The Massachusetts Caver - Boston Grotto

Boston Grotto members Rich Holub, John Evans, Joanne
& Steve Stokowski and Aaron Tester and his wife attended
the NSS Convention in Lewisburg WV. The convention
ran from June 23 to June 30. John & Rich and I
arrived in Rich’s truck on Saturday the 23rd, and
grabbed one of the last tent areas with shade, a nice spot
under a black walnut tree part way up a small hill. We
ended a short walk from the Baltimore Grotto and just
below the DC Grotto on the hill. The Met Grotto was
just a ways behind us.
Caver Steve Stokowski and his wife arrived at the State
Fair campground about 45 minutes after Rich, John and I.
Steve commented on the hazards of camping under trees,
but also commented that flooding would be less likely up
on the hill, so he was all for it. The tree immediately
above our tents had recently lost a big bough. Rich and I
sawed up the bough and put the pieces in a pile at the
base of the tree, clearing a nice spot for John and Rich’s
two awnings. The broken bough should have served as a
warning.
On Sunday, we attended the geology field tour led by
George Dasher, who works for the state of West Virginia
as a geologist. The height of the day was probably the
visit by our three bus loads of people to Davis Spring,
which drains a huge valley (Davis Hollow) almost directly
into the Greenbrier River. Davis Hollow has no
surface streams to speak of, but hosts many caves with
more than 10 miles of passage including McLung’s and
Maxwellton Sinks, plus many shorter caves. All drain
into a master conduit that nobody has yet found, part of a
cave system probably longer than Scott Hollow at 32+
miles. Total cave length, if any even one or two of the
long and big caves in the hollow could be tied together
and to Davis Spring, would easily exceed 100 miles of
passage.
Monday most of us attended talks and visited vendors
row. I learned how to build a cave radio with using a
$1.50 opamp integrated circuit and about $35 worth of
antenna wire coiled inside a home-made plastic hoola
hoop, then I spent way too much money on vertical
equipment and T-shirts. Rich Holub scored 38
The Massachusetts Caver
Maya-Conned! Chris Taylor
The WNS decon station at Mayacon 2012. Photo from the web,
by Lawrence Pierce.
“demerits” for destroying formations in the “Cave Sim”
exhibit, which featured plastic stalactites and stalagmites
wired to sensors to register body blows from passing
cavers. The idea was to score ZERO, a perfect lowimpact
score. I accomplished this only by staying out of
this faux cave.
“Cave Sim” faux cave. Photo from the web, by Lawrence
Pierce.
Monday evening the convention volunteers served really
great microbrewed beers including Black IPA and Cave
Monster, and a sort country blues band kept everyone
dancing until the wee hours.
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