MEG ALERTS

Mountain Empire Grotto News and Alerts

upcoming events SERA VAR SERA VAR SERA VAR -- 'nuf said

February 10	Vertical training session at Appalachian Caverns, with Tony McGee instructing; 10 am, breakfast at Blountville McDonald's 9am
January 26	Double cave trip with Flittermouse Grotto meet 9ish. Do Worleys Sat. am and Lathams pm
February 12	MEG meets at Appalachian Caverns, program on caving in Spain by Gary
January 19	Rollins Fissure canceled for weather; instead survey new section of Scott County Blowing Hole, meet 830 to 9am at Colonial Heights McDonald's
January 8, 2008	MEG meets at Appalachian Caverns at 7pm; primarily a SERA/ VAR working meeting; members will assess the entrance area for vertical training potential
December 12	MEG holds its Christmas party at the Rush Street Grill in Kingsport
November 14	MEG Meeting at the Min Dynasty in Bristol, Tennessee, at 7pm
November 1, 2	Jason, Kevin, and Robbie finished the Grays Cave survey, except for some extreme leads
October 28	Rowland Creek Survey; Dave Duguid's survey passes 2500 feet; this sporting cave just keeps getting bigger, a few hundred feet at a time; Dave, Ken, Brian, Robbie
October 20	Jason, Robbie, and Tanya finished the Pet Sematary survey, leaving several digs for future generations (or another trip)
	Milton, Bill, Don, Jason, and Robbie went to a blowing hole that D and B have been working on. J and R pushed past a couple of restrictions to survey about 120 feet before being stopped by a bedrock blade in the middle of the narrow passage. D, B, and M visited Miller, then they all went to look at a bottomless pit. Jason dropped it on 70 feet of rope which fell short of the bottom. Looks like a dead bottom, says J, but he can't be sure.
October 13	Virgins Hole push trip; contact Bill and Don
October 9	MEG Meeting tonight! at the Firehouse Restaurant in Johnson City on W. Walnut; program by R.E. Whittemore
	Virginia Intermont trip on for October 6, same date as Triangle Scouts. Contact Mark for info on VI trip, Robbie for Girl Scout trip.
	Virginia Intermont trip is postponed because of schedule conflicts. Revised schedule to be determined.
	On Sept. 30, a Sunday, there will be a trip to Xanadu led by Terri Brown; if interested, contact Terri.
	Virginia Intermont beginning cavers' outing -- meet at 1pm Saturday, September 29 at the caboose in Bluff City for a trip to Worley ; if interested, contact Robbie or Mark.
	Sept. 24 -- MEG's October meeting has been moved to Tuesday, Oct. 9, still at the Firehouse Restaurant in Johnson City on W. Walnut Street, stillstarting at 7pm. .
	The Research Triangle Scouts are returning the weekend of October 5, 6, and 7. We plan to help them on one or more cave trips Saturday October 6. Let Robbie or Mark know if you're interested. Plan to spend the whole day -- these trips tend to turn into marathons.
	MEG's next meeting will be at the Firehouse Restaurant in Johnson City, Tenn., on W. Walnut Street, Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:30pm. Our planned program is a slide show of area cave pictures by renowned cave explorer Robert (Whitt) Whittemore. MEETING TIME CHANGED! SEE NOTE ABOVE!
	Last Friday night (Sept. 21), Tanya, Jason, Dale, and Robbie returned to Tanya's Pet Sematary survey in Sugar Grove after a two-year hiatus. Last time they were there (Reggie Sanford was on that trip, too) the water was pooled up to five feet deep and they abandoned the survey after only about 170 feet when Robbie dismounted a high ledge and took a swim, making his Suunto unreadable. They took a look at the passage ahead and found a stream crawl with a ceiling that got progressively lower and lower... This time they surveyed to the low spot and the team went back to pick up some complex side details while Robbie set to work digging. He came back with a far-fetched tale of emerging into huge caverns as yet unmeasured by man . His delivery was factual, his audience doubtful. Could they have heard variations on this theme before? They plan to find out the truth this coming weekend.
	September 22 -- Robbie attended the Cave Board meeting at Natural Tunnel State Park. His heroes were there, Gary Fielden and Bill Balfour, plus legends of caving like Dr. John Holsinger, who prescribed a trip to the Second Sump in Unthanks to see whether it is passable in this dry weather. About two miles of unexplored territory lie between the sump and the dye-trace-determined resurgence. Roy Powers helpfully advised him to seek high ground if he turns back only to find the sump filled again.
	September 15 -- Bill James, Don, Jason, Robbie, John Rossi, and Scott Reis visited Caine and Miller. Jason and Robbie worked on Miller while Don bolted a rebelay for the lower stage of Caine's beautiful 100-foot drop . They proceeded to wiggle into some muddy virgin passage beyond the flowstone choke that stopped Tom Roehr's mapping crew. They saw an estimated 100 to 150 feet but didn't find where the air goes.
	September 8 -- The ACC met at the Wilson farm and visited Perkins, where Tony, Gary, Joel, John Matthews, John Rossi, and Maggie the Wonder Dog worked on the gate (it's amazing, one person can mount the gate in about five minutes or less with no help!). John and Jason and Patrick and Robbie scouted, looking for the 800-Foot Crawl and apparently finding it. They picked up 0 feet of survey but did determine a good route to get into the stream passage without breaking bones or helictites. Bill and Don worked on the Torn Peter Tube, which will tear no more peters now. It should be a much faster, easier way to go than the 200-Foot Crawl.
	September 1 -- Robbie and Jason were planning a survey trip to Rowland Creek Cave but could not refuse an offer from Bill James to see Cat Hole, Caine, and Miller. They did the drop in Caine and examined the flowstone wall that had stopped earlier explorers. Jason went into Miller and found a virgin pit. They also examined Cat Hole from the top of the drop and looked at a virgin entrance in a deep sinkhole nearby. A gully-washer thunderstorm struck and they ran for the asphalt of Highway 23 as fast as they could with the tracks turning into streams and Robbie learning to put his truck into 4-wheel low for the first time.