MGnews. March 2009 Volume 2, Number 3

Transcription

1 MGnews MONTGOMERY GROTTO March 2009 Volume 2, Number 3

2 Montgomery Grotto Officers P R E S I D E N T : STAN TEW NSS stan_tew@yahoo.com V I C E - P R E S I D E N T : JELENE FRANKLIN NSS jelenefranklin@gmail.com T R E A S U R E R : BO FRANKLIN NSS bofranklin4@gmail.com S E C R E T A R Y : CHUCK TICE NSS chucktice@gmail.com to the Montgomery Grotto (MG) newsletter. We would like to take this opportunity to invite anyone interested in speleology to attend our meetings on the first Tuesday of each month at the First United Methodist Church at 7pm. The address is 2416 W. Cloverdale Park, Montgomery, AL Meetings last about one hour during which we discuss grotto business, welcome newcomers, plan trips and more. If you would like additional information, contact Stan Tew at stan_tew@yahoo.com. C a l endar March 03 MG Meeting April 07 MG Meeting April 27 Confederate Memorial Day May 05 MG Meeting Caving Information Online: MG Website: montgomery/ NSS Website: SCCi Website: NSS Online Cavers: nsscavers.ning.com/ Cavechat.org: forums.caves.org/ D i s c laimer: Caving is an inherently dangerous and demanding sport. Care should be given when deciding to participate in caving trips. You should be physically fit and not afraid of tight spaces. Caving trips are lead by volunteers; before participating, you should gather information about the difficulty of the trip and the experience level of the leader. Participating in any or all activities is at your own risk.

3 O n T h e C o v e r On February 16 th, Robert, Bo, Jelene, Roger, Colin and Chuck had a great trip to Guess Creek Cave. In this picture, one of the many bats we came across is taking a snooze inside a small hole. A n n o u n c e m e nts (1) Robert wanted everyone to know that the way is clear to go to Camp s Gulf Cave in April. If interested, contact him at: west_robert_l@yahoo.com. (2) The skydiving trip is scheduled for May 23 rd. Those wishing to go must pay Bo the $75 deposit by the March 3 rd MG meeting. (3) Bo still has supplies of MG stickers and patches they are available for $2.50 each to grotto members and friends. (4) If you have not paid your yearly dues, please bring $10 to the next meeting! (5) Don t forget that after you have been an MG member for one year, you must also join the NSS to continue your membership. (6) Remember to check out our website for trips and upcoming events. I n f o / Trip R eports Ridgewalking (Deirdra Hahn): A fellow caver invited me on a ridge walk. I was instructed to pack my vertical gear and carry a battery if I could. I took my internal frame back-pack and, with my gear and rope, it weighed in at 30 pounds. The battery I was to carry was a small marine-type and it must have weighed pounds. It was a 'heavy' pack. We proceeded to walk about a halfmile before we began gaining elevation. We gained approximately 240' elevation in just over a quarter mile before hitting the ridge. Up on the ridge he already had a pit dug that he wanted dropped. We opted to drop our packs and take a break from the trek and explore before coming back to drop the pit. I came across a sinkhole that had been dug and boy did I want to drop that one! I circled around trying to remain at the same elevation and I just kept stumbling across sinkholes! I found four that looked promising (one took a 20 foot stick and I didn't hit wall or bottom!) and two were blowing air! He GPSed those for another day. We went back to the pit. Because I didn't know how deep the pit was, I wanted to maximize the length of rope I had available. So, I rigged with a webbing wrap-3-pull-2 and 'biner connected that to a figureeight on a bite on my 105' rope. I tied two loops/knots at the end of my rope about 3 feet apart in case the pit would be shortroped and I needed a loop to stand in. I geared up. A Mitchell system is NOT ideal for cave exploration! Too much gear to get tangled up in! The upper part of the pit is a feet-first slide-in cork-screw with boulders along the way. About 10 feet down I had to hump over a rock. Now I'm facing the opposite direction and am standing on a rock securely wedged (how do I know? Because I jumped up and down on it!) between two walls of a rift. I turn around and look across about 20 feet and see another pit. I look down and see about 15 feet of free-fall coming and the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately, I needed to go under another wedged boulder to get to the free-fall. That was another ~5 feet of chimneying-climb-down. I make the free-fall, get off rope and out of my gear. The bottom of the first pit is mostly dirt/mud (possibly from the digging). There is a window to the other pit, but I opted to crawl along the floor under a natural bridge. The floor becomes flowstone. There is an opening with a 4 inch white snake-headed wormy looking critter squirming about telling me to shut the damn light off! Two white cave crickets with ghost grey markings come towards me. I look down and there looks to be some very dark brown/black soil that is just teeming with white wormy critters screaming toward the light. It reminded me of watching plants sprout in fastmotion. I turned away. The flow-stone floor ended with a very small stream that disappeared under the wall. The stream-bottom was rounded gravels. I walked up into the next pit and looked up. The ceiling was directly below where I was standing when I rigged. I looked at the breakdown that was holding that pit closed and thought about how

