-2013

TriTrogs Officer Meeting Agenda

Carlin’s Apartment

Meeting started at 7:05 p.m.

Mark D, Mark L., Carlin K., Mike B. and Ava P. in attendance

Agenda:

1) What we want covered in general meetings/the generic agenda. It has
been suggested we start our meetings with the program rather than end with it.


Carlin likes the idea—better time management, will help keep the other stuff from dragging on

Mike would like things to start on time

Mark D. suggests sending agenda out ahead of time to encourage timeliness

Ava- would newcomers be more interested if we have a program first? Maybe a set time limit on programs?

Mark L. – maybe newcomers would not be enticed by presentations first, would rather interact with grotto members more, important to do introductions with new people

Set a time limit on trip reports?  We will do a trip report survey initially to establish appropriate time limit for each meeting.

It was decided that we would tentatively try a new order of operations as follows (with a 30 min suggested limit on programs):

Introductions from 7:30 to 7:40, then program, then everything else

2) Program ideas for 2013 -- Need 10 total, 30 minute max?

Tentative ideas for the year (not chronological):

Carlin on Arizona

Carlin on Cold Sink

Mike and Lisa on Mexico

Peter on Caravan Etiquette (we think this is a joke but not sure)

Ken on Cartography?

Cave Geology? – Ava will email geology professor, or if anyone else has connections let one of the officers know

Danny on first aid? Mark D. will ask him. 

Mark has a NOVA film on caves, or maybe film from NSS library

Mark (interest in Fungus presentation?)

Outside person on something cave related via skype? Possibly Will Orndorff?

3) Grotto trip date and destination


Carlin suggests June/July for grotto trip.  For the annual grotto trip officers decided on the weekend of July 13^-14.  For now we’re planning on Union Cave (will ask Ken about getting access).  If Union doesn’t work out then possibly Bone-Norman.  Camping options include Dave D.’s place in WV or other yet-to-be-determined campgrounds outside of Lewisburg.

5) Location and date preferences for a cleanup trip


Based on dates for other events/trips October 19/20^th seems like it will work

We will talk to Tanya about ideas, would like to keep it in Smyth County

4) Update from the loaner gear and library custodian (any needs
expressed)

From Mike: The new Princeton Tec headlamps have been loaned out and taken on a few trips, and so far them seem to be working out pretty well.  We might want to get one more so we have the same number of loaner headlamps as helmets (4). Mike will order another one. (this has now been taken care of)

6) PO box -- should we eliminate it?            

It was agreed on that we do not need a PO box.

Mark L. will take care of getting rid of the PO box and have stuff temporarily forwarded to his address

Mike will remove the PO box info from the website

10) Donations to charities this year

Officers decided that the annual donation to the museum will be $100

12) How should we use our grotto funds?

From Mark L: We have suggestions for charitable contributions every year. But I             would like more discussion of how we can use our dues income in the service of          members, and in ways that will promote more caving and more participation in             the grotto.

Other officers agree, use grotto money for caving(ie. Grotto trip!)/purchasing group gear (replacement canopy, lights, etc.) to facilitate more caving!

7) Vertical training program?

Things that would be included:

A monthly grotto meeting dedicated to intro to vertical techniques to spur interest in getting people vertically active, this would be followed by several outside meetings to get familiar with on-rope experience.  We would like to do this once the weather gets a little bit better (possibly have the program at the April meeting? We will talk to Pete about setting up at his place)

Some topics would include:

Knotwork with gloves/without gloves?

NSS vertical skills checklist?

8) Plans for the NSS Convention
         

Get a canopy before convention- Ken found a good one that will actually fit in cars without much hassle. Ken can you go ahead and order it?  I guess I should send you an email.

Officers planning to attend:

Carlin is going

Mark D. is going

Others are not sure

9) Plans for and status of the web site


Notes from Mike B.(webmaster):

1) One thing I'd like to do is to add in more social media.  Add a Twitter

account.  Use the various media channels - web site, FB, Google+,

Twitter - to announce meetings with more lead time.  For that to be

effective, we'd need to know what the presentation topics are at least a

couple weeks or a month in advance.  But I think this would help keep

people reminded and interested in coming to the meetings.

