September 15 News

7/23/2019 September 15 News

1/32


2/32

2 NSS NEWS, September 2015

USASeptember3-7, 2015The annual Old TimersReunion, Dailey, WV. For more information visitwww.otr.org

September 4-7, 2015Roc ky Moun ta inRegional/Black Hills Caver Classic at CavernWells, Host Springs, South Dakota. Contact:

Steve Baldwin [email protected] / 605-673-1571

September 4-7, 2015Sewanee Mountain CaveFest hosted by the Sewanee Mountain Grottoin the heart of TAG. Amenities include a bathhouse, hot tub & sauna, and thousands of caveswithin an hours drive. There is no registration fee;however we do ask that attendees donate an itemto the Saturday night auction and bring a dishfor the potluck dinner. The campground charges$5/person for the entire weekend. We will haveled cave trips, a bat oat to Nickajack Cave, apotluck dinner, and of course our auction. Formore information email [email protected].

October 8th -11, 2015- 38th Annual TAG FallCave-In hosted by the Dogwood City Grotto on

Lookout Mtn. Near Menlo, GA. Visit tagfallcavein.org for more information. Vendors contact DarrienDopp at 770.301.8228 or [email protected]. You must be an NSS Member or quest toregister. No dogs, no generators, no air horns,no off-highway vehicles, NO BOMBS.

October 9-11, 2015Weste rn Regionalgathering, Twentynine Palms, CA info:www.westernregional2015.org/

October 15-18, 2015Texas Cavers Reunionat Paradise Canyon in Rio Medina, TX. [email protected] for more details.

October 15-17, 2015Timpanogos CaveRestoration Camp. Timpanogos Cave NationalMonument invites volunteers to assist in threedays of restoration projects in this nationallysignicant cave system. Work among abundanthelictites and colorful formations to help restorenatural conditions along the public tour route.Free camping is available. For more informationcontact Andy Armstrong 801-692-5049, [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/timpanogoscavenps.

October 19-23, 2015The 21st National Caveand Karst Management Symposium, CaveCity, Kentucky. For more information: www.cave-research.org/NCKMS2015/ or contact PatKambesis [email protected]

February 6-12, 201617th In ternat iona lVulcanspeleology Symposium, Ocean View,Hawaii, U.S.A. Info: www.cavepics.com/IVS17

July 17-23, 2016 NSS 75th AnniversaryConvention - Ely, NV. Contact [email protected] for more info. http://nss2016.caves.org

Cave & Karst Science

October 5-9, 2015The 14th MultidisciplinaryConference on Sinkholes and the Engineeringand Environmental Impacts of Karst (also knownas the Sinkhole Conference) will be held inRochester, MN. This conference is co-hosted bythe National Cave and Karst Research Instituteand the Minnesota Ground Water Association.More information and registration can be foundat www.sinkholeconference.com

October 20-23, 20152nd In te rnat iona lPlanetary Caves Conference, 20-23 October2015, Flagstaff, AZ. Info: www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/2ndcaves2015 or contact conferenceorganizer Jut Wynne: [email protected]

Ap ri l 11-14, 2016Internat ional conferenceon the origins, resources, and management ofhypogene karst, Deep Karst in Carlsbad, NM.

Deep Karst 2016 is being organized by theNational Cave and Karst Research Institute incooperation with the Karst Hydrogeology and

Speleogenesis Commission of the InternationaUnion of Speleology. More information andupdates on registration at www.deepkarst.org

Foreign

Au gu st 1320, 2016European Federationmeeting in Ingleton, UK

July 23-29, 201717th International Congressof Speleology, Sydney, Australia. [email protected]

Send items for the calendar to [email protected] at least 6 weeks before desired month ofpublication (i.e., by March 15 for the May issue).

Two views from Cueva Sorbetos, one of the many Puerto Rican caves deserving of preservationefforts as presented in one of this months feature articles beginn ing on page 20. More of AdamHaydocks photos are featured on pages 18-19, in this issues Photographer Spotlight. He isalso the caver in these two photos.


3/32

NSS NEWS, September 2015 3

POSTMASTERS OR MEMBERS:Send address changes to National SpeleologicalSociety, 6001 Pulaski Pike NW, Huntsville, AL35810

Deadline: Ads, articles, and announcements should be sent to the

editor by the 20th of the month, 2 months before the month of issue

(e.g., material for the March issue needs to be in by January 15).

The NSS News (ISSN 0027-7010) is published monthly with

the Members Manual and American Caving Accidents published as

additional issues by the National Speleological Society, Inc, 6001

Pulaski Pike NW, Huntsville, AL 35810. Periodicals Postage Paid atHuntsville, Al and additional mailing ofces. Tel: (256)852-1300, e-mail:

[email protected], web: www.caves.org

Regular membership in the NSS is $45 per year. Members may

elect to receive a digital NSS NEWS (only) for $35/year. See http://

caves.org/info/membertypes.shtml for descriptions of other membership

categories. Subscriptions to the NSS News are $27 per year; individual

copies are $3.00 each. Contact the Huntsville ofce for membership

applications, subscriptions, orders, or for replacement of issues missing

or damaged in the mail. Moving? Please report changes of address to

the ofce promptly or online at: www.caves.org/info/changeinfo.shtml

Copyright 2015

by the National Speleological Society, Inc.

NSS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

PresidentWm Shrewsbury

6609 Lasata LaneHarrison, TN 37341

[email protected](727) 424-2901

Operations VP

David Luckins3683 Oakleaf DriveW. Bloomeld, MI 48324

(248) 520-6161 (cell)[email protected]

Executive VPCurt Harler

12936 Falling Water Rd. Strongsville, OH44136

(440) [email protected]

NSS NEWS EDITOR

Dave BunnellBox 879

Angels Camp, CA [email protected]

ADVERTISINGComplete advertising information, including ad costs, deadlines,

and guidelines for preparation, are on the NSS wesite at: www.caves.org/pub/nssnews/ads.html. Contact the editor if you wish toplace an ad.

Payments for ads should be sent to the NSS office. Newadvertisers are expected to pay for ads prior to publication.

National Speleological Society Ofce6001 Pulaski Pike NW, Huntsville, AL 35810

Tel: (256) 852-1300e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.caves.org

Please contact the ofce for address changes or back issues .

CONSERVATIONJim & Val Hildreth-Werker

PO Box 207Hillsboro, NM 88042-0207


UNDERGROUND ONLINE

Buford Pruitt, Jr.PO Box 526

McIntosh, FL [email protected]

NEWSLETTER REVIEWJonah Kidder

370 Paul Copas RoadWinchester OH 45697

[email protected]

SPELEAN SPOTLIGHTGene Hancock

[email protected]

CAVE CHRONICLES

Philip [email protected]

DEPARTMENT EDITORS

Please include NSS News in your subject line when e-mailingmaterial to help me sort it from t he spam. Thanks!

Questions about submitting features and photos? Please see the styleand submission guidelines:on the NSS web site:

www.caves.org/pub/nssnews/style.html

Admin is trat ive VPGeary Schindel11310 Whisper Dawn

San Antonio, TX 78230(210) [email protected]

Secretary/TreasurerGary T. Barnes

2250 Shady Creek TrailBirmingham, AL 35216


NSS NEWSSeptember 2015

Volume 73 Number 9

Underground Update ....................30Underground Online.....................28Society News ................................30Classied Ads ...............................31

Photographer Spotlight ...............18Reading .........................................25Cave Chronic les ...........................26News and Notes ............................27Letters............................................29

FRONTCOVER:Sculpted rock in Cueva Zumbo, part of the Rio Entandado Cave Sytem in PuertoRico. Photo by Adam Haydock.

Back cover: Images from Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam

(photos by Dave Bunnell):Left:Formations in Paradise Cave, the newest show cave in the parkRight: Entrance to Dark Cave, a semi-developed caveBottom: Phyllis Boneau with formations beyond the tour route in Paradise Cave

DEPARTMENTOFCORRECTIONS

The caver on the cover of our August issue was mistakenly identied as Jose Gomez,but is in fact Jose Morales, the organizer of the two expeditions covered in that issue.

Addi tionall y, after we went to press the Photo Salon competi tion resul ts werenalized and the back cover shot by Kasia Biernacka not only received a Merit Award,it also tied for second runner up in the overall competition.

Mammoth Cave: End of an era, the Snowball Dining Room .........4Jonathon Lewis

Touring the Caves and Karst of Vietnam .......................................6Jim Patera with Dave Bunnell

Historic Old Show Cave Postcards............................................... 16Gary K. Soule

Puerto Rico Speleological Preservation and the ........................ 20Importance of Sustainable Clean-up Efforts

Adam Haydock and Carlos Artiguez

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2015 .......... 31

Its been six months since I last made a plea for new articles, back in March. Itstime to make that plea again for more feature articles, with a special emphasis onthings that could garner the description of news to cavers. I know this issue hasbasically a trip report as its main feature but its more of a travel magazine piece toan outstanding example of something, in this case caves and karst in Vietnam. Inthe March issue just mentioned, we focused on caves and karst of Laos, a mostexcellent, trip in a lifetime excursion engineered by Dwight and Mary Deal. Thisissue continues the saga and is being deployed from my Plan B queue of materiafrom my own adventures that can ll what would otherwise be nonexistent pagesI hope youll agree that this one is better than ller, because any caver ought to beinterested in visiting a place with such awesome karst and what is now the largescave in the world, Son Doong. Stay tuned next year as 3 of us journey back toPhang Nha to have the privilege to photograph it for the NSS News.

Dave Bunnel


4/32


When was the last time you visited theSnowball Dining Room, 267 feet belowthe surface of Mammoth Cave NationalPark? An excursion into Mammoth Cave isnot complete without descending the 200steps into the Carmichael Entrance, then

traveling the mile down Cleaveland Avenueto arrive at one of the most unique attrac-tions found beneath the surface of the earth.

