Food

NCKMS 2005 field trip

Stop 1 – Onesquethaw Cave – This cave is owned by the Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy (MHLC) (formerly the Albany County Land Conservancy - ACLC) and managed by the NCC. This is a 1.3-acre preserve. The front is in agriculture, though it contains an incipient sink. The entrance is in the back of the property. Other than the cave, the 2nd longest known cave in the county, the preserve has no recreational value.

The MHLC obtained this from Albany County which had foreclosed on the land for failure to pay taxes. It was only after an accident in December 1990 that the county became aware that they owned a cave. (The accident involved the breeching of an upstream beaver dam while a group was in the cave, causing it to flood and trapping them.) Initially the county sought to physically close the cave, but because it is integral to the local drainage, they soon learned this was not practical. (Locals claim that the incipient sink was exacerbated by flooding caused when the county tried to do this.) The county was leery of dealing with the NCC, so working through the then ACLC the cave was turned over them for the NCC to manage.

Written permission is required to enter the cave. The county coordinates work on upstream beaver dams and roads with the preserve manager. Entry is denied when work is anticipated.

Stop 2 – Clarksville Cave – This is one of the NCC’s newer preserves purchased at the end of September 2004. Clarksville Cave has been known since the early 19th century. This is, perhaps, the best known cave in the northeast United States. It is a Mecca for beginners and groups of all kinds. For many, it is their first cave. It is a popular party spot, as well.
For years the cave was owned by the McNab family. (The cave was purchased by the NCC from the 3 McNab daughters.) The McNabs permitted open and unfettered access to the cave and despite many accidents and one fatality, kept the cave open. (This led to the misconception that the cave was on public land or somehow a no-man’s land and was unowned.) After the fatality, a drowning in the Lake Room at the upstream end of the cave, two of the owners decided they wanted to sell the cave and the family approached the NCC.

The NCC purchased that part of the land on the limestone under which the cave runs and which contains the Wards entrance and a small cave know as the Ladder Dig. This is about 10.7 acres. As this was a subdivision of a larger parcel, the Town of New Scotland’s rules required at least a 50-foot strip owned in deed from the nearest road.

A 2nd entrance, Gregory’s was obtained by the NCC from the county and is on a separate _-acre parcel. A 3rd entrance, Thook, is owned by NCC members. The old North entrance, which was not usable as an actual entrance was filled in by the current owner. (This opening was used in a rescue in 1991 to run electricity and communication lines into the cave. After the fatality, it was used in the body recovery to run electricity and hoses.)

Due to the popularity of the cave, there are special challenges that managing this preserve presents. The two biggest is the control of large groups and the education of unequipped or ill-prepared individuals.

In the past it was common for there to be multiple buses at the cave. Reports of groups with more than 50 were common. The NCC determined that such use was detrimental to the resource and did not provide an appropriate opportunity to see a wild cave. Also, many of these big groups were not well-equipped. It was determined to limit groups to 15. In addition, camps, cave-for-pay, etc. must provide certificates of additionally insured. (Boy Scouts must follow their own rules – 8 scouts with 2 adult leaders and so on.) 2005 has been a learning curve for both the NCC and the groups and this continues to be a problem.

Ill-equipped visitors has been less of an issue than anticipated. The frequent presence of a preserve manager or a steward has simply caused some people to turn around, but the informational kiosk has also been helpful. Additionally, New York State has long had a law requiring kids 14 or younger to have bike helmets. Thus, many visitors have those to use.
In addition, the popularity of the property has made it an opportunity to do education. The kiosk helps. An interpretive surface trail is in the works. This will help to educate visitors about karst.

Finally, a changing area has been constructed to allow visitors to change clothes without offending our neighbors.

Enter John Boyd Thacher State Park. This is a park of about 2,200 acres much of it karst. It contains about 40 caves. The longest cave in the park is Hailes Cave with 3,700 feet of mapped passage, but with a potential of about two miles.

