The Kentucky Caver Quarterly Proceedings of the
Bluegrass Grotto: the North Central Kentucky Area Chapter of the National Speleological Society
Page 15 [contents] ||   ||  ||
  vol. 41. iss. 2, June 2006
afternoon, the tours were over and the cavers were starting to think about their dinner. What a team they are! I watched in awe, taking photos, as about twenty people worked around one another in a grand informal dance routine in the small kitchen, chopping, slicing, buttering, dealing with hot-hot-hot things, and producing a multi-dish feast for all in record time.

My favorite part was the delicate rig arranged to let the spaghetti sauce simmer. They hung the pot from a roof rafter, arranged a shaky table below it, and placed a delicate, single-burner camp stove on the shaky table-top below the bottom of the hanging pot. It worked, with no disasters, but the fancy footwork! Breathtaking. I include just a couple of photos to give you an idea of the great fun and good cheer the Great Salpetre cavers conjure up for themselves and tired guests (I contributed a plate of home made cookies).

Mammoth Cave Restoration Field Camp, March/04-05
by Sarah Bell  (BGG).


(Sarah Bell and spouse, Matt Simpson, for the rest of the crew click on photo)
Editor's note: There is a huge KY Caver no-prize for the caver who can name all the Caver's in the expanded picture of the restoration crew. Email me

The Mammoth Cave Restoration Field Camp took place March 4-5 this year.  It was attended by 3 Bluegrass Grotto members, Matt Simpson, Sarah Bell, and Kasey Webb.    The project for this field camp was to remove the remaining creosote-soaked lumber from the old Echo River bridge and boat dock.  This project has been 17-years running and volunteers carried out the last of these stacks of debris, including passing approximately 1,500 bags of lumber and twisted metal up the Tower in Mammoth Dome.  This weekend included a Floyd Collins vigil on Saturday night, led by Bob Dobbs of the Greater Cincinnati Grotto, and special cave tours for those volunteers that stuck it out through Sunday afternoon.

Mapping Dunbar Call for help
Peggy Renwick  (BGG).

This summer I'm working at Dunbar Cave State Natural Area in Clarksville, TN. It just so happens that my husband Ben and I (along with a handful of cavers) have mapped over half a mile of passage in the D4 Entrance of the Dunbar-Woodard Cave System, in the last year, and we're eager to tie our survey into other existing surveys and perhaps find a way around the siphon that prevents a through-trip from the historic Dunbar Entrance within the state park. The Dunbar-Woodard system (not including D4) has been surveyed only once, beginning in 1977. For a variety of reasons (email me if you'd like the write-up), the cave needs to be resurveyed. After badgering my bosses for three



Page 15 [contents] ||   ||  ||