the underground movement - national speleological...

The Underground Movement VOLUME 5, EDITION 4 JUNE-JULY, 2007

CCG at the 2007 Spring NRO, Submitted by Steve Janesky

2007 Spring NRO Hosted by MET Grotto in Central Bridge, NY


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The Central Connecticut Grotto (CCG) invites you to join us in the exploration, study and conservation of caves.

The Underground Movement (UM) is published bi-monthly by the Central Connecticut Grotto (CCG) of the National Speleological Society (NSS). Contact the UM editor or individual author for permission to reprint.

Editor: Steven Janesky (NSS #47988) C/o CCG 117 Church Street Sharon Springs, NY 13459 (518) 284-3201 [email protected] or [email protected]

CCG Meetings Meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month, starting at 7pm. These are reasonably informal, and generally consist of a short business meeting followed by a caving presentation. Summer meetings are usually held at a member’s house in Southington; please contact any CCG Officer for further infor-mation. Meetings for the remainder of the year are held at HRP Associates in Farmington. Non-members are always welcome.

CCG Meeting Directions

HRP Associates 197 Scott Swamp Road Farmington, CT 06032 Contact Bob Simmons on (860) 674-9570 ext 134 -From Interstate Route 84, take Exit 33, Route 72 West to-wards Bristol. -In 2 miles, take the North Washington Street Route 177 Exit. -Turn right off the exit ramp onto Route 177, heading north. -In 2 miles you will come to the intersection with Route 6, a.k.a. Scott Swamp Road. (Tunxis Community College will be on your right) -Turn right onto Route 6 east. -At the second set of lights (about a half mile down the hill from Route 177), turn right into the driveway for the Farmington Cor-porate Park. -You will immediately come to a “T” Intersection (stop sign), turn left. -At the bottom of the entrance drive you will come to a traffic circle. Bear right, and you’ll see the 197 Scott Swamp Road building on your left. - The entrance to HRP Associates is in the inside corner of the L-shaped building, directly behind the three flagpoles. -HRP Associates is through the right hand door as you enter the building.

CCG Dues Regular Membership Dues: $5 per year (NSS members can opt to pay $20 for a 5-year membership) Associate Membership Dues: $2 per year (Non-voting – intended for family, youth, or full-time stu-dent members) Institutional Membership No Charge yearly renewal (Open to educational, scientific and conservation organizations)

CCG Website

The CCG website is www.ctcavers.org

The website is an excellent source for grotto information,

events, history, and photos. A separate CCG message

board is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ctcavers/ and

is accessible to members only. To send a group email,

use [email protected]

Trip dates in this publication are subject to verification on the CCG website

Coming Next Month: Pictures and reports from the NSS Convention Many Great Summer caving trip stories and pictures


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CCG Officers Chair: Norm Berg 860-621-2080 Vice Chair: Alisa Werst 203-269-5460 (Program and Activities) Treasurer: Andy Ouimette 860-384-1178 Secretary: Sara Herman 860-518-4015 Communications: Norm Berg 860-621-2080 Membership: Emily Ray 203-589-2376 Safety: Doug Truitt 860-298-8862 Conservation: Garth Varian 203-453-5639

Vertical: Bob Jacobs 860-429-7067

Equipment: Steve Millett 203-640-6703 UM Editor: Steve Janesky 518-284-3201

National Speleological Society The National Speleological Society (NSS) is the national organization of which CCG is a part. CCG members are encouraged to join the NSS. The NSS website is at www.caves.org The NSS discussion board is at www.cavechat.org

2813 Cave Avenue Huntsville, AL 35810-4431 Phone: 256-852-1300 Fax: 256-851-9241 E-Mail: [email protected]

The Central Connecticut Grotto (CCG) invites you to join us in the exploration, study and conservation of caves

CCG Calendar

Events are not limited to what is on the calendar! Listings are subject to change. Check out the activities listed at www.ctcavers.org or contact fellow grotto members to create your own trips. www.caves.org/io/grottos.shtml Remember our neighboring grottos in the northeast may have activities planned too – see the Northeastern Regional Organization (NRO) website at www.caves.org/regions/nro/ for links to other grotto websites. Keep everyone updated on trips, events, changes, and other news by emailing the information to [email protected]


UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC - updated After much discussion, at the March Grotto meeting we voted on and approved making the CCG newsletter publication "Underground Movement" (UM) available to the public. This is for issues published from October 2003 onward. We agreed on these guidelines: 1. At least two CCG members will review each issue to see if material not suitable for the public exists. 2. If material not suitable for the public is found, it will be obscured in such a way that readers are aware of the alteration. 3. Once an issue is reviewed and edited (if material need redaction), that issue will be posted to a public part of the CCG website. In this discussion, we came to the general conclusion that we would redact only what is absolutely necessary. Material that would likely be a candidate for redaction consists of: some cave locations, opinions of individuals or groups that are not supported by evidence, and material used without permission (at least when the owner is likely to require permission). It could be that none of this exists. Material that might be a candidate for redaction consists of email addresses, phone num-bers, street addresses, financial discussions (including the CCG treasury), meeting minutes (most are un-approved at time of publication and are later corrected, but these corrections are rarely published). Every issue contains most or all of this material. It seemed to be the consensus that this material will remain, but your comments are welcome. Please help review the issues. Pick any issue(s), and review it. If you find questionable material either: Print and mail the affected pages to Norm Berg, or send your findings by copying and pasting the affected text/photo into an email to Norm Berg. At this time all issues need to be reviewed. Links to the issues are at: http://www.caves.org/grotto/ccg/umlisting.htm

HOT SPOT INSTALLATIONS IN CLARKSVILLE CAVE - updated Eddie Current ecurrent@necaver. org reluctantly wants you to know that this project was an April fools joke. He would have preferred to let it live on, but I (as CCG Chair) didn't want future generations of cavers to look thru these emails (and future historical archives) and say "So that's how the in-cave internet systems started". -- Norm Berg (CCG Chairman)

Dear Friends and Family, 28 May 2007

Training has consumed my life since my last writing. 14-18 May we

were in Craig, on the other side of the island, at the Craig Ranger Dis-

trict’s training. There are two Ranger Districts on the Island, Thorne

Bay and Craig. There we learned CPR, First Aid, safe boating tech-

niques and flying techniques (these two you have to take in order to

board a USFS boat or plane. We also learned how to drive defen-

sively, which will come in handy while driving up to the cave. Before

training started one morning, I spotted a bald eagle, and video taped it

as it took off. It is not good quality, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBQzmh1l84

It was an hour drive from Thorne Bay to Craig every day, but the road skirts around the Karta Wilderness, which contains majestic,

snowcapped mountains.

Friday we skipped training and went, with our supervisor, to the cave for the first time. The picture at the very top of this letter is of a

bald eagle sitting in a lake outflow during low tide. We pass this creek, and many others, during the 2.5 hour drive up to the cave.

There are more than 370 steps from the start of the trail to the opening of the cave (I will go into this later in the letter). I was so ex-

cited to finally get to the cave that I practically ran up the stairs. I do not know how I did it. My coworkers kept saying to slow down! I

was so overjoyed to finally get to the cave! Continued on page 5…...


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We did a small tour of the cave… it was just nice to finally get there. Before we went into the cave we learned how to use our radios for com-munication to dispatch… basically we have to call to say that we are alive every morning and every night. The weekend was fairly uneventful. I walked around a lot, getting to know the town and meet-ing some people who happened to also be walking. I took a lot of time to rest. On 21-23 May we had more training. This was on how to give good tours and convey information to visitors without it all going over their heads. Training was supposed to extend through Thursday, but we spent the majority of the day with a geologist, Jim, and an anthropologist, Terry, who got us acquainted with the island. We took a field trip between Thorne Bay and the cave and learned everything about everything in be-tween. One stop that we made was in an estuary at low tide. Can anyone guess what these bumps sticking out of the estuary are? They are pieces of wood. Read on if you want the explanation and are done pondering… These pieces of wood have been radiocarbon dated to be between 1,600 and 2,400 years old. They are the remnants of fish traps. During high tide, fish swim into the estuary, and during low tide, they leave with the water. What people would do is construct these traps and leave a part open, and close it during high tide. At low tide, they would have a plethora of fish flopping on the mud because the water has receded! A river that comes into an estuary changes its course through time, constantly shifting the way it flows. That is why this fish trap does not cross the flow of the current outflow, but represents the direction of flow of whatever time that this was dated to be constructed. These remnants of traps also hold sediment, so they are commonly found on the corners of the current outflow stream. There either are or will be more pictures to illustrate this on my pictures—go to

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peacefulkillermonkey/my_photos We were told that there are more fish traps, a stone trap, and

some petroglyphs (carvings in stone) on the other side of the estuary, but we didn’t make it over there because of time constraints. Sounds like an-other adventure for another day!

