Winter 2017 - var.caves.orgvar.caves.org/images/RegionRecord/Region_Record_V30_N4.pdf · The Region...

Winter 2017

Inside Issue:

Turkeyfootnew maryland pit

Outstandingservice award

Spring VARinformation

Conservationsinks of gandy

Obituaryfroggy the cat

New Rivernew manager

VARfinancial report

New Cavesin the greenbrier

Vol. XXX, No. IV

The Region RecordThe Region Record is the quarterly publication of the Virginia Region of the National Speleological Society. Any articles, announcements or other materials of general interest to cavers in the Region are welcome. Send all materials to Nikki Fox (1726 Longs Pump Road, Harrisonburg, VA, 22802, or [email protected]). Electronic submissions are preferred, but any kind of submission will be allowed. Non-copyrighted material contained in the Region Record may be reprinted by organizations that are affiliated with the VAR or the NSS, as long as credit is given to the Region Record and the author. The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the VAR, the NSS or their internal organizations.

VAR Officers Chairman: Craig Hindman, 443.286.2781, [email protected] Chairman: Judy Fisher, 304.258.4974, [email protected]: Carol Tiderman, 410.792.0742, [email protected]: John Fox, 540.831.7517, [email protected]

VAR Committee Chairs

Conservation: Andy Reeder, 434.248.6443 & Meredith Hall Weberg, [email protected] Landowner Award: Janet Tinkham, [email protected] Service Award: J.C. Fisher, [email protected]: Jim McConkey, [email protected]: Philip Balister, [email protected]

Region Record

Editor: Nikki Fox, [email protected] Editor: Yvonne Droms, [email protected] Manager: Carol Tiderman, 410.792.0742, [email protected]

Region Record Subscriptions• New NSS members in the Region receive two complimentary copies of the Region Record.• Current NSS members moving into the Region from elsewhere receive two complimentary copies. Current NSS members who move within the Region will not receive free issues.• When a subscription is going to expire, the last issue will be stamped “Time to Renew.” No other renewal notice is sent.• When a person attends a VAR meeting he or she will automatically receive the next four issues. If he/she is already on the list, four additional issues are added to the subscription.• When multiple people live at the same address, only one copy of each issue will be sent to the address unless a request is sent to the Circulation Manager.• New subscribers (who have not attended a VAR meeting), or people renewing, need to complete the form (http://var.caves.org/images/RegionRecordSubscriptionForm2017.pdf) and mail to: John Fox, P. O. Box 3056, Radford, VA 24143. Make check payable to “VAR” or “The Virginia Region.”

© 2017 Virginia Region of the NSS

page 2 Region Record, Winter 2017

Cover Photo by Ed McCarthyStephanie Petri admires a very active dripstone mound while visiting Tennessee’s Blowhole Cave in 2013. To see more images by cave photographer Ed McCarthy, go to pages 10–11.

2018 Calendar

Jan 25–28 Winter Adventure Weekend at Carter Caves State Resort Park, Ky. April 20–22 Grand Caverns Easter Restoration Weekend in Grottoes, Va.April 27–29 Spring VAR at Hungry Mother Lutheran Retreat Center in Marion, Va. May 3–6 SERA Cave Carnival at Maranatha Camp in Scottsboro, Ala. July 30–Aug 3 77th NSS Convention in Helena, Mont.Aug 17–19 Indiana Cave Capers at Camp Rivervale near Mitchell, Ind. Aug 30–Sept 3 Old Timers Reunion near Beverly, W.Va.

2019 Calendar

June 17–21 78th NSS Convention in Cookeville, Tenn.

Region Record, Winter 2017 page 3

Welcome to winter.

During the Fall VAR meeting there was a discussion about a motion on the NSS’s Board of Governors agenda to add a $200 per-person fee (in addition to the price of the registra-tion fee) for Convention. Afterwards, people got involved and contacted the board against this proposed fee. The motion failed for a lack of a second.

Another motion was made, received a second, was talked about and then got postponed. This motion would have

set a fee, which would have started next year, of $25. The fee would subse-quently go up each year by $25, with a goal of $75 in three years.

The idea for the fees was that the money would help offset the decline in membership, the lack of rentals and the overhead cost to run the head-quarters building in Huntsville, Ala.

So stay involved and see what is in the next BOG agenda.

John Fox would like to step down as

the Virginia Region treasurer after 20 years. If you, or someone you know,would be willing to take this over please let him or me know.

For that matter, if anyone wants to run for any office let one of the officers know. I wish everyone the very best for the holidays and hope to see everyone at Hungry Mother for the spring meet.

- Craig Hindman h

Message from the VAR Chairman

Region Record, Winter 2017

If someone had suggested to me the possibility of Maryland ever hav-ing a deep pit, I would have thought they’d banged their head on one too many stalactites. Of course I probably would have said the same thing about a 500-foot-deep cave within the states boundary, and yet in western Allegany County Tanglefoot Cave will approach or exceed that figure when the upper-level passages are finally surveyed. Not far from Tanglefoot, the state can now boast of possessing a 100-foot-plus pit, one of only three found in the eastern U. S. north of the Virginias.