Stop 3 – Hailes Cave – John Boyd Thacher State Park is managed by the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). The state’s solution to access to the two longest caves in the park has been to either forbid access or to set terms that individuals or small groups cannot meet, such as requiring a $1,000,000 insurance policy. Access to caves is not strictly forbidden, but access to hazardous areas is forbidden by New York State regulation. By marking areas as hazardous, the state effectively has banned access to some caves. Many of the caves in the park, however, are not so marked.

The park has recently acquired (via the Open Space Institute) the recharge area for Hailes Cave, a bat hibernaculum. This will help preserve the resource. The Helderberg-Hudson Grotto started a clean-up in a sink that has been dye-traced to Hailes.

The NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC) does regular bat counts in Hailes Cave.

One observation: When caves are placed off limits, that tends keep out those most qualified to enter them, while doing nothing to prevent access by “flashlighters” who would ignore the signs.

Stop 4 – Knox Cave – Pull off of Knox Cave Road. Knox Cave was the NCC’s first preserve. In fact, the NCC was formed initially for the purpose of accepting this donation after the NSS said they were not interested. Knox was a commercial cave from 1936 to 1962. It was shown on road maps for many years and was shown on the map in the Verizon telephone directory as recently as 2003!

A fatality occurred at the cave in May 1975. The sink tends to hold snow and ice late, sometimes to mid-June. A group was entering the cave and there was considerable snow and ice still in the sink. (As Knox Cave is mostly dry, it was a popular winter cave to do.) Two individuals were waiting at the bottom of the sink to enter the cave when they were struck by a slab of ice (estimated to be 10' by 10' by 3' thick) from higher up in the sinkhole. One person died. The other was left a paraplegic

After this and problems with his insurer, the owner decided to close the cave and to get rid of it. This process took three years with the NCC acquiring the cave in 1978. During the first 8 years of ownership, very little changed. In 1986 the NCC committed to a more active management of the cave. The property was posted. Trespassers were arrested. In 1987 large limestone boulders (rip-rap) were placed where the ROW entered the property. This prevented visitors from driving back to the cave and as important, forced them to remain in sight of the main road.

In December 1980 when the first bat count was done, there were 263 individuals. In December 2001 there were 1851 individuals, or 7 times as many.

In 1999 a second cave was dug open. Called Crossbones Cave, this has a 60-foot entrance drop and is gated.

After Stop 4, we will continue north on Knox Cave Rd

Limestone Rise Preserve. This is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. The part with the limestone starts at about 36.4 miles and is on the left. The Helderberg escarpment that was so prominent at Stop 3 is here only about 40 feet high. There are no caves on the property, but some fine karst including solutionally-enlarged joints and sinkholes. This is not a stop.

Pass Spider Cave up on the right. Permission of the owner is required to visit this cave.

Stop 5 – Schoharie Caverns – Records of Schoharie Caverns (a.k.a. Shutters Corners Cave or Treadlemires Cave) go back to the early 20th century. Jim Gage acquired the cave in the early 1950s and proceeded to develop it into a commercial operation. (This seems to have been done as a tax write-off because the cave was open for only one day.)

Being a caver, himself, Gage allowed other cavers to use the ticket office as a cabin. The Schoharie cabin quickly became a focus for cavers visiting Albany and Schoharie counties to go caving. To this day, cavers from the northeast United States and eastern Canada frequent the cabin while in the area.

Over the years cavers slowly removed the old walkways from the cave and now there is little evidence left of the old commercial operation. (The most notable is the culvert which transports the water from the cave through the valley dug to provide access it.)

In 1993 the old cabin burned. The origin of the fire is questionable to this day. Jim Gage had died in 1991. The cave and the 13-acre parcel was donated by Jim’s ex-daughter-in-law to the NSS. In 1995 the caving community constructed a slightly larger cabin on the same location as the old cabin.