Continued on page 6…...


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We continued to the cave and learned a lot about that as well. The trail up to the cave starts out in a second growth forest, which means that it has been logged before. In Southeastern Alaska, it is a rainforest (we get that much rain!) and when a forest is cut down, it grows back so thick that it is very hard to maneuver through it. After climbing a considerable amount of steps, you emerge into an old growth forest, which hosts very large, very tall trees. It is beautiful. It is very easy to walk through these giants, as the plants on the ground are restricted to small brush and mosses. The change is, in a word, noticeable. On the way up the trail there are hemlocks that have what look like gashes in them—actually the work of flying squirrels chewing down past the bark of the tree into what some call the heartwood. They eat this, as well as truffles (not the chocolate kind) for subsistence. Another scar prevalent on the trees along the trail, this time red cedars, are scars from people chopping a horizon-tal line in the bark and then pulling. Because the fiber of the bark tapers in as the bark is pulled away, triangle shaped scars exist in the wood. These trees are referred to as CMT’s, or Culturally Modified Trees. There are trees within very close vi-cinity to each other that all share this feature, further implying that they were produced by humans. Sometimes you can even see the marks that the tools made on the bark. The bark was used for basket making and roofing in summer fish camps of the native peoples on the island. The cave has more than 14,000 feet of passage on three levels. Being in a cave with a geologist was somewhere close to my wildest fantasy. Both Jim and Terry have studied much of the island together, and they are great sources of knowledge. They told us of animal uses of the cave (bear, otter, people, bats) and things found in the cave (fish bones from otter scat, a young otter wrapped ceremonially in cedar bark, piles of charcoal from long gone torches, a bear skull dating to 35,363 years ago). But I won’t bore you with the cool geological details like faults in the cave, a basalt dike that runs through the center of one room, and how it grades in and out of marble and limestone from the bizarre cooling of a nearby granodiorite batholith. Nobody cares about geology, or so I'm told. We got back at 5:30 instead of 4:30 and it was a mad rush to get into uniform, calm my raging stomach, and re-hearse my presentation for the training I was in—all by 6:00! But I did it—not sanely or healthy, but, I accomplished it. My presentation, on black bear safety, went well. After researching for it, I feel a bit more confident about bears—but I still don’t want to come upon one. On that note, I have now seen 2 black bears up close—both times while a passenger in a vehicle and both times while the bear was crossing the road. I have also seen one at a distance but it was so far away that I hardly counts. The past two days I have gotten out and explored. On Sunday, Kevin, a permanent FS Firefighter (in a rainforest, go figure) asked if I wanted to go to Sandy Beach, which is about 5 miles away from the FS Compound, and go beach-combing. I accepted and retrieved mostly rounded rocks from the surf. A cruise ship went by-- that was pretty cool. Pictures will be on http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peacefulkillermonkey/my_photos soon, hopefully. Today I hooked up with one of my geology professors, Ray Joesten, his sister, Beverlee, her husband, Pat, and Ray's wife, June. We went up past Sandy Beach and went fishing (I watched and took pictures), while Beverlee and June discovered an unmarked FS trail that overlooked a fish ladder, which is where we had lunch. We stopped at some beaches and quarries on the way back. I found a chunk of chalcopyrite, which is a cool mineral because it tarnishes all sorts of psy-chedelic colors like magenta, cerulean, and the like but is brassy when untarnished. Ray and Pat, both geologists, were ex-cited at this, and we stopped. Unfortunately we could not find a repeat of what I had found a couple days ago, but I did find a hunk of epidote that had slickenslides (from faulting!). That was a bit heavy on the geological terms, but Ray gave me a piece of pyrite. Apparently he's rolling in Fool's Gold because he and Pat found a large deposit of it. Don't even send me comments about how I should find the real stuff-- rest assured, I'm looking!! I go up to the cave on Wednesday, 30 May, and return Friday, 8 June. I will not have any cell phone reception, picture up-loading abilities, or email during that time. But I’ll have a lot to write in my next digest!

But most importantly, HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY to my darling Justin!