The saga begins several years back. There are a couple of shallow pits in an abandoned quarry called Leo’s quarry on Andy’s Ridge (Andy’s Ridge is part of the Allegheny Front just south of Corriganville in western Allegany County) known as Maple Pits 1 and 2. Corey Hackley sent me the follow-ing account from Donnie Carns:

“An old fellow by the name of Getson worked in a quarry on Andy’s Ridge when he was young. He said the quarry was shut down because they hit the top of a 200-foot pit. We always assumed it was Leo’s quarry.

Getson seemed to think that also. Get-son claimed that there was a hole in Leo’s quarry that at one time, a fire was built in front of it and the smoke came out further south on the ridge but he was not specific.”

Corey took me to the Maple Pits a few years ago. Maple Pit #1 is two drops of 13 and 34 feet, while Maple Pit #2 is 28 feet deep, both a far cry from the rumored 200-foot depth.

On Feb. 5, 2015, during a late night ridgewalk with neighbors Michael and Sera Weaver, Corey found a small blowing hole high on Andy’s Ridge about a mile from the quarry contain-ing the Maple pits. Corey sent me the following report on their discovery:

“My neighbors and I parked at Dollar

General. It was 11 degrees that night and we were later nearly arrested when the store clerk mistook my helmet for an improvised explosive device of some sort. We found the pit around midnight (choked of course) and had finished dealing with the police by about 2 in the morning.”

Corey goes on to state that two days later, on Feb. 7, 2015:

“We returned to the steaming hole that my neighbors and I had located on Andy’s Ridge on Thursday evening. The hole is in the floor of an old quarry about halfway up the ridge.

After arriving at the site, we wasted no time moving a couple of rocks away from the entrance and enlarging the hole. At the top, the opening was

bedrock on all sides, heavily confining mo-bility as soon as the dig surface was two feet below grade. Consequently, digging had to be done hanging upside down. After about an hour of cursing and chucking rocks out of the hole, larger rocks started dropping into the opening, yielding a 2- by 1-foot opening into an 8- to 10-foot drop. We tied a piece of

Maryland Now Has a Hundred-Foot Pitby Terry McClanahan

Courtesy of Corey Hackley

Corey Hackley looks up from the second lip of Turkeyfoot Pit, a new 139-foot pit in Maryland.

webbing to a nearby tree and I slipped in.

At the base of the drop, the passage began to descend through solutional pendants and features at an angle of about 45 degrees. It was reasonably spacious. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all bedrock. After about 20 feet of this, I was peering through a hole which appeared to be a vertical drop, though because of my vantage, I could not see down the opening. A rock test yielded impressive results.

I climbed down a little further, and found myself braced over a deep pit. The walls were about 2.5 feet apart and below me the pit went down at least 30 feet before curving gently out of view. It sounded like rocks were only about halfway done in their journey when they disappeared from sight. It sounded as if they ended with a roll, and there was a pretty good echo with the last thud. From this data, I guessed the pit is at least 50 feet deep, and pos-sibly as deep as 80 to 90 feet.”

I was skeptical when Corey related to me the details of his discovery, claim-ing a depth of possibly as much as 90 feet. The previous deepest pits in Maryland were just a couple of sketchy 30ish-footers. On Feb. 24, 2015, Corey and I, along with Dave Schoe-nadel and Donnie Carns, returned to explore the pit.

As per Corey’s earlier account it started out as an essentially vertical down climb with a squeeze near the top. Dave and Donnie stayed topside to run the tape. I’d only brought a 100-foot reel. The climbdown totaled 28 feet to the actual lip of the pit. I placed a rope pad here and Corey started down with the dummy end of the tape, fed by Dave from the top. The tape played out to 90 feet and Corey reported that he still had quite a bit of

Darkness below him. Realizing that the tape was not going to reach from the top, I relayed back up to Dave to lower the spool down to me so I could put the entire 100 feet of tape in the pit if needed.

Corey finally reached a landing and the tape read 94 feet. This was hard to believe! When I went down Corey informed me that he’d placed the end of the tape at the top of a vertical talus pile. We taped it very conservatively knowing that we’d be bringing Marion O. Smith here soon. Figuring that Marion would insist the tape be posi-tioned as high as possible, I concurred with Corey that the tape was at the same place Marion and I would have used.

We also did a quick measurement to the bottom of the cave, determining a total depth of 139 feet. The 28-foot climbdown at the top had hardly any horizontal offset to the lip of the pit, and the pit was sheer to the landing at 94 feet, so this is a nearly vertical

cave. In keeping with the “foot” theme (Tanglefoot), we decided to call it Turkeyfoot Pit due to the abundance of turkey tracks in the snow that day.

