Organ Cave Trip Report

January 13, 2008

By

Mike Frazier

Our initial group, consisting of Harry and Larry Sowers, Paul (Paco) Pocovich, Paul Stern and me pulled out of Lynchburg promptly at 7 AM.  We proceeded to Rt 220 and where Pat Simms and Susan Burr from the Blue Ridge Grotto joined us. We grabbed a quick bite at Hardee’s and pushed on.

Arriving at the Shoney’s Lewisburg, WV, at about 9:15, we met Mark Morton, Jim Pugh, Jim’s brother in law Clark Poindexter and his son Paul Poindexter and found them chowing down on the breakfast bar. Once finished, we headed to the Lips entrance of Organ Cave.

Parking is scarce here, so after turning around at the top of the hill, we pulled in tight to the embankment and dressed out between the vehicles. On the cave side of the road, there is a high tensile strength wire fence, which Pat soon found out was electrified. After a good laugh and a brief overview of the maps, we went to the end of the fence line and turned down through the pasture to the entrance, only to find that the steps to get over the fence at the top of the sink hole are no longer there. There was a little dug out spot under the bottom strand, which thankfully was not hot, so we shimmied under that and headed down into the cave.

There was a typical downhill climb and walk into the first passage, which was largely dry. As we pushed on, we started encountering lower and lower ceiling. There were several transitions from upright walking to bending, stooping, knee walking, hand and knee crawling and belly crawling. This goes on for a long way in mostly dry conditions. We found a little water along the way in the stream passage, but you could usually canyon over it without much problem.

There were several junctions that were fairly “mazy” and we had to stop and study the maps. We made a few wrong turns, but with a little scouting, we managed to find our way. This is a cave where you really need to be careful and stop to figure out where you are on the map from time to time. It is so large that if you take a wrong turn, the passage you are in can go on for hours. I believe I heard one of our trip leaders say there is some 37 miles of passage in this cave, which makes it the second largest cave in West Virginia. We carefully marked our route with markers and flagging tape as we went along to assist our exit.

We eventually entered a section where someone had scratched on a big, flat rock the words “formations ahead, please be careful”. Boy, they weren’t kidding!!! Up until this point the cave was very sparsely decorated, but this room, which is called the Treasure Room, was loaded with formations. Several nice draperies and flowstone formations were present, but the thing that really blows you away is the huge amount of helictites. There is one section of wall approximately 4 feet high by 8 feet long that is literally covered with helictites, all entangled with each other. By far the best I’ve ever seen. If you ever do this cave, this is a must see.

This is the point where we elected to start heading back. Somehow, crawling passage seems to double in length on the way out. I think we were all very glad to see the entrance. Back to the vehicles, and a quick change into our pedestrian garb, we headed back into Lewisburg for a delicious Mexican meal at Carlito’s.

We said our goodbyes and headed back home. Paco was driving back to Pennsylvania, and Harry and Larry were going over to Snowshoe for a couple days skiing (lucky dogs). All in all, a wonderful day with good friends and great caving. Can’t beat that!!!!!