Fondly, Lee Boop

Dear Steve, I really enjoyed the last UM. Sometimes I get the idea that you are down for material to put in it and that nobody cares about it (just the vibe that I get from some of your emails) but I think you’re doing a great job! I finally have time to read it cover to cover now that I’m up here in AK! That’s awesome about your “pet bat.” I’ve heard about people having them and they hang on their shirt pockets or whatever, but that’s just too cool. We’ll call you lifesaver from now on (if you’ve ever seen the movie “The Jerk,” you should laugh at that). Do you intend to keep it? Is he literally “hanging out” in your basement—does he reside there from now on or will he return to the cave as soon as every-one else comes out of hibernation (which should be now or before)? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could build a shed where the bats could roost and then you could collect the guano and use it for fertilizer? That would take a lot of bats, but just an idea. ;-) I put you on my list for the emails about what I'm doing. You can pull stuff from there (once I get to the cave, which will be in another two weeks) or I can write up stuff for you. Whatever works for you. Lee Boop


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Hi Cavers, The Spring NRO (Northeastern Regional Organization meeting) was held near Schoharie, NY May 18-20. About 16 CCG members attended, among the approx 120 total attendees. A lot of caving was done on Saturday, where the outside tem-perature was just little warmer than the caves, and the rain made it at least as wet. The CCG provided the NRO hosts (the MET Grotto) with the use of our canopies and coffee pots, and the NRO staff donated some money to the CCG. We also brought up a generator, donated for the weekend by Shirley Bloethe, as there wasn't sufficient electric service in our part of the campground. The upcoming Fall NRO, which will be in mid September, will be hosted by the CCG. That means the CCG plans all parts of this event - the location, caving and other activities, food, evening program, guidebook, publicity, etc. We don't have to do everything, for example, usually a grotto or two will host the meals, but we need to make sure all goes smoothly in any weather. You will be hearing more about this event in the upcoming months. -- Norm Berg

Here's a photo of me and Sean in the Bellavista Lava Tube, Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador from our recent trip there. I'm the handsome devil in the light green shirt.

Here's another picture of Norm and Tommy (left & right) above a big sink in Southern Berkshire County Mass. that we went by

on ridgewalk back on March 11th. By Bob Simmons


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Hawaiì Expedition 2007 - Part 1 By Jansen Cardy

