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)