Cavers who have participated in restora-tion camps in the past will be quite familiarwith this route to Snowball, having traveledit numerous times to reach projects deepwithin this portion of the cave system. One ofthe first projects in this area was in 1990 onCleaveland Avenue starting just beyond theSnowball dining room and working towardthe Carmichael Entrance. On the left side ofthe passage was a pile of broken limestonethat had been stacked there when the eleva-

tor entrance was created. This rock supplywas about five feet high, six to eight feetdeep and 50 to 100 feet long. The projectwas to load these rocks in wheelbarrows anduse them to line the trail from the SnowballDining room as far down the passage aspossible. This was done to outline the trailto encourage tourists to stay on the trail andaway from gypsum formations on the walls.

Park officials have offered different toursthat have passed through this area over theyears; some as experiments, others whichhave been offered for years and enjoyed bygenerations of visitors. Most excursions to

Snowball begin via the Carmichael Entranceand Cleaveland Avenue, two miles roundtripif only visiting the room and turning around.People often remember the Snowball Roomfrom previous visits, but they dont alwayswant to walk the four-mile Grand Avenuetour just to see it. This is especially truefor the modern visitor to MaCa (MammothCave), who quickly travels to the park for avisit that may only last a few hours.

Mammoth Cave: End of an era, the Snowball Dining RoomJonathon Lewis

Historically within Snowball was a lunchline, operated by staff from the MammothCave Hotel, which offered a box lunch, hotsoup, coffee, soft drinks, and candy bars.(The food cost was not included in the tourprice.) After the meal break the group theneither retraced their steps to the surface,or if on the Grand Avenue Tour continuedtowards the Frozen Niagara entrance. Noted

as well is the elusive wild cave tour, whoseroute has varied over the years, but very typi-cally has made its way at some point in thetour through Snowball for a rest, restroomand lunch break. This is the most difficult ofcommercial trips available at MaCa, travers-ing five-and-a-half miles of cave, often bybelly crawl, in about six hours.

Many a meal have been enjoyed hereby the members of restoration camps over

the years. With advanced notice staff wouldhave ample sandwiches and hot vegetablesoup available for purchase. After a longmorning in the cave that soup could warmthe soul, carrying you through the remainderof the day.

The Snowball Room gets its namefrom the large blisters of gypsum coveringthe ceiling. Tourists have visited the area

for generations, at the end of a long tubularchamber. In recent years they have enjoyedthe glistening walls with white gypsum thahas crystallized below the limestone surfaceThis is because Restoration Camp workersfocused cleaning the ceiling during the 1993weeklong camp, using a mild bleach solution. This was referred to as the SootbalCleaning Project because of the darkenedcondition of the ceiling.

Some of the larger and more intact gypsum owers near the lunchroom. These are high andwell out of reach of visitors

Old hand-tinted postcard of the Snowbal l Dini ng Room Dini ng Room area i n 2013 during a WKU Photo Class tri p


5/32


A s tudy conduc ted by Oza rkUnderground Laboratories had determinedthe cause was mainly a fungus growing onthe gypsum snowballs. Testing showed theleast harmful and most successful method ofremoval was spraying the ceiling with normalhousehold bleach followed a few hours laterwith a clean water rinse. All the tables wereremoved and plastic put down. The area wassectioned off with tape, each area numbered;sprayed a numbered area, time noted whenfinished and 24 hours later sprayed the ceil-ing with clean water.

Those involved with this processremember it quite well to this day, receivingbleach burns thru the Tyvek suits provided.Unfortunately the suits werent the right kindfor the job, the bleach absorbing thru thestitches and on to their clothing. In the endhowever, the job got finished through boththe efforts of the volunteers and park staff, aproject thats to this day appreciated with thebeauty much more visible due to their work.

For those visitors whose tour continuesthrough the Snowball Dining Room, theylead on through Boone Avenue, a subter-ranean river chasm so narrow you can reachout and touch both walls. The tour ends atFrozen Niagara, a cataract of flowstone ina rare area of calcite decoration in the tour

regions of the cave. [Ed: because the sand-stone cap that overlies much of the cave hasbeen eroded away from above on this edge ofthe escarpment. ] They then exit the appro-priately named Frozen Niagara entrance.

As mentioned earlier the number of visi-tors inclined to join in on these longer, moredifficult trips continues to decline. Todaysvisitor is more likely to purchase tickets forthe Frozen Niagara or Discovery tours, whichare more compact in their travels and focus.With time being a constraint for many in thisfast-paced world, one is quickly back on theroad in just a few hours, off to their nextdestination. Long gone are the days wherea visitor would make the challenging journeyto the park as a destination, not merely anattraction along the way. Due to these andother factors 2014 saw the end of the use ofthe Snowball Room as a dining destination.No longer can one purchase a box lunch orenjoy a cup of that hot vegetable soup.

The park is beginning to remove the

items that established this part of the cave asan oasis in the dessert, a mecca for adventurers to gather and share stories and enjoya meal together. The May 2015 weekendrestoration volunteers removed a significanamount of the tables from the area, leavingonly a few for the Wild Cave tour. Soonwill be gone the concessionaire hardwarereplaced with an empty void that will remainfor the many who have such fond memoriesof this place. Those on the Grand Avenuetour will get an opportunity to pass by; aswell those with the Wild Cave Trips who wilperhaps stop and rest. But gone will be theera that was enjoyed by so many.

We say goodbye and walk away fromour friend the Snowball Dining RoomNow returning back up Cleaveland Avenueand soon enough encountering the stepsLooking up we can see a speck of sunlightahead. This is the hard part after walkingthe two miles roundtrip, you have to climbthe 200 steps you had forgot about. Soonenough we are off and away, our journey amemory. Just as have the boats and bridgein the Echo River soon this part of mammothand its story now closed will be left to thehistory books. The hundreds of volunteersthat have made possible the Mammoth CaveRestoration Group will miss you.M

attMcClintock

MattMcClintock

Arched ceil ings o f Cleaveland Avenue are encrusted wi th gypsum

Cleaveland Avenue

Dining Room food serving infrastucture

Ken DeJonge in storage room off the mainchamber


6/32


Panorama of karst pinnacles viewed from the Hang Sung Sot entrance in no rthern Ha Long Bay

[Ed: In the March issue I presented anarticle about the Laos portion of Dwightand Mary Deals most excellent Cave andKarst Tour; Jim continues the narrativehere into Vietnam and I have filled in a bitof detail and included some photo essaysparticular to each segment. Because hisarticle was a companion to mine, it startswith Day 10 as we crossed into Vietnam...]

DAY10:LAOS/ VIETNAMESEBORDER

CROSSINGINTOVIETNAM

I will admit that being a Vietnam-

era veteran, I felt a bit uneasy heading toVietnam. Those feelings hit a high whenwe entered the building at the border andI saw it was staffed with many uniformedVietnamese officers. Emotions of fight orflight filled my thoughts as I chose to try tosit calmly as we waited for our pre-approvedvisas to be cleared.

After a long wait, I watched as the oneofficer working with our guides, held up oneof our passports, made a quick call, thendisappeared down the hall with the pass-port. Shortly one of our guides came overand quietly advised me that there appeared

to be a problem with my passport.... A fewminutes later, about a half dozen uniformedofficers came down the hall with the firstofficer and headed for the spot where ourguides were waiting. That was when all theelectrical power in the building went out. Istarted to think about fleeing back to theLaotian border.

A couple of hours later, the powercame back on, visas were OKd, and justafter sunset we were on our way. We wereofficially in Vietnam and on our way toPhong Nha.

DAY11: PHONGNHA-KEBANGNP

Our first day at Phong Nha started witha bus ride to Phong Nha-Ke Bang NationalPark (PNKBNP), which is a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site. Along the way we stoppedat Zin Zin Pass overlook on the now pavedand historically famous Ho Chi Min Trail.Later, we stopped for lunch along a beautifulstream. After lunch, we climbed aboard twojunks for our afternoon boat ride to semi-developed Black Cave and Phong Nha Cave.

Black Cave got its name because of theblack rock surrounding the cave entrance

which looked like it could have been a lavafrom an early volcanic flow. We got to theentrance about the same time it started torain. Inside the cave was an elevated walkwaythat went a hundred or so feet back into thecave, ending with the beginnings of largemounds of streambank mud. Some of thegroup took the option to swim a bit fartherinto the cave. I decided to stay dry and takea few pictures. That was when taking my 3rdor 4th picture, one of my strobes fired witha incredibly bright flash and I began to smellsmoke. Scratch one strobe.

After an hour or so exploring Black

Cave we climbed back onboard the junksand in a light rain headed on to the moredeveloped Phong Nha cave.

Above the cave entrance were the signsof rocket blasts made when the US militaryhelicopters tried to destroy the caves store ofweapons during the Vietnam (or as they callit here, the American) war. There was also apontoon for crossing the river here that washidden in the cave and brought out at night.Fortunately the cave was much larger thenthe US military had thought so almost noharm came to any of the wonderful forma-

tions deep inside the cave.The entrance was located at water level

making it possible for us to boat a long wayback into the cave. After about 10 minutesour boat landed at a mud bank and we goout to have a look at the well-lighted, rathelarge formations that lined the upper fossipassage. The path was dry, mostly level withenough commercial lighting that I could graba couple of cave pictures. For me it was jusone more incredible cave I was able to visiton our karst tour. Another once in a lifetimecave trip.

Later that evening, after a wonderfudinner at the Phong Nha Farmstay, weheaded into town for a caving slide showgiven by Howard Limbert, who has spenyears exploring the area caves, including thenow-famous Son Doong .

