Gating Project At Rapp's Cave

By Chuck Waller

On Friday evening, January 20, 2007, Harry Sowers and myself left Lynchburg headed to Lewisburg, WV, to participate in our first cave-gating project. We had learned of this adventure from an email and made the decision to volunteer, unsure of what to expect.

After stopping in Lewisburg for dinner we headed for the WVACS field house located about 12 miles away. We would be spending the night at the field house, which is just over the hillside from Rapp's Cave, so that we could get an early start at the cave-gating project, which was to begin promptly at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning.

As promised in the initial information, there was a warm fire going in the field house wood stove when we arrived. Being the first volunteers to arrive, we threw a couple of logs on the fire and started looking at all the cave maps hanging on the walls in the field house. We then went to the bunk room located in the back of the field house and claimed our bunks for the night. BACK of the field house is the key word here, meaning for me a long way away from the stove. ( I got cold during the night, what a surprise!)

As the evening progressed, more cavers arrived, introductions were made and wild cave stories started to spread. Saturday morning Harry and I woke up early and decided to drive back into Lewisburg for breakfast. Stepping into the early morning West Virginia air was, as we anticipated, cold temps, snow flurries and a strong wind. We hoped this weather would not last all day.

After breakfast we arrived at the project parking area and proceeded through a gated and fenced cow pasture to the staging area where all the steel was located for today's cave gating party. A rough guess was that there were probably 40 cavers onsite for the work. It was obvious that the people s in charge had done this before. There was a large tent set up that had sides on it to help shield against the wind. Inside were tables with several coffee pots, hot cider and pastries.

The work groups were divided into three teams. The gate welders/fabricators at the cave entrance would relay exact steel bar lengths via 2-way radios to the staging area. At the staging area, a group of workers would measure and cut the steel to the lengths required. After cutting the steel, the worker bees would wrap nylon slings around the metal bars and transport them up a small hill to the cave entrance. At the entrance the steel would be positioned in the correct location and welded into place. This process repeated itself through out the day.

At lunch time, all the workers were treated to a great lunch of hot soups, chili beans and a large variety of desserts. As the day came to a close and the gate was almost finished, the volunteers were offered the opportunity to go on a cave trip. Harry and I went on the short, historic tour of the cave. Following this, Harry went on an extended trip lasting an hour and a half while I helped the remaining volunteers tear down camp. As darkness started to move in, the project was completed and we headed home.