On Aug. 10, 2017, Corey and I re-turned with Marion O. Smith, Sharon Jones and Shawn Hogbin. Things sure were a lot different on the mountain in high summer than they had been when Corey and I were here two and a half years ago in the winter. Thick brambles of blackberry thorns, multiflora rose and intertwining vines made for nearly impenetrable barriers in many places and visibility was limited. I give Corey the “Alan Cressler Award” for finding hidden holes on a mountainside. Alan is a TAG friend of mine who seemed to have an uncanny knack for locating (in the days before GPS) impossibly obscure cave entrances under the worst circumstances.

All five of us descended the pit. Order down was Corey, Marion, me, Sharon and Shawn. When I touched down on top of the talus, I inquired of Corey if this was where we’d measured it from before.

Marion piped up “Why didn’t you tape it from down there?” (indicating the bottom of the vertical talus).

I answered “Because I figured you’d give me grief over it.”

Marion quipped, “Well, I think you should measure it from down there.”

Since you had to be on rope to get up and down the vertical talus, Corey and I both agreed with Marion’s assess-ment, which now makes Turkeyfoot a 103-foot pit. Only two other pits over one 100 feet deep are currently known to exist north of the Potomac River in the northeast. Red Mountain Pit in Vermont is the deepest at 164 feet and the first pit in Big Ridge in Pennsylva-


Photo by Corey Hackley

Terry McClanathan at the bottom of Turkeyfoot Pit.

nia is a sloping 123-foot drop.

Turkeyfoot Pit is certainly a legitimate 100-footer, but it is not destined to be a classic. As surface pits go, it is a bit challenging. The pit itself is not too bad, but the constriction at the top of the 28-foot climbdown presents an obstacle. The verticalness of the climb-down makes being on rope advisable for the extrication process, so the pit needs to be rigged from the surface. Confined conditions and a scarcity of footholds makes squeezing back up through the vertical slot daunting. A slip here could catapult you back down to the lip of the actual pit, so safety mandates staying attached to the rope, but every piece of gear also makes the tight spot even worse.

On our August trip we erred by having all five of us at the bottom at the same time. As seems typical of caves on the

Allegheny Front it is cold, with tem-perature estimates in the high forties Fahrenheit. Due to the difficulties of negotiating the pinch at the top, our climbing times were slow and some of us got chilled after waiting well over an hour on the bottom. There is also the likelihood of low oxygen levels if too many people are in the cave simultane-ously.

During our initial exploration back in winter 2015 Corey and I had no prob-lems with just the two of us, but with five of us and extended wait times in August 2017, most of us were just not feeling up to par when we reached the top. I know I had breathing difficulties as I struggled at the top, as did Sharon, Shawn and especially Marion (Corey probably not so much). I’m not saying the air was noticeably bad as I have ex-perienced in some caves and pits over the years, but there was something not

quite right.

The difficulties associated with access-ing Turkeyfoot Pit will most likely keep visitations by cavers to a mini-mum, but it is a significant discovery, especially for the western Maryland area. Once again, kudos to Corey and his group for another fine effort. h

page 6 Region Record, Winter 2017

Photo by Corey Hackley

Looking up the rope from one of the ledges in Turkeyfoot Pit.

Cheryl and Earl Suitor of Berryville, Va., were awarded the Virginia Re-gion’s Outstanding Service Award at the 2017 Fall VAR.

Earl became the manager of John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve in 2013 and both are recognized for their efforts in conservation and maintenance of the three NSS caves and property.

Earl has devoted a lot of time in landowner relations. He initiated talks with the new owner of Sites and Cave Rat caves and negotiated caver access by organized volunteers to build two fences. He has also been involved with ongoing com-munication with the new owner of

Mystic Cave, all to keep these loved caves open to cavers while protecting bats.

Cheryl has been a long time caver, starting at age 19. She’s been involved in many caving organizations, which

include VAR, Front Royal Grotto, Tri-State Grotto, PSC and WVCC.

Cheryl is a contributing member of the Arts and Letters Section of the NSS, with four awards for her cave paintings.

Cheryl has also participated in many conservation projects over the years, which include sinkhole cleanout projects, cave gate build-ing, fencing, cave cleanup, bat counts, kiosk building, and the list goes on.

h

Outstanding Service Awardby Nikki Fox

Photo by Judy Fisher

J.C. Fisher (from left) stands with Cheryl and Earl Suitor, who were given the VAR Outstanding Service Award.


Walker Mountain Grotto will be hosting Spring VAR on April 27–29, 2018 at Hungry Mother Lutheran Retreat Center, a private camp located adjacent to Hungry Mother State Park in southwest Virginia in Smyth County.

The site offers easy access to many caves, mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, fishing and canoe-ing on Hungry Mother Lake. There are also shops and restau-rants in downtown Marion.

There will be a guidebook, spe-

leovendors on site, guided and un-guided cave trips and Saturday eve-ning food and music. Don’t worry

about southwest Virginia’s fickle spring weather. We have reserved the entire camp and have access to many covered and indoor spaces, includ-ing a large pavilion, dining hall and bunkhouse with hot showers. There is plenty of flat space available for

tents and RVs (sorry, no hook-ups).

