Grotto Trip to Organ Cave
At 6:30 pm on Friday I planned to depart Cary, NC for the grotto trip to Organ Cave, however, as the time of departure approached so did hurricane Charley. As soon as I met Gordon and Cara in Morrisville the rain and lightning began. We ended up eating dinner at India Palace 2 while we waited for the storm to abate. After dinner it was still raining but the lightning had subsided. We were able to load all the caving gear in the car, but with 3 bikes and only two bike racks we were having a bit of trouble. As we struggled to tie Gordon's bike to the kayak rack on top of his car morale reached a bit of a low point. There was even talk of going to see a movie and skipping the trip. However, Gordon forced us to persevere. Eventually we tied the bike up well enough to make it to REI, where we bought a new bike rack for the back of Gordon's car. Of course it was still raining so we ended up assembling the new rack in the rain. Finally, at 9:30 pm we were ready to go and we left for West Virginia. We arrived at Greenbrier River Campground in Ronceverte, WV at around 3 am. Fortunately, we had driven out of the bad weather and we were not forced to put up the tents in the rain.
A few hours later I woke to the smell of bacon, which coaxed me out of the tent quite a bit earlier than normal. Susanna, Emily and Mike had prepared a wonderful breakfast and we all filled up in preparation for our caving trip. It was a short drive to Organ Cave from the campground. When we arrived we met up with our guides, Sandy and Ray. As most of us geared up for the trip a small group shuttled the cars over to the Lipps cave entrance where we planned to emerge from the cave system. Once the drivers returned we headed underground into the cave.
The entrance to Organ Cave was quite impressive. Perhaps it was just because of the lighted walkway, but the entrance reminded me a bit of the historic entrance of Mammoth Cave. For the first part of our trip we followed the tourist trail into the cave. For a tourist trail the lighting was quite well done. It was dark enough to maintain some of the dark look you get just caving with headlamps, but yet it was still light enough to allow you to make your way along the trail safely. When the tourist trail reached the turn off to the Saltpetre works we left the trail and continued along the underground river.
For a group of 15 people we moved quickly. I found myself just following along, not really paying attention to landmarks in the same way I do when caving without a guide. However, for the most part it seems to me that we followed the river for the beginning of the trip. This section of the trip was fairly easy. There were a few short sections where we had to crawl on hands and knees, but for the most part it was walking passage. Eventually we left the river and came to a fairly large room. Here we stopped and had a snack while our guides looked around for the smaller passage where we would continue the trip. Brian was kind enough to share his beef jerky with me since I wasn't really interested in the snacks which I had brought along on the trip.
Once our snack was finished we headed down what our guides thought was the Rat Alley passage. This passage was a low belly crawl, but Brian soon called back that the passage appeared to end. We backed our way out of the passage and reported our findings. Apparently the group was not willing to take Brian at his word as both Natalia and Sandy both crawled in after him to verify that the passage did indeed end. After Sandy was satisfied that this was the wrong passage we took a few minutes to consult map and compass and further explore the room. Eventually we found the real Rat Alley we crawled along it on our bellies. Thankfully the crawl was short and before long we were once again making good time.
The next memorable moment came at a small climb. In order to continue it was necessary to worm our bodies along a slope of loose rocks and then onto a narrow ledge. It was necessary to stay on our bellies as we went along the ledge as the ceiling was quite close. Unfortunately the ledge was rather narrow and I found it a bit disconcerting to find that the entire left side of my body was hanging out over a 15 foot drop off. We all made it safely across and after a brief rest we continued on.
Eventually we came to a junction with a large rock hanging down from the ceiling. This was the juncture for the Treasure Room and we made the decision to take the extra time to go see the formations. As we made our way down the passage we quickly came to the formations. There were soda straw columns, draperies, and an entire wall of helectites. For the most part there had been little or no formations on the rest of our route so it was well worth the time we spent to see this room.
After the Treasure Room the trip became a bit more difficult. The passages were lower and required a lot of crawling. Eventually we made our way into the Lipps maze. Sandy and Ray guided us through without incident, only having to stop once to consult the map. Before long we reached the Lipp's entrance and made our way out into a field. The field itself was surrounded by an electric fence, but fortunately there were wooden ladders over the fence which allowed for an easy bypass. Although there were signs of cows in the area they were apparently off somewhere else and we made it back to the cars safely.
