| When: | 6/5/2004 |
| Where: | Grand Caverns, VA |
| Who: | drove up with Lisa Lorenzin |
| What | ridge walked with Jim McConkey and Keith Christiansen(?) |
| helped with drilling plates for footings for new stairs |
Camped at Grand Caverns.
This was Lisa's first surveying trip into the virgin passage in the "Grand Basement". I had tried to fit through the squeeze in April and didn't think I'd fit so I didn't try to go it.
Didn't get assigned to a survey team going into the cave. I ended up going with Jim and Keith to survey TI-59 which is on the front side of the hill, past Fountain. Difficult and steep to get down to the entrance. Jim went in first ... and very quickly came levitating back up the entrance slope after seeing an animal's eyes from over/behind a rock. (He thought it was a bear. Who am I to say?) After that, we spent a few hours ridge walking, looking for sinks and holes and possible cave entrances. We stopped at one point and pulled rocks out of sink and dug for a while. We eventually stopped when we got to a dead tree that was wedged in too much to move.
After getting back, I spent some of the afternoon outside, helping with work around the Grand Caverns buildings with Craig and Kevin. They were working on attaching metal plates to the concrete footings for the new steps up to the gift shop. (Unfortunately, I broke Craig's large bit we were using to drill. :( )
Lisa had a great time surveying and told me all about it and how beautiful it was. I was a bit envious.