Mike is going to take a stab at the social media aspect of advertising our grotto, maybe Rob would be interested in helping since he’s into facebook and could help remotely?

2) Membership list on the website? Do we want this? Is it too much to keep up with? Right now are names and numbers from 2009.

Officers agreed that we should remove the list from the website in an effort to keep the site up to date

3) Get constitution by-laws updated on the website, we’re not sure if they actually got changed.

Mike has latest ones, he will send them out and we can agree on them.  Mark (not sure which one) suggested having a copy of the membership form on the website and having it fill-inable online.  Mike will look into this.

4) Maybe remove the flaming pumpkin from the website blog?

We think it scares people.  Officers agreed to remove it, Mike will take care of the flaming pumpkin removal

11) From Mark L. addressing membership:

Is there anything more we can do to attract new people to visit our meetings or come on a caving trip with us? Are there things we could do to encourage people who
have visited our meetings or who have tried a caving trip to take the next step and join the grotto?
How do we do this? Make beginner trips and hope they come? Or find beginners and play around with them. 

Officers will try some new outside advertisement-- Ava will contact The Rock Club at NC State and put up flyers up at climbing gym at UNC . Tell your friends how cool we are!

12) Other business????

Someone should build a squeeze box, any volunteers?

TriTrogs January 2013 General Meeting

The Month the Mayans Never Saw Coming

Attendance:  One Dozen Cavers:  Jacob, Ava, Mike Broome, Lisa L,  Nicholas H, Tim Vaughn, Matthew Weiss, Mark D, Peter H, Mark L,  Ben , Carlin

 

Matthew told his human squirrel story of tearing tendon from bone in his shoulder, which sadly will have him out of caving for a while and wearing a cumbersome brace/sling.   But he still operates a mean slide one armed slide show.  

  

Old Business:

Award presented to Mike B since he missed the holiday party, and we reported on the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement award we made to Tanya at her house on the last Cold Sink trip.  

Payment of dues to Mark L by many.

Canopy looks nice in the photos, to be decided on soon

Holiday party was fun

  

New Business:
Election of Officers for 2013!
Minutes of discussion and much campaigning costing way less than $2B resulted in the following slate being duly elected:

Officers for 2013 Triangle Troglodytes are  (drum roll . . . )

• Chair:  Carlin Kartchner
• Vice Chair:  Mark Daughtridge
• Secretary:  Ava Pope
• Treasurer: Mark Little
• Web Master: Mike Broome

 (Or was that Ava Secretary elected as Pope?)

 

Trip Reports:

Carlin and his brother visited an AZ cave, well hidden under brush, over Christmas break.  Showed a few pictures 

Rowland's vertical pictures from November shown by Carlin

 

Matthew showed cool pictures from Worley's TN - Beautiful pictures w cool camera gear.  Including rim stone /Flowstone area.  Discussed photography techniques

Also pictures from Smokehole, cool pics with cool lighting

Demoed new light he built over Christmas  2.5 hours very bright

 

Carlin described the recent Cold Sink survey trip- 5100 ft total, still a shade under 1 mile (5280 ft)! 4 teams on last trip with 14 cavers total, one more trip to cleanup , one crawl dig that is unlikely to go.  Sadly would need major digging or smaller feet to stretch it to a full mile.  

 

Ava talked about two small caves at bottom of Grand Canyon, an exact Christmas tree formation which later was found listed on the map as the Christmas Tree cave.  The trip was at New Years but it's one stone tree that's up year round.

 

Little cave at Schoolhouse Rocks, goes 2 directions, Dave Duguid and "the Virginia Lisa" did quick survey, lying in 4 inches of water. Found monorail worm saw a mouse. 

 

Carlin back to Memorial Day Cave 3 day camp trip, need vertical surveyors.  It's a vertical jungle gym.  Decorated well, protected some formations w plastic

Did some survey in breakdown, there are 70 to 89 ft ceiling in areas under the camp room.  More leads and pits remain.  Getting to camp takes 3 hours or so.  It's a 5 hr drive in WV

 

Mike B showed a few short videos from the Mexico trip.  Mike plans to do a full and more formal program on the trip at a later meeting.  Very cool rappelling video including dropping a hitchhiking bit of vegetation and racing it to the bottom.