Further details and registration information will be posted on the

Walker Mountain Grotto blog at — https://walkergrotto. wordpress.com/var/. h

Save the Date — Spring VAR — April 27–29, 2018by Jason Lachniet

It was the 2017 Fall Virginia Region (VAR) of the National Speleological Society (NSS) hosted by Pine Moun-tain Grotto at the Mountain Institute on Spruce Knob, West Virginia’s highest point clocking in at 4,862 feet. I responded to John Taylor’s request for volunteers and expressed a desire to lead a conservation trip to the Sinks of Gandy. Earl Suitor had gained West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) permission for us to have access to the cave after the voluntary closing on September 1st in consid-eration of the bats and the ongoing White Nose Syndrome. We had the green light to do a graffiti removal ef-fort, for this limited one-time conser-vation trip.

The Sinks of Gandy is a classic cave. It was one of the earliest recorded caves in Eastern West Virginia and is one

of the most visited caves in Randolph County. The cave was surveyed by NSS Members in 1940 and resurveyed in 1990. The Sinks is a multi-entrance cave, and Gandy Creek flows into the south entrance and exits one of its two north entrances. Between the north entrances and the south entrance is about 3,000 feet of really large passage, with the creek generally running along the floor. The Sinks is a cave that pretty much most people can accomplish whatever their skill level, as long as you don’t mind getting wet.

Many people’s first cave trip in this region was through this cave. It has also been the backdrop for other organized cave trip experiences over the years. The Ibeenthroughthesinks Club has the distinction of being the first known such organization and was complete with membership cards.

The card read; “THIS IS TO CER-TIFY THAT _________ has made the dangerous and hazardous passage through the Sinks of Gandy Creek in Randolph County, West Virginia, and is therefore a duly qualified explorer of said organization.”

Members of the first recorded trip on Sept. 5, 1937, were Neil Wilson, Jack Preble, Martin Shiller and George Dare. By July 1947 more than one hun-dred members had been recorded.

In the 2000s another type of organized cave trip experience occurred at various Old Timer Reunions (OTR) and at NSS Conventions over the years. The Randy Gandy Club operated for many years on Sunday at OTR and featured membership cards, stickers and t-shirts too.

Fall VAR Conservation Cave Trip to the Sinks of Gandyby Gordon Birkhimer


Clearly, the Sinks of Gandy certainly has had one of the greatest histories of hosting organized cave trips.

Signup sheets were posted for the Fall VAR Conservation Trip at registration on Friday. The trip was scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017, and in the morning everyone met at registration. The day was a brilliant clear one with bright blue sky. George Dasher offered to lead our caravan and I was glad because I had never ap-proached the cave from this southern direction. I understand there are several ways to get there, but all involve at least 10 miles of dirt road driving. This was true coming from the south as well.

We parked in the well situated park-ing area created by the landowners, suited up, distributed the soft brushes, gloves, spray bottles of sodium perox-ide and water mixtures and then we split up into teams. One team went to the north entrance. My team went to the south entrance and consisted of Jim McConkey, Paige Flory, 4-year old Xavier (Xavi) Flory, Bill Balfour and a couple of his friends.

We walked into the south entrance at the base of a large limestone outcrop at the north end of a large cow field and followed the direction of the flowing creek water. It wasn’t necessary to go far, and still within the entrance day-light, when the first sign of graffiti in orange spray paint was observed. The fluorescent orange arrow was sprayed with our peroxide cleaning solution and with some scrubbing came off the cave wall quite nicely. As we progressed into the cave, it was great to see the youthful exuberance of a 4-year old. Of course we sent Xavi into cracks and crevices only he could get through. The child never showed any sign of fear — future caver?

During our through trip we encoun-

tered some 15 areas with the spray paint graffiti. We did our best to remove as much paint as we could and we were pretty successful. Fortunately, cave graffiti vandals are not that intel-ligent. They made our job much easier because they tended to spray the paint on the coating of dirt that covers the walls at the ground level of the cave. In most places a little brushing and the dirt came off the wall of the cave along with the paint.

A cave seems a peculiar place to bring a can of spray paint. Most professional graffiti artists proudly practice their craft on prominent public structures along well traveled corridors for maxi-mum visibility. Not many people see the graffiti vandalism in caves, as they do in the cities. Most major high-pop-ulation centers are covered with graffiti paint on their infrastructure such as buildings, tunnels, overpasses, bridges, trains, vehicles and it is everywhere. I’m sure most localities have laws against graffiti. However, with all the more serious crime occurring, graffiti vandal-ism is not that high of a priority in the city.

Unfortunately, for the cave graffiti art-ist, we the cavers are good stewards of the caves. If I see someone with a can of spray paint in a cave, or see them in the act of applying graffiti, I will make ev-ery effort to ensure they are prosecuted. I would encourage other cavers to do

the same. People who do cave graffiti are criminals because graffiti is vandal-ism and that is a crime.

Caves in West Virginia and most states are protected by law under West Vir-ginia Code Chapter 20.

