While Bryan stayed around home to spend time climbing with David, Mandy and I made a trip to Kentucky to go caving.
We arrived around midnight and after signing us into the expedition, I poked my head into a few bunkhouse rooms before finding one with only one bed filled. Mandy and I threw down pillows and blankets and went to sleep. It occurred to me that in most places I'd feel pretty uncomfortable putting my daughter to bed in a darkened room with an unidentified man, but at Hamilton Valley I didn't think twice about it. When she mumbled "I'm cold" in the middle of the night, he got up to turn on the heat for her. It turned out to be Tom Brucker.
On the first morning, after saying our hellos to everyone, repacking gear, and eating a good breakfast cooked by Pat Kambesis, we went with Tommy to Bedquilt. The entrance and first crawls needed to be adjusted a bit in order to reach the gate, but apart from that we had a fun, uneventful trip. Tom was predictably full of good stories about those portions of the cave. We got to see the old dance floor, the historical cairns near Phosphate Mountain, and the bottom of Colossal Dom where Wretched River begins. We surveyed a bit off Grand Avenue, with me reading instruments and Mandy setting stations - she's surprisingly good at choosing survey stations, considering the very little survey she's done. She was able to slip through a crack in the floor to answer some questions Tom had about the passage.
On the second day of the expedition, we went with Jim Greer and Tim Green in through the Austin entrance, down Pohl Avenue to Ralph Stone Hall and up Ralph's River Trail to survey. I read instruments again, and Mandy made herself helpful by checking out small leads and holding lights. The survey was very tight. In one spot Jim had to exhale to wiggle through. To leave the passage when we'd tied into the last station, I had to crawl on my belly. That wouldn't have been a problem at all, but Jim had only been able to get into the crawl feet-first and on his side, so coming out was a lot more difficult for him. I'd move forward a few inches, and he'd move forward to touch his feet to mine. When the passage turned, I'd reach back with my toes and move his feet in the direction he'd need to go.
On Sunday morning, Mandy and Roger put their heads together to make plans for a project they're working on. I cleaned the stove and packed the car. The drive home was pleasant and we even had time to hose off gear in the driveway before dark.
Aly & Bryan are always up to something...
Showing posts with label Caving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caving. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
CRF New Years
This is Bryan's seventh New Years at Hamilton Valley, the Cave Research Foundation's facility at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. For Mandy and I, it's the fifth New Years. It's become a sort of fixture in our family schedule. Mandy makes a big deal about having just the right kind of sparkling grape juice, which she drinks right from the bottle at the New Year's 'party' with our friends.
This year, for the first time, our family was asked to handle kitchen duties for one day. We got up early to cook breakfast for about 40 hungry cavers. Then Mandy and I got ready to go caving, and Bryan stayed above ground to cook garlic chicken, rice pilaf, and the best lemon pie in the world.
For the first time, this year (because of newly revised guidelines) Mandy's old enough to cave with regular survey teams in Mammoth Cave. (She went on a trip to Roppel a couple of years ago, but that was a special one-time deal.) So in addition to her usual long visits with friends, and helping a bit in the kitchen, and hanging around the edges of conversations with people she admires, she actually got to go caving two days in a row. She was a happy, happy girl.
This year, for the first time, our family was asked to handle kitchen duties for one day. We got up early to cook breakfast for about 40 hungry cavers. Then Mandy and I got ready to go caving, and Bryan stayed above ground to cook garlic chicken, rice pilaf, and the best lemon pie in the world.
For the first time, this year (because of newly revised guidelines) Mandy's old enough to cave with regular survey teams in Mammoth Cave. (She went on a trip to Roppel a couple of years ago, but that was a special one-time deal.) So in addition to her usual long visits with friends, and helping a bit in the kitchen, and hanging around the edges of conversations with people she admires, she actually got to go caving two days in a row. She was a happy, happy girl.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
CRF Annual Meeting in Missouri
Every year, the Cave Research Foundation's annual meeting is held in an area where the organization has an ongoing project. The board has a closed meeting, which is followed over the next few days by open-to-the-public meetings and field trips and caving. This year's annual meeting was held in Van Buren, MO, so we drove up to say hello.
We pulled into the Big Spring campground late on Friday night, right next to a familiar-looking red Cherokee. What better neighbors than Ed and Elizabeth? Mandy enjoyed riding the campground loop on her 20" uni. It's quicker to get to the bathroom if you have a wheel.
