Cascade Grotto meeting
Phinney Neighborhood Association
March 30, 2022 (virtual and in-person)
Trip reports:
Eric:
- digging jackman creek cave
- helped w/ cave in Austin, TX
Dusty:
- trip to ribbon cave (near Mt Vernon)
- fracture cave, not quite talus cave
- iron, mica, quartz geology
- surveyed about 150 ft of cave
- interesting iron formations
- logging near entrance (gate is locked)
- it might be buried by the loggers
- some vertical (one rope in there)
Announcements:
Oregon grotto was in the guardian:
- a father and his kid described their caving
Kim Lauper:
- Hell’s canyon trip everyone is invited
- weekend of April 22
- 7.5 hr drive from seattle
- near border of oregon and idaho
- contact Eric for more information
Eric has lots of library stuff if anyone wants it
Daryl:
- property owner of Ramsey cave called
- Skagit valley herald reprinted 1951 article that showed where the cave was
- lots of people trespassing and entering cave now
- gated road on her property for Puget Sound Energy
- we shouldn’t go there w/o her permission
- this is in Concrete, WA
- still work-in-progress
Dusty:
- Albright cave in Eastern WA
- is in caves of WA book
- 5 hour trip from Seattle
- has lots of history (graffiti from 1800s)
- open to us exploring/surveying the cave
- Wolf cave trip in the coming month or two
- campground @ 2000 ft
- cave @ 2400 ft
- very vertical entrance
- very abraisive/dirty
- some small amount yet to survey
- Up to do training/coaching up in Mt Vernon
- willing to assist anyone
- has plenty of gear
- former Cave Rescue in BC
- contact Dusty for more info
Future trips:
Convention info:
- June 11-17
- Rapid City, SD
- some of the biggest caves in the world are there
- underground texas grotto doing some convention prop
- hop into their virtual meeting to find out more
Beginner trip:
- Sat:
- Lake cave or Ape cave
- Eric going to cook dinner
- Sun:
- Wolf cave for vertical prepared
- Crawler/erosional cave for non-vertical prepared
- Tentatively weekend of April 30/May 1
Vertical practice:
- Dusty up to lead a practice @ Ravenna or Mountaineers
- Tentatively Saturday before Beginner trip (April 23)
Vancouver island Trip:
- Will & Allison planning trip this summer
- lots and lots of caves all over, all limestone
- Tentatively last weekend of June
- will be announced online
Poet’s Crest:
- new area recently discovered
- Mark Garnick planning trips this summer
- snow-covered; can get there in around mid-June
Cave Ridge:
- late june/early july
- alpine snow-covered caves like Poet’s Crest
Papoose:
- gated & in Idaho
- resource monitor required
- possible a trip or two during the summer
- expert-only cave in runoff in June (VERY wet)
- 800 ft deep alpine river-system cave
- Daryl planning trip in dry season
Eric digging this weekend!
- contact him if you’re interested
Windy Creek Cave:
- 2 trips planned in the summer (probably August)
- best to be a 2-night trip
OTR:
- big caver party
- 3 day trip (labor day weekend)
- possibly doing some other caves before heading out there
- planned to be in W Virginia
Columbia gorge canonyeering trip:
- out of bounds grotto (non-location specific grotto)
- contact them as they’re planning this
Official business:
New banner:
- Eric made one: has logo and some caves on a map
Vertical gear:
- no updates on new gear
- we have enough gear for practice
Social media:
- our ad expired and may want to re-add
- successfully recruited someone for digging via ad
Re-authorize social media spend:
- $10 a month for 6 months
- Motion passes:
- 7 votes in favor
- 0 against
Eric purchased “Caves of Trout Lake”
- it is in the mail
Anyone needing dues:
- do it online, pay via credit card ($20/year)