I asked Alan Peterson how Druid Cave got its name... He was president of the WVU Student Grotto back in 1979. They spent lots of time in Beaverhole Upper and Lower, Maiden Run, and figured that there must be some caves that lined up with them on the other side of the Cheat. They consulted some topo maps, and started doing ridge walking in probable locations. The group of 3 that found the Druid entrance were all Forestry majors. Since "all Forestry majors worship the trees", they decided that there was no better name for it than "Druid".
Prior to this weekend, he hadn't been back in a cave since they found Druid, 25 years ago - it'll probably be another 25 years after NYDC!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
[Trip] NYDC Work Weekend
This Saturday was a "work weekend" at New Years Day Cave. A record 8 victims volunteers met up at Aaron Bird's house at 9:30am. I almost missed the caravan due to an unwelcome speeding ticket, but made it just in time.
My team - me, Aaron Bird, Doug McCarty, and one of the original discoverers on Druid Cave, Alan Peterson - spent the day continuing the survey. We started the survey just on the other side of the nasty water crawl. We added about 300' to the survey, to just past the long rock-on-rock crawl (which was about an inch smaller than Doug in his wetsuit). A summarizing quote from this survey trip was "David, the next station is this hole in the mud."
We used glowsticks for this survey, and I'm impressed with how well they worked out. The forward and back sight each had a different color so you could use your stick (eg. orange) to light the instruments while easily sighting the other color stick (eg. green). Since they're a line instead of a point, you can align the stick vertically for sighting azimuth and horizontally for sighting inclination. Very handy, but avoid trying to use a dim one!
The other team - Brian Masney, Jason Thomas, Rocky Parsons, and Alan Grubb - went ahead with the intent of pushing the cave towards Druid. They put a good deal of muscle power against some formidable rocks, and weren't able to pass.
The hike up out of the valley was slow and painful for everyone! Afterwards, everyone headed back to Aaron's where Rachel had prepared some awesome bean soup and blue cornbread.
My team - me, Aaron Bird, Doug McCarty, and one of the original discoverers on Druid Cave, Alan Peterson - spent the day continuing the survey. We started the survey just on the other side of the nasty water crawl. We added about 300' to the survey, to just past the long rock-on-rock crawl (which was about an inch smaller than Doug in his wetsuit). A summarizing quote from this survey trip was "David, the next station is this hole in the mud."
We used glowsticks for this survey, and I'm impressed with how well they worked out. The forward and back sight each had a different color so you could use your stick (eg. orange) to light the instruments while easily sighting the other color stick (eg. green). Since they're a line instead of a point, you can align the stick vertically for sighting azimuth and horizontally for sighting inclination. Very handy, but avoid trying to use a dim one!
The other team - Brian Masney, Jason Thomas, Rocky Parsons, and Alan Grubb - went ahead with the intent of pushing the cave towards Druid. They put a good deal of muscle power against some formidable rocks, and weren't able to pass.
The hike up out of the valley was slow and painful for everyone! Afterwards, everyone headed back to Aaron's where Rachel had prepared some awesome bean soup and blue cornbread.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Schoolhouse Cave Register
George Dasher has transcribed the Schoolhouse Cave register. Schoolhouse was considered one of the toughest caves in the country and is always mentioned extensively when NSS history is up for discussion. It was mined for saltpeter during the Civil War, and is now closed year-round for bats. The register appears to have been full of limericks, love letters, and tales of...vienna sausages?
- From the PSC's discussion board
- From the PSC's discussion board
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Now let's get speleo serious: Cave Project Marketing for the Little Fish
Ever considered how to market your cave project? Maybe a little? No? If you've done anything at all, you've probably listened to the successful "cave project managers" talk about their cave at grotto or club meetings or you've read about their projects in newsletters or surfed cave-related websites. Then, when you got home to your trusty Microsofted Dell, you collated all your notes and put together a complete marketing package to attract the best and brightest cavers (or not so bright as the case may actually be) to your cave project.