NATURAL RESOURCES, AR-TICLE 7A. CAVE PROTECTION, §20-7A-2. Vandalism; penalties:It is unlawful for any person, without express, prior, written permission of the owner, to willfully or knowingly:(a) Break, break off, crack, carve upon, write, burn or otherwise mark upon, remove, or in any manner destroy, dis-turb, deface, mar or harm the surfaces of any cave or any natural material therein, including speleothems;(b) Disturb or alter in any manner the natural condition of any cave;(c) Break, force, tamper with or other-wise disturb a lock, gate, door or other obstruction designed to control or prevent access to any cave, even though entrance thereto may not be gained.

Any person violating a provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemean-

Photo by Gordon Birkhimer

Xavier Flory, 4, sits on Jim McCon-key’s back to reach some graffiti.

Photo by Gordon Birhimer

Some graffiti in Sinks of Gandy.

or, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and in addition thereto, may be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than ten days nor more than six months.

We made it out the drier north entrance on our through trip and back to our vehicles. Xavi was a little tired but he liked his first ever through cave trip. Paige Flory hosted an after cave party including a variety of delicious foods and a nice assortment of some of our favorite caver beverages. And, everyone was issued the VAR version of the Ibeenthrought-hesinks Club Membership Card!

There will be a Sinks of Gandy Landowner Dinner hosted by Earl Suitor on Saturday, Dec. 16 at O’Neill’s Restaurant, 7 p.m. in Moorefield, W.Va. Sligo Grotto is kindly paying for their dinner. We will show them the pictures of cleaning up the graffiti from their cave. h


Photo by Gordon Birkhimer

Paige Flory hosted an after cave clean-up party at the parking area.

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Froggy the 8th. Froggy was the eighth cave cat mascot in a long line of white cats of her beloved former owner, Bob Liebman, of Bob & Bob Caving Supply. Bob was known to travel in a white van to caving events for decades with a white cat named Froggy.

The year 2017 was a tough year for Froggy as she was alone in the Sinks Grove, W.Va., house with her younger sister, Wiley for about eight months. Pa-tricia Humphreys, of Ronceverte, W.Va., was her long-term caretaker while Bob was in various facilities fighting cancer, and he never returned home. Froggy’s Uncle Bill would visit when he could. Froggy missed having a lap to sit on during the day. To pass the time, Froggy would sometimes torment Wiley when the opportunity arose and continued to do so up until the time of her stroke.

In early August 2017, Froggy and Wiley came to live with me and my cat, Lily, in Salem, Va. Lily, the actual Princess

of the house, graciously allowed the usurping “Princess” Froggy to take over my bedroom. Wiley took over the guest bedroom and both of Bob’s cats shared the sewing room. Lily decided to let them have that part of the house, but maintained her dominion over the rest of the house and outside.

After we finally identified Froggy’s al-lergies, her ears and eyes cleared and her coat began to shine. Froggy was a great snuggler, often creeping up onto my pillow while I slept or lying next to me. She purred very loudly and craved lots of attention. Poor Wiley had to take a back seat when it came to affection, as Lily demanded my attention during the day, wanting to be with me while I was out in the yard or in her parts of the house.

Recently, Froggy developed a mild case of diabetes. Froggy did not like getting shots, but continued to purr, snuggle and wanted to be brushed whenever I was in close proximity. Froggy ap-parently had a stroke the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morn-ing, Gene Harrison and I took Froggy to the Emergency Vet to have her join her former longtime owner in heaven. Now they can snuggle and keep each other company forever. Farewell Froggy the 8th! h

Renowned Cave Cat: Froggy the 8thby Lynn Ott, NSS 15257 FE

Photo by Lynn Ott

Froggy, which was Bob Liebman’s eighth cat named the same name, died recently.


Stephanie Petri in Piercy’s Mill Cave, West Virginia. The pools pictured here were full due to very high flow rates in 2013.

ABOVE: Erica Sughrue in Xanadu Cave’s Jewel Box, Ten-nessee. Photo taken in 2011.BOTTOM: Stephanie Petri admires delicate formations in Secret Squirrel Cave, Tennessee.

Age: 62City: Monessen, Pa.Years Caving: 50Camera: Nikon D5200Go-to Lens: 18-55 f/2.8Go-to Light: FlashbulbsCameras Killed: 1Farthest Traveled (underground) for a Photo: A 22-hour trip in Friars Hole — entered Crookshank and trav-eled to the Crows Nest room in Canadian Hole and exited via the same route.

Errol Glidden in West Virginia’s Norman Cave.

All photos by

Ed McCarthy


LEFT: Stephanie Petri stands in the upstream section of Blowhole Cave, which is located in Tennessee.

RIGHT: Emily Dillon in the Forest Room of New River Cave, Virginia. The photo was taken in 2014.

Errol Glidden and Stephanie Petri in the Grandeur Avenue passage of Nunley Mountain Cave in Tennessee.

All photos by

Ed McCarthy


As some of you have already heard, I have taken over as preserve manager for the New River Cave Preserve in Giles County, Va. Wil Orndorff passed the responsibility on to me in October and we’ve been identifying some areas of improvement for the coming year.

