| When: | 4/23/2004 |
| Where: | Buchanan Salt Petre, Smyth County, VA |
| Who: | drove up with Lisa Lorenzin |
| in the cave with Lisa Lorenzin, Richard Richardson, Peter Hertl, Terry Zornes, Howard Holgate, Hayden Holgate | |
| other team in the cave was Ken Walsh, Gordon Bolt, Matt Jenkins, Diana Gietl, Amy Johnson, Jon Turner, Mark Little | |
| What: | about 4 hours underground |
| spent 2:20 in the passage to the right with the stream passage and 1:40 in the passage to the left |
We headed up to southwest VA for the weekend. It was the 15th anniversary celebration trip for the local caving club.
We stayed at Hungry Mother State Park. L. and I had been planning to camp, but as we watched the weather forecast deteriorate as the time for the trip drew near, we were happy when a couple dropped out and we were able to get there space in one of the reserved cabins. That definitely made the trip much nicer than if we had been shivering in a tent.
Saturday, 14 of us went caving in Buchanan Salt Petre Cave, splitting into 2 groups of 7 to go through the cave. Not a long or particularly rigorous trip, but it was fun. Not a highly decorated cave, but there are some formations. We also saw a number of bats -- including one that flew from where it was hanging about afoor in front on me. My feet got a little bit chilled from walking through the stream passage, and I tweaked my elbow trying to figure out how to start a climb (which I didn't end up doing). It was chilly and windy when we went into the cave. It was cold and bitterly windy when we came out, with some light rain starting. By morning the light rain had turned to snow. It was very pretty to wake up to ... especially since we were inside a cabin. :)
We had been talking to some friends about joining them for a hike on Sunday. L. and I were debating whether to go, but in the end decided that it would be good training for our upcoming trip to the Cascades. The plan was to hike to the summit of Mt. Rogers. As we got closer to the trailhead, the snow coming down was getting thicker, and we started to find patches of it on the road. The parking area had an inch or two. We all bundled up and decided to go anyway. It's really nice to have the right gear. The wind was blowing, snow was coming down, and there were 3-6" on the ground in the woods. Not a problem. The hike was a lot of fun. We decided not to try for the summit since it might have been in white out conditions and probably would have been too much to tackle on a day like it was. Instead, we did a loop hike that ended up being about 7-8 miles and took us 4 hours. We parked at the Grindstone camping area and took the route Mt Rogers Trail -> Lewis Fork Spur Trail -> Cliffside Trail -> Lewis Fork Trail -> [trail on N side of road that's not on my map].