General Meeting Minutes - March 24, 2015

There were no newcomers at this meeting, so we skipped introductions. In attendance were Ken, Martin, Emily, Carlin, Mike, Lisa, Matthew, Sarah, and Mark D.

There was an impromptu sale of the one remaining 25th anniversary t-shirt. Some dues were collected.

There was some discussion about making donations to support New River Cave. The officers will make an announcement about the best way to do that. UPDATE: You can donate using the online NSS donation form. Select "Cave Acquisition Fund" from the fund drop-down list and then be sure to type "New River Cave" in the comments section.

Trip reports ensued.

Dig: Lisa and Mike went to Butler Cave for Pancake Weekend. They were put to work on the Back Door digging project which involved eight or nine people hoisting many, many 5-gallon bucket loads through some less than hospitable passages. Lisa had the most miserable four hours underground of her entire life. Mike wore a wetsuit and was happy. They recommend going up for a project trip to admire the engineering in use (something about a Mars Rover).

Survey and sport: Ken has posted a trip report on surveying in Beaver Creek Cave with Dave and Dawson. Carlin, Matthew, and Rob made up the other survey team on that trip. The steep approach to the cave was actually less nasty with the foot of snow on the hillside. They spent eight or nine hours surveying. While Carlin sketched Matthew followed the sound of running water through a small triangular opening to find a nice deep-looking pool about 15 feet below. Tanya joined them the next day at Boxwork Crystal Cave and Dead Air Cave. The entrance of Dead Air was draped in pretty ice formations. Matthew's camera batteries died before he got to the really big room, but it was really fun anyway. [Carlin has posted some pictures on the Trip Reports Blog.]

Bat count: Ken and Emily joined four cavers from Walker Mountain Grotto for the Hancock Cave bat count. They counted six live bats and found the remains of one dead bat. They saw no obvious signs of White Nose Syndrome. [Here's the posted trip report.]

Sport: Carlin, who has recently been certified as a Wilderness First Responder, Laurel, and a few other people met up with Ava at the Bat Ranch for a trip through Tawney's Cave. Because Ava was with them they "geeked out over every living thing they could find" including some mysterious red, spotted salamander. Carlin ran through Lynx, too. He saw a few bats, including one with visible signs of WNS.

Off-topic awesome: Recently back from Tanzania, Sarah regaled us with a trip report that made up for its lack of caves with a description of her breath-taking ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. While hiking elsewhere in Tanzania, she did see "some sign for some cave at some point" but elected not to investigate due to a lack of appropriate footwear. Sarah promises to bring pictures next time, and she'll weed out the selfies taken during the badass surgeries she performed while working at a Tanzanian hospital.

Upcoming trips
April 4 - Grand Caverns Restoration (Ken. Maybe Matthew.)
April 24-26 - Spring VAR at Natural Bridge (Emily. Maybe Ken.)
May 1-3 - Perkins Cave Survey (Carlin.)
May 7-10 - SERA Cave Carnival
July 13-17 - NSS Convention

The scheduled program, a video about sinkholes (available online), was scrapped in favor of food, beer, and conversation.

January 2015 General Meeting Minutes

Rob gave the rundown of the agenda as people continued wandering in. The meeting eventually began with introductions and a question about the number of cave trips each person plans for 2015: Rob (8), Emily (5), Carlin (12), Ken (12), Matthew Weiss (8), Glen G. (6), Eric (2), Jason (6), Peter (12), Mark (1), Dan (1), Lisa (6), Mike (6-8), Dylan (>1), Laura (>1), Mark D. (all the trips), Dustin Healy (as soon as possible), Kaven Healy (just as many), Alex (as much as possible), and Erin Kirkland (whenever they go).

It was mentioned that the officers would collect WVCC donations during the break. Carlin explained that WVCC has recently acquired the longest cave in Smyth County (Hancock Cave).

The email list was broken when it disappeared on January 1.  The officers need to update the web site so that people can get on the email list [completed the next day]. Facebook posts have been effective.

Mark D. and Dan then began a discussion of their calendars in which they determined that they have no free weekends in common. The rest of us were bored.

Ken and Pete solicited help for Darwin Day. Matthew Weiss and Mark D. agreed to help Ken in the morning at Darwin Day.

Trip reports came next. Both Ken and Carlin wrote trip reports. Rail Valley Cave was new to us—and oversold to us. We overwhelmed Joel (or so we thought) with Rail Valley, but he liked Little Hancock Cave. The weekend focussed on survey in Snow Cone Cave.  Bolt-climbing or small-people-only trips are the only ones in the future to this cave. Brian Williams posted a photo of thirty little salamanders in the eft stage in a rimstone pool. Carlin’s trip traveled 250 feet deep in the cave. We had to hike all the way up the hill to Snow Cone Cave to avoid losing the vehicles.  Dave and Carlin also began a survey in Beaver Creek Cave. It will be easy to survey. It’s a great one to learn in.

