Gatewood

On Friday night (10/22/04) Doug Moore, Jason Thomas, Melissa Parker, John Barth, Cara Doud, Dave Olsen, Marty McKinley, Brian Masney, Ben Mirable, Garth (of the WVUSG) and Doug McCarty camped at Gatewood group Campground near Spruce Knob. It was a bit chilly, and very foggy, but we built a roaring fire and gathered around it listening to Muddy Waters and other great blues artists on XM radio. As usual, instead of going to sleep in a tent or sleeping bag, Garth slept in a chair by the fire. At about 5am his foot caught on fire and he was badly burned. Cara and Dave rushed him (relatively speaking) to the hospital in Elkins and he was transferred from there to the Burn Center in Pittsburgh with third degree burns. He is okay now though.

Mystic

The next day (10/23/04) Bob Griffith, John Barth, Kevin and Justin Keplinger, Jason Thomas, Melissa Parker, Brian Masney, Cara Doud, Marty McKinley, Katherine Gertler, Jonathan Kimble, Danial Burge, Randy Landis, Chad Lowther, Darcie Skeen (a first time caver who was "looking for adventure") and Doug McCarty went to Mystic. Everyone had a good time. Darcie said she really enjoyed caving but that she would never do it again.

Vertical Training

The next day (10/24/04) Doug McCarty, Llew Williams and John Barth did vertical practise at Bear Heaven. We were there from 9am until 3pm. The only incident worth noting was that somehow a yellow jacket crawled up Doug's pant leg and stung him on the thigh three times (with decreasing amounts of venom). No complaints though. At least he didn't end up in the Burn Center. 

10/03/04

No Shavers Mountain Survey

The Shavers Mountain Survey was a washout this month. Neither Barry Horner nor Ralph Hubbard could make it, so Rocky Parsons, Richard Hand and Doug McCarty were the only ones who showed up at the cabin on the creek. Unfortunately,  Doug got sick and left on Saturday morning. Kevin and Justin Keplinger showed up, and Rocky wanted to go and dig in County Line, but they apparently thought it might be too rough of a cave for Justin with the exposure. So, they just went to Bowden and called it a day.  

9/26/04

VAR/Mon Grotto 40th Anniversary

9/11/04

Kevin, Josh and Justin Keplinger, Llew and Justin Williams, Cindy and Paul Cheramie and Doug McCarty did a dry run of the VAR Otter Creek Cave Hike. We started at the Big Springs Gap trailhead, walked to the Otter Creek Trail. Did a truncated Otter Maze trip to the mini-formations at the end of one of the passages. Walked 3 miles to Confluence and went through it, coming out of the second entrance. The entire trip took about 5 hours. 

9/7/04

OTR

8/15/04

Don Humphrey, Kevin Keplinger, Bob Griffith, Mary Davis, Jesse Griffith, Cara Doud, Dave Olsen and Doug McCarty did the Bowden Adopt-a-Highway today. It was a beautiful day and we got about 8 bags of garbage

8/9/04

According to Ana Sutlovic Baksic of the Velebit Speleological Society, cavers in the mountainous Velebit region in central Croatia have found a 1,693 drop in a cave located in the Rozanski Hip National Park Reserve. That is almost three times higher than Fantastic Pit. It is higher than the Sears Tower in Chicago. At the base of the drop they have found one of the largest known colonies of subterranean leeches. Hmm. I wonder what they leech onto down there.

8/8/04

Ralph Hubbard and Doug McCarty of the Monongahela Grotto joined Rocky Parsons and Pat Rollyson of GROSS Grotto Friday night for the Shavers Mountain Survey. While Pat's daughter, Hannah, slept in the cabin, we sat around the campfire playing guitars and having a general good time well into the evening. We were joined the next morning by a third Mon Grotto member, Llew Williams, in digging open the GROSS Grotto Quarry Cave. This cave is blowing so much air that we could use it for a refrigerator. By today at 1pm, we could see cave passage, but one rock still blocks our way in.  

