I have to get in on this subject. Confirming what Rod Goke said, I was going
into a cave in North Alabama one frosty morning and there was a lot of "steam"
coming out of the entrance. We stood at a point where we had a good view of
the valley and saw dozens of white plumes emerging from the woods. If I had
had at least a compass with me I could have sketched plenty of potential
entrances.
In connection with Minton's remark, I am reminded of an encounter I once had
with a city employee in Opelika Alabama. We lived on a dirt road which had a
sewer line buried underneath it. There were manholes about every 100 yards or
so. This guy was going along locating them with a metal detector or some sort
of thing. I told him that he should come out on a frosty morning and he would
see the location of every manhole as a perfect circle in the frost. I think he
took my advise because a few days later as I was going to work in the morning,
there were the round patches in the frost each one marked by an orange spray
can X.
........ Sam
Rod Goke said:
>Under the right conditions, even small, normally inconspicuous cave entrances
>would become much easier to find because of the small white clouds emerging
>from them.
In addition to looking for steam plumes, if there is snow on the ground,
one can look for melted spots. Even an entrance that is not obviously open,
like one covered with leaves or even a thin layer of rocks and dirt, can leave
a melted spot. Digging there is often productive.
Mark Minton