Lisa, Peter and Mike went with VBATS group 14 total.  Rob H was there on a separate trip w VPI

Most drove, Mike and Lisa flew.  50 hour drive!

5 days of caving,rental car antenna got stolen.  1st car had no engine so traded it.

Rain 3 of 4 days, very slick in cave. 200' to 1150' pits. 4400 ft total over 4 vertical days

Golindrinas, near Aquismon town

All limestone

One rig was on biting ants nest! One pit is 7 acres wide at bottom!

 

 

Due to elections and the many excellent trip reports since our last (non party) meeting in November we did not have a formal Program this meeting.   

We also forgot to talk about upcoming trips, so please see the calendar on the website for that info.

 

Adjourned at 9:06 to a local watering and tacoing establishment. 

Triangle Troglodytes November 2012 General Meeting

Nov 27, 2012
Attendees :  Ken, Carlin, Ava, Leslie S, Nick, Jacob, Peter, Scott Rucci, Rob Harris (in the form of millions of pixels), Steve and Grant M., and Mark D your mostly harmless grotto Secretary
  12 Triangle cavers total plus Dr. Lee Stocks for our virtual program.

Leslie presented a card to Carlin in thanks for his talk to the Explorers of Venture Post 505

Program
Still full from abundant Thanksgiving feasts we inverted our normal order and began with the progam.   
 Dr Lee Stocks spoke on urbanization impacts on caves.  
Since it works so well for Rob we had Dr. Stocks join us via Video Conference from his home in Mansfield, PA, though on the big screen we found that audio was best when we didn't press for actual video of the good doctor.  Soon our entire meeting will exist solely within the Matrix. 

1993 photo to start of Cow Dung Pit before airport expanded and changed creek route. Effects of sediment, pollution , etc,
Greenbrier county map showing creeks etc resurgence at Davis spring 15 mi south
Worked with WVACS to study urban and residential development
Water quality and quantity studied on surface and sub. Bio diversity changed underground. Evidence of runoff, leaky septic systems, agriculture
Greenbrier river- most algae affected in WV.
20 miles of cave Cove Creek to Scott entrance. Put in culvert to stop entrance repeatedly reclosing.
Site survey, bio assessment etc
Sink holes full of trash etc. 
Technical entrance at cove creek and 60 ft waterfall in cave so did not include inaccessible spots but went downstream from them.
Pictures of land slides, erosion, new sink holes and swamps formed
4 categories of streams for supporting life. Cover, sediment, etc play into score. Established baseline and study will continue for several more years
Some seasonal variation too.
Shows signs of becoming less habitable and EPA standards show it should be scrutinized.
Study chemistry of water nitrates, oxygen, some exceeding nitrates standards, 2x appropriate level. Less nitrates in cave, but still too high. Also concerns for drinking.  turbidities.
Evidenced leaky septic and agriculture E. coli unacceptable for swimming or drinking
Quantify levels of disturbance for karst from various activities such as house groundbreaking
No coal mining in the county.
Impervious surfaces increased runoff. Karst disturbance Index.
Conservation efforts impact
Score of .62 moderately disturbed
Geospatial Aerial and sattelitte photos
Disturbed highly erodible soils. Urban fill too.  Sediment.
100 MHz antenna to find structural fractures etc. does not penetrate as far as cave that is known just below the sink. ~60 ft penetration
Worse water and less of it. Alkaline, nitrates etc worse
Universal soil loss study desired.
Started study in 2011. Runs as long as it is interesting and funded. 

Break 

Old BusinessNo update on canopy, lights are in hand
Pete told of web site w good canopy. Northern hydraulic
 
New BusinessHoliday party this weekend (More than a dozen confirmed)
Join the NSS!!
PO box $80 a year, only one piece of mail this year
 
Trip reportsWorleys. Surveyed 300 ft to end map with .5 miles of cave- muddy, wet, low and tight with a new short waterfall climb lead that did not go.  
Rowland's fun vertical, great contrast to the tight, low crawls of Worley's
Hancock 2,4, 8 bats in surveys each of last 3 years. Had found 50 dead when WNS first hit
Not known if fungus dormant, bats resistance or other, but counts do seem to be increasing slowly.