8/2/04

PAG is doing "Rig the Rock" at North Bend State Park this coming weekend. Steve Mosberg, Dave Berman, Cullen Sutton and Todd Handley are going to rig rebelays, traverses and other vertical scenarios on Castle Rock--a seventy foot high chunk of sandstone. It will last from 11am to 4pm. Bring vertical gear, helmet, gloves, food & drink. 

7/31/04

Rich Finley, Brian Masney and Doug McCarty took a group of 31 youth and several adults through the front section of Bowden today.  They were from the Reynoldsville Baptist Church in Harrison County. 

7/13/04

The Web site for the NSS Convention of 2005 is up at http://www.nss2005.com/

The convention will be in Huntsville, Alabama from July 4th-8th with pre-convention and post-convention caving opportunities galore. 

7/6/04

Shavers Mountain

Kevin Frick came in from Arizona and joined Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Richard Hand and Doug McCarty to survey the newly dug out Frosted Ash Cave. Kevin and Doug also backpacked into Otter Creek Wilderness and explored the inner confusion of Otter Maze.

6/12/04

Celebration of the Outdoors

Bob Griffith, Jeff Lydic, Brian Masney, and Doug McCarty took four garbage bags of trash out of Coopers Rock Cave. We were then joined by Mary Davis and Rich Finley for a half day presentation on caving at the Celebration of the Outdoors. Although the event didn't seem to have been publicized very much, we had a few people show up. Bob gave a power point intro to caving and we took seven people into Coopers Rock Cave. After that, we did a vertical demonstration on ropes we rigged in the trees and gave several of our new cavers a chance to try a Mitchell system. Bob and Doug are taking several people on a beginner trip tomorrow to Barton's Cave.

6/6/04

Shavers Mountain Survey

Barry Horner, Rocky Parsons, Ralph Hubbard, Doug
Moore and Doug McCarty spent Friday night camped on the Glady Fork off of the Sully Road. The next morning Brian Masney showed up for the day. Barry, Brian and Doug finished the dig in Frosted Ash and broke into a fair amount of
virgin passage with lots of leads. Rocky, Ralph and DougMc dug at GROSS
Grotto Quarry cave. Doug Moore and Brian left Saturday evening and Cara Doud joined us on Sunday back at GROSS Grotto Quarry cave--which is still a
work in progress.

5/29/04

Fall VAR

Fall VAR will be at Camp Kidd in Tucker County WV on the weekend of September 24-26. A VAR was hosted there by Monongahela Grotto once before in 1995. Thanks to Doug Moore for arranging for us to get Camp Kidd. A Fall VAR page will be added to this website soon with registration information, a map and other details.

5/15/04

The effort to locate a site in Tucker County for Fall VAR is becoming difficult. Our best hope in Canaan Valley was Timberline, but they want $9 apiece for the meal and $10 per person to camp in an area far removed from the lodge with no toilets or showers. Camp Kidd is now our only other option, but the rental agreement they sent me was hard for me to decipher.  sent them a description of what we needed and asked if they could have someone call me. I'm still waiting--although I didn't really expect anything before Monday the 17th.  If that falls through for some reason, we'll probably have to retreat to northern Randolph County--to Alpine Shores.

5/2/04

Shavers Mountain Survey

There were four people at the Shavers Mountain Survey this weekend. We surveyed the virgin high lead in County Line Cave. It was a crawl that opened into a short stretch of walking passage, then quickly went to a low belly crawl in sandy dirt that we had to dig out in order to get through. It went about 100 feet and then, amazingly, led into a fairly large domepit that will require vertical gear. There is more passage on the other side.

5/01/04

Because they were switching to a new server, this site has not been updated for more than three weeks. The server is now switched and we're back on the air.

4/28/04

Three teenagers died in some man-made "caves" on the banks of the Mississippi near St. Paul, Minnesota. They were suffocated by carbon monoxide that was produced, apparently, because somebody other than the teenagers had lit a fire. The "caves" were originally sandstone mines that were later used to grow mushrooms. It is unfortunate that they have been labelled "caves" by the media because it may stir up some anti-cave hysteria. It is also very unfortunate that these three teens died. 