DAY12: PHONGNHAKEBANGNP

Every day of our trip was special, butthis day was one of those very, very, veryspecial days. Our tour group was scheduledto see the off-trail sections of the recentlydeveloped, Thien Duong (Paradise) cave. Iwas not the longest cave in the world, nor

the deepest, nor did it have the biggest roomor largest formations, but we were told thaif someone were to add up the total volumeof the whole cave system, it would beat alother caves in its Bigness. One word I couldhave used to describe it would have beenHUGE! There are two main systems in thepark, Hang Vom (of which Paradise is part)about 36 km in length, and the Phong Nhasystem, which includes Son Doong, and withover 62 km surveyed in its various segments

The caving day in Paradise began withus adding our cave lights to our day packs

Touring the Caves and Karst of VietnamJim Patera with Dave Bunnell


7/32


throwing them into the van. After a shortdrive we arrived at the entrance gate to thecave. It was so new and modern it lookedlike a gate into Disneyland.

On the other side of the gate and upthe trail, we hopped into little golf carts.We drove along the narrow jungle pathto the base of stairs that climbed up to agreat rock fall. Thats when the Disney rideended. There were 524 stairs up to the caveentrance at the top of the breakdown. Ofcourse once into the cave, we would needto climb down the same 570 meters to thecave floor.

Once inside the cave I was in awe atthe size of the cave passage and the forma-tions that filled it. The ceiling would havemeasured a hundred feet, the walls likewise.The formations were equal in grandeur tothose in Carlsbad.

The formations along the walls lookedlike they originated thousands of years ago,as little seeps that made their way into thepassage along fractures in the walls. Therewere also massive stalactites and stalagmitesthat grew in the middle of the passage.

Monuments to such great beauty can onlybe found in caves.

Stalagmites grew to heights of 60 feetor more. Halfway along the tourist route trailwas one old stalagmite that had fallen on itsside many millennia ago. On top of that fallengiant was growing a massive new stalagmite.Id say an easy estimate of the size would be20 plus feet in diameter for the fallen one.The top stalagmite was only a slightly smallerenormous stalagmite.

The tourist path went on for about onekilometer before it came to the end of thedeveloped section of the cave. But we were alucky bunch of cavers. Our fantastic FocusedTour guides had some special connectionsand got permission for our group to go farbeyond the constructed path, permission togo off trail. Hopefully, we would be ableto go six kilometers farther to a 240 meterskylight called Where Daylight Beacons.

We climbed off the elevated pathway,down a few short stairs, onto familiar cavemud. The mud covered the floor from wall-to-wall, looking like it had formed at thebottom of a lake. As we walked around a

large formation that almost blocked theentire passage, we left the developed cavebehind.

As we walked along the passage would occasionally look up to try and lighthe cave ceiling, which was perhaps up to40-50 meters overhead. In many areas thewalls were covered with massive flowstoneformations that stretched on for hundredsof meters. Every so often wed encounter aflowstone formation so large that it wouldalmost block the entire passage, leavingonly a small opening for us to pass throughI was amazed at the huge size of everythingin Paradise Cave and how lucky I was to beable to see part of it.

Our trip continued on with the ceilingslowly lowering to a point were we neededto start crawling on hands and knees. A bifarther on our path ended on a mud streambank with us looking into a flooded passageIn a drier season we could have used a smalboat to cross the low passage to get to thebig skylight entrance, but alas, it was sumpedhere and this became our turnaround point

Returning back to the huge passage

Entrance signage to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park on the karst

DaveBunnell

Overlook in PNKBNP towards karst containing Hang Son Doong

Entrance to Phang Nha Cave showing scars on cliff from aerialassaults durin g the Vietnam war

Boat dock inside Phang Nha Cave

JimPatera


8/32


Caves at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National ParkPhotos by Dave Bunnell except as noted

Black Cave

Phong Nha Cave

Paradise Cave, developed section, below, above, and right

Paradise Cave, undeveloped section, abo

Worthington in upper right

Phong Nha Cave


9/32


JimP

atera

ght. Judy Fisher in red and Tasha Michelson


10/32


we found our boxed lunches waiting for us.They were carried with us into the cave onthe back of a young Vietnamese who woreonly sandals and had NO light. Several ofour group offered him our extra lights. Witha big smile on his face he said no.

After lunch we headed back to the maintourist part of the cave, stopping occasionallyat a gargantuan formation for Dave to takea picture. Over the next hour or so, I walked

slowly along the elevated tourist path totallyamazed at the caves grandeur. Whoeverwas responsible for lighting the cave suredid an excellent job. I eventually returnedto the entrance and the 524 stairs leadingback down to the valley floor and our waitingvans. And so ended another incredible dayand one more trip of a lifetime.

DAY13: TRANSFERFROMPHONGNHATO

HANOI

The following day we headed off to thecity of Ha Noi, the first stop on our way toCat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay. The name Ha

Long Bay loosely translates into descend-ing dragon bay and is a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site.

DAY14: CATBAISLANDANDHALONG

BAY- TRANSPORTTOTHEBAY

Leaving Ha Noi on the bus, we rodeup to the port of Hai Pong where we trans-ferred to a high speed ferry to Cat Ba Island.Landing at the main port on Cat Ba Islandwe transferred to another bus. From there itwas a short ride to a small fishing port. Wethen climbed onboard a junk for the remain-ing voyage to remote beachside cabins in the

southern part of the bay that would be ourbase camp. From there wed spend the nextfour days touring a few of the many uniquekarst features Ha Long Bay had to offer.

DAY15-16: HALONGBAYMOREKARST

ANDCAVES

Once we were settled in on Cat BaIsland, we spent the next four days touringthe bay on wonderful little junks. Occasionallywe would climb off the junk into kayaks topaddle through another one of the areasmany sea caves. Many of the caves that wereselected for our exploration had passages

that bored through the limestone karst intolovely and very isolated blue lagoons, likelyflooded sinkholes. (Waltham, 2003). Ahighlight of the southern karst was certainlyDau Be island (see the page devoted to this).

In addition to kayaking into a few of themany sea caves, we also journeyed to themore touristed northern part of the bay tovisit two commercialized caves, Thien CungGrotto and Hang Sung Sot. The developersof both of these caves had chosen to lightthem with bright colored lights, which wewere told was the Chinese way of cave Islands of ooded tower karst in Ha Long Bay (from Waltham, 2005, used by permission).

There is no shortage of caves to be explored in Ha Long Bays ooded cone karst

Waltham (2005) denotesseveral types of cavesfound in both fengcongcone karst and fenglinkarst towers (the lattebeing the more isolatedtowers). Below is anexample of a foot caveposs ib ly modi f ied bywave action. Caves suchas those on the facingpage, lower left , havecertainly been modiedby wave action but wereo r ig ina l l y f o rm ed bydissolution.

Cave types in Ha Long Bay(from Waltham, 2005, used by permission)


11/32


JimP

atera

JimPatera

JimPatera

Above and below: Views fr om h igh po in ts on Cat Ba Island

Isolated karst tower

View through the cave viewed on the facing page.

Ha Long Bay: Karst & Caves

DaveBunnell


12/32


Ha Long Bay: Phreatic Show CavesPhotos: Dave Bunnell

Map of Hang Sung Sot(from Waltham, 2005,used by permission)

Photos,clockwise fromupper right:

1. Dong Thien Cung2. Dong Thien Cung3. Huge scallops in Hang

Sung Sot4. Scalloped ceilings inHang Sung Sot5.Hang Sung Sot entrance


13/32


Map of Dau Be island in the southern part of Ha Long Bay. The6 enclosed lagoons labeled hong are presumed to be formerdolines. The lagoons are connected via water-oored caves whoseceiling height varies with tide levels. (from Waltham, 2005, used bypermission)

Ha Long Bay: Dau Be IslandPhotos: Dave Bunnell


14/32


I am pleased to announce that theNational Speleological Society YouthGroup Liaison Committee has a newRegional Coordinator for the NortheastRegional Organization. Please welcomeCarlos Pea to this position.

Carlos brings with him not only hiscaving experience, but plenty of experience

lighting. In both of the caves we foundmulticolor-lit formations filling the passage.The wonderful bright colors sure did changethe view of the caves. Although my eyesenjoyed the play of colors, I found all thedifferent the colors distracting, which made itdifficult to pick out the individual formations.

In Hang Sung Sot cave, the secondcommercial cave we visited that day, wefound the walls and ceiling covered withsurprisingly large deep scallops, some afoot or more in size. I was told that the largesize was only possible because they wereformed by very slow flowing water, perhapsonly a couple of inches per week. Fasterwater movement, I was told, would createsmaller scallops; slower flow would createlarger scallops with both extremes leadingto none at all.

After four fantastic days touring HaLong Bay and some of the caves of Cat Ba

Island, we headed back to Ha Noi (again byjunk, bus, boat, bus) where we spent the lastday of our Focused Karst tour seeing moreof the old city and sampling several moredelightful Vietnamese meals.

FINAL3 DAYSINVIETNAM

After the organized trip ended, Daveand I stayed in Vietnam an additional threedays. We spent those days on a private tourexploring some of the karstic sights southof Ha Noi.

The first day we were driven in a privatecar to the small town of Tam Coc, where we

spent the afternoon floating along a smallstream in a little sampan. The sampan waspropelled by a woman who used her feet torow us past several flooded rice fields andthough several small caves at the base ofkarst pinnacles. (Ironically, Waltham callsthese type of caves foot caves in his paper).

On the second day, we traveled toCuc Phuong National Park, Vietnams firstnational park and the countrys largest naturereserve. There we got to visit a small cave,which was discovered to contain remains ofearly habitation dating back 7,500 years.

The cave wasnt all that interesting, but thehike through the jungle sure was neat. Alsoat Cuc Phuong NP we had the opportunityto visit the Endangered Primate RescueCentre and the Turtle Rescue Center locatedin the park.

