Watch your mouth yall- im still revelling in my youth! The kind folks of New York are have been taking me into their caves the last 3 days of Post Convention Camp. I plan to get into another cave today!
On 8/9/10, Josh Rubinstein <kars...@gmail.com> wrote: > David, > > Well, let's see. Four days ago I was standing on ice. It was in Cave of > the Winds, a tectonic cave on Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's highest mountain. > Pretty good for August. > > Before I recap convention let me congratulate Bob Cowell, new Fellow of > the Society, and Geary Schindel, the new NSS Administrative Vice President. > > Okay, For all those who said there was no caving; WRONG! It was just you > couldn't fit. Well, at least, on the Vermont side. On the Adirondack side, > the cave's were maneuverable and beautiful washed marble. And, like, I > said, on Friday I was on ice. > > Many of the session did not happen for lack of entries. Mark and Vonny did > a wonderful job of beating the bushes for an excellent International > Exploration session. I especially liked the Kite Flying in Chinese Caves. > The Geology session was a Milroy short course on the island karst of > Bahamas, Barbados and Guam. The other set of talks where from Andraus and > his students on the 'climate' of various caves including Jewel and > Carlsbad. Late in the day, Matt Covington presented a paper that went by in > whirl of variables but I think it looked very interesting. > > On Wednesday there was a presentation on WNS. One of the saddest moments > came when someone asked how the fungus spread from Hasbrook Mine to Aolius > Cave, neither place often visited by humans. "Maybe we did it." answered Al > Hicks, the head bat guy in New York. You could see that they were > struggling with the same thing cavers are. Even before they go to collect > data, they asked is it worth the possibility that we will do harm. It was > clear that those who have seen these massive die-offs are changed. > > We know more about WNS than I thought we did. The bat's are awakened by the > lesions caused by the fungus. Some may survives but their wings are > tattered and they can die well into summer because they no longer can hunt > efficiently. It seems that while in hibernation the bats can not launch an > immune response. That I read to mean this is a problem of hibernating bats, > not the Free tail (Crash, correct me if I am wrong). > > Finally, it was a very old convention. They brought a cake up for Art > Palmer for his 70th birthday. He was my advisor and I had no idea. Will > White got ovation for attending successively 57 conventions. There was no > award for a paper given by someone under 25 because there weren't any. > There were handful young people and some children of cavers, but that was > it. > > Josh > > On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 10:09 PM, Mark Minton <mmin...@caver.net> wrote: > >> The sessions I went to went very well. Yvonne Droms and I were in >> charge of International Exploration on Wednesday and we had a full day of >> exciting talks from China to Mexico and points in between, often with >> standing room only. My guess is that the average age was more like 50, >> but >> it is definitely creeping up. The Syphons were great, as always. The >> weather was often rainy, but that's par for the course at NSS Conventions. >> At least there were not high winds, so not many camps were damaged. >> Groad >> Hollow was in a nice spot in the woods, which was very nice. >> >> Mark Minton >> >> >> At 10:03 PM 8/8/2010, David wrote: >> >>> I presume everybody is home safe now from the convention ? >>> >>> I feel it is important to discuss the convention, to encourage new cavers >>> unfamiliar with the NSS to attend future conventions, and for those >>> that really wanted to go, but just couldn't make it. >>> >>> This was a difficult convention for most Texas cavers to attend. >>> Only about 13 percent >>> showed up. But there were still more Texas cavers there than Vermont >>> cavers. ( I bet this convention probably broke the record for the number >>> of Vermont cavers to attend. ). >>> >>> I searched the web looking for reports about the convention, but >>> did not find anything. I regret missing almost all of it. Maybe >>> there are still some cavers that are not home yet, >>> who have stories to tell? >>> >>> I saw nearly 25 cavers there from Texas, along with their families. >>> >>> Here are just a few that were wandering around the Howdy Party: Tom >>> Summers, >>> RD Milhollin, Mike Walsh, Jim Kennedy, Bill Mixon, Terry Raines & family, >>> Mark Minton ( lives in VA now ), >>> Peter Strickland and sons, Lee Jay Graves, Keith and Lisa Goggins >>> ( of the Terminal Siphons ), Rene Shields, Gary Napper, Chris Thibodaux, >>> Ellie Theone, Jim Coke, and Bill Stone. Who did I leave >>> out ? ( Michael Cicherski, Benjamin and Corrine Schwartz, Kenneth >>> Laidlaw, Josh >>> Rubenstein and Rex Williams ) >>> >>> But there were also lots of cavers there >>> that many of you know like: Dale Pate, and famous cavers like >>> Roger Brucker and Dick Blenz, and most likely dozens of others that >>> I didn't get a chance to say hello to. >>> >>> The average age of the cavers attending seems to get one year older at >>> each convention. >>> A safe guess would be over 50, but my bet would be 60. >>> >>> I think I saw at least one Facebook posting that the Terminal Siphons >>> put on a great show. >>> >>> I posted my final road-trip report privately by e-mail, so if you want >>> to read it, feel free to contact me. >>> >>> Some expressed mixed feelings about my intentions for driving >>> to Vermont. I did make a last-minute faithful attempt to take cavers on >>> my little joyride. I posted ride offers on Cavechat.org and NSS >>> On-line Cavers, >>> and here on Cavetex. >>> >>> Yesterday, I picked up my 4th Craigslist rider in Slidell, Louisiana and >>> he paid me $ 40 to drop him off in Houston. After this experience, I >>> would >>> highly discourage others from offering cross-country rides on Craigslist. >>> >>> I would be interested to know how the sessions went, and the salons, >>> and the Terminal Siphons concert. And more about Vermont, for example, >>> how were the caves and the caving ? How did the weather turn out? >>> >>> I learned that Vermont has pockets of paradise that are well worth >>> visiting. I only got to see 2 of them very briefly on this trip. >>> >>> If anybody wants to tell me about their trip privately, I would like to >>> read it. >>> >>> This trip was probably the hardest of my life, but I had at least 8 >>> hours of fun, >>> that I could not have had, had I chosen to stay home. >>> >>> For example, have you ever been at the edge of a virgin pit >>> in going virgin cave, and decided to turn around and head out, knowing >>> that >>> you would never be able to return? I wouldn't know that feeling, >>> but that was >>> probably how I felt when I started the car and started heading south >>> after leaving >>> the Howdy Party. >>> >>> David Locklear >>> >> >> Please reply to mmin...@caver.net >> Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com >> For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com >> >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
