Ridge Walking - 1/12/2025
Chris Meyle Reporting
Not a typical grotto trip, but wanted to document a spur of the moment trip...
On Saturday, January 12th, Eric and I took advantage of the snow and went out looking for cave potential. He found some interesting topography near the base of some mountains near the Rockingham/Augusta county borders.
We parked at the trailhead and began the journey through a consistent 6" of snow. Our first point of interest was a flatter area with about 5 sinkholes. None were showing any melt spots, but we found a small water discharge which is promising.
We then headed to our next spot. On Lidar, this area shows elevation changes and about 10 sinkholes. To get there, we needed to hike up trail to a ridge, then off trail down the other side. It was steep and loaded with mountain laurels. We made it down where it flattened out and we began seeing what we were looking for. Sinkhole city! We fanned out and inspected every single thing we could. Lots of potential here and we even found a very small melt spot which we believe could be caused by warmer air being pushed out of a hole. It would involve digging.
Overall, it was a good trip. The hike was brutal at times (5+ miles through the snow) and it would have been nice to find a cave. But not all entrances are 10'x10' and easy to find. I've attached some pictures below for everyone to see.