On our final day exploring the area

south of Ha Noi, we drove to the PerfumePagoda, a large area with several elegantBuddhist temples. Since there were no roadsto the pagodas, we were again rowed in asampan on Yen Stream to a steep trail whichled up the hillside to the Buddhist temples.As we climbed, we eventually passed thefirst two pagodas and finally arrived atthe Perfume Pagoda, highest of the threetemples, and located in a large cave chamberhigh on the mountain, called Huong Tich.Having done the long walk up, we opted totake the other route down, a cable car rideover the tower karst. Of course, we could

have done it the other way around, but whatfun would that be?

With our return to Ha Noi, we spentone more day touring the city and eating

fine food. The trip ended with the requiredlong overnight flight back to the states. Iwas a remarkable flight that had us ridinga jet stream that at one time propelled uswith ground speeds of over 750 mph. Andso ended my tour of Laos & Vietnam caveand karst, a truly once-in-a- lifetime trip.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Dwight and Mary Deal foleading such a great trip and our fellow travelers who were so helpful in their assistancewith the cave photography. Focused Toursmay feature excursions to this area in thefuture but no dates have been set. Thereare also many caves in PNKBNP that canbe visited via adventure tours run by locaoperators, including the now-famous HangSon Doong, aka the worlds largest cave.

REFERENCES

Waltham, 2005. Karst and Caves of HaLong Bay. In Speleogenesis of KarsAquifers, available at www.speleogenesis.info

The Perfume Pagoda in Huong Tich Jim Patera in a cave at Cuc Phuong NP

One of the many low bu t wide foot caves cutting through a karst tower

DaveBunnell

in environmental sciences as well as workingwith children and teens.

For more information about Carlosplease visit his Web site at http://cavesorg/youth/nro_rc.shtml. For more information about the NSS Youth Group LiaisonCommittee, visit us at http://caves.org/youth/nro_rc.shtml.


15/32


Julius (Jay) Rockwell, PhD1918-2015

NSS # 11308 RL (FE)

Jay d ied on Apri l 16, 2015 inAnchorage, Alaska with his children at hisside. For Alaska cavers he was our organizerand leader. He started organizing the groupthat would become the Glacier Grotto inthe early 1970s when there were mostlyjust rumors of caves in Alaska. The firs tfew years most of the caving trips in Alaskawere glacier caves. But slowly other areas

were explored like the large limestone andmarble areas of the Wrangel St. Elias range,the Southeast Alaska islands, and the lavatubes of Western Alaska. Jay was tireless indocumenting, organizing, and leading formore than three decades. In recent yearsthe Glacier Grotto has been dormant butthe explorations and documents changed thehistory in Alaska with many new discover-ies in Geology, Archeology, Paleobiologyand Biology. Hundreds of caves have beenmapped and documented. Alaska still hasmany limestone mountain ranges that nocaver has yet visited.

Jay also played host to many peopletraveling to Alaska that were interested incaving and climbing. He volunteered hishome as a base of operations and wouldoften talk one of the local Grotto membersinto acting as guide.

I caved with Jay for more than 30 years.I knew he was a Naval Officer and I knewhe was a Naval Reserve Scientist (where theNavy takes science questions), but manyyears ago I read a Veterans Day article in theAnchorage Daily News which featured Jayas a survivor of the USS Lexington which

sank in the Coral Sea. Jay had been thefire control officer but all fire fighting abilitywas destroyed in the first Japanese attackon the aircraft carrier. Jay concentrated ontrying to save his shipmates. He receiveda Commendation Medal for Leadership in

Battle. Jay was a great story teller but henever talked about War World II unless hewas asked.

Jay was born in Taunton, Massachusetts.He received a BS in Zoology in 1939 atUniversity of Michigan. He joined the Navybefore WW II and was stationed in PearlHarbor. He served as Engineering Officer onthe Aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which leftPearl Harbor two days before the Japaneseattack. He received his PhD in FisheriesBiology from the University of Washingtonand conducted research in Alaska and thePacific Northwest.

Jay became active in caving while work-ing for the Bureau of Commercial Fisheriesin Washington, DC. One of his first cavingtrips was Sinnit Cave in Pendleton CountyWV. I grew up near Sinnit cave, we shareda common bond with our first caves andtime period. Jay was transferred to Alaska in1970 to the Alaska Pipeline office where hiswork was instrumental in designing river andstream crossings to allow fish migration forthe Alaska oil pipeline. Jays work changedhow construction was done in Alaska and hashelped insure salmon and other fish wouldcontinue to be a resource in Alaska.

After Jay retired from the AlaskaPipeline Office he became a professor ofBiology at Alaska Pacific University and alsofounder and Chairman of the AnchorageWaterways Council. They were trying toclean up the streams and rivers within theCity of Anchorage so that salmon could liveand spawn (a great success story). Many ofthe streams and rivers in Anchorage hadbeen channeled and had become wastedumps. Today many of these streamssupport good salmon runs. Jays work asChairman of Anchorage Waterways Councilwas rewarded as only Orwellian politics can

accomplish...he made the Smart GrowthEnemies of Alaska list. This list was acampaign ploy by an Alaska US Senator whowas running and won the Alaskan Governorrace. The Enemies of Alaska list was abenchmark of who were the most effectiveleaders in Alaska environmental protection.

Jay was an active caver until in his 80s.Jay told great stories and he is part of somegreat stories. Years ago, one night aftermidnight in August, I received a call fromJays wife Liz that he and his son Tad hadnot returned from a caving trip to Byron

Glacier Cave, an hour south of AnchorageI said I would check on him. It was a threehour trip from my home so I arrived at theglacier after 3 am. I found Jay and Tad onthe glacier. Alaska has nearly 24 hours odaylight in summer and near dusk ice worms

move up in the ice to feed on the glaciersurface algae. Jay noticed the ice wormsas he and Tad were descending the glacierThe glacier surface was covered with themJay was so excited by his biological find thahe lost track of time and it was hard to gethim to leave his discovery. In later yearsGlacier Grotto members found ice worms inthe walls of the ice within the Glacier caveduring winter months. This may be the firsdocumentary of ice worms in winter.

Around 1979 on a clear beautiful dayin November, Jay, a mountaineer friendand I explored Eklutna Glacier Cave. It was

-30 degrees F. We had little snow and thetwelve mile traverse around Eklutna Lakewas beautiful with a thin surface fog overthe water and large ice crystals hanging fromthe brush and trees. Upon reaching EklutnaGlacier we found the stream exit at theterminus of the Glacier blocked so we had torepel into a moulin to reach the Glacier cavewell decorated with ice crystals which lookedlike large snow flakes. We had planned ongetting back by 6 pm, a few hours after darkbut we took longer than expected. Whenwe reached the Glenn Highway instead oheading back to Anchorage we stopped to

get supper at the Eklutna Roadhouse. Atthe Roadhouse they had a large number ofcars in the parking lot including Alaska StateTroopers and search and rescue. Jays wifeLiz had reported us missing and they werejust organizing a search. It took us a bit toconvince them that we were the people theywere looking for.

Without Jay Rockwells leadership andskills I doubt that Alaska cavers would haveorganized to any degree. He played a centrarole in his work in fisheries and making surethat fish could reach their spawning areasFish are a large part of the Alaska economy

and diet. According to Marcel LaPerriere, acaver in Southeast Alaska, Jay said the besway to win the battle for the environment isto outlive your opponents. Jay made our livesricher and he will be greatly missed.

Submitted by Harvey Bowers

NSS 12088 RL

Jay in El Capitan Cave, Prince of Wales Island,Alaska 1989


16/32


Historic Old Show Cave Postc

Colossal Cave, KentuckyBlue Grottoes of Virginia, (Melrose Caverns,) Virginia

Diamond Cave, Arkansas

Staunton Cavern, Virgini a

Indian Cave, KentuckyJewel Cave, Tennessee

Crystal River Cave, Arkansas

Smittle Cave, Missouri

Lefthand column, top to bottom: Baker Caverns, Pennsylvania; Indian Cave, Indiana; Timmen


17/32


m the archives of Gary K. Soule

Crystal Cave, (Bethlehem Cave,) South Dakota

Great Onyx Cave, KentuckyFloyd Collins Crystal Cave, Kentucky

Wonderland Cave, ArkansasTruitts Cave, Missouri

Old Spanish Cave, MissouriMassanutten Caverns, Virginia

Right:Wonderland

Cave,Kentucky

Park Cave,) Iowa


18/32


Stream passage in Cueva Juan Nieves, part of the Rio Encantado System Crystals in Ellisons Cave, GA

Stream passage in River Cave, Indiana

Observatory Cave, above the Tanama River near the Arecibo radio telescope

Right: Helictites, in Thornh ill Cave, KY and below,borehole in Torode Pit, AL


19/32


PhotographerSpotlight

Adam HaydockCHICAGO, ILLINOIS

ea cave on Sand Island, part of Apostl e Islands NP, Wisconsin

ours in Rocky River Cave, TNThe North Pole, an epsomite

formation i n Ellison s Cave, Ga

Sunbeam streaming into an Alabama pit.

For more of Adams photos and the storbehind them please visit:www.adamhaydock.blogspot.comhttp://adamhaydock2000.wix.com/even-furtherwww.ickriver.com/photos/exploration-worldw

sets/

nley Hole in Tennessee


20/32


Flying out of Chicago in the earlymorning subzero temperature inJanuary has always been quite the

charming climate change that is pleasantlyrealized once the plane lands in the humid85 degree weather of Luis Munoz Marin

International Airport in San Juan, PuertoRico. For the past five years, I have beenmigrating down to the 18thparallel to visitfriends and enjoy some fantastic multi-dayrain forest treks, Class C canyon routes,remote island coral reefs, and some abso-lutely fascinating cave systems. There are anumber of pockets where hundreds of cavescan be found like in the fragments of thesouthwestern Lares limestone strata, but themajority of the caves are in the North andNorthwest central karst belt of the mogotemountains.