We pulled into the Big Spring campground late on Friday night, right next to a familiar-looking red Cherokee. What better neighbors than Ed and Elizabeth? Mandy enjoyed riding the campground loop on her 20" uni. It's quicker to get to the bathroom if you have a wheel.
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Ocoee Trip, and The Accidental Spacecamp Visit
It's our anniversary! There's no need for wine and roses and chocolates and romantic cards. I got a new hammock, and we went on a road trip with Mandy and our great friends Britt and Debbie. And some pipe cleaners.
I picked Mandy up from her ecology camp around lunchtime on Friday, somewhere between Hot Springs and Mount Ida. We stopped in Benton only long enough to pick up Bryan, and in Little Rock only long enough to switch cars at the Thompson's. We didn't arrive at the outfitters' in Ocoee, Tennessee until the very small hours of Saturday morning.
And on Saturday, we were up bright and early. I did a load of laundry for Mandy (who arrived home from camp with super-stinky stuff) and we hopped on a bus to the put-in point to float the upper and middle Ocoee. Britt and Bryan have floated it before but this was a first for Debbie and Mandy and I, and holy crap it was fun! I don't think any of us stopped grinning the entire trip.
I picked Mandy up from her ecology camp around lunchtime on Friday, somewhere between Hot Springs and Mount Ida. We stopped in Benton only long enough to pick up Bryan, and in Little Rock only long enough to switch cars at the Thompson's. We didn't arrive at the outfitters' in Ocoee, Tennessee until the very small hours of Saturday morning.
And on Saturday, we were up bright and early. I did a load of laundry for Mandy (who arrived home from camp with super-stinky stuff) and we hopped on a bus to the put-in point to float the upper and middle Ocoee. Britt and Bryan have floated it before but this was a first for Debbie and Mandy and I, and holy crap it was fun! I don't think any of us stopped grinning the entire trip.
When we got off the river, tired and giggly, we put some effort into searching out a Outback Steakhouse, consumed amazing quantities of food, and then went back to collapse into our camp. We headed home first thing Sunday morning, but didn't get very far.
Britt grew up in the area around Birmingham, and cut his caving teeth in the pits in the neighborhood. Souda Cave is closed now but we parked at the gated road and walked to the entrance.
Like so many other caves in the eastern and central US, it's been closed to visitors because of the spread of white nose syndrome in bats.
There's a tourist cave in the area still open, though, and Britt wanted to show us. He explored Cathedral Caverns with his father when he was a kid, years before the cave was commercialized. It's a beautiful cave, and they've done a pretty good job of setting up the tourist trails and lighting.
The car trip through this whole area was fun. Britt and Debbie have spent so much time here caving that they're both full of stories about 'what's in that hill over there' and 'the time we went to the cave that's down this road.' And those stories moved into 'when I went to Mexico' and 'the first TAG Cave-In we did together.'
It's funny how much better you can get to know people on a road trip. We've spent lots of time with Britt and Debbie, but one thing we didn't know is that the reason Britt grew up in Alabama: his dad worked for an engineering firm involved in the space program. So a quick side trip past the Space Center in Huntsville was a sort of requirement. We had no intention of doing more than peering in the windows, since we were pressed for time. But Debbie somehow wheedled the Front Desk Person into saying that we could go inside free since it was the end of the day. It's five o'clock, and we're in Alabama, and everybody has to go to work tomorrow. Should we stay? Of course!
Britt and Mandy and I rode the Super Scary Giant Torpedo Thing. (This is probably not its real name.) Bryan rode the 4G with her, the bin that spins around and around until it makes you stick to the wall and wish you were dead. We did some other rides too, and got to see lots of interesting exhibits.
And we got to see Spacecamp! Not only did we look at the building where the Spacecamp kids stay, we were under the shuttle when some Spacecamp student groups were spread out on the grass having class sessions. So we eavesdropped on them. Mandy and Britt say that they want to come back next summer and go to Spacecamp together. They've been funny all weekend, linking arms in parking lots and skipping and singing songs. They're such sweet friends. If only the center would allow sixty year old men and twelve year old girls to go to Spacecamp together, I think they'd have a wonderful time.
It was such a fun trip. We didn't stop talking the whole time we were in the car, telling stories and laughing. I won't admit what time we got back to Little Rock, but we all managed somehow to get a little sleep and show up almost on time for work on Monday. Was it the best road trip ever? I'm thinking it may have been.