I replaced the first in-cave register with an appropriate notebook, so if you take a trip please fill that out. I will be replacing and recording that

register as it fills up. We’ll also be doing some trail maintenance soon. In the spring, we will begin creating a campsite on the part of the property that intersects the New River.

If you have any comments or ques-tions about the preserve, please let me know by email — [email protected]. h

New River Cave Managerby Jonathan Roberts, NSS 66470

Photo by Jonathan Roberts

The crew that documented new vandalism throughout the tourist section of New River Cave.

For the 2016–2017 Virginia Region year, thanks to the hosts:

• Spring - Tommy Carpenter & Friends • Fall - Pine Mountain Grotto

It should be noted that individual Region Record subscriptions increased from last year. Expenses were also reduced from last year.

Oct 2016–Sept 2017 Income: $2,093$1,260 Spring meeting $ 755 Fall meeting$54 Individual Region Record Sub-scriptions $24 Bank Interests Expenses: $1,540$889 Printing of Four Region Records$484 Easter Weekend Food$30 Formation cleanup $237 Sinkhole cleanup

At the Spring 2017 VAR meeting the Junior Speleological Society donation

was terminated once we learned the National Speleological Society was sup-porting JSS at the National Conven-tion. The board also voted to do away with the Host Grotto bailout fund.

The Virginia Region maintains the funds for Landowner Defense and Grand Cavern Survey Project in a sepa-rate account.

The IRS 990 is filed prior to February 15 of each year, as required.

Total Assets (as of Nov. 30, 2017)Working check book $1,652NFS Foundation account $5,551Money Market account $2,861

TOTAL: $10,064

Projected 2017–2018 BudgetIncome: $1,540$750 Fall ($5 x 150 adults)$750 Spring ($5 x 150 adults)$ 40 Region Record subscriptions

Expenses: $1,400$900 Region Record - 4 issues$500 Easter Weekend - food and formation clean up h

Virginia Region Treasurer’s Reportby John Fox, VAR Treasurer

Fall VAR 2017Financial Report

Income Expenses

Onsite Registration $2,768

Online Registration $3,819

Mail-in Registration $950

Facility $3,000

Catering $1,160

Porta-John Rental $548

Guidebooks $500

VAR Fee (151 x $5) $755

Groceries $326

T-Shirts $944

TOTAL: $7,537 $7,732

Net Profit: -$195


New Caves in Greenbrier Countyby Bob Bennett

Photos by Jeff Hajenga

Indian Knife Cave (a.k.a. Trash Pit) before and after the trash was removed.

Timeline

May 2016 — The West Virginia DNR was contacted by landowner with concerns over trash in sinkhole and expansion of other sinkhole near her house.June 2016 — Property visitation to examine sinkhole and other caves.October 2016 — Returned to continue investigation of caves on property.November 2016 — Removed almost 2 tons of metal, 30 bags of trash and 7 tires from sinkhole. Total cost of effort ~$171

The Story

Jeff Hajenga was initially con-tacted in May 2016 by Linda Snyder regarding her concerns over the in-crease in size of a sinkhole near her home in Greenbrier County, W.Va. She also said that there were a few other caves on her property and one sinkhole had a lot of trash in it from a previous landowner. Jeff contacted several cavers to see how we could proceed to determine the situation.

Bill Balfour, a geologist and local caver with the WVCC and WVaSS, went out and saw that the sinkhole was actually a wet weather overflow of a spring. Recent timbering in the area had changed the volume of run-off entering a sinkhole up the valley, which produced a change in outflow near her house. Jeff also contacted Tri-State Grotto about coming down to look at the caves on her property. They agreed to set up a date in June.

On June 10–11, 2016, six members of Tri-State Grotto came down to in-vestigate the property with Jeff. Jeff Hajenga, Bob Bennett, Terri, Tom and Mason Griffin and J.C. Fisher went to Mrs. Snyder’s property to see how we could help.

Upon arrival we were eagerly greeted and welcomed by the land-owner. We examined the sinkhole near her house and reassured her that it was stable and not a risk to her home. We then proceeded to look at other cave features on her property. These included three pit caves and one horizontal cave. None of these

had been documented. The owner described the location of the caves to us and we looked at the cave with the trash in it first.

Upon arrival we saw a trash-filled sinkhole at the northern end of the property. At the base of the area of trash we could see an opening that we measured at about 20 feet deep. We then went on to a small horizon-tal cave near a water trough. The passage trended downslope for about 40 feet and rounded a curve. We did not look further.

We then went to the pit nearest her house. It consisted of a single drop of about 20 feet that belled out at the base to a room approximately 30 feet in diameter. There was no additional passage from this room. This cave had been used to collect drinking water and a system of steel drums and a support trapeze was used. Many rusted drums and the piping were still seen at the base of the pit and along the wall on the way into the cave.


Basically it looked like an upside down mushroom. Mrs. Snyder said there were barrels lowered in to the cave to collect water. The sound of the water hitting the barrel is why we call it Bongo Cave.