4/25/04

The Monongahela Grotto will be hosting the next VAR. It was not altogether a happy decision because the VPI Cave Club also wanted to host it, and apparently (unbeknownst to us) had asked first. However, it is our 40th anniversary and we haven't hosted a VAR for nine years. It was a close vote, but in the end, Mon Grotto got it.

4/18/04

Alan Carpenter, Bob Griffith, Don Humphrey, Ralph Hubbard and Doug McCarty showed up at the Adopt-A-Highway at Bowden. We also had a helper from the Mountain State Grotto, but I forget her name. Later in the afternoon, Ralph, Carl Werntz and Doug McCarty--along with a new caver named Gerrard did a managment trip to Bob White and picked up several pieces of trash in the cave and on the property. The register in the cave is like a roll of wet toilet paper and needs replaced.

4/13/04

McClung's Cave

  The horizontal entrance to McClung's has a new owner and there is a new tenant living in the house. There have been a number of incidents at the cave over the last month that have caused a lot of friction between the tenant and the caving community. The parking area is now posted with No Parking signs and unless you have specific permission from the owner, the tenant says he will call the police. 

Until the WVCC can sit down face to face with the owner and discuss the issues, please avoid caving in McClungs from that entrance. The Lightners entrance is open and you can get to most parts of the cave from it in three hours or less. Let's keep this cave off the Closed Cave list by avoiding it until the issues have been worked out. WVCC has some contact going on with the owner about these topics, and will keep the caving community posted on developments. 

4/12/04

If you're heading to Persinger's Cave Preserve, a Greenbrier County landowner has requested that no one the road that has been used up until now. There is a chain across the lane to prevent through traffic. This is NOT due to any cavers upsetting the owner. It is in response to construction equipment using his road and tearing it up. If you are planning a trip to Persingers, contact me at the grotto e-mail address on the Contacts page for the new directions.

4/9/04

The NSS Board of Governers has voted to re-designate NSS-owned properties now called "cave preserves" as "nature preserves". It was done because of rising insurance costs. It is hoped that by calling them "nature preserves" and taking the focus off of the caves, the insurance costs will eventually go down. It is also believed that organizations that give out grants will respond more favorably to a "nature preserve".

4/4/04

PS to Shavers Mountain Survey

Ralph and Barry decided to check out the pit at some future date, they got invited to a crazy kayaker party and stayed up until the wee hours of the AM. When they got up this morning, they decided to check out the pit at a later date. (The owner says he can drop a rock in this hole and it takes four seconds to hit bottom.)

4/3/04

Shavers Mountain Survey

Ralph Hubbard and Doug McCarty joined Rocky Parsons and Barry Horner on the mountain today. We unsuccessfully looked for Mint Springs #3, we GPSed Ginger Root Cave, but we spent most of our time digging in a tall little cave being called Frosted Ash (for now). It blows a lot of air and the dig looks like it is opening into larger passage. Tomorrow, Ralph and Barry are checking out hole in the ground the landowner says is a pit.

3/13/04

Rich Finley, Jason Thomas, Mellissa Parker, Brian Masney and Ben Mirable went to Simmons Mingo today

3/6/04

In spite of rain and high water a few intrepid souls made Shavers County Survey--Rocky Parsons, Barry Horner, Ralph Hubbard and Doug McCarty. They ridgewalked in the intermittant rain and found several insurgences taking large amounts of water, then went back to Alpine Lodge for chili and grilled cheese sandwiches. There is a lot of work to be done up there. There are lots of potential digs that are quite promising and virgin cave in County Line Cave that is unsurveyed. On Friday night, in 75 degree weather, Doug got his van stuck in the ice on the road to Bear Heaven Campground and had to call a wrecker to get out.

3/4/04

E-mail from Dave Moyer regarding Jim Barrett:

3/3/04

The Shavers Mountain Survey has started up again on the first weekend of the month. Rendezvous at Alpine Lodge in Alpina at 9am on Saturday morning.