Martin, Matthew, and Matthew went on a trip in Martin’s Volkswagen. He stalled the car seven times. When they went over the bump, and Matthew could feel the ground beneath his feet. Higginbotham’s #1 Cave was a disappointingly short trip because Matthew didn’t have his camera.

Pete went to TAG for big vertical pits over Thanksgiving weekend and post-Christmas. He stayed in a caver campground the first time, and the second time Pete crashed in a friend’s house packed in like cord of wood. They dropped Mystery Falls (belled out a huge chamber 400’ drop) on both weekends. A blue nylon rope with a polypropylene sheath was used and had no stretch (no bounce). Valhalla Cave is a famous drop in TAG but requires four-wheeling with big trucks (truce with the hunters keeps them in until after dark). Tumbling Rock Cave is a gated, horizontal cave---nice walking cave with massive air flow. They spent six hours in there seeing all the sites: prehistoric bear scratchings in the mud, the Christmas Tree stalagmite [they actually decorate without touching the tree with lights], the tumbling rock in the ceiling, and equipment for cleaning the formations and saltpeter works.

Upcoming trips include SERA, Hancock Cave Bat Count, Grand Caverns Restoration Camp, VAR at Natural Bridge, SERA Cave Carnival and Missouri trip to Convention.

Rob shared photos and video from his Israeli trip underground.

We held elections and welcome the new officers: Chair—Carlin Kartchner, Vice Chair—Rob Harris, Web Master—Mike Broome, Treasurer—Mark Little, and Secretary—Emily Graham. They were elected unanimously.

2014 Treasurers Report (January 2015)

Triangle Troglodytes Treasurer’s Report

 January 18, 2015

(Mark Little, Treasurer)

Beginning Balance (January 23, 2014)	1628.39
Income
Membership Dues and Donations Collected (*)	348.50
Gear Rental Fees	43.00
Checking Account Interest	.12
Misc. (**)	.02
Total Income	391.62
Expenses
Web Site Hosting (Mike Broome)	83.40
Maillist hosting (DeltaForce, Robert Harris)	60.00
Grotto Trip Expenses (Robert Harris)	109.00
West Virginia Cave Conservancy Donation	200.00
Total Expenses	452.40
Net Change	-60.76
Ending Balance (January 18, 2015)	1567.63

(* There is a $13.00 discrepancy between dues deposited and payments recorded; I may have missed crediting someone with a dues payment. Also, some members donated change when paying in cash, and I may have missed noting such a case in the dues paid list.)

(** We seem to have gained $0.02 in the trial transactions for PayPal payments.)

November 25, 2014 General Meeting Minutes

Okay, so I skipped the October meeting minutes, but they were pretty boring. The best part may have the description of a New River Cave survey. Below you'll find the minutes from the November meeting.

No introductions but threats of food being shared. In attendance were Mark D., Glen, Mark L., Pete, Ken, Emily, Mike, Lisa, Rachel, and Rob. The calendars have all been claimed.

Mark D. recommended that the “I’ve always wanted to try that!” Meetup Group should wait until warmer weather, but Pete felt that they’d get to know one another better if they packed into 2-3 hotel rooms because overnight bonding is a plus.  Mark D. expressed uncertainty about the winter trip because he plans to tie an untie-able knot in the very near future.  Even if the trip is put off until springtime, the best approach might be a slide show about caving followed by sign up list for the trip.

With regard to the anniversary/holiday party, ice, cups, and utensils will be provided by the Littles. The party starts at 6 PM and then dinner sometime after 7 PM. Rob’s action item is to solicit more responses to the online RSVP. Ken is trying to arrange to have Steve Simmons’ squeezebox at the holiday party.

Lisa suggested that she might be interested in hosting a squeezebox assembly party to build one for Lisa and Mike.

Glen offered a donation to the grotto and thanked us for leading him on the Hancock Cave trip.

Ken mentioned three items proposed by the museum and then opened discussion:

1.  Presentation topics should be shared in advance with the museum staff so that they can post them on their web site (agreed to by membership).
2. Meetings could be moved to Thursdays when the museum stays open late to make it easier to find your way in (met with reluctance by the membership because Thursday are packing nights but agreed that holding events on Thursdays once or twice a year might be appropriate).
3. Outreach help with an exhibit at Darwin Day at the museum February 14 this year 

Most discussion revolved around the last item. It ranged from the micro-superhero Tardigrade Girl to cutout boards with people’s faces. The museum’s mammalogist might need help with a bat display, but Pete suggested that blind crayfish and fish might be available for preserved exhibits through the older scientists at the museum.