We then decided to check out another pit nearby that was a hazard to the landowner’s cattle. We proceeded to remove a marginally effective barbed wire fence and enter the cave. The pit ended up being a dead-bottom pit 8 feet deep and about 3 feet in diameter. We moved a few posts and improved the fence position, which would restrict the cattle’s access to the pit. This put an end to the day’s activi-ties.

On Oct. 1, 2016 five mem-bers of Tri-State Grotto again returned to the prop-erty to help investigate the caves during the Fall VAR at Poor Farm. The crew this time was Jeff Hajenga, Paulette & Bob Bennett, Terri & Tom Griffin, Jerry Bowen and John DiCarlo.

It was decided beforehand to focus on the trash-filled sinkhole with the pit and the horizontal cave near a water trough. Upon arrival we no-ticed the high water overflow nearest the house had changed in proportion and was now approximately 10 feet in diameter, compared to three 3 before the flood. The owner stated that during the high rainfall and flooding in the region last June (the 100-year flood that devastated the area around

Lewisburg on June 24, 2016), the normally dry hole had become a geyser shooting 4 feet in the air and depositing about a foot of rock and clay in her yard and driveway.

We investigated this area and removed a few large rocks to get a better idea on the nature of the sink-hole, but it had several very large boulders shift and it was decided that it was not completely safe to continue excavation.

We then went to the trash-filled sink at the north end of the property. It was no longer a clogged sink. After rigging a rope into the pit we de-

scended through the layers of trash. vAfter an initial drop of about 20 feet the passage split in two. One continued to another drop of about 25 feet, the other to a canyon-like passage with a shorter pit at the end of it. We took some mea-surements on the passage and found it to consist of about 200 feet of passage with a total cave depth of about 50 feet.

We then went to a hori-zontal cave located near a spring and water trough. We dropped into a room about 6 by 12 feet wide with a crack on the left.

Terri climbed through the crack. She scooted down the passage which was about 18 inches high most of the way, down into an area that went in three directions, we determined one of the passages did not go anywhere. We decided to hold off on the other two until the next trip. After

moving one of the rocks, four of us made it down the passage. A linear footage turned out to be 83 feet of passage. Because time was getting short, we decided that another trip to the caves to do an accurate mapping and a cleanup was warranted.

On Nov. 12 and 13, 2016, eight members of Tri-State Grotto came down to assist with the sinkhole cleanup. This included Todd Zim-merman, Jeff Hajenga, Terri & Tom Griffin, Paulette & Bob Ben-nett, John DiCarlo and Mary and Jerry Bowen. John DiCarlo had spent hours on the phone trying to find someone who would deliver

Photo by Bob Bennett

Jeff Hajenga rappels down into Calf Catcher Pit in Greenbrier County, W.Va.


a dumpster to the site. There were three different salvage companies in the area. We settled on Greenbrier Valley Solid Waste. A 30-cubic-yard dumpster was ordered and dropped off to be used for scrap metal only.

We started around 9 a.m. setting ropes as safeties working near the hole and hill side. We filled the dumpster only with metal. We had a refrigerator that we cut up, heat-ers and water pressure tanks. There were also large spools of wire, parts of an international truck and lots more. We used a truck with lots of chains to pull the heavy stuff up. We rigged up a high line for hauling material out of the sinkhole up to the dumpster.

We bagged all the trash. We took half the trash in bags with us while Jeff went back to remove the other half at a later date. We had about 33 large, heavy-millimeter bags filled with everything from records to car-pet. We worked from 9 a.m. to about 3 p.m. both days, with a total of 108 hours. In all, 3,880 pounds of metal, 7 tires and 30 bags of trash were removed from the sinkhole.

Additional trash (approximately a 6-foot-thick layer) exists within the entrance of the cave, which will require more work and hand picking. This is being scheduled for some time in the spring of 2017.

The cost of the dumpster was $160, which was paid by Tri State Grotto. Saw blades were $31 and the trash bags used were donated by grotto members. The value of metal re-moved and recycled was $20.

Additional funding was applied for to the NSS, but the project was com-pleted before the grant came back. NSS funding might be used to pay

for future efforts at this site.

On March 18, 2017, we had a recon trip into Indian Knife Cave. The reason for the trip was to see if it was feasible to do any digging in the cave to extend any of the passages. There had been several inches of snow in the area and with slightly warmer temperatures the snow was melting making the fields on the farm very very muddy. Because of this, we pretty much stayed on the make shift roads so as not to tear up the fields. This trip included Jeff Hajenga, David Knox, Tom Griffin, Todd Zimmerman and Bob Bennett. (Unknown at the time but this was probably Bob’s last true vertical trip!)

Once the rope was rigged everyone rappelled into the cave. WOW! The cave was very different this time. The cave was very wet and muddy. There was actually a waterfall just to the right of the area where you rappel to the bottom of the dome pit. Dave checked for places where his digging expertise might be used. There was even some digging done in the area where the stream enters the clogged passages.

After about two hours of futile dig-ging everyone decided that maybe

the cave ought to be left alone for now. After everyone climbed out we all headed to Lewisburg for dinner. The food was good and the camara-derie was great!

