Subway Cave - 3/17/2024
Casey Tucker Reporting
Charlottesville Grotto took a trip to Subway Cave in Highland County on March 17th. 8 folks signed up for the trip. Unfortunately the trip leader, Casey (reporting), forgot to get all the pertinent meeting information to two of them. I'm sorry!
After walking the trails and bridges of the Water Sinks property, which is quite impressive and beautiful, Karl, Margo, Harriet, Katie, Gaia, and Casey were joined by two other cavers, Kat & Dalton, who happened to be in the parking area. They entered the cave around 11:45 by climbing down a culvert and steel rungs in the cave wall. The cave immediately opened into large walking passage with beautiful formations. The main trunk went on and on with other various passages off to the side. We followed passages into sandy crawlways. I got my pack covered in flood foam. This cave fully floods during high water events and can be very dangerous. Margo crawled through muddy organic detritus. Gaia squeezed through various small cracks and openings. Katie took photos, and we all had a great time. Gaia, one of our youngest members, donned her new cave suit and seems to be quite taken by exploring the underworld!
The cave offered a wide variety of passages to explore from big borehole to tiny crawls, formations, breakdown, sand, mud, canyons, etc, etc. At the far end of one passage, the team rescued a frog washed in from somewhere. We exited just before 3, having seen less than half the cave. After exiting, we poked around in Water Sinks Cave, located directly above Subway, took a group photo, brought back the old internet sensation of planking, and wandered back to the parking area. It was a fun trip for all, except those who didn't get all the right info. I'm sorry!
The Water Sinks property and caves are only open to visitation by permit.