After visiting over 30 beautiful cave

systems in Puerto Rico, I have found that alot of them have large trunk passage but thelength of most of these caves are generallynot as extensive as they might have been inthe ancient past, with the exception of a fewlike Cueva Cucuracha, Cueva Del Humo, andSistema Del Rio Encantado.

The geological development of PuertoRico is quite interesting since the islanditself came from elevated lava beds risingout of the western coast of South Americaduring the Jurassic period. Tectonic actionmoved Puerto Rico in-between North andSouth America before the Americas were

connected. Recent Plate compressionhas arched the island, exposing Plutonicand Metamorphic rocks which likely hascontributed to much of the jointing in thecarbonate rock. Evidence of basalt and evenpahoehoe deposits have been observed butLate Cretaceous and tertiary carbonatesare the dominant cave and karst formers.(Miller, Palmer, & Palmer, 2009, p. 332).

The earliest known evidence of prehis-toric civilization that can be found in PuertoRico is the inscribed petroglyphs from theTaino. These petroglyphs decorate a numberof caves including some of the caves that are

located in more populated areas that caverstoday are attempting to clean up and protect,e.g. Cueva Del Indio and Cueva AguasBuenas. Taino petroglyphs can also be foundin the El Yunque South District on the RioBlanco river, back toward the west aroundthe Tanama River, as far west off of PuertoRico on the island of Mona, DominicianRepublic, and Haiti, among other locations.There are other artifacts near the TanamaRiver that include a burial site and a sacredproperty of land that was used by the Tainoas a place of gathering as well as multiple

Puerto Rico Speleological Preservation andthe Importance of Sustainable Clean-up Ef-

cave fragments located right off the RioTanama with Taino petroglyphs.

Historically, a lot of the residents inPuerto Rico have been collecting resources

from the caves including guano, water, andmaterials for some housing purposes includ-ing the use of the caves cool temperaturesfor storage and refuge. During the 1950s,explorers started to visit the cave systems inthe Rio Camuy region including Cueva DelHumo, which gave explorers a good intro-duction as to how large some of these cavesystems might actually be; It sure gave methat impression when I was there. Fromthe 1960s through the 1970s the CamuyCave System was explored using rafts untilGraham Nelson and Norman Veve usedflotation vests to increase mobility and push

deeper into passages where others havestopped on previous expeditions (Gurnee,& Gurnee, 1974). Norman Veve is one ofthe major contributors to the exploration ofPuerto Ricos cave systems with regard tosurveying, supporting multi-day expeditionsinto the Camuy, and taking a particularinterest in protecting these cave systems.Veve also spearheaded the exploration ofthe Cueva Humo-Cueva Angeles connection,mapping Aguas Buenas, the exploration ofother large cave fragments including CuevaDel Evaporada, and a multi-day trip downthe Tanama River with U.S. Geological

Survey employees that rendered the initialmapping and exploration of multiple cavesalong the Tanama River. Veve also becameone of founders of a local San Juan Grottoand saw the need to continue to develop astructured caving organization called SEPRI,which is still active today.

S.E.P.R.I. (Socialad spelelogolica dePuerto Rico) is one of the leading cavingorganizations that specialize in survey, caverescue, conservation, and cave preservationin Puerto Rico. In the 1980s and 90s, explo-ration continued and major contributions

went into to the master survey of the RioCamuy cave system. More explorers startedto take notice to Puerto Rico including cavedivers like Wes Skiles, who had an impact on

some of the cave and cave diving explorationincluding a push through Aguas Frias intoCueva Juan Nieves and other dive operations in Sistema Del Rio Encantado whichalso includes Cueva Escalera and CuevaYuyu. At the end of a Valley in FloridaPuerto Rico, on the northside of a mogoteyou will be able to find a crack named ove10 years ago by the locals as La RajaDe Wesley (Wesleys Crack) a large deepfissure undoubtedly known by the locals andlater named decades ago by cavers for WesSkiles. (Miller, 2010, p.8)

Overall, The Rio Camuy Cave System

has been researched and mapped fordecades and some sections of the caveincluding Tres Pueblos, Clara, and Spiralhave become more of a commercializedattraction for tourists through the development of Parque Cavernas Rio Camuy. Somesections of this park are maintained betterthan others but among other research interests, the intent to protect and maintain thesebeautiful features is present along with theopportunity to support the local economy.

Today, explorations have been ongoingin other cave systems all over Puerto Ricofrom ridgeline trips, to survey/re-survey, and

sump dive projects. Multiple recent expeditions have been successfully connecting cavesin the Rio Encantado system including aconnection between Escalera and Zumbo(NSS News, August 2015). Another pushthat Tom Miller, Kassia Thormahlen, and made was into Cueva Del Falso Tributariowhich is in a valley that very well might beright over the last unknown section of theRio Camuy Cave System where the riverdrops back underground. This discovery triprendered a promising return trip that uncovered more borehole passage, multi-drop

Right: Entrance to Cueva Evaporada

Puerto Rico Speleological Preservation and theImportance of Sustainable Clean-up Efforts

Adam Haydock and Carlos Artiguez


21/32


vertical pitches, and more leads to pursue.Julie Dutil, a dry caver and a cave diver, has

been connecting submerged cave passagesin Puerto Rico including a significant connec-tion in Sistema Del Inferrilo. Her party wasable to connect two cave tributaries to oneanother, Ponor 2 and Ponor 3. Julie has alsoworked on Sistema Del Rio Encantado, DosChorros, and a few other successful sumpdives in her attempt to connect caves andfind continuing dry passage. One recent divewas performed in Cueva Guzman near TheCamuy Cave System, where she was ableto push a sump and found walking passagethat kept going. A return trip has alreadybeen planned with the goal to connect

Cueva Guzman to the rest of the CamuyCave System.

Tom Miller, A geology professor atthe University of Puerto Rico in Mayguez,has been exploring caves in Puerto Ricoand all over Central America for over threedecades. To this day, Tom has been taking

an active role in the pursuit of surveying thefinal mysteries of the Camuy System includ-ing the section where the river goes backunderground and resurges northbound onits path to the Atlantic Ocean. Along withfinishing other survey projects and remap-ping caves, Tom continues to discover newcave fragments in Puerto Rico with hisgroup of cavers, (some of which are hisstudents) that spearhead projects to further

understand Central American Speleogenesis.One of Toms students is using paleoclimatedating methods to measure historic climatepatterns in the attempt to predict futureclimate patterns.

Throughout the years of visiting PuertoRico, I got to meet some good friends andhad some great interactions with privatecave landowners, farmers, local cavers, andpeople that find Puerto Rico to be enchant-ing and a valuable natural resource. I metup with a few members from SEPRI alongwith my friends Carlos Artiguez Bro, JulieDutil, Tom Miller, Jeff and Katrina Kruse to

visit some caves, which is where I fell in lovewith Puerto Rico and started to realize theenchanting beauty that these cave systemshold.

One of my favorites is called CuevaSorbetos Cave Straws and upon enteringthis cave, it appears to be a typical solutionalcave within the first 100 feet until you real-ize the long white soda straws that stretchdown the ceiling by the thousands! Someof these straws are over two feet in length!Some other caves like Cueva Del Evaporada,have large walking borehole passage andenormous entrances that took us almost a

half hour just to get down into and out of thelight zone. The sun illuminates the moss-covered formations and the hanging gardensof flora above while fog would breathe outof the cave entrance with an eerie cast thatthe sun beams threw as they pierced into thedarkness. Other cave systems like Cueva

Zumbo have a very different dynamic wherethe force of warm water and gravity influ

ence a mosaic of dynamic water-sculpturedpassage in exotic ways that were beyondmy imagination. It was almost like visitinganother planet when we passed through thiswaterpark of a cave.

There have been other trips that I havebeen on where I met up with local caversincluding some of Toms students andaccompanied them on their research studies. One trip, I joined Rolf Vieten and FloraSperberg as they collected data in CuevaLarga and Cueva Dos Ojos that were usedto monitor cave conditions with the purposeto understand paleoclimate dating and other

speleothem studies.I also had the pleasure to meet up with

Carlos Artiguez on multiple occasions tonot only enjoy some of his favorite caveswith him like Cueva Perdida, but also tolearn more about how he has been playinga considerable role in cave preservation to

Taino petrogl yphs in Cueva del Indio Carlos in Cueva Perdida

CarlosArtiguez

AdamHaydock

Surface river near Aguas Buenas Maneuvering the culvert


22/32


help maintain these beautiful cave systemswith cleanup efforts, projects, and outreachinitiatives that increase cave and karst water-shed awareness. Carlos explained to me that

The rivers are what a lot of the farm-ers and locals rely on as a primary sourceof water and the historic significance that

some of these caves hold with regard to theTaino as well as some of the resources thatthe caves have provided the local commu-nities are important to protect since theyhave been threatened by pollution andthe discard of waste from decades of trashaccumulation. The trash and garbage isevident in a lot of the cave systems due tosurface water flowing into the cave systemsthat bring garbage including refrigeratorsinto the caves.

I witnessed the whole appliances inthe cave carried in by water thing in Ponor3 where flood stage water levels wedged

refrigerators and washers into the ceilingstop shelf! You cant miss them; they stoodout like a cat playing a piano on a Facebookvideo.

Overall, it is evident that pollution cancreate a pestilence of disease and contami-nate the watersheds and potentially destroyvaluable artifacts in and outside of thesecaves. Carlos explained to me that it has not

been easy for him to work with governmentagencies on waste management with regardto the clean-up projects that not only sustaina clean environment but the action to initiatethese projects has also been a difficult taskto accomplish.

