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Maxwelton Sinks
July 9, 2011
By
Larry Sowers

James River Grotto Trip Report

Participants – Harry Sowers, Larry Sowers, Chuck Waller
Report -

Harry and I picked up Chuck at the Huddleston in Bedford. We had originally planned to go to Culverson Creek Cave with Maxwelton Sinks as our back up if rain threatened (Culverson is subject to extreme flooding). Friday night’s weather report was “flash floods” for our caving area so Maxwelton was a go.

Maxwelton is located just off the runway at the Greenbrier airport outside Lewisburg, WV. There are 5 caves surrounding the airport. Maxwelton, Benedict's, McClung's, Luddington, and Ware's Cave. These caves together have over 75 miles of surveyed passage!

We first visited the Lightner's entrance to McClungs. This may be a future trip for JRG but requires vertical proficiency and only a few of our group have done vertical.

We finally got to the entrance of Maxwelton Sinks about noon and started down the culvert. The entrance to Maxwelton is just like Scott Hollow except it is deeper, and has a real ladder instead of rebar rungs driven into the sides.

Once down, the passage is simply a tube varying in height from crawl to bent-over walking with a few spots where you can stand. Within a few hundred feet there is a difficult canyon traverse. This definitely could use a belay assist in the crossing because of mud and the potential for a fall of 15+ ft.

After the traverse we followed the down stream passage that reminds one of the water in Bone Norman. After about a thousand feet we arrived at a 30 ft. waterfall. An old bolt was in the wall but deemed unsafe and since we didn't have a belay rope long enough to assist a ladder climb down, we halted at this point.

In talking to Ed Stetser, our excellent contact for Maxwelton, we found out there is a rope already installed just around the corner in an upper balcony section where the waterfall is located. I actually went into this balcony section, which seemed to curve back around 180 degrees to the passage we were in. I wasn't looking for a rope so I didn't see one. We then exited out and our total time in the cave was about 3½ hrs.

This cave may be a good future trip for JRG but we plan to go back in Sept. to see if we can rig a ladder to do the waterfall. If we must use rope then our members have to learn vertical. We are working on this at JRG. If we can only use rope then our options are limited with our members present expertise. This is the same problem with the Lightner's entrance of McClungs. These are great caves to visit but we must improve our vertical ability.

We purchased 2 more cable ladders (we now have 4) to help us do shorter drops or difficult climbs but in some caves ladders are just not enough and ropes must be used.

Greenbriar County is one of the premier caving areas in the world let alone the U.S.! Next year the national NSS will be in Lewisburg. Every one of our JRG members should plan to attend some of the great sessions. I am sure that many of us will be involved in next years program.