It was the day after Valentines Day, and I had arrived back on the Big Island of Hawaiì. After spending considerable time in the islands, I can confidently say this one is my favorite. It’s called the Big Island because it has a 4,000 square mile land mass, larger than all the other Hawaiìan islands combined. It contains 6 of the 10 longest known lava tube systems in the world, including the top 4. And for those who like their caves vertical, the island also boasts the deepest open-air pit in the US, at 862 feet. Don’t forget that active volcano, too! I was headed to the seasonal home of fellow cavers Don Coons and Barb Capocy. Their house is located in a sparsely-populated gated community, built on part of the southern flank of Mauna Loa – the world’s largest mountain by volume. You get a great view of the Pacific Ocean 1,000 feet below and a couple of miles away, across the sparsely-vegetated lava. On a clear day, you can almost see New Zealand (just kidding). Each year, this semi-communal speleo-home near the small town of Ocean View is generously shared by Don and Barb with a relentless hoard of visiting project cavers. Friday February 16 was Caving Day One for me. At last, I finally get underground again for the first time in months! I joined Mike Warner, Ken Kloppenborg, and Steve Lewis on a survey trip into the Ohana Kai Maze, at the southern end of the Kanohina System. With over 20 miles of lava tube already surveyed, this system is currently the world’s second-longest. We began surveying in an area that I had scouted at the end of last year’s caving season. Tying into the last ex-isting survey station, we belly-crawled through the first constriction with me in the lead. I tried to stick to something resem-bling a main passage trend heading makai (downhill), but side leads abounded. It was slow going on the sharp lava, mostly hands-and-knees crawling occasionally punctuated by painfully low stoop-walking. For a while, almost every station was a passage junction. Using my laser Disto to measure distances made progress slightly more efficient, but with so many parallel and interconnecting passages nothing was easy. After a while, we unofficially dubbed our new playground the “Misery Maze.” Several more days spent surveying this over the next few weeks yielded over a thousand torturous feet of new passage. The next day I was enticed into another un-surveyed cave. This trip involved a short drive followed by a mile and a half hike in the company of Peter and Ann Bosted, and Ric Elhard. We made our way down into a large puka (a pit formed by the collapse of a lava tube ceiling), and waded through a thick layer of goat droppings into the darkness. Not far inside this newly-named Goat Drop Cave, we reached the top of a 15 foot nuisance drop. Fortunately we’d planned for this, bringing rope and vertical gear with us. After the drop, we headed makai down a high-ceiling canyon passage until we reached a belly crawl. On the other side, we found ourselves in a small chamber with a lava sump at the end – complete with a set of goat bones. Above our crawl, there was chamber which we were able to chimney up and onto a high ledge overlooking the canyon passage we can through earlier. Even in that remote spot, as with everywhere else in the cave, there were char-coal fragments showing evidence of ancient torch-wielding explorers before us. On the high ledge we stopped for lunch, took some photos, and then started surveying back. Unfortunately my trusty Disto soon started having problems, culminat-ing in its permanent retirement. It was sorely missed for the rest of my time on the Big Island, and I have since replaced it with a newer model. Other than that misfortune, a good day’s caving was had by all. Sunday was the annual Cave Conservancy of Hawaii meeting, held at Don’s house. Knowing how these things can some-times go on for a while, I eavesdropped for the first half hour or so before quietly sliding out to go caving. I joined Norm Thompson and the Bosteds on a photo trip into the nearby Maelstrom section of the Kanohina System. After just a couple of hours of shooting, we were joined in the cave by several attendees from the meeting. Dr. Fred Stone got busy placing cricket traps near the underground tree roots, as part of one of his latest projects to study cave critters. I shot some more photos, and got to chatting with some of the cavers. Arriving back at the house, I found Don trying to spark some interest in a nearby cave that needed surveying. That evening, Fred took me for a short walk across the lava to find this Lani Kai Cave. We found some entrances here and there, but our main goal proved to be elusive as darkness fell. The next morn-ing, Don took me straight to the entrance – a mere few hundred yards away from the house. After a brief tour of some of the cave, he talked me into the idea of putting together a survey crew to finish mapping it later in the week. On Tuesday, I joined Ann, Ken, and Mike Nardacci for a lava hike in Volcanoes National Park. In keeping with tradition we had a late start, enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the way, and arrived at the end of Chain of Craters Road mid-afternoon. We were well-armed with food, water, cameras, headlamps, and marshmallows. For two and a half miles, we followed the trail of people along the line of marker posts. Arriving at the viewpoint before sunset, we were treated to a fantastic view of the lava flowing into the ocean barely two hundred yards from us. After multiple photos, ‘someone’ decided to cross the rope safety barrier for a better shot – and received a prompt scolding from a park service staff member lurking in the back-ground. As darkness fell, our group made its way inland a third of a mile to where lava was breaking out in slow-moving tongues. Then we broke out the marshmallows.


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Taking brief turns crouching in the heat wasn’t the most efficient way to toast them, but it made for a fun photo op and some light entertainment. A passing hiker innocently asked me if I was measuring the lava temperature with a probe! On the return hike we stopped for more ocean-lava shots, before finally making it back to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Stay tuned, folks – more Hawai`i caving adventures to follow next time! Additional photos of these caves can be found on Peter and Ann Bosted’s website: http://www.cavepics.com/ (Hawaii, February 2007) Cave Conservancy of Hawai`i website: http://www.hawaiicaves.org/

Don in Lani Kai

Don at edge of Owl Pit

Don in entance of Lani Kai

Don in watches Sharon descend Owl Pit

Ann and Chris With lava ball In Lani Kai

Chris in Free Fall


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Hawaiì Expedition 2007 – Part 2 By Jansen Cardy