Photo trip. Rob, Jacob, Ken, Hilda, Mathew- Smokehole Cave at bat ranch
Good pictures, tried video at end of slip and slide section
 
Upcoming TripsCold sink Jan 12
Dave thinking of just doing cold sink and not organizing an end of year trip

Meeting Ended at 8:58
 Group went to a local watering hole to eat as if Thanksgiving had never even happened. 

TriTrogs October General Meeting

Attendees- Ken, Peter, Mike B, Lisa L, Matthew W, Jacob, Carlin, Mark L, David P,

Mark D, Chuck, Duke
13 total (Please remind me of additions/corrections)

Many were late to this meeting which started shortly before 8pm.   Apparently everyone attending the event at the PNC Arena drove 2 separate cars, thus leading at least 4 driverless cars to cause accidents and delaying many of us innocent (?) cavers who had to come from west of Raleigh. 

Old business

Lights were purchased for the grotto loaner gear

We have 4 helmets and 3 princeton tec quad headlamps for members to borrow

$85-86 Cost for the new lights

Canopy news- to replace the one eaten by the Derecho storm at Convention-

some too small and some way too large

sierra trading post is a place to check

Pete's canopy also destroyed at convention

replacing parts shouldn't part of the equation

(Mark arrived 8:02 and thus the quality of the minutes should improve dramatically from this point forward.  ;-) Thanks to Ken for getting them started.) 

No update on Craig H who was in auto accident.  Many of us met him at Grand Caverns some months back and last month we all signed a get-well card for him.
 
 
Trip reports
TAG in GA - vertical caving is the draw. Lost Canyon Cave just issued new permits, has two 100 ft drops. Flow stone pit, dug opening to 220 ft pit, another cave with multiple drops.
Cold Sink cave-  Ken, Carlin, Jacob, Stephanie, and others, got to survey out past "L" stations. M survey this trip. Knew part of the cave and had to find old markers to navigate parts of it. Traverse, swing parts, some of cave nice and lots of duck unders. U shaped tubes. Opened to 8 ft ceilings. Stephanie's first survey - she learned quickly. M survey starts some walking passage, and we may be done with belly crawl surveying there! Leads in many directions! 10 to 20 ft heights, found pan flute formation, starts to look like parts of Hancock. An hour and 15 min walk to get out. Surveyed 650 ft on Kens team. Crawl way to heaven a pain.
Jacob and Carlin surveyed a tight wet drain lead. Stream not flowing this time so a little drier. Traversed a pit 18 ft deep, and another 15 ft pit. Checked new pit, 12 ft that opens for 10 ft w small drain. All leads now cleaned up to M survey section. They then focused on sketches. 3 loops closed. About 14 hours of caving. Soup at Tanya's for midnight dinner. Carlin confident we will reach 1 mile.

Sunday up late ate at country club for breakfast at 10 am
Failed to find 2 caves they were looking for. Hiked all over hill of Cold Sink looking for another entrance. Water coming from hill, in the cave finding nuts far back in latest survey, also near road.
 
David went w Ava to Tawney's cave, met Mike and Monica Grauer who had not caved before. Visited Tawney's and one other cave, not many bats at ranch now due to WNS
Formation room near start, very nice, white, active, stream crossing, moon room large echoing room. Showed map at mtg.
One junction hard to find in breakdown, but found easier way eventually. Saltpeter mined there once. Hour and half to do whole cave
Other entrance closed by land owner went back through to start entrance
 
Mike and Lisa went to Whitesides , John Plyler went too, older woman new to rappel did well, was fascinated.
 
Peter and others went to New River Gorge Bridge Day, climbed rope, etc. Rob H has video on YouTube
 
Upcoming Trips
11/3 cave photography
11/17 Worleys / Hancock
11 /18 Rowland creek vertical
11/22-25 TAG trip??
12/1 Holiday Party
12/9 Linville caverns conservation (CANCELLED)
12/28-30 survey/ridge walk Smyth county
 
 
Break 9:09
 
Program Vertical Caving- Peter Hertl gave the program which included a handout with vertical tips and reminders.  
 