We changed out of our cave gear and made our way back to camp. Upon arrival we found Nadi hard at work preparing a dinner of pasta for the grotto. There was plenty of food and refreshments for everyone complete with chocolate walnut cookies for dessert.
In my opinion this was an excellent trip. The guides were knowledgable and Diana did a great job of getting everything organized. It was nice to be able to have a grotto trip in which everyone went to the same cave.
A few hours later I woke to the smell of bacon, which coaxed me out of the tent quite a bit earlier than normal. Susanna, Emily and Mike had prepared a wonderful breakfast and we all filled up in preparation for our caving trip. It was a short drive to Organ Cave from the campground. When we arrived we met up with our guides, Sandy and Ray. As most of us geared up for the trip a small group shuttled the cars over to the Lipps cave entrance where we planned to emerge from the cave system. Once the drivers returned we headed underground into the cave.
The entrance to Organ Cave was quite impressive. Perhaps it was just because of the lighted walkway, but the entrance reminded me a bit of the historic entrance of Mammoth Cave. For the first part of our trip we followed the tourist trail into the cave. For a tourist trail the lighting was quite well done. It was dark enough to maintain some of the dark look you get just caving with headlamps, but yet it was still light enough to allow you to make your way along the trail safely. When the tourist trail reached the turn off to the Saltpetre works we left the trail and continued along the underground river.
For a group of 15 people we moved quickly. I found myself just following along, not really paying attention to landmarks in the same way I do when caving without a guide. However, for the most part it seems to me that we followed the river for the beginning of the trip. This section of the trip was fairly easy. There were a few short sections where we had to crawl on hands and knees, but for the most part it was walking passage. Eventually we left the river and came to a fairly large room. Here we stopped and had a snack while our guides looked around for the smaller passage where we would continue the trip. Brian was kind enough to share his beef jerky with me since I wasn't really interested in the snacks which I had brought along on the trip.
Once our snack was finished we headed down what our guides thought was the Rat Alley passage. This passage was a low belly crawl, but Brian soon called back that the passage appeared to end. We backed our way out of the passage and reported our findings. Apparently the group was not willing to take Brian at his word as both Natalia and Sandy both crawled in after him to verify that the passage did indeed end. After Sandy was satisfied that this was the wrong passage we took a few minutes to consult map and compass and further explore the room. Eventually we found the real Rat Alley we crawled along it on our bellies. Thankfully the crawl was short and before long we were once again making good time.
The next memorable moment came at a small climb. In order to continue it was necessary to worm our bodies along a slope of loose rocks and then onto a narrow ledge. It was necessary to stay on our bellies as we went along the ledge as the ceiling was quite close. Unfortunately the ledge was rather narrow and I found it a bit disconcerting to find that the entire left side of my body was hanging out over a 15 foot drop off. We all made it safely across and after a brief rest we continued on.
Eventually we came to a junction with a large rock hanging down from the ceiling. This was the juncture for the Treasure Room and we made the decision to take the extra time to go see the formations. As we made our way down the passage we quickly came to the formations. There were soda straw columns, draperies, and an entire wall of helectites. For the most part there had been little or no formations on the rest of our route so it was well worth the time we spent to see this room.
After the Treasure Room the trip became a bit more difficult. The passages were lower and required a lot of crawling. Eventually we made our way into the Lipps maze. Sandy and Ray guided us through without incident, only having to stop once to consult the map. Before long we reached the Lipp's entrance and made our way out into a field. The field itself was surrounded by an electric fence, but fortunately there were wooden ladders over the fence which allowed for an easy bypass. Although there were signs of cows in the area they were apparently off somewhere else and we made it back to the cars safely.
We changed out of our cave gear and made our way back to camp. Upon arrival we found Nadi hard at work preparing a dinner of pasta for the grotto. There was plenty of food and refreshments for everyone complete with chocolate walnut cookies for dessert.
In my opinion this was an excellent trip. The guides were knowledgable and Diana did a great job of getting everything organized. It was nice to be able to have a grotto trip in which everyone went to the same cave.
posted by Matt Jenkins at 1:49 PM
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