Reprinted with permission from Hoyt's original post to alt.caving.

Wild Dog News #25

Xmas Eve 2001 Sites Cave (38-36-00, 79-19-23)

Listed in WVGS Vol XIX, Sites Cave is located in Pendleton County about .25 mile east of Dry Run. The cave is high on a hillside and presently near the entrance is a memorial plaque to the life of a caver, who is also listed on the map. it's thought-provoking: maybe he died inside? The reference describes a 298 foot entrance pit, but it is actually interrupted once by a slope in the middle of the free-hang and the bottom fourth is really just a climbdown over dirt slope. The cave is dip-controlled with dip angle reaching at least 75 degrees at entrance and leveling off somewhat inside. Obviously the cave exists because of the extreme distortion of the strata provided lots of cracks for water to work within. This process is assisted by several impermeable layers which stand out of the upturned edges of the rock at entrance; these caused most water to flow over their upper sides, where the rock is dissolved away to form the pit.

I met my companions Tom, Seth, Scott and Lev at the Thorne Spring Camp just south of Franklin WV. They are all living in NE USA and are spending their holidays on a grand tour of WV and VA. Their aim is evidently to do total of about two vertical caver/miles over the week they're roaming around. And indeed in the short time they're in this zone, they rack up over 1000 feet each, one-way. As usual in US, the party was on cave-time and it was a few minutes before breakfast was sufficiently burned and eaten and gear loaded. Tom (with whom I am particularly proud to cave, in light of his recent arrest for unauthorized digging in a Nat Park somewhere in New England) has brought a brand new piece of 7/16" PMI 350 feet long [The rope actually belongs to Scott -Ed.], no use taking chances on an entrance that is not fully known. Out of respect for its pristinity, one caver remarks on bringing his stainless rack; the others perhaps less thoughtful rig in with aluminum bars. I am last down this time, partially because I don't care to clip on under other eyes and have comments made on using Munter for drops this length and partially because I don't care for comments that Munter (or anything except a rack) will 'twist the rope'. This tactic however only delays the comments til I reach bottom. Cavers hence are all advised that descending devices don't twist ropes, though many or all of them will take out the twists that cavers put into ropes in coiling, leaving those twists piled up as spaghetti at the lower end. I can in fact see the rope sliding thru the biner, like all new ropes slightly flattened by the previous four descenders, with flat consistantly aligned with it both entering and emerging.

The cave goes both ways from entrance drop, being mostly in big breakdown and mud floors. There are considerable number of bats roosted under the entrance pit and a few more along the way. These are as usual in this area plenty of Indianas and Little Browns. The cave is decorated in several places with bursts of stalactites and among those is considerable helictite. Most of the formations are brown and static but here and there are those that are among the purist shades of white and still growing. Occasionally there is bacon and curtains, and some of this is also topped or is that 'bottomed' with white bands.

Scott is roughly twice as cute as Brad Pitt with soulful brown eyes, good shoulders, trim waistline and unruly hair, and he evidently likes to dig; he and Tom spend time pushing a lead at the E end requiring some spooning with a gardening trowel. They if I understand correctly eventually get into the terminal room, passage to which seems to have silted up fairly tight over the last few years. The cave lacks the deep mud of which we were warned by others. It is probably a lot stickier in the rainy season, but as of this trip we've had less than 2 inches of rain region-wide in the last two months. The cave is well traveled and has no surprises or dangerous parts.

While Tom and Scott dig, Seth, Lev and I depart the E end (bats starting to stir) and cross back under the rope, and we push into a small room at opposite end. It's also well decorated with a dense array of shapely formations. We then return to rope. Seth ascends and as I clip in Tom and Scott arrive. I get plenty of time to check out the pit, this being probably my longest ascent so far. But the rig whirs/clicks steadily and aside from an interruption for photo ops near the top, progess is uneventful.