It was Friday February 23, and I was underground on the Big Island with the Cave Conservancy of Hawaiì. Ann Bosted, Norm Thompson and I were getting started on our phase of the Lani Kai Cave survey project, squeezing our way through the dug-open constriction that marked the end point of previous survey efforts. We found ourselves in nice passage head-ing mauka (uphill), mostly walking but with occasional breakdown to negotiate. There was a slight delay while ‘somebody’ who forgot the tape quickly scampered back to Don Coon’s house to retrieve it. The survey finally got under way, with Ann sketching while Norm and I ran tape and instruments. We didn’t sacrifice accuracy for speed, nor did we skimp on our photo-taking breaks. It was well after dark when we finally made it out. When the next day dawned we were right back into it, with the addition of Chris Beck making up the fourth member of our team. Starting where we left off, we continued sur-veying up the passage. We soon reached an impressive lava ball loitering in the middle of the passage, which we meas-ured at about 30 feet in circumference. After taking many photos using a multitude of flashguns, we surveyed our way a couple of hundred more feet straight into a dead end. That abruptly signaled the conclusion of this project, after us adding over 600 feet of passage to a cave that now totals 3,442.8 feet. On Sunday, Norm, Chris and I went to check out Free Fall Cave. Located in a neighboring subdivision, it features a nar-row vertical entrance rigged with an aluminum extension ladder tied in place. The cave earned its name the first time it was explored by local cavers, when Rose Herrera had been hit by a falling rock that knocked her off the ladder. She was lucky not to have been seriously hurt, and managed to safely exit without medical assistance. We climbed down the ladder and headed makai (downhill), choosing a large side lead to start our survey with Norm manning the sketch book. Chris had his laser Disto with him, making distances significantly easier to measure in this mazy area. This was to be a short survey day, with just a few hundred feet of passage added. The next day a bunch of us kept busy helping Don work on his house, and assisting Jack Vose construct an information kiosk on the nearby CCH preserve property. On Tuesday Ken Kloppenborg and I made the final trip of the season back into Misery Maze. Even with prolific side leads still branching everywhere, we wanted to see how far we could go makai in what resembled the main trunk. It was tough surveying with just two of us, es-pecially since I was also forced to use my fledgling sketching skills. We added another staggering 114 feet of length, be-fore it finally pinched out in a nasty passage I dubbed the Miserable Conclusion Crawl. With more side passages left to survey, this area will still be on the menu for future survey trips.

As the month of March began on the Big Island, the pace slowed a little for me. I took a few days off from caving to spend some time with my wife Stacey (a non-caver) who was visiting. This had the effect of extracting a few of my fellow cavers out of the ground and away from their survey projects, in favor of joining us for a little snorkeling and sightseeing. With wa-ter temperatures in the high 70’s and world-class coral reefs and tropical fish, why not? Plus some people apparently get excited about visiting plantations and tasting coffee on the Big Island. Go figure. After Stacey had left again, ten of us de-cided to hike to a remote beach a few miles from where we were staying. The interesting thing about this place Pohue Bay is the abundance of petroglyphs that cover some of the ancient trail we were following. So even without a swim, it was still a day at the beach to be remembered. On Tuesday March 6 it was time to dust off the vertical gear and go caving again. Six of us packed into a couple of cars, and headed off to Owl Pit. Relying on my GPS to tell me which way to hike, my arri-val at the edge of this pit was sudden and breathtaking. It’s not enormous in a Golondrinas kind of way, but it’s still impres-sive. We rigged off a couple of convenient trees, and dropped in for a look. Because life can’t all be fun and games, as soon as we were down the pit out came the survey book and instruments. Al-though this wasn’t quite virgin territory, the previous explorers had neglected to survey it. With Don Coons sketching, I shot compass, clino, and the Disto while Bruce Dunlavy set stations and provided a target for me. We successfully worked our way around the 300-foot-plus perimeter, despite some difficulty aiming the laser a few times in direct sunlight. We then climbed down into the darkness at one edge of the pit, negotiating a maze of breakdown that lead to a large sloping cham-ber containing lava helictites. We finished surveying for the day, and I shot a few photos before heading back up into the daylight. Meanwhile the others had kept themselves busy bouncing the pit a few times – including our visiting gentleman from the South, Mr. Marion O. Smith. Marion is reputed to hold the record for the most in-cave vertical miles, apparently over a hundred in his lifetime so far. He kept the rope warm waiting for us with some additional help from the last two mem-bers in our group, Sharon Jones and Chris Beck. I thought I was the last one to drag myself up the rope, but in true style Marion jumped back on and bounced the pit one more time before totaling up his footage and heading out. Stay tuned, folks – further Hawaiì caving adventures to follow next time! Additional photos of these caves can be found on Peter and Ann Bosted’s website: http://www.cavepics.com/ (Hawaii, February 2007) Cave Conservancy of Hawaiì website: http://www.hawaiicaves.org/


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MET Grotto’s Hasbrouck Mine Trip—June 16, 2007

Here are some pictures of Met and CCG cavers in and around Hasbrouck and Delaware Mines in Kingston, New York. About 30 cavers showed up for a wonderful picnic hosted by the MET grotto on a beautiful June day.

Photos by Steve Janesky and Azya Wolf

Exploring Hasbrouck Mine

Steve in the floor of Hasbrouck Mine

Descending the 150 foot entrance into Delaware Mine

Fine dining ‘picnic style’

The pavillion at Hasbrouck Park

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