Carlos has been reaching out to vari-ous organizations and taking the initiativeto educate the locals on maintaining a cleanenvironment as well as contacting govern-

ment agencies to help keep Puerto Ricosrain forests and cave systems as pristine aspossible.This conversation happened backin 2014 and a year later, Carlos is startingto see some active support. I asked Carlosto contribute to this article so he can givehis own perspective on his cave clean-upefforts and continue to shine some light onthe problem.

from Carlos ArtiguezSometimes the problem is bigger than

what we can handle with a small group ofpeople with trash bags. This is especially

true when we come across large clandes-tine garbage dumps on remote roadways ordry beds that lead into cave systems, thiscan be a real challenge because dealingwith government agencies to resolve theproblem is not always that easy! PuertoRico is blessed with so many beautifulcave systems, and new caves are still beingdiscovered. Fortunately, many of thesecaves are in remote areas and not easyto reach, which helps to protect them,but there are caves near public areas thatneed help, including large areas of landthat surround the caves. We need to takeimmediate steps to resolve this problemwith collaborating between cavers andgovernment agencies and now we arefinally at the beginning stages of facingthis challenge!

l have always thought that caveconservation meant that we not onlyneed to protect the caves, but we also needto protect the waterways that go into thecave as well as the land that surroundsthe caves. I cave because I want to connectwith nature and that connection beginswhile hiking through the forest, climbingthe hills, and crossing the rivers leading tothese beautiful karst features. That bliss-ful state can be lost when we come acrosscontamination. We feel better when every-one starts filling their plastic bags with thetrash both inside and outside the cave.

After listening to a talk at a SERPImeeting (The Puerto Rico SpeleologicalSociety) by a representative of La Juntade Calidad.Ambiental (The Committeeof Environmental Quality) which is sortof like a local EPA, I realized that expertanalysis and statistics were presented as to

why clandestine garbage dumps exist buno solutions for cleanup and prevention

were discussed.Previously I had registered a complainwith this agency condemning the existenceof garbage dumps on road 112 from Mocato Isabela, after a tour with Jeff Kruse, aformer resident. There were several cavesin the area including one cave where wateris extracted and used for human consumption. I contacted a local newspaper and anews report was published....which I hopedwould help the municipal government andthe Committee for Environmental Qualityto work together toward a viable solutionof the clandestine garbage dump problem

in this area. I would call periodically tomonitor the progress, and the case workerwould inform me of key meetings in whicha plan has emerged to enact a thoroughcleanup of the area by both of the Mocaand Isabela municipal governments. WhaI was able to see that was missing was theinclusion of community involvement. Thepeople living in the area were responsiblefor the creation of this mess and the peoplewere the ones who should help take thetime to thoroughly clean it up and preventit from ever happening again. One of theways this could happen was to motivate

the community to take action so otherswould contribute to the clean-up effortsThese actions led to the creation of TheCave Conservation Committee.

This committee is dedicated to assisin the clean-up efforts with multiple strategies that work quite well in remote caveenvironments which also include the use ofvertical techniques for hauling garbage ouof caves. Furthermore this group is opento collaborate with other existing environmental groups especially when manpowerand community involvement can be used

Resurgence entrance to Aguas Buenas

Dry entrance to Aguas Buenas

CarlosArtiguez

CarlosArtiguez

Aguas Buenas


23/32


This collaboration would make it possibleto work on a minimum of three projectssimultaneously and continue to anotherlocation when a project is complete.

Well, currently we are still workingwith the first three projects. The first threeinclude the Aguas Buenas Cave systemwhich is in collaboration with anothersmall caving group in the area. The AguasBuenas Cave is awesome and was my first

encounter with a cave system that had agarbage problem due to its proximity to apopulated area.

In the many years that I havelived here and despite the many caves Ihave explored, I thought Aguas Buenaswas the only cave with this problem. Alsoliving in the eastern part of Puerto Rico,limited my exposure to the garbage prob-lem due to better management and controlof cave environments. It was just that mycave exploration was mainly in remotecaves where garbage was not an issue butI have many more caves to explore on the

island and my tour of Road 112 openedmy eyes to the magnitude of the problemthat there are many caves and areas thatneed to be added to the list. When youenter the cave you may be astounded tosee the walls covered with graffiti. Much ofit is old and may be considered historicalbut then you will notice the garbage cover-ing the passages. With other like-mindedindividuals that have a passion to protectthe cave, The Aguas Buenas conservationproject was developed.

The Aguas Buenas conservationpro ject cons ists of three phases: the

cleanup within the cave, the cleanup ofRio Caguitas (Caguitas River) which is atributary that flows through the AguasBuenas Cave system, and the removal ofseveral large heavy PVC tubes that wereused to influence water to travel into thecave. The heat of the sun and constantcontact with water contributes toward thegradual leaching of PVC contaminantsthat could have a negative effect on theecosystem of the cave as well as contrib-ute to the pollution of the Caguitas Riverwhich eventually flows to Carraizo Dam, amajor source of water in Puerto Rico. Even

though the water is treated, it is not treatedenough to remove all contaminants.

As we fi ni shed cl eani ng up th epassages inside the Aguas Buenas CaveSystem, we were happy to meet themembers of LA Tribu Contribuye (TheTribe Contributes) Environmental group,whom were at the time busy cleaning thebanks of the Caguitas River. This group isa real enthusiastic bunch of young peoplewho are passionate about protecting theenvironment. The photos they proudlypost on social media of their major cleanup

efforts are inspiring as they not only showpeople helping to keep Puerto Rico beauti-ful but they also leave homemade signs toremind you to keep Puerto Rico beautiful.We must take the garbage with us anddispose of it properly and also involve thecommunity surrounding the cleanup areasin a collaborative effort to clean, maintain,

and help educate them on why maintainingtheir land is so important.

La Tribu was featured in the SundayMagazine section of our local newspa-per where they shared the ConservationCommittees vision that talked about howthey are few, but together we are an armyThere are now other groups that clean upsimultaneously with La Tribu on the sameday at the end of each month, in differentareas around the Island.

Recognizing the need for training andencouraging initiative and safety, SEPRIsCommittee for Cave Security offered a

certified course in Cave Safety to which alarge group responded. It is sort of like acourse in the basics of Caving and Rescue.I found it amazing that the group remainedfocused in using this knowledge to furtheradvance the mission of protecting theenvironment where caving and protectionof karst areas is important.

As of this day the The.Aguas BuenasCave Cleanup venture continues. AlexerValencia, employee of the Local ElectricEnergy Power Company, has offered tohelp remove the giant PVC tubes with a

Cueva Golondrina

special machine that is used to extractheavy objects in remote areas.

The Aguas Buenas Cave System isa natural reserve which is unfortunatelythreatened by developers who want toexpand construction in the area. We thinkthat if this collaboration with the ElectricPower Company is successful, the publicity

that this will generate will help create amore positive public image for the ElectricPower Company and help us focus moreattention on protecting the Aguas.Buenasnatural reserve and other cave systemsAlexer Valencia is a former SEPRI membethat decided to make a comeback at theright time!

...ANDBACKTOADAM:

No doubt, there are cavers in PuertoRico that are very passionate about thespeleology, preservation, conservationprotection, and documentation of the

hundreds of caves on the Island. On mymost recent visit to Puerto Rico, CarlosJulie, Tom, Kassia and I went to visit CuevaGolondrina, which is right next to a sideroad near Parques Cavernas De CamuyGolondrina is a 90-foot vertical mult-drop piwith a climb leading into a small formationroom. The cave itself is trending towardCueva Cathedral, which is another fragmenjust north of Parques Cavernas De CamuyCueva Golondrina has a pile of garbageand a bunch of tires that appeared to havebeen rolled down to the bottom along with


24/32


dead chickens in bags hanging from a threadwhich was a bit interesting to encounterwhile rappelling down! At around noon,the sunlight cast some amazing sunbeamsthat illuminated the bell hole ceiling andthe flowstone wall formations. It was quiteimpressive and beautiful to say the least. Wesurveyed the cave and discussed efforts toclean up this cave as it has a distinct advan-tage due to its close proximity to the road so

the clean-up effort should not be too difficult.Unfortunately, there are many othercaves in Puerto Rico that can use a lot of helplike the clean-up efforts that Carlos has beeninvolved with but there is just not enoughinterest and manpower to initiate the actionrequired to properly dispose of the garbageand attempt to reverse the damage that hasbeen done to some of these wonderful caves.We hope that with continued outreach andawareness, more interest and opportunitieswill develop around these initiatives to keepthe caves of Puerto Rico and artifacts of theTaino preserved so future generations can

continue to explore and enjoy this magnifi-cent place as I have found it to be. If youhave any questions about the clean-up effortsor would like to contribute to a restorationproject, please reach out to me directly. Tolearn more about the caves in Puerto Ricoyou can stop by my blog or pick up a copyof Caves and Karst of the USA by ArthurN. Palmer & Margaret V. Palmer in the NSSbookstore.

REFERENCES

Gurnee, R.H., & Gurnee, J., 1974:Discovery at the Rio Camuy: New York,

Crown Publishers, Inc., 183p.Miller, T., Palmer, A., & Palmer, M.

(2009). Cave and Karst of the USA . :National Speleological Society.

Miller, T. (2010, June-December).The Survey and geology of Cueva Yuyu.Espeleorevista Puerto Rico, (3).