There exists NSS training for Vertical skills.
Grotto once had very active and even well known vertical caving group and it seems to be resurgent

Focus on going with experienced rigger. After that, what do participants need to know? Know your limitations and comfort zone and notice limits of others. Good health, nervous?, experience? , fatigued, sober, good judgement?, don't get into a rescue situation!
First aid training always good to have.
Situational awareness. Understand environment. Helmet even more important on rope. Be aware of what and who is above, rocks, mud, gear can fall
First step hardest and most likely to have problems where rope is against edge.
Look at rigging. Ask questions.
Have knot in bottom of rope!
Have safety in place before approaching edge.
Have up gear on and ready to go. May need at any time.
Practice changeovers! (Practice Above Ground!)
Have bottom belay for all but first descender.
Pad or tube on rope at edge point may be in your way to some extent, have to pass it- best to have a 3rd ascender attached.
Can have 2nd system at top to rely on while passing edge.  Speed is not an issue, safety is main concern.

Meeting Ended at 10:09 with the Museum Staff ready for us to be done!  A good meeting despite the late start.   A few of us scarfed down a late dinner and good brew at Armadillo Grill afterwards.   

September 2012 Tri Trogs General Meeting

Sept 25, 2012

Attendance:  7 Cavers:
Carlin, Ken, Martin, Ava, Mark D, Jacob, and new caver David Perry!  David shared an extended introduction saying he grew up thinking about caves, drawing caves, etc but only recently visited his first wild cave in Indiana and was hooked! His relative Clay Perry was a famous early caver who popularized the term "spelunking."  The cave David visited in Indiana was Dog Hill cave, some flowstone etc
He will be going w Ava to Tawney's soon and they want to find Doans cave too and ridge walk.  Everyone is glad there is no hunting on Sunday in VA.

Sadly David plans to move to CA next year

Old Business - Grotto loaner lights to be replaced soon.  Ava to work with Mike B. 
New business Agreed to purchase a new canopy to replace the one destroyed by the Derecho storm at Convention.   Not needed until Spring so time to shop sales etc.   Marting suggested Harbor Freight for cheap, quality ok. Other suggestions, REI garage sale, on line sources, etc. Ava and ken will shop specs and prices and report back on price range. 10 x 10' Or so, desire one much lighter and easy to transport than old one.  

Howard offers his place for holiday party!  Details TBD

Ken discussed an article in VA Region Record from this summer on bat trends in VA. 4 yrs of WNS in VA. not all species affected same. Most common species are affected most so total bat counts way down. East small foot rare to Start with so hard to gauge impact.

No grey bat deaths observed . Endangered big nose seems immune. Some species get it but don't die

Bat counts dropped around 80 % since 2009
Fungus found on only one Indiana bat in VA. Some bats found in previously uninhabited caves. Passed article around for folks to see further details and statistics.
The situation for Bats described by the article sounds grim overall. They are not finding banded bats again, so hard to track them.  Not returning to same place

There was also an article in today's N and O about artificial cave in TN being used to study bats and try to provide a cleanable roost for them.  It is close to natural caves and we discussed our doubts that this approach will work with the bats freely visiting natural caves nearby.  

One other item of new business- Carlin and Ken went to VAR meeting recently- one member of VAR was hit by his own tow truck w serious injuries. Get well card passed around for all attendees to sign and send to Craig. Last Monday was the accident.  

Trip Reports
Rob Harris went to Old Timer's Reunion.  He also went caving but nothing special, Ava reports. 

VAR Jacob, Tonya, Carlin, Ken, Ava, got there about midnight and led trip signups were full. Did Bells Valley caves wet and dry along dirt road (which passes for freeway in that area) Dry was 300 ft long lots of critter scat.  Cave was fun and  quick. All but Tonya went to wet cave. Critters, rim stone, enough water to swim. Chest deep water. Looked for another cave didn't find. Found snapping turtle. Carlin shared some pictures and video .

That night at VAR good band and program, slack line, on way home Sunday visited Devils Marble Yard rock play ground above ground builder field.   No one knows how this unique field of small, sharp boulders was formed. 

Upcoming trips9/28 Group of TriTrogs going to Common Ground theatre in Durham to see play of Harold and Maude. Call for reservations, 919 698 3870 at theatre. Play runs for 2 weeks.