Regarding recent trips,we began with descriptions of three teams during the Hancock Cave bat count.  Glen really enjoyed his first caving trip and found it a lot more physical than he thought. He carried buckets of water into the cave and washed graffiti off the walls. He was disappointed in not seeing any bats. His group chased some false leads, and Glen’s mom did not approve of the trip.

Pete’s group found the only bat during the bat count, and it was probably just a little brown and not yet in hibernation. He found it easy to spot because it was on a light-colored part of the wall.

Emily’s niece found the Hancock Cave trip awesome but was sore afterwards. They wandered around a lot, but Emily couldn’t reconstruct the order that they visited all the rooms. While going down the Breakdown Staircase, Emily’s pack landed fifteen feet in the air but was handily retrieved from a fortuitous angle.

Mike and Lisa discussed their recent trip to Butler Cave where a new cartographer is comparing the output of 18 miles of cave data.  They dropped a rappel line into the lead, and it led into an out-and-back loop ending in a round room. The forty-foot waterfall yielded just a few drips, and they couldn’t get to leads across the top of the waterfall.  They were underground for seven hours, but Mike was miserable in some passages that were almost the right size for Mike.  In the two tight squeezes, Mike could move through using only hips. Part of the cave passage was much colder, so Lisa would like to find a new surface entrance.

In terms of upcoming trips,

• Thanksgiving Weekend – Pete headed for TAG caves (maybe Fern and Valhalla)
• Dec. 13—Carlin and Dave cancelled their plans, so Ken is free to go caving if anyone is interested
• Jan. 1 – Cave survey in Smyth County
• Israeli caving –Rob’s been facetiming with Israeli cavers and plans to join them.  Rob may visit salt caves, gravesites and archaeological digs.

Then we watched the rest of the John Cole NSS Luminary talk. The officers voted to make a grotto donation of $200 to West Virginia Cave Conservancy thanks to their acquisition of Hancock Cave.

General Meeting Minutes (September 23, 2014)

Meeting started at 7:42 PM. Glen, Pete, Rob, Emily, Mark D., Carlin, Martin, Mike, and Ken were the few in attendance. Rob skipped discussion of the NSS building fund.

Ava and Rob and Pete will help Mark plan his outreach efforts to outside meetup groups.  A destination may be in the Blacksburg area.  “I’ve always wanted to try that” and a local rockclimbers group both want to cave.  The numbers of people might get high. The rock climbing gym was enthusiastic about the program. They might set up a wait list with a fifteen-person limit. Suitable helmets might be an issue.  The might use VPI area helmets and borrow from grotto members. If it doesn’t happen until spring, Mark wouldn’t die.

Bugfest recap from Pete H.—33,000 people visited BugFest and it went off pretty well.

Holiday Party—Figure out who will host the event and then send out a poll with the possible dates.  Rob will send out a poll. [ed. Mark and Rhonda L. agreed to host the party on December 8]

Next month’s program suggestion—understand how batteries work. Other ideas included stuff from convention. John Cole from the NSS web site on the Luminary series—inventor of the rack. Some videos are better to watch in a group. 

Trip reports—Ken described his window-washing descent into the 4000-year old volcano Thingnookagigur in Iceland.

OTR—Pete, Carlin, Rob, and Mark D. did Stillhouse and Sinks of Gandy through trips.  A Northern long ears may have been spotted at the entrance.  They went downstream first where no one wanted to follow.  They eventually found their way to the big room.  They also encountered Mennonites in dresses in the Sinks of Gandy right before they’d be getting muddy up to their knees.

This group also visited Sharps Cave and found pack rat nests were very active. They found the waterfall and the sculpture gallery and both sides in under 3 hours, not to mention the Giant Flying Gourd Room and Halloween Hall.

Missed Opportunity Cave—Dave D., Carlin and Mark D. surveyed up to the 2700 feet mark, but the furthest station is only 1000 feet from entrance.  There may only be one more full day trip to the cave because they’ve now found all the walls. The stream is not passable, but you can travel above it.  Brian Williams and Steph Petri with Carlin jovially complained about the survey.  The four different levels from a very well decorated cave with a few places to sit up.  A jumble of breakdown sits in some areas, but Dave and Mark could stand up occasionally during their survey. Carlin kept on his wet suit the whole time, and it was really necessary. It’s the squeeze and maneuver that gets you wet.