Lev is next up and damned quick he is. Probably, being about 5'-4" and maybe 8 stone max he has the same advantages over gravity as most insects. Lev (an Englishman from Manchester) by chance has been in my proximity most of the trip and is an intersting guy with skills like mine: programming, design, and engineering sorts of things. We've shared gorp inside and now he has a good gulp from my water bottle too. Lev has entertained with tales of a 60 Km cave in Yorkshire, which virgin passages he has been lucky enough to have found much of, if luck counts as much as persistance and hard work. And he has described a cave in N Spain which his people have expedited for years, now running 1100 meters deep. Love that accent, and the stories are pretty good too. I am reassured by the thought that if ever I want to see either of these I do not need the same suction power as I would in USA, I would merely ask Lev for a trip. Lev has also told me that he mentioned to his countrymen that he's coming to this region, and that they said he MUST cave with Hoyt, evidently preferring a first hand report instead of online rants.

Weather has shifted from cold and sunny to cold and beginnings of rain. Lev and I head for autos, followed by Seth as soon as he verifies someone is progressing up-rope. Tom and Scott arrive shortly behind with the new rope stained grey and brown and neatly coiled, twists and all. Debriefing takes place over beer and pizza.

Xmas Day, 2001 Clover Hollow Cave (37-21-38, 80-27-38)

The same party arrives at cave and descends on three ropes to the main level. Clover Hollow is best rigged with a 30 meter rope at entrance, a 30 meter rope for the next three short pitches in series and a 30 meter rope for grand canyon. We actually rigged the canyon with a doubled 70 meter rope, which makes leaving the cave a good bit faster.

The party splits in two groups, three to descend Andrew's Drop (41 meters, requiring a rope of about 45 meters) and two to follow the climbdown route to the bottom of that pitch. This starts near the Idiot's Delight and intersects Andrew's drop 16 meters above the floor. A hole to one side at this level gives access to a canyon that descends in two stages to the bottom. It's free-climbable and Lev proves that by coming up to meet us. Tom is willing to go down it free but I'm more of a mood for a belay, which Lev provides. At the bottom is the small passage leading us all to Cigar Room. While Lev and Scott push a lead out the far end, the rest hang loose and cool down. This cave is not what one calls overtly difficult overall though it well rewards good climbing skills ... but at no point is it easy and steady progress is bought with streams of sweat.

Then it's back up the Andrew's rope for three and back out the side route for two. Seth is also able to free climb the canyon and belays me up. This climb is not for novices and once at the hardest part I almost slip. No matter, Seth is about 6'-2" and has arms like Hercules; he could probably haul me out like a fish thru a hole in the ice anyway. He despite being Polish bears a striking resemblance to a Saudi terrorist with his dead black hair and beard and a wonderful big hooked nose, and has even been accosted on that account already by some of the overzealous. Seth in interest of not polluting his bod also does not drink or smoke, leading to comments later about the purity of a commercial brownie he's eating from a plastic wrapper. He reads the label and responds that it has almost one-fourth of his RDA of fat; Scott immediately says 'Eat the other three'.

The intense vertical development of the cave is most evident on this trip, with many passages in this section being canyons and having openings in floors that drop to lower parts of cave. The cave is also quite mazy over this way. Now it's time to see the 4' Soda Straw and then the Library, containing a fairly good collection of porn for both boys and girls and even some cultural material, a scholerly study in one volume of pix of people over the centuries in every sort of sexual pose and with boys, girls and various animals all mixed together. There's even in one mag some unauthorized snaps of Greta Garbo playing nude on her estate at age 70 or so; she still has a really nice pair of doorknockers. With that all wrapped, we return to rope, ascend and depart hungry. The only place in the whole town that's open evidently for benefit of a family party is an Indian diner, which refuses seating but prepares takeout. Later around the table we are all just tired enough to be silly, ya know how that is, and there is a lot of joking and bursts of laughter. The discussion then turns to metaphysics, but good beer makes bad philosophy. And so to bed.