Oct 4 tag fall cave in. Pete and Carlin going Fri-SunTavelling Thurs and Sunday. 9 hr drive. vertical cave, plenty of horizontal caves too.

Oct 20 cold sink survey
Oct 20 Tawneys sport trip. Ava waiting list. 6 on for now, beginners, near Blacksburg at bat ranch. Walk from camp.  Want to keep the numbers low but if another leader goes could form 2 groups. 
Nov 17 Worleys VA survey.  Also Hancock bat count or lovers leap survey that weekend
Forearm pad may help in the remaining Worley's tight survey
Nov 18 Rowland creek vertical spot trip Dave
Photo trip Diana and Matthew W. maybe wet Bells Valley Cave?

TAG (TN, AL, GA area) at Thanksgiving?
We studied the just published map of Rowand Creek including the drops and interesting features

Break at 8:52
Program Nova Science Now video on earthquakes in the midwest that centered on cave study and geology

Post Meeting gathering was at Boylan Bridge Brew Pub.   Everyone agreed it was an excellent place, which featured decent original craft beers and the best hamburger in the Solar system, if not the Universe. 

Next meeting October 23rd.  (4th of 5 Tuesdays)
November meeting will be Nov 27, right after Thanksgiving weekend.
December meeting will be the Holiday Party

TriTrogs General Meeting, August 2012

8-28-12, 7:30 pm

Attendance 9 Troglodytes:
Diana G, Carlin K, Ken W, Mark D, Mike B, Ava P, Peter H, Matthew Weiss, Martin Groenwegen, Mike Grauer

Introductions included the Month of each persons birthday which was used later to divide up into teams for the program.   

Old business- Pay dues to Ken tonight. All the shirts from convention are now gone.

Library now has convention guide book including cd with maps. Diana has old NSS journals if anyone wants them.
New business Bugfest Sept 15volunteer w Peter!! At museum here.   Separate e-mail was sent.
Help w display, greeting visitors etc

Program
Things to look for in photographs and how to pick the best photo to present or share
We did the program first so that Ken could process the results during trip reports.  
See handout from Ken for tips:
      Under/ over exposed, have something interesting in each 3rd of the photo, etc 
The program involved several stations which each had about 4 pictures of the same spot in some cave.   The teams of about 3 participants each ranked the photos for best to show.  Some seemed obvious but some were open to a fair amount of debate

Trip reportsMike B above ground at Whitesides did single rope technique practice, climbing and rappelling
In fog for part of it. 700 ft cliff in w. NC. Just above GA border. nice pics shown

Ava told about white limestone cliffs in France, sea caves 10 or 15 little caves only went in 100 ft or less. Few good pictures and her professor didn't want to cave

Carlin and Ava reported on Copenhavers Cave.  Good fun pictures, cleanup, cave on farm w lots of metal, barb wire etc. cable ladder for waterfall, entrance is. Much nicer now, hauled buckets of trash up the waterfall.  2.5 pickup loads hauled to dump, time to explore cave after clean up done
     Visited Worleys Cave (VA) next day good pics of monorail worm, bristle tails, salamanders,
Cleaned up 4 leads and explored 2 other. Super man squeeze with one arm up and one down. Solid rock tube. Lots of passage after tight crawl needs survey!

Program part 2Discussed pictures we all agreed on and why
And more discussion on those w less consensus


Upcoming trips-- see grotto calendar on the website http://www.tritrogs.org/trip_schedule_new.html
Labor day OTR (Old Timers Reunion)
Rob and Peter going? Worthwhile but far away.

Fall VAR (Virginia Area Regional) in Rock Ridge County Va, near Lexington VA.
 Sept 21 - at least 4 Tritrogs are going
Perkins cave tour on a separate trip that weekend in sw VA- 28 miles of cave

Oct 4 tag cave in regional 9 hr drive. Carlin going. In GA near AL- lots of vertical caving
Worleys survey some time in fall
Oct 13 or 20th cold sink ?
Photography trip?  interest expressed in doing another trip to phocus on fotography skills soon.  

Due to a somewhat shorter meeting with lighter attendance and the format of the program we did not take mid meeting break but afterwards several went to Armadillo Grill.