And if you've done that, then how many times have you ever gotten the chance to ask a business marketing guru ("ooooh!") how best to market your cave project? Probably never. Before this past weekend I was unfortunate enough to be on that sinking ship with you. However, we are no longer comrades in peril, because I had the opportunity to query a specialist and the things I found out will astound you... if I decide to share the secrets that is. OK, don't have a bat, I'll tell. I would feel really badly if you drowned under the weight of an unmanageable cave project marketing scheme and lost all the best and brightest recruits to someone like me who already has all the answers.
First, don't make a really nice looking map. If you have a cave already, then you're in luck. Survey it (or start to) and be sure to make the cave map have no more than "two lines and a rock." Your project participants will appreciate the simplicity. Maps that look nice, make use of actual cave symbols and cross sections and ceiling heights and a whole bunch of other stuff are too hard to look at.
Wait a minute, you don't have a cave yet because you're still ridge walking and digging? No problem. Just do a surface map. On this you need to have the route to the camping area, closest place to get beer, and a couple of caves that are fun to do drunk. Including stuff like contour intervals, sinking streams, resurgences, cave entrances, dye traces, limestone, sinkholes, and whatever other information you can pack onto it will, again, just make it too hard to look at. You don't need that stuff to attract the best and brightest.
Next, write articles and share them with your project people. Also, encourage them to write articles too. This is key because it gives them a sense of the quality of the project management. For example, "Drekshuns to ma kavin spawt: go dan da heel til youns git pass dat moonshyne stil, den looks up da udder heel an youns ol see thet kave up air."
Also take photographs. Lots of 'em. Both on the surface and in the cave. Caption them appropriately, "Bubba got drunk at camp." "Bubbette got drunk at camp." "Bubba and Bubbette get ready to go caving." "Bubba and Bubbette ran naked down the hill past the moonshine still and ran headlong into the cliff beside the cave entrance." Publish these pictures on your website (you have one, right??) with the articles. Be sure to put your primary folks, i.e. those that show up at least one weekend per year, front and center. Put Bubba front and Bubbette center. "Put 'em in lights and they'll go to moon for you."
And that brings us to our final component: speak the truth, never embellish! Tell your people that you're the best caver of all time. Tell 'em how great they'll be when the project team leader (you) breaks into going virgin cave due to their efforts and how they'll be immortalized forever in the anals of caving history... or is it spelled with a double 'n'? Anyway, you get my drift.
So put all of the above together and you'll have definite success in attracting the best and brightest to your cave project.
Oh wait, almost forgot one: Pay 'em. Whether its in money or beer, it doesn't matter. Either way you'll be on the right path to miles and miles of virgin cave and you'll have the advice in this article to thank for it.
And stay tuned for a future article on "The making of a speleopolitician in six easy steps," or the alternate title, "How I learned to love the bomb and what it did to the small fish in my speleo pond."
And if you've done that, then how many times have you ever gotten the chance to ask a business marketing guru ("ooooh!") how best to market your cave project? Probably never. Before this past weekend I was unfortunate enough to be on that sinking ship with you. However, we are no longer comrades in peril, because I had the opportunity to query a specialist and the things I found out will astound you... if I decide to share the secrets that is. OK, don't have a bat, I'll tell. I would feel really badly if you drowned under the weight of an unmanageable cave project marketing scheme and lost all the best and brightest recruits to someone like me who already has all the answers.
First, don't make a really nice looking map. If you have a cave already, then you're in luck. Survey it (or start to) and be sure to make the cave map have no more than "two lines and a rock." Your project participants will appreciate the simplicity. Maps that look nice, make use of actual cave symbols and cross sections and ceiling heights and a whole bunch of other stuff are too hard to look at.
