Donaldson Cave
October 27, 2000(Sorry, I can't give out cave locations except to say that this cave is in eastern West Virginia. Your local NSS grotto can give you information about local caves.)
Caves within a two
hour drive of Baltimore are not common, so it was with great
excitement that we set out for Donaldson cave on Friday afternoon.
Eight people embarked on the trip: Gary Truslow, Tom Donaldson (no
relation), Mark Kochte, Fabrizia Guglielmetti, Amy Rosenberg, your
humble reporter, and two visitting Italians; Ricky and Antonio. None
of us had been there before, but we were equipped with a set of
directions and the latest copy of the cave map (circa 1977). The
directions to the cave were excellant and we arrived without incident
in the latter parts of dusk. 
By the time the requisite milling about was done with, it was fully dark. With
some fanfare, we headed out to find the cave. Unfortunately, there
was a great gap between the driving directions and the map of the cave
itself, and somewhere in that gap fell the part about how to find the
entrance once the cars were parked. We climbed over an electric fence
and proceded to comb a large cow field (fully equipped with ominous,
dark, bovine forms) for the entrance. After a few minutes, I located
a small hole in the ground--obviously not the entrance, but
interesting none-the-less. After kicking a few rocks out of the way,
I was able to squirm down feet first into the 7' deep sinkhole. Some
breakdown suggested a possible air connection to something, but
certainly nothing I felt like digging through. Another half hour or
more was spent in fruitless wandering around stepping in cow patties
and searching through brushpiles. Lights could be seen bobbing and
weaving all over the fields as we irritably wandered back and forth.
Finally, we regrouped near the fence and someone stumbled across the
large, obvious openning in the ground not more than a hundred feet
from the road.
Having taken the long route
to get there, we finally entered the cave. The entrance slopes
downward into a large, steeply sloping room perhaps ten feet tall, and
fifty long covered with large blocks of slippery breakdown. Had it
been daylight, the whole room would have been almost invisible from
the glare. I lead the way down to the lower end and into a twisting
passageway floored with the most amazingly viscous, sucking mud I have
yet seen. Good flowstone and formations on the walls and ceiling and
much evidence of flowing water. Also a large rusted barrel wedged
oddly in the passage. The cave ended in a dry sump (if such a thing
is possible). According to the map, there is a pool at the low side
of the cave, but none was in evidence. Others have mentioned that in
times of higher ground-water (spring melt, perhaps?), the entire lower
end of the cave is underwater and you can't get farther than the first
room without swimming.
Backtracking, we picked our
way across great slabs of muddy breakdown to a second large room. It
sloped steeply from the upper right to the lower left across more
large breakdown. On the map, there is a pool in the lower side, but
no evidence was present. The eight of us poked around for a while
exploring possible leads and examining formations. There were many
beautiful white speleothems on the ceiling. Mark found some beautiful
white crystals on the floor and some obviously old writing on the
wall. (When does it stop being graffiti and start being
historical?)
Amy and Bri lead the way
through a narrow slit down and into the back passage. Much better
formations awaited us here. Bearing right, Amy lead Tom and I in
checking out a tight hole chock-full of excellant white and black
flowstone and the most amazing rock layering--it looked like thin rust
or bark. Eventually, Tom and I checked out a possible lead up from
this position, but found nothing obvious or large enough to fit
through. Meanwhile, everyone else had continued on past a large wall
of beautiful flowstone and some nice columns into the back of the
cave.
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Here everything appeared to
stop. There was a tiny crawl that might go somewhere, but not for
those of us more than 6" thick. Another short lead necked down to a
tight passage more or less blocked by a thick column right down the
middle of it. But I could see wonderful things beyond. Faced with
this challenge, I removed pack and helmet and oozed through headfirst
on my back into a (relatively) spatious bubble. The passage did
indeed continue perhaps 30' as a 2' crawl up through some of the most
amazing formations I have yet seen. I cursed myself for leaving my
camera back in the large room unused and unuseful. I called down for
others to join me, but only Mark braved the squeeze. He skewered his
back on a sharp protrusion, took a few photos and we headed out to
rejoin the novices (and Tom) in the big room.
Feeling tired, we worked our
way back to the entrance room where we poked around a bit more.
Unnoticed by us before, there were some holes in the breakdown which
lead down to unknown depths below. Tom and Gary explored one passage
while I dropped down perhaps 12' to a very nice canyon passage. It
continued on perhaps 50' in one direction and 10' back toward the rest
of the cave. Very nice formations, as usual, but a bit spooky to be
in alone. The women-folk, being much braver than us solitary males,
came down and did a more thorough exploration of the canyon.
Very much in puppy mode, I
ascended and checked out a lead on the other side of the cave. Tom
was at the end of the large, muddy corridor on the other side of the
main room peering down various formation-choked, breakdowny crawls up
toward the ceiling. "Where's Gary?" I asked. Tom pointed to a muddy
hole perhaps 18" high. Indeed, grunting and other motion-type sounds
could be heard from the depths of the earth. While we waited for
Gary's return, Tom and I looked at a few potential leads to connect
this lower level passage to the back part of the cave. The map
includes a few, but we couldn't find anything from the other end.
This section definitely deserves more work! At length, Gary emerged
from his hole (head-first, implying either he'd been able to turn
around in there or had had the foresight to go in feet-first) and
reported it stayed about the same size for a good 50' or so and kept
going past where he'd gotten to. Again, more exploration is called
for.
Wearily, we regained the surface at long last and headed for Waffle
House (Grits 'R' Us) and home.Donaldson Cave is most excellant. Some really impressive formations given the accessibility and non-strenuous nature of the cave. I wonder what forces have kept things so preserved when so many other caves are looted and vandalized? As a beginner cave it is quite good in that it's pretty and fairly easy. It lacks the more obvious spatial geometry of other caves which I find very satisfying (Whiting's Neck for one) and you can't to a through-trip which is also neat. Still, it's a great cave which deserves another trip for more thorough exploration.
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