AdamH

aydock

Cueva Convento, a fossil segment cave high in t he karst

Right: Large passage in Evaporada

Below: White stalagmites and columns inCueva Larga

Stream passage in Cueva Juan Nieves, part of the Rio Encantado System


25/32


THE CAVES OF BURNSVILLE COVE, VIRGINIA:

FIFTY YEARS OF EXPLORATION AND SCIENCEEdited by William B. White, SpringerInternational Publishing, 2015. 7.5 by10 inches, 479 pages; hardbound ISBN978-3-319-14390-3, $179; e-book ISBN978-3-319-14391-0, $139.

Burnsville Cove, nestled among theridges of the Appalachians, has been one ofthe major caving areas in the eastern UnitedStates since the mid-1950s, when NittanyGrotto cavers began their survey of Breathing

Cave, now over 6 miles long. Other longcaves in the cove are the ButlerSinkingCreek System, 16.7 miles, the ChestnutRidge Cave System, 21 miles, and HelictiteCave, 7.3 miles. Over ninety other cavesare known. Cavers formed the Butler CaveConservation Society, which, along withsome of its members, bought or leased manyof the cave entrances in the area.

This book, one of a Cave and KarstSystems of the World series and a contri-bution of the Butler Cave ConservationSociety, is a somewhat strange one forSpringer, which specializes in expensive

technical books for sale to libraries andprofessionals. Over half of it, thirteen chap-ters, is devoted to cave descriptions andhistories of their exploration, often basicallytrip reports, or the BCCS itself. Over onehundred pages are about the caves of theWater Sinks area. For much more extensivecoverage of that area, see Phil Lucass Cavesand Karst of the Water Sinks Area, avail-able as afreePDF file from lulu.com; searchfor water sinks. Less than half of the bookis devoted to ten chapters on the geology andhydrology of the caves and the area. (There

are no chapters on biology.) Of course thismeans the book should be mainly of interestto cavers. The book contains hundreds ofcolor photos, mostly small, and many cavemaps. A free on-line supplement at http://extras.springer.com/2015/978-3-319-

14390-3 contains 80 MB of maps of cavesof Burnsville Cove, including an eleven-sheetdetailed map of Butler Cave that might havebeen assembled into a single image, but itwouldnt have been easyI tried.

The question, of course, is how the hellthis important book about caves and cavingfell into the hands of Springer. The editor iscertainly well beyond the point of needingto pad his academic credentials. Commercialpublication might have bought careful copyediting, skillful photo preparation, and aprofessionally compiled index, but it didnt.If a volunteer was found to do the layout,

some organization like the BCCS or theVirginia Speleological Survey could havepublished this book, in a cheaper bindingand perhaps with more compact typesettingand selective use of color, and sold it at asubstantial markup for forty bucks. But herewe have a $179 Springer book that will, Isuppose, end up in more university librariesbut in almost no cavers.

Bill Mixon

GLACIATION AND SPELEOGENESIS:

INTERPRETATIONS FROM THE NORTHEASTERN

UNITED STATESBy Max P. Cooper and John E. Mylroie,Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2015,142+xv pages, hardbound $99, ebook $70.

John Mylroies 1977 dissertation oncaves and karst of the Helderberg Plateauin Schoharie County, NY has long been a

bible for cave investigators there. Now, heand his student Max Cooperwho has investigated maze caves in the Northeasthaveproduced a book which incorporates themany findings from ensuing decades, andwhich emphasizes the profound effect o

glaciation on cave and karst developmentNot limited to Schoharie County, this bookcovers the entire Northeast.

Cave studies began in the Northeasin the 1950s, with systematic tabulation ocave and karst features, and initial mappingThis has continued to the present, as newcaves are discovered and mapped. But inthe 1960s, scientific studies of northeasternspeleogenesis began. Insights from this haveresulted in the discovery of major caveslike Barrack Zourie and Carthusian cavesThunder Hole, and Vermonster. Informadigging groups have followed the water

(and speleogenetic principles) to open manynew caves.Some shallow caves were destroyed by

glaciers, and glacial sediment now blocksmany cave passages. But glaciation alsocaused many new caves to form, and withinpreglacial caves it modified old passages andcreated new ones.

There are many ways that glaciation hashad major effects on cave development, andGlaciation and Speleogenesis discusses themin detail. The significant effects of glaciationon the development of non-dissolutionacaves such as talus, fracture, and sea caves

are also covered.Each of the several karst regions of the

Northeast is treated separately, with selectedcaves used as case studies. A few examplesfrom Norway and the UK are included aswell.

Glaciation and Speleogenesis also has ageologic history of the Northeast, a summaryof the cave-forming rock units in each karsregion, and discusses the prospects for learning paleoclimatic data from cave deposits.

Aside from the high price, the onlyreal drawback is with some of the imagesPhotos 4.3, 4.5, 4.14, 6.9 and 7.9 are too

dark and maps 2.10 and 9.1 (anorthositehave mislabeled colors. Figs. 5.18 and 9.7are just too small. As for the price, it mighbe best for grotto libraries, and groups odiggers, to share the cost of a volume. Butcheck Amazon.com for a $74 deal.

Glaciation and Speleogenesis is thorough, well-illustrated and readable, andbelongs in the library of every serious northeastern caver.

Chuck Porter

(Reprinted from the Northeastern CaverJune 2015 issue, by permission)


26/32


What invention changed yourcaving the most?

John Coles rappel rackGalen Hekhuis

Vibram boots

Bill Balfour

Kernmantle rope from twisted Goldline.Jumars.

Chris L. Hall

Swaygo packs. Only cave pack Ive everowned that has proven itself durable,waterproof, and versatile for all my cavingneeds.

Michael Bradford

PVC cave pack material over cordura.Tim White

A hot girlfriend who caved. I didnt invent

her, but bringing her to grotto meetings suregot me invited on a lot more trips.Dan Lamping

LED lights and rechargeable batteries.Hans Stein

Digital cameras ended our Sherpa trips offour cases of photo gear to be carried inon trips.

Tama Cassidy

DistoXTony Canike

Folding Clip board... And already trainedsurvey team!

Josh Brewer

Synthetic underwear.Bill Steele

Ballistics nylon caving suit.Alan Staiman

The John Cole rappel rack! I still have mine,made by John in his garage. Ah, that lovelyability to spread or squish together the bars,to cram the rope between the top of therack and itself for a good solid resting stopwhile waiting for a photographer to say go,or figure out what was afflicting my light...

It was such a vast improvement over thetandem brake bars I started out with.Sherry Graham

Rotary hammer drill. Totally changed cavingfor me

Edmund Tucker

Kernmantel & LEDs.Steve Silverberg

Petzl Pantin, makes my ascending a loteasier.

Michael Boyes

L.E.D.sStacy and Amie Mcdrummond

Side mount configuration.Daphne Soares

Lithium ion batteries that have resulted inbetter, lighter drills and lights.

Zeb Lilly

Contact lenses.Jim Washington

Lasik eye surgery. Game-changer.Scott Linn

Rechargable lithium batteries.Ron Rutherford

Synthetic underwear with the ability to wickaway body moisture.

Jim Nicholls

A combination of my iPad, internet access

in remote areas, kml files of prospectivefeatures, and Google Earth Pro with itshigh resolution leaf-off aerial imagery.Ridgewalking has never been easier.

Kevin Blackwood

High resolution compact waterproof digitalcameras with long lasting batteries and32MB memory cards.

Stacy Gantt-Blackwood

Gibbs ascenders. Early that year, I exitedSchoolhouse Cave, WY on prussicks, andtwo weeks later did Hellhole on my new,tied, Gibbs rig; I later got it sewed. What adifference!

Joel M. Sneed

Social media. I was caving for 20 yearsbefore I ever heard of the NSS or organizedcaving. When I was introduced to a NSScaver through Facebook it literally changedevery aspect of my life and opened up awhole new world for me

Tray Heinke

As soon as I can find good caving gloves ina size small enough to fit my hand, thatll goto the top of my list!

Kathryn Louise McClaine

Cordura....The bulletproof fabric for cavesuits...nuff said.

Jose Martinez

Sten Light!Graham Schindel

LED lights and good rechargeable batteries!Gotta add microblasting in there too.

Larry Zimmer

LED headlamps were the most significantinvention for me, followed by waterproof,shockproof digital cameras.

Amos Mincin

Self Contained Underwater BreathingApperatus

David Obi Jr

Knee pads, bulletproof with copious amountsof padding.

Mike Furrey

Ebay changed the way I cave for one majorreason: cheap cheap cheap gear.

Glen Crawford

Single rope technique. Yes, this probablyencompasses more than one invention, busuddenly I was a vertical caver where beforeI had been restricted to horizontal caves.

Scott Schmitz

Battery powered Hilti drill, allowing cavers togo where the air flows no matter how smalthe crack... the New Golden Frontier ocaving.

Tiny Manke

LIGHT....gets better & better.Tabbatha Cavendish

SDS plus drill.Henry Rockliff

The Internet.Jansen Cardy

Emily says disto.Mike Warner

G.P.S. - Makes finding those small holes onthe remote hillsides of TAG much easier!

Scott Fee

Caving is truly a gear-intensive sport withnew innovations in clothing, lighting, verticagear, packs, and more making our caving t ripsmore pleasant and produc tive. Here, NancyHoller Aulenbach shows us t hat caving geacan be stylish as well as functi onal...


27/32


LED lights! I caved for 10 years with carbide.LED lights save time, energy, and are somuch cleaner and easier to use, especiallyon long trips.

Cheryl Rudolph

The Pee Thru Valve changed the size of mybladder.

Buford Pruitt

Gibbs ascenders.Dean Osgood

Those little plastic clips that help keep lightson a helmet.

Steve Millett

Kernmantle rope. Im old enough to havedone free drops on Goldline. How do youspell D-I-Z-Z-Y?

Duane Couchot-Vore

The development of the cavelamps! Whatan evolution from Petzl Zoom to Scurion!