Wait a minute, you don't have a cave yet because you're still ridge walking and digging? No problem. Just do a surface map. On this you need to have the route to the camping area, closest place to get beer, and a couple of caves that are fun to do drunk. Including stuff like contour intervals, sinking streams, resurgences, cave entrances, dye traces, limestone, sinkholes, and whatever other information you can pack onto it will, again, just make it too hard to look at. You don't need that stuff to attract the best and brightest.
Next, write articles and share them with your project people. Also, encourage them to write articles too. This is key because it gives them a sense of the quality of the project management. For example, "Drekshuns to ma kavin spawt: go dan da heel til youns git pass dat moonshyne stil, den looks up da udder heel an youns ol see thet kave up air."
Also take photographs. Lots of 'em. Both on the surface and in the cave. Caption them appropriately, "Bubba got drunk at camp." "Bubbette got drunk at camp." "Bubba and Bubbette get ready to go caving." "Bubba and Bubbette ran naked down the hill past the moonshine still and ran headlong into the cliff beside the cave entrance." Publish these pictures on your website (you have one, right??) with the articles. Be sure to put your primary folks, i.e. those that show up at least one weekend per year, front and center. Put Bubba front and Bubbette center. "Put 'em in lights and they'll go to moon for you."
And that brings us to our final component: speak the truth, never embellish! Tell your people that you're the best caver of all time. Tell 'em how great they'll be when the project team leader (you) breaks into going virgin cave due to their efforts and how they'll be immortalized forever in the anals of caving history... or is it spelled with a double 'n'? Anyway, you get my drift.
So put all of the above together and you'll have definite success in attracting the best and brightest to your cave project.
Oh wait, almost forgot one: Pay 'em. Whether its in money or beer, it doesn't matter. Either way you'll be on the right path to miles and miles of virgin cave and you'll have the advice in this article to thank for it.
And stay tuned for a future article on "The making of a speleopolitician in six easy steps," or the alternate title, "How I learned to love the bomb and what it did to the small fish in my speleo pond."
Sunday, November 06, 2005
[Trip] Maiden Run At Night
This Friday evening, the WVU grotto visited Maiden Run, our own backyard cave. Brian Masney, Rich Finley, Ryan Ellers, John Tudek, myself, and John Cunningham met up and arrived at the parking area just before dark. We geared up and trudged through the woods for a bit, passing the entrance (which on hindsight is very easy to find) at first.
The entrance and first few hundred feet of cave are straight, narrow walking passage. The cave takes a 90 degree left turn and becomes crawling height for a bit. The passage is then interrupted by a 15' dome pit, which was the first sign of water we saw in the cave. The pit is bolted from several points of questionable age and quality, including a frightening hardware-store rope and a rusted chain. Rich rigged a cable ladder for the descent, and it was the perfect length to rig back up the opposite side of the pit to continue forward. Water drips from the ceiling in this dome and appears to flow through a parallel passage at pit-floor level directly underneath the main passage; this lower passage is too low to follow out of the pit however. John ? had never used a cable ladder, but navigated it like a pro.
John Cunningham descends the cable ladder into the first dome pit
At this point John T. headed back out, and the rest of the group went forward, where the upper crawling passage continues. Sections of this passage floor were very hollow dirt flooring, and parts completely open up to reveal the passage below as it eventually becomes a small canyon passage of stooping height. We stopped for a bit to marvel at what a "crappy" passage it was. This passage is interrupted by the second dome pit.
Rich Finley poses with 'guano' of a most remarkable size
The second pit is easily hand-climbable in and out, and is the register room. The ceiling appears much taller than the first, but the room is dry. We stopped to read through the decrepit register and read all the carbide graffiti in this room, dating back to the 50's. A small floor-level passage appears to lead outside the cave, as evidenced by a breeze and debris on the floor, but we did not follow this lead. The register and graffiti show that this cave has had a fair deal of traffic (also indicated by a few scattered beer cans and bottles in the first passages).