Britt grew up in the area around Birmingham, and cut his caving teeth in the pits in the neighborhood. Souda Cave is closed now but we parked at the gated road and walked to the entrance.
Like so many other caves in the eastern and central US, it's been closed to visitors because of the spread of white nose syndrome in bats.
There's a tourist cave in the area still open, though, and Britt wanted to show us. He explored Cathedral Caverns with his father when he was a kid, years before the cave was commercialized. It's a beautiful cave, and they've done a pretty good job of setting up the tourist trails and lighting.
The car trip through this whole area was fun. Britt and Debbie have spent so much time here caving that they're both full of stories about 'what's in that hill over there' and 'the time we went to the cave that's down this road.' And those stories moved into 'when I went to Mexico' and 'the first TAG Cave-In we did together.'
It's funny how much better you can get to know people on a road trip. We've spent lots of time with Britt and Debbie, but one thing we didn't know is that the reason Britt grew up in Alabama: his dad worked for an engineering firm involved in the space program. So a quick side trip past the Space Center in Huntsville was a sort of requirement. We had no intention of doing more than peering in the windows, since we were pressed for time. But Debbie somehow wheedled the Front Desk Person into saying that we could go inside free since it was the end of the day. It's five o'clock, and we're in Alabama, and everybody has to go to work tomorrow. Should we stay? Of course!
Britt and Mandy and I rode the Super Scary Giant Torpedo Thing. (This is probably not its real name.) Bryan rode the 4G with her, the bin that spins around and around until it makes you stick to the wall and wish you were dead. We did some other rides too, and got to see lots of interesting exhibits.
And we got to see Spacecamp! Not only did we look at the building where the Spacecamp kids stay, we were under the shuttle when some Spacecamp student groups were spread out on the grass having class sessions. So we eavesdropped on them. Mandy and Britt say that they want to come back next summer and go to Spacecamp together. They've been funny all weekend, linking arms in parking lots and skipping and singing songs. They're such sweet friends. If only the center would allow sixty year old men and twelve year old girls to go to Spacecamp together, I think they'd have a wonderful time.
It was such a fun trip. We didn't stop talking the whole time we were in the car, telling stories and laughing. I won't admit what time we got back to Little Rock, but we all managed somehow to get a little sleep and show up almost on time for work on Monday. Was it the best road trip ever? I'm thinking it may have been.
Monday, January 4, 2010
New Years at Mammoth Cave
On Thursday morning, we left for Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It's Mandy's and my fourth straight New Years at Mammoth. Bryan's spent six of the last seven New Years in Kentucky. We enjoy the company there as much as we like the caving.
As usual, the New Years' party was, well, subdued. There was beer and wine and orange Koolaid. I had made several kinds of crunchy breadsticks to share, and they were set out on the table in clear glass jars along with the things others had brought. But as the evening wore on, more and more cavers filtered off to bed. By midnight there were only a half dozen of us on the Watsons' old yellow couches in front of the fire, to share Mandy's bottle of sparkling juice and toast the new year.
Bryan caved on Friday, with Lynn Brucker, Joyce Hoffmaster, and Jeremy Reedy. They went up Snail Trail to survey in a crawl. He'd just gone to the Goodwill store for expendable clothing, and so was caving in a purple dress shirt and a pair of houndstooth plaid pants. He was sad to find that his cuffed pants had to be tucked into his rubber boots. And he also learned that Snail Trail's not a great place to wear a button-front shirt. It's too bad he's worn out his yellow Meander suit.
After the cavers were out of camp, Mandy and I hiked with Charles to the Salts entrance. The park has changed all the cores in the locks, and asked CRF to try out the new keys to confirm that everything's working. It was cold, in the mid-twenties, and Mandy broke the ice in all the puddles along the road. Below the trickling waterfall the big cage of a gate was breathing out a great cloud of warm steam. We walked back to camp and then spent the rest of the day on our usual minor aboveground projects (lunch, the visitors' center, the gift shop, and Floyd Collins' grave) before heading back to Hamilton Valley for a nap and to help in the kitchen.
On Saturday, it was my turn to cave. I went with Ed Klausner's group to work on a survey in Belfry Avenue. We entered through the arched doors of the Carmichael entrance and hiked down past the Snowball Dining Room, down El Ghor, down Silliman Avenue, then to Cascade Hall (where we got to see the "tourist trail handrail" from the connection between Flint Ridge and Mammoth!)