Carlin also reported on a small cave in Marion. Stairstep Springs Cave had 3 entrances. A decent amount of water was flowing out, and they needed wetsuits. In the main entrance they found a cave salamander tail inside a spring salamander, as well as a bunch of salamanders and frogs. They finished the survey (80 feet).

Upcoming Trips

Sept. 27 – New River Cave survey (Ken, Pete, and Ava)

Oct. 4—Over the Edge (Mark D.)—Wells Fargo building in Raleigh (32 stories)

Oct. 9-12 – TAG Fall Cave-in near Menlo, GA

Oct. 10-12 – Fall VAR at Rich Mtn Battlefield, Beverly, WV

Oct. 18 - New River Cave survey (Dave West)

Oct. 30 –Bat Ranch Halloween (Rob)

Nov. 8 – Hancock Cave Bat Count (Ken)

Others?

For the program, we joked around while watching a video entitled Secret Cave. Then Mark treated us to the video about caving unicyclists, or were they unicycling cavers?

TriTrogs General Meeting Minutes, August 26, 2014

Emily G., Mark D., Mark L., Pete H., Rob H., Martin G., Ken W., and Ava P. were in attendance (either in the flesh or in the cybersphere). Because folks seem to know one another, Rob forewent/foregoed the introductions.

Mark D. began the meeting by describing one member’s imminent protests to a local municipality about his mosquito problem. Mark D. then told how this problem might be related to the lack of a drain under his shower and the impenetrable French drain beneath it. Somehow this led to a Happy Birthday song for Pete Hertl with the gift of a rubber ducky that shoots a laser from its mouth when it quacks.

Then we worked out the t-shirt and camping reimbursement issues with Rob. We only spent a few moments admiring Mark L. in the new T-shirt.

Mark D. then shared his vision for a beginners cave trip meetup. He plans to hold the information sharing meeting at Triangle Rock Club and then pick a cave to visit in late October or early November. He is looking for helping planning this, and Ken offered to share the slides he uses with scouts.

Doug Leapley is looking for someone to speak to a scout troop about caving. Ken will contact him unless someone else would like to.

Rob will fix the web site so that upcoming meeting dates are better displayed.  Mark L. shared the membership list and worked on getting updated on the membership list.

The next discussion was about problems with various LED headlamps and dealing with manufacturers when they break.

The TriTrogs are now looking for someone to host the 25^th Anniversary Party in early December. The date will be based on the host’s schedule.

Trip reports followed. The grotto trip marked the first wild cave for 4.5-year old daughter of Mark’s girlfriend.  He related that they got a little bit lost in the maze in Paxton Cave. In a key junction Mark chose the wrong way 5 out of 6 tries. Several climbing attempts didn’t go well for Lisa.  She eventually climbed up with footholds in the webbing.  When they explored the room, they found that there was an easy way to skip the climb just a few feet away.

Salamanders marked Mark’s trip to Friars Hole Cave. Emily had a different experience by entering at the Snedegars Saltpeter Entrance and didn’t see salamanders as she slogged through the sump.

Pete related the story of the grotto vertical trip to the Crookshank Entrance—getting there was an adventure. They wandered for hours before consulting the topo map. Then they short-rigged the pit, and Mike went down first.  Pete enjoyed the crawl through an earthworm bed. They crawled along the surface and occasionally got mashed by the crawling cavers. They got close to the waterfall, and the first pool was the commitment point.  It wasn’t that bad, but only Pete and Mike made it all the way. They found spring salamanders and something like the Jefferson salamander.

Martin said that his team got lost in the Snedegars Saltpeter Maze [ed. I would’ve described it as thorough exploration of the maze].  The base of the waterfall was a good place to finish the trip. Martin forgot his camera card, but he would’ve gotten good pics there. His brother Doug was wide eyed at one point, amusing Martin.

Ken shared a description of his two survey trips to Saltville Quarry Cave, surveying in cold water up to his hips. The survey topped out at 1202 feet. Pete mentioned that this is the season for blow out sales on wet suits.

With regard to upcoming trips, see the list below:

August 28-Sept. 1 – Old Timers Reunion

September 13 – Carlin and Dave in Missed Opportunity

September 20 – Bugfest (contact Pete Hertl if you can help)

September 27 – New River Cave survey (Ken, Ava, and Pete)

October 10-12 – Fall VAR at Rich Mtn Battlefield

November 8 – Hancock Cave Bat Count (Ken)

After a long break, Mark D. shared a fast forward version of the Amazing Caves video and the Making of Amazing Caves.