Graffiti on the register dome walls
Looking up from the register dome floor, Dave Riggs sits in the upper passage
The upper passage to the right is initially narrow and oddly shaped, but veers back in line with the main passage and becomes a straight, stoop-height, oval phreatic tunnel. This passage continues, eventually as a crawl, for at least several hundred more feet, and reportedly for a long ways, but we did not push it.
Rich Finley develops a new technique for turning around in the tight far passage
On the way out, Rich rigged a slip knot for the cable ladder which we untied once everyone had made it to the bottom of the pit. After climbing back up and out the entrance side, Rich wisely cut and hauled out the dangerous rope. It should be noted that the web etrier on the opposite side was installed in 1995 according to the register, and it probably shouldn't be used as a primary device. We exited the cave and were back to the cars by about 10:45pm, and back in Morgantown by 11:30.
I'd like to do more evening trips like this, though the lack of nearby caves probably makes this and Beaverhole Upper unique for Morgantown cavers.
Brian Masney still grinning from the poo-crawl
All photos ©Brian Masney
The entrance and first few hundred feet of cave are straight, narrow walking passage. The cave takes a 90 degree left turn and becomes crawling height for a bit. The passage is then interrupted by a 15' dome pit, which was the first sign of water we saw in the cave. The pit is bolted from several points of questionable age and quality, including a frightening hardware-store rope and a rusted chain. Rich rigged a cable ladder for the descent, and it was the perfect length to rig back up the opposite side of the pit to continue forward. Water drips from the ceiling in this dome and appears to flow through a parallel passage at pit-floor level directly underneath the main passage; this lower passage is too low to follow out of the pit however. John ? had never used a cable ladder, but navigated it like a pro.
John Cunningham descends the cable ladder into the first dome pit
At this point John T. headed back out, and the rest of the group went forward, where the upper crawling passage continues. Sections of this passage floor were very hollow dirt flooring, and parts completely open up to reveal the passage below as it eventually becomes a small canyon passage of stooping height. We stopped for a bit to marvel at what a "crappy" passage it was. This passage is interrupted by the second dome pit.
Rich Finley poses with 'guano' of a most remarkable size
The second pit is easily hand-climbable in and out, and is the register room. The ceiling appears much taller than the first, but the room is dry. We stopped to read through the decrepit register and read all the carbide graffiti in this room, dating back to the 50's. A small floor-level passage appears to lead outside the cave, as evidenced by a breeze and debris on the floor, but we did not follow this lead. The register and graffiti show that this cave has had a fair deal of traffic (also indicated by a few scattered beer cans and bottles in the first passages).
Graffiti on the register dome walls
Looking up from the register dome floor, Dave Riggs sits in the upper passage
The upper passage to the right is initially narrow and oddly shaped, but veers back in line with the main passage and becomes a straight, stoop-height, oval phreatic tunnel. This passage continues, eventually as a crawl, for at least several hundred more feet, and reportedly for a long ways, but we did not push it.
Rich Finley develops a new technique for turning around in the tight far passage
On the way out, Rich rigged a slip knot for the cable ladder which we untied once everyone had made it to the bottom of the pit. After climbing back up and out the entrance side, Rich wisely cut and hauled out the dangerous rope. It should be noted that the web etrier on the opposite side was installed in 1995 according to the register, and it probably shouldn't be used as a primary device. We exited the cave and were back to the cars by about 10:45pm, and back in Morgantown by 11:30.
I'd like to do more evening trips like this, though the lack of nearby caves probably makes this and Beaverhole Upper unique for Morgantown cavers.
Brian Masney still grinning from the poo-crawl
All photos ©Brian Masney
[Meta] First Post!
So I've created this collective blog to gather trip reports, announcements, and any other publication by cavers in Northern WV, specifically members of the Mon Grotto and the WVU Student Grotto, though not necessarily exclusively. Please comment on this post if you'd like to be added as a poster on this blog, it's easier than you think!
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