District of Columbia Grotto
of the
National Speleological Society

... exploration, study, and conservation of caves.
2009: Monthly DCG meetings are now on the 2nd Thursday of the month!

Caving Calendar

Scheduled DC and Baltimore area caving activities (meetings, trips, and other events) are listed in the on-line caving calendar. There are also PDF flyers for many of the events. Click here.   If asked, enter User: calend & Pswd: gocave, for the calendar page, or any flyers linked below.   Some Upcoming Highlights:

July 9 (Thu), 7:30p: General meeting: Chevy Chase Community Ctr. in DC.
  6:00-6:15p: Optional pre-meeting dinner at very nearby Mandarin Palace.
Click [here] for details and directions to both.  Program:  A presentation about Cricket Maze Cave (Berkeley Co., WV).

Aug 4 (Tue), 7:00p: EC meeting at Cedar Lane UU Church, in greater Bethesda. See their excellent Map & Directions. Of the two driveways, the one closest to Beach Dr. will be the one for the lot for the classrooms. Go thru double doors, down hallway, go right and continue down hallway, look on right for room 4.

Aug 13 (Thu), 7:30p: Informal meeting at Hard Times Cafe in Bethesda, MD. [details & directions]  If you choose to eat, consider arriving early (say 6:15p), to allow time to order, eat, and socialize, before the main focus of the meeting.

Sept 3-7:   Party (and perhaps cave) with ~2000 other cavers at the 60th annual Old Timers Reunion, near Elkins, WV.   TRA members and guests only.   Info on how to join TRA is Here.

Sept 8: Pre-registration deadline (to save $2) for Fall VAR Meeting (Sept 25-27)

Sept 10 (Thu), 7:30p: General meeting: Chevy Chase Community Ctr. in DC.
  6:00-6:15p: Optional pre-meeting dinner at very nearby Mandarin Palace.
Click [here] for details and directions to both.  Program:  Multiple 5-minute presentations by members on any speleo-topic. Contact Ed Devine to get a slot.

Bat Die-off Crisis

Something is causing the death of huge numbers of bats, seemingly associated with White Nose Syndrome, starting in the Northeast, and having spread into PA, WV, and VA.   With the possibility of human cave visitation assisting this spread, precautions include cave closures (check the VAR Closed Cave List prior to any trip), and de-contamination of all cave gear before and after visiting any open cave.  For lots more information, visit any of these links:

Trout Rock Bat Counts

Click here to see the results of the annual bat counts in Trout, Hamilton, and New Trout caves in Pendleton County, W.V.

Comments and suggestions regarding these pages may be sent to DCG Webmaster.

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