July 2012 Meeting Minutes

(recorded by Ken Walsh while Mark D. is on vacation)

Zeke, Diana, Jacob, Mark L., Carlin, Ava, Rob’s head, Martin, Matt, Michael, Ken, Riley, and Nick were all at the meeting.  Carlin knew everyone, so he skipped the introductions.  Martin shared that the June get-together in Chapel Hill didn’t have many attendees.

Ava announced that she has one medium and one small TriTrog t-shirt left for sale.  If no one is interested in the small size, Linda Waters will squeeze into it.  Remember how she fit into 4-inch cracks in Hancock Cave.

Dues are $7.50 for the remainder of the year and should be paid to Mark Little.  Mark planned to discuss the money from the grotto trip during the break.

Matt talked about his trip to Worleys Cave to test out his new camera.  He made a very long photography trip to the back of the cave but left the CFL inverter closer to the entrance.  His new camera worked very well, and he offered to share photos at the next meeting.

Carlin found Piercys Mill Cave and Piercys Cave to be simple caves.  Everything was huge walking passage, and the rimstone was worth taking pictures of.  He and his group (Rob, Todd Mailbox, and Janney) returned at 2:30 AM from the caves.

Martin shared a trip report about the Annual Grotto Trip to Breathing Cave.  The hike was estimated as 1.65 miles to the cave, and we arrived at the entrance at 12:30.  Martin’s photon cannon broke while in the cave, and he found a jacket and gloves in the cave. 

Ava went with Tanya, Patrick, and Madison to Patton Cave (she knew it sounded like Paxton) at Convention with a very large group.  Some were very slow moving.  Ava found two cave salamanders and huge pools of larval salamanders in this huge borehole.  She also saw lots of pretty stuff but lost her camera the following weekend.  Whoever found it now has many salamander photos.

Ava also related a trip report for the second day of the grotto trip, a short hike and splash at Roaring Run Recreational Area.  We got to play in a lot of waterfalls, but Ericka got stung fifteen times by yellow jackets. 

Rob shared a trip report from Acme Mine.  It was really cool.  He only saw a small part of the caves and looked out the mine entrance down to the lake.  The mine was very windy and the cave has no natural entrances.  It began as a limestone mine cut into a grid, but it intersects the caves.  Carlin later shared a photo of the entrance.

Diana went to Wolf Creek Cave with Ken on a photography trip with Bill Storage, Andrea Futrell, and Doug Medville.  A dry riverbed leads into the cave for a ½ mile, but the cave had a stream running through it.  Diana reported that it was quite nice in the back, and Ken shared a photo taken during the trip.

Ava and Rob visited the commercial Linville Caverns and found it to be a pretty cool cave.  Their tour guide had the heaviest NC accent.  Unfortunately the entire cave was green with moss, and they did not find the secret entrance to Linville Caverns.  Others shared the story about escaped prisoners and how back entrances were discovered.

Carlin then shared a slide show from the grotto trip to Breathing and Paxton Caves.

Carlin also shared a trip report from the Cold Sink Cave survey, noting that the survey is now more than 3000 feet.  The survey is way past the pit now.  Carlin finally has a disto and is itching to use it.  We are not at a mop-up stage in the survey yet.  The last team surveyed 700 feet straight, and it’s still going.  The last trip ended at two connected rooms.  There is a climbing lead, and the main route runs hands-and-kneesy for a ways.  The passage above the main route is like a mine tunnel and should be able to get good passage.  The team stopped because Carlin needed a break when they got to the big room.

Mark L. shared another trip report for Breathing Cave.  When the climbing got tough, his group left the cave after the thunderstorm.  Carlin noted hundreds of frogs in the headlights during the drive back to camp.  And lots of deer.

Upcoming Trips:
Cold Sink Cave survey 7/28
8/4 Ava and Carlin on rope
Copenhaver’s Cave Cleanup Trip 8/11
8/12 Second day
8/30-9/2 Old Timers Reunion
9/21-23 Fall VAR
9/22 Perkins Cave Tour
10/4 TAG Fall Cave In  (GA)
Cold Sink Cave survey in October with Dave

Ken shared a presentation about karst terrains based on the map at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1154/.