Naming The Caves

We asked Mrs. Snyder to name the caves on her property. There were many suggestions for the names.

In September 2017 it was official — the caves on the Snyder prop-erty were named. Indian Knife Pit, which was originally called Trash Pit, was possibly named this from the Indian relics that were found after the Lewisburg flood in June 2016. Bongo Pit was named due to the sound made by the water fall-ing in the cave on the steel drums at the bottom. Nether Field Spring Cave, a small overflow spring pipe that flows into the cave previously mapped to 85 feet, is the name of the horizontal cave. The small hole (a 6-foot pit leading nowhere that anyone could see) on a hill, which we repaired a fence to keep Linda Snyder’s Scottish Highlander calf from falling into, was named Calf Catcher Pit.

Surveying The Caves

Since most of the cleanup work had been done in the sinkhole it was now time to organize the survey of the new caves. A lot was be-ing said about when and who was going to be involved in the survey of the caves on the Snyder Farm in Greenbrier County. It kept being moved and delayed. Finally the time had come to actually survey Indian Knife Cave and Bongo Pit!

In the meantime, Bob Oehler was asked if he would like to survey Nether Field Spring Cave. Since he

Photo by Bob Bennett

John DiCarlo (left) visits with the landowner, Linda Snyder, during the cleanup.


does not do rope work he agreed to survey the cave. He is now in the process of drawing the map.

On the morning of Oct. 15, 2017, Tom Griffin and Terry McClana-than met Jeff Hajenga at the Snyder property, said hello to Mrs. Snyder and then proceeded to Indian Knife Cave, a.k.a., Trash Pit. They rigged two ropes, one as the main line and a second as a redirect over the pit. There is still about 3 feet of trash buildup at the entrance with very sharp metal to make life interesting.

At about 11 a.m. Jeff and I set the stations and took the shots while Terry, being the cartographer, drew the rough draft. I went down first to set the second station. This was a 13-foot rappel with a 4-foot climb down. From there we surveyed the horizontal portion in the first level.

Then we moved to what is now called the “Lost Glove Canyon.” Terry and Jeff made the 9-foot drop into the canyon while I stayed above to keep the rope in position and because there was not a lot of room at the bottom. Total height through-out the canyon was 23 feet with a catwalk about the 9-foot-high mark. On the way out of the canyon, Terry lost a pair of gloves. After an all-out search for the gloves, the search was called off giving the name Lost Glove Canyon.

Moving on, there was a 5-foot climb down with a 32-foot rappel to a landing spot at the bottom of the Dome Room. After surveying around the corner, we were able to get a laser shot of 44 feet to the ceiling. We had stopped after a few hours due to the constant waterfall, getting wet and cold and getting nowhere, so we thought we would come back at a later date. It was

determined to wait until after a survey was done since we thought the lead at the bottom may lead to Lost Glove Canyon.

After the survey was completed the map shows the canyon and the Dome Room do intersect at differ-ent levels, possibly being sepa-rated by a layer of trash. There was another lead Dave Knox was working on with a heavy current of water. That lead was complete-ly gone during the survey.

We completed Indian Knife Pit about 1:30 p.m., stopped for lunch then dropped a single rope into Bongo Pit — a 16-foot entrance pit with a total depth of 19 feet. With a total survey of 71 feet, this pit had some very nice formations in the bottom. Water continually fell into the pit just disappearing into the floor along the walls.

The three of us exited Bongo Pit and cleaned everything up. The time was about 3 p.m. We took a long shot over to Calf Catcher FRO Pit at about 185 feet from Bongo Pit. Terry listed it as a 6-foot pit. We headed over to Nether Field Spring Cave to take a quick look since Terry had not yet been in any of the caves. We went on down to where the little pool of water sat. We felt no compelling reason to cross this pool, so we headed out, said our goodbyes and went home.

Conclusion

So there you have it . . . there was a lot of planning and a lot of compro-mise, but it finally happened!

The saga goes from an owner’s con-

cern about a sinkhole and her home to a massive sinkhole cleanup and adding at least three caves (pits) to the Greenbrier County survey.

We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the ongo-ing saga. It has been interesting and fun!

Those involved: Jeff Hajenga, Tom & Terri & Mason Griffin, J.C. Fisher, Bob & Paulette Bennett, John DiCarlo, Jerry & Mary Bowen, Todd Zimmerman, David Knox, Terry McClanathan and Bob Oehler and his survey crew in Nether Field Spring Cave.

This article was compiled from re-ports from Jeff Hajenga, Tom Griffin and Bob Bennett. h

See more photos from this story on the back cover.

Photo by Tom Griffin

Jeff Hajenga (left) watches Terry McClanathan sketch during a survey trip into Bongo Pit, which has a 20-foot entrance pit.

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Removing trash in the sinhole at Indian Knife Cave.

Jeff Hajenga rappels the Indian Knife Dome Pit Drop.

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Looking up, out of Bongo Pit.

Read more about these new caves on pages 13–17.

Tom Griffin inside Nether Field Spring Cave.

Rappelling through trash at Indian Knife Pit.

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