4 not much longer that pit would be open too. Guess Creek Cave (Chuck Tice): until it came into view, and that was only the beginning. As we made our way down into the entrance room we were all in awe. I believe we all concluded that each of our houses would fit inside this area, at the same time, and with room left over! The group made its way up the right, rear of the big room to work our way toward the stream bed. We made it to the area where the Keyhole is located, which is the opening for the 30 climb-down. We ended up going down another spot that we thought was the correct path. It worked, but it was a little bit more exposed than we would have liked. On Monday, February 16, 2009, a group of 6 cavers from the MG ventured up to Guess Creek Cave located in Paint Rock Valley, Trenton, AL. The group consisted of Robert, Bo, Jelene, Roger, Colin and Chuck. For Robert, the trip leader, it was a return trip to a cave he had not visited since 1984; for everyone else, it was a virgin trip. After reaching the stream bed, we made our way upstream Other than the temperature being a bit chilly, the weather was perfect as we made the I was able to capture several nice pictures looking out of the entrance. In the meantime, short hike from our vehicles up to the cave entrance. The firsttimers had no idea how amazing the entrance was going to be evident that there had been some nice camp fires in the ring, probably very recent. everyone else made there way to the center of the room and laid back in the lounge chairs that circled the fire ring. It was toward the Waterfall Passage. Some of us did everything we could to stay dry, but the inevitable was quickly approaching. And then we were all wet. Some ended up in the water a little deeper than others;

5 for me, the water only made it just past my knees. awesome cave that I very much enjoyed. It is definitely on my list of caves to re-visit, hopefully multiple times. related article. Photo by Mark Ostrander. Boulder Garden at Moss Rock (Chuck Tice): On February 21, 2009, Bo, Colin and Chuck got in some vertical practice at the Boulder Garden in Birmingham. This And, of course, the group had to travel over to Geno s for pizza and refreshments to finish out our day! Thanks Robert!! We probably made it just over half-way to the waterfall, which I estimate put us just over threefourths of the way to the Waterfall Passage. Everyone hated to do it, but after almost three hours, we deemed it best to start our way back out. The fact that the next section of cave was going to require us to crawl numerous yards on all fours through a couple of feet of water may have influenced our decision. was Colin s first time using his Mitchell System and he did great! TAG Photo (Deirdra Hahn): MG Meeting Minutes The last of the group made it out of the cave around 5:00pm, which put our total caving time around 5.5 hours. Everyone agreed that it is a moderately difficult cave due to the tough climbs and tight crawls; saying that, I must add that it is an January 6, 2009: Deirdra Hahn under the 30 foot calcified root TAG Saturday. See "Pot of Gold" NSS News, Feb for Meeting started at 7:09pm. Introductions of everyone. Nick gives trip report of Tumbling Rock. They had a good time; one kid had

6 some problems though. Nick tells us he is trying to get his daughter to go and passes around pictures of the trip. Message from Robert read by Bo. o Robert is planning two trips; one to Guess Creek Cave in Feb on President's Day and a trip in April to Camp's Gulf Cave. Robert asked that they contact him. Jeff and his wife, Jess Jenkins, Ron Jr., Matt, Roger, Terri, Bo, and Jelene expressed interest in going on the trips. Stan tells the group a little about Guess Creek Cave; mentioned that it is a pretty cool cave to visit. Skydiving trip on May 23rd (Date is flexible to another day in May). It is mentioned about bringing video to show at next meeting. Roger tells of their time in the Wildcat Extension on the last Tumbling Rock trip, impressive part of the cave. Roger got muddy. Roger also mentioned seeing a good many footprints in the Extension. Stan said that they saw footprints in the flagged off areas. Jelene mentioned that she knew of someone leading a group specifically to the Wildcat Extension back in October when Bo, Chuck, and Jelene took a trip to Tumbling Rock to see the logs up close. Discussion about caving helmets on Tag-Net. Tag-Net discussion lead to the mention of the Tumbling Rock trip coming up and enough helmets for everyone. Back to discussion about helmets. Bo volunteered to get the helmets from Stan's house. Matt and Jeff offered to help. Stan wants to get an estimate on some new helmets. Jess Jenkins has been to Bangor Cave, describes the cave and how to get to it. Possible caves to visit: o Fricks Open House sometime in February o Rickles possibly February or March o Mrs. Miller's Cave o Graves Cave o Horseskull Cave Stan's wanting to plan trip to Anderson Cave in February before it closes. Lee won the door prize; kneepads and chocolate. Break-in at Glory Hole o Trip coming up is tentative; lock was broke and gate damaged Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm Montgomery Grotto Apply Postage Here