Lisette de Graauw

Polypro! In Roppel Cave we came to realizehow many leads that had been classified as

Wetsuit (and thus usually not done) wereperfectly fine leads with the right polyproincluding a good balaclava. Or the fact thatyou could swim through passages withoutwetsuits on the way to leads, and steam off

and then be happy once you were out ofthe water.

James Wells

CH3NO

2& NH

4NO

3.

Joel Buckner

I have to say wetsuits, also. The best we coulddo back in the day for exploring streams waswool army pants.

Don Bittle

The pStyle urinary device! I can pee withouthaving to take off my vertical gear or pulldown my coveralls. That was always sucha hassle! Especially practical while hangingfrom a bolt halfway up a dome, during longaid climbs...

Yvonne Droms

Ascending gear, from Prusik knot to Jumar,to whats the latest; and, a secondaryinvention, would be lighting, from carbidelamps to electric, to the Diablo SystemYea!to the bazillion electric lights fromthere on. Problem here is the price alsoincreased. Bad!

Ernie Coffman

Disto X!Terri Sprouse

The Internet, email, facebook, online cavingcommunities.

Troy Fuqua

pStyle (and not having to remove vert gear topee!). Also LED lights. As a kid I remembechanging batteries and bulbs constantly, sothe LEDs are a nice change.

Sarah Truebe

Mini rack so there was a small option besides

Figure 8. I hate the way 8s twist the rope.Linda Pali

Radio slaves have made my cave photographyfaster and less prone to flash failures.

Dave Bunnel

OURNEXTCAVECHRONICLESTOPIC:

What is your favorite caving

scar and how did you get it?

Please send your story to PhilipRykwalder by October 15 for publi-c a t i on i n ou r Decembe r i s s ue :[email protected]

If you have already replied onFacebook, no need to send it separately.

A NEWJUNIORRANGERPROGRAM-

JUNIORCAVESCIENTIST

A new Junior Cave Scientist Bookletis now available online and in hardcopy fordistribution to staff, partners, visitors, and forclassroom activities. The Geologic ResourcesDivision has produced a fun and fact-filledbooklet with photos, learning activities, caveinformation, and a look at the key scientific

disciplines that study caveresources. This book-let also discusses karst

landscapes and White-Nose Syndrome in bats,a deadly disease that haskilled millions of hiber-nating bats in the easternUnited States.

To learn more aboutthis program and todownload an electronicversion of the booklet:

www.nature.nps.gov/geology/caves/jrca-vesci.cfm

To receive hard

copies of this booklet,contact: Da le Pate,303-969-2635 or email:[email protected]

Right: Sample page fromthe 24-page booklet


28/32


June 26, Mark Hodge noted on hisFacebook page on June 26 that he spent tendays cementing rocks to make steps into hisbackyard dig in Cedar Knob Cave, BathCounty, Virginia. He had been hauling outand getting slimed by sloppy mud, bucket

by bucket, digging almost daily in his ownpersonal Purgatory. He is now down to solidrock walls.

June 28, Brett Hemphill posted tohis Facebook page on June 28 about an[i]ncredible weekend for underwater caveexploration in Florida. The Woodville KarstPlain Project, Karst Underwater Resources(KUR), and the Madison Spring Projectexplored and surveyed altogether justunder 6000 feet of virgin underwater cavepassage. Hemphill also posted a map ofM2 Blue Cavedepicting recently explored

and surveyed passage. Andy Pitkin postedthat same day on the KUR Facebook pagethat Charlie Roberson and he added 1626feet of line to the downstream end using theFannells Funnel entrance. Approaching thepoint whereMichael Poucher and Hemphillturned around in 2010, blue water waslayered on top of dark water from thePrehistoric Tunnel. About 50 feet beforethe old end-of-line was a tunnel contributingclear water in from the right. They insteadfollowed the better visibility (50 feet thereversus 10-15 feet in the Prehistoric Tunnel)downstream, exploring typical M2 borehole

tunnel about 20 feet wide, 10 feet high,and with black goethite locally common.They turned around after running out of lineat around 8900 feet of penetration. Thisput the total passage length for M2 Blueat 30,324 feet, making it the 28thlongestunderwater cave in the world. In anotherpost that day, Hemphill wrote that MadisonBlue Spring Cavehas a traverse of over10,000 feet to its Hidden Well entrance, andM2 Blue has a 10,000-plus foot traverse toFennels Funnel, and the two caves are justover 11,500 feet from each other.

Sylvester TJ Muller sent in an articleon NSS-owned Mill Creek Sink Cavepublished in the Gainesville (Florida) Sun onJune 22 that developers of property over-lying the cave agreed Monday to conductwater quality monitoring and employ morestormwater management techniques in thehope of scuttling a legal challenge fromAlachua County. The developers are beingalso sued by the CDS. The tentative agree-ment was not made in conjunction withWal-Marts plans to develop that site; infact, the company wants a reversion to the

2006 agreement with the City of Alachua.However, plaintiffs point out that monitor-ing for pollution does nothing to stop saidpollution and the Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection allows stormwa-ter treatment ponds to be constructed over

documented sinkholes and caves. Indeed, itis still not clear whether Wal-Mart intends toplace a gasoline station above the sinkholethat is directly above a high room in the cave.Muller was quoted as saying, In my opinion,the current city council still maintains thatthey are completely unaware of any cavesystem there.

Dave Socky noted on his Facebook pageon July 3 that 1730 feet of trunk passage wasmapped the day before inWindy MouthCavewithNick Socky and Amy Skowronski.They were in the cave for about eight hours,

Socky noting that it was really nice to sketchcave that actually had walls, instead of theusual breakdown.

On July 5, Brent Hemphill posted to hisFacebook page that Matt Vinzant, JonathanBernot, and he set a new depth record forthe Suwannee River Valley general areaof 250 feet in Suwannee Spring Cave,Suwannee County, Florida. They laid 1,880feet of new line and surveyed it, ending thedive 3,200 feet from the entrance at a high-flow side-mount restriction. Matt Vinzantadded some photos at tinyurl.com/ol9mw7e.

The entrance to Suwannee Spring Cavehas three extreme high flow major restric-tions and a considerable amount of unstablebreakdown. Last year, Hemphill and DerekFerguson explored the first 400 feet of thecave to a depth of 140 feet. The next divetook Michael Poucher, Derek Ferguson, andHemphill 900 feet in to a depth of 140 feet.The third dive, by Charlie Roberson andPoucher, went a distance of 1400 feet anddepth of 127 feet. The next two attemptswere aborted by high flow at the entrancerestriction. They ultimately want to producea map available to the general public upon

completion of the project. Jonathan Bernotposted a short video of the cave on FB onJuly 6: tinyurl.com/q8cr5ns.

The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy(MAKC; attinyurl.com/nhxjoug ) is askingfor donations toward fixing up the groupslibrary, which is an old house. The local codeenforcement officer and MAKC insuranceagent pointed out several deficiencies thatneed to be addressed as soon as possible.Soffits, fascia, and storm gutters are rottedand literally falling off the building, the roof

should be replaced, and the house needpainting. Donations can be made at tinyurlcom/qfjc2cb.

Amos Mincin reported on his Facebookpage on July 7 that the Forest Service held

a cleanup on June 27 at Bowden CaveRandolph County, West Virginia. ThePhiladelphia Grotto, Central New JerseyGrotto, and Monongahela Grotto spentabout three hours primarily wire-brushinggraffiti off walls but also picking up trashJohn Tudek organized the event, along withBrian Louden, Steve Gadd, and others. Thecave has been closed since WNS arrived inthe area, but that has not stopped vandalsand local spelunkers: tinyurl.com/qyp6h7f

On the NSS Survey and CartographySection Facebook page, Jason Richards on

July 6 posted a map of Snail Shell CaveRutherford County, Tennessee, upstreamfrom Sump 1 (tinyurl.com/psrcsbu)Exploration continues. You can messagehim if you want a link to the full-sized version

Sylvester TJ Muller posted a publicthank-you on his June 15 Facebook pageto Steve Boyer and others who constructedchanging rooms at the NSS-owned andCDS-managed Cow Springs Caveproperty in Suwannee County, Florida. It was atwo-day effort involving the creative use oscuba tanks (probably with cave-diver fills) to

power air tools. Other participants includedHally Baroody, Jeff Reeves, RB Havens, RickRobinson, Sean McCarthy, MichaelAngeloGagliardi, Zelda Gagliardi, Forrest Wilsonand a bunch of Boyers (Steve, Marylinand Andrew). Also, the assistance of CathyLesh of Dive Outpost and Wayne Kinard oAmigos Dive Center was noted, and photosprovided by Muller: tinyurl.com/q8y93f3.

Bill Mixon posted to the Texas Cavelistserv on June 16 the news that a new

American-Mexican Cave StudiesActiv it ie s Newsle tter 38 had been

published. It contains a fold-out and othermaps, almost all photos are in color, and itcan be had by emailing Mixon at his addressin the Members Manual.

After over 25 years of free campingat Scottsboro Mountain in AlabamaTAG country, cavers were sadly informedby Andy Zellner on Tag-Net that the ownepassed away and her heirs have closed thesite to us. Well, we got our moneys worthRIP Mrs. Sheppard.


29/32


A major sewage overflow floodedCruze Cave, Knox County, Tennessee, onJuly 27. Scott Engel posted to the SmokyMountain Grotto Web site on the following

day that the owner was looking for help inaddressing the issue: tinyurl.com/qafvurm.

Kasey Fiskes listserv Wisconsin cavingnewsletter details news of upcoming activitiesin the state, including an updated status ofWNS in the state, schedule for ongoing cavedigs in Cherney Maribel Caves CountyPark, announcement of free cave tours tothe public, and the skinny on the 14th inter-disciplinary biennial Sinkhole Conf

Documents

September 15 News