2/25/04

Starting sometime in "late February" Bill Stone will be posting field dispatches from his expedition to Cheve Cave in Mexico to the web address:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/caverace

Also, for some entertaining mug shots of some PSC and other cavers from way back when (including at least one Mon Grotto member, Bill Biggers), check out the PSC web site. Go to the lefthand column and click on Project Simmer Mug Shots

2/21/04

The NSS website was down for more than a week this month because of server problems. As a result of that, this web site was inaccessible and has not been updated for about three weeks

2/5/04

At long last, Bat Boy, the Musical will be playing in Pittsburgh at the Charity Randall Theatre from February 11-29. Tickets are only $15. Here is a link to the theater site. And if you happen to have been living in a cave and don't know who Bat Boy is, here is a link to everybody's favorite source of news that really matters--Weekly World News. It sounds like a WVUSG group trip is in the offing.

1/31/04

Four Polish cavers were killed by an avalanche in the Tatra Mountains in the Mala Swistowka area on January 28.

1/23/04

 Mrs. Geraldine Freeman (owner of McClungs Cave) passed away at her nephew's home on January 21st.

1/8/04

Brief  Trip Report

or How to find Bob White when you're not really sure where it is.

e-mail received from Llew Williams (44854RE)

Doug, I thought I would send a little report on our visit to Bob White. My son Justin and I visited it on Friday 01/02/04. Weather was drizzley and  warm. We arrived in Parsons at about 12:00. We drove up and down the road while holding my GPS out the window until we got an idea where the Nature  Conservancy property was. Justin had to get out and push at one point when my  two-wheel drive truck just wouldn't turn around on the packed wet ice. We found  a good solid place to park just off of the edge of the property. I had UTM  coordinates from the NSS Convention 2000 Guidebook. We knew it was on  Nature Conservancy land and near a logging road. We started up an old logging  road with my GPS. Two hours later we had scaled the mountain, crossed the property, descended and recrossed the mountain. At this point we were thoroughly familiar with the property lines and rapidly losing faith in my GPS unit. Christmas is over. Maybe I can ask for a new one. My birthday is coming up. My GPS is pretty old, maybe it's getting flakey?? Anyhow we decided to put it away and just see if we coldn't find the cave on our own. We followed the road up higher on the mountain. Came to a three way intersection. Looked left. Edge of property. That  leaves two possibilities. Our "Cave Sense" said to take the right fork. We went a  couple of hundred feet. Ah ha, a sink. We were finally there. It was 3 PM and we  had a great walk in the woods. We put on on our gear and climbed down into the  cave. The area was clean and the mouth of the cave was pristine, with no trash or  graffiti. We got to the the register. It looks like we are the first registered visitors,  since June ! We climbed up into the upper level to stay dry. We encountered a few  bats here and there. Worked our way back the second level for over an hour with  some up and down climbs. About 5 PM we were near the back of the cave, but  not all the way to the end. We decided to head out and stayed in the lower level for  most of the trip. We saw one area in the lower lead that had maybe twenty bats in  one place with some layering over others. We saw maybe 100 bats total for the  day. We tried to stay as far from the bats as possible and none were awakened.  We got out about 6 and used our headlights to find our way back down to the road. The stream crossings were a little more difficult under lights but we both finished the day with dry feet. We had a good trip. I would like to do another trip when I can get in a little earlier. I noticed a live trap on the NC property at the bottom of the hill. It was not baited and it was closed. It looked to be for raccoons. I don't know if the Conservancy would be interested. Maybe they alreay know about it. It was a very official looking trap. 

1/7/04

In Springfield, Missouri, a man named Chad Wilson has copped a plea on a charge of cave vandalism for vandalizing River Bluff Cave in Missouri in April 2002. A road crew discovered the virgin cave in 2001 and got people from a local university to explore it. Shortly after the discovery was announced to the public this bozo and another guy broke in and vandalized the cave.

1/5/04

1/4/04

1/1/04