From there we continued on to Stephenson Avenue to Opossum Avenue (where there is a set of directional arrows in the ceiling carved by Max Kaemper) and then to Belfry. The passage we surveyed was a close fit, but dry and sandy: curving question marks cut by water into the cool stone.
And then we walked, for miles and miles, in the longest cave in the world, past our own history. And then we were back out in the cold night, where it was starting to snow.
(The caving photos in this post were taken by Nicole Bull.)
As usual, the New Years' party was, well, subdued. There was beer and wine and orange Koolaid. I had made several kinds of crunchy breadsticks to share, and they were set out on the table in clear glass jars along with the things others had brought. But as the evening wore on, more and more cavers filtered off to bed. By midnight there were only a half dozen of us on the Watsons' old yellow couches in front of the fire, to share Mandy's bottle of sparkling juice and toast the new year.
Bryan caved on Friday, with Lynn Brucker, Joyce Hoffmaster, and Jeremy Reedy. They went up Snail Trail to survey in a crawl. He'd just gone to the Goodwill store for expendable clothing, and so was caving in a purple dress shirt and a pair of houndstooth plaid pants. He was sad to find that his cuffed pants had to be tucked into his rubber boots. And he also learned that Snail Trail's not a great place to wear a button-front shirt. It's too bad he's worn out his yellow Meander suit.
After the cavers were out of camp, Mandy and I hiked with Charles to the Salts entrance. The park has changed all the cores in the locks, and asked CRF to try out the new keys to confirm that everything's working. It was cold, in the mid-twenties, and Mandy broke the ice in all the puddles along the road. Below the trickling waterfall the big cage of a gate was breathing out a great cloud of warm steam. We walked back to camp and then spent the rest of the day on our usual minor aboveground projects (lunch, the visitors' center, the gift shop, and Floyd Collins' grave) before heading back to Hamilton Valley for a nap and to help in the kitchen.
On Saturday, it was my turn to cave. I went with Ed Klausner's group to work on a survey in Belfry Avenue. We entered through the arched doors of the Carmichael entrance and hiked down past the Snowball Dining Room, down El Ghor, down Silliman Avenue, then to Cascade Hall (where we got to see the "tourist trail handrail" from the connection between Flint Ridge and Mammoth!)
From there we continued on to Stephenson Avenue to Opossum Avenue (where there is a set of directional arrows in the ceiling carved by Max Kaemper) and then to Belfry. The passage we surveyed was a close fit, but dry and sandy: curving question marks cut by water into the cool stone.
And then we walked, for miles and miles, in the longest cave in the world, past our own history. And then we were back out in the cold night, where it was starting to snow.
(The caving photos in this post were taken by Nicole Bull.)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Fancy Pants 5
Today was the 5th annual Fancy Pants trip, hosted by the Little Rock Grotto and organized by Aly and I.We had ~22 people attend this year and some folks brought hors d'oeuvre and sparkling grape juice to snack on during the pre-caving photo session.
We split into three groups and headed in for a four hour trip to the waterfall and back. Everyone, first-timers especially, had a great time and enjoyed the silliness of the occasion.
Below is a slideshow of the other photos from Fancy Pants 5. Click here to see it full screen.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
White Nose Style
Recently, Little Rock Grotto decided it wanted some new shirts and several things fell into place nicely.
* White Nose Syndrome was in the news
* Brian Gould promised to hook LRG up with a great price on the shirts
* And Aly came up with a clever design
We took a couple of photos of the shirt tonight. The front features the LRG logo while the back promotes White Nose Syndrome awareness (and a strategy to aid the decontamination procedure).
* White Nose Syndrome was in the news
* Brian Gould promised to hook LRG up with a great price on the shirts
* And Aly came up with a clever design
We took a couple of photos of the shirt tonight. The front features the LRG logo while the back promotes White Nose Syndrome awareness (and a strategy to aid the decontamination procedure).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Once again our family spent the New Year holiday at Hamilton Valley with CRF/Mammoth and good times were had by all. Mandy got to run through the compass course before heading over to Adwell Cave to survey Roger & Lynn Bruckers new surveying course. Aly and I helped in varying degrees and our closure wound up being 1.2 feet horizontal and 0.5 feet vertical over the course of a 511 foot loop.
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