Trip to Pine Hill Cave - 12.14.2019

Here are some pics from our recent trip to Pine Hill Cave on 12/14/19.  We were underground for about 5 hours and went to the Art Room, a place in the cave I hadn't been to in a long time, and one to which my kids had never been.  In addition to my daughter and I, my son brought a couple of his buddies down with him, and we were also joined by Bill Steinhoff, Dave Long, and Bob and Julia Dobbs. 

After the cave we enjoyed a meal at the Limestone Grille and then a few of us putzed around at the old quarry off Mullins Station Rd and looked at the Blue Hole resurgence.  A good time was had by all.

Mark Swelstad

Mark and Amanda Swelstad say...'Buh Humbug!'   ;)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate that holiday and for those of you who don't, enjoy the day off!  Hopefully we all get to go caving soon.

Here's a pic from Bill who was with a few people at Sullivan's Cave enjoying a holiday meal caver style....

Morse Code?

Coach Cave Bat Reconnaissance

Coach Cave Bat Reconnaissance - Bethany Widmayer

In Time: 10:40am

Out Time: 6:00pm

Breakdown of timing reveals Spring Ave haul takes 60” (??), maybe more.

By noon, we had gauged there to have been some footprints near puddled areas, but little drag marks consistent with recent traffic.

Just past Cooper’s we heard squeaks. By 2 we had dealt w. Bat recon and visited Emperor Pit, and by 3:15 having eaten, were back at cross canyon and continuing to exit.

●       Near Cross Canyon (close to where John saw “gypsum cotton”) – heard the flutter of bat wings

●       At Cross Canyon:

○       Thin ribbons of roost stain

○       Large quantities of guano

○       Up to an inch deep in spots

●       In large room near 5 IX – saw bat flying

●       Shortly after, saw same bat (or different one) – John estimated wing span of 5 inches or more

Bowman's Trip Report

"Trip report 11/16 Bowman's Pit; surveying-that-which-I=Brian scooped on connect trip in April.
As the April connection effort was being bolted, I had stayed warm by exploring & left of GS-25; much passage there was then left to survey. Yesterday, Clint, Philip, and I entered at 1pm Saturday in great weather, amid the leavings of close-by logging, to survey that. Once some brush was snapped off, our roped descent and further progress westward was uncomplicated, once underground. We attained GS-25 by 3pm and surveyed westward from there. The ensuing GSW survey mapped my April progress for 175.1 feet and established experientially that our EOS GSW-12 tied back to a cluster of leads off GSW-2 that I'd bypassed in spring.

The cluster of passages near EOS is passably pushed, but the initially bypassed leads, when pursued after Saturday's survey, are partly explored and sketchily mapped. Once Clint had summarized in back-of-the-napkin form those leads, we exited.

The exit trip was uneventful, with an out time putting us in the car & to the Hideout at 1am. The remaining leads are a mix of passages possibly trailing to known northwesterly passage & some southwesterly; all beckon future surveyors.................."

Brian Devine