An on-going issue relates to the use of the cabin by locals. Windows are left unlocked so users may enter without a key, nevertheless, locals continue to break windows and doors.

Use of this cabin and the one at Barton Hill is coordinated by Pete Teresco. There is no charge, but donations are always encouraged. (Before being owned by the NSS there was a fee schedule for the cabin. This was eliminated with NSS ownership. Interestingly, users tend to give more money than they had been charged.)

Continue on Cook Rd.

Pass parking area for Barton Hill Preserve. This is not a stop.

Pass Speleobooks on the right. Speleobooks has become a locus for caving activities. For those caves requiring a permission slip or a release form, groups may obtain those here.

Stop 6 – McFails Cave – The NSS’s first preserve, McFails Cave is the longest cave in the Northeast with nearly 7 miles of passage. (Discoveries out beyond Asia Dome continue to add to the cave. These trips are now 17+ hours in length. These far reaches of the cave are about 4 miles from the nearest entrance. Couple the distance with the temperature, the water, and the overall complexity of the passage beyond the Northwest Dome, and these are serious cave trips by any standard.) The cave was considered a nice little cave with a nice drop until 1961 when a group of cavers from Cornell bypassed Olsens Siphon and walked into about 5 miles of virgin cave.

In 1962 Fred Stone, Frank Howarth, and others in the Cornell student grotto pooled their resources and bought an L-shaped, land-locked parcel one acre in size with an easement. This contained McFails Hole, Acks Shack, and Cave Disappointment. The NSS accepted it in 1967 making it the NSS’s first preserve.

Also in 1961 McFails Hole showed signs of collapse and the hunt was one for a new entrance. A tight crawl leading 100 feet from the bottom of Ack Shack was dug open to access the main cave passage. (McFails Hole did collapse later that year.)

In 1968, a fatality occurred when Gerald Alderman became stuck in the narrow traverse in the Ack's Shack entrance and with cold, snow-melt water falling on him he soon died of hypothermia. The remaining three cavers were charged and convicted with trespassing. In an unusual move, Jim Gage, then lawyer for the NSS, prevailed upon the local town justice to convene court in the Cobleskill Hospital where the three men were recuperating from exposure. They were tried, convicted, and fined before they even got out of the hospital.

In 1978 a new entrance was discovered at the so-called 700-foot Sink. In 1979 the NSS acquired about 1 acre and another easement around what is now Halls Hole. This is now the main entrance. The cave is a bat hibernaculum and closed in the winter. The first visitors to the cave in the season must assure that the Acks Shack crawl is open.

Because access to the cave has been controlled since the major discovery in the 1960s, the cave remains in nearly the same condition as when discovered.

Continue south on Lykers Rd.

Cross valley. This valley contains a number of sinks that have been dye-traced to Howe Caverns.

Stop 7 – Howe Caverns – Howe Caverns was discovered in May 1842 and has been operated as a commercial venture almost from the beginning. Trips started at the natural entrance. It is true that the early trips were more like wild cave tours, but Lester Howe and his successors slowly and steadily made improvements to the cave. By the latter part of the 19th century, the cave was what we now think of as a tourist cave.

Tourism slacked off toward the turn of the 20th century. Amadeus Grabau wrote in 1913: "Only [Howe's Cave] has been made accessible to the public, though in recent years it has been much neglected and is scarcely any longer visited." The Howe's Cave Association was reorganized as the Helderberg Cement Company. Eventually, quarrying operations would sever the original entrance from the rest of the cave. About 900 feet of cave was destroyed.

Howe Caverns, Inc. was organized in 1927. Since the natural entrance could no longer be used, elevators were sunk to access the west end of the cave. The cave re-opened in its second commercial phase in May 1929. The tour descends from the lodge to the Vestibule. From there it follows the main cave to the foot of the Lake of Venus. (The last part of this is by boat.) The tour retraces its route almost back to the Vestibule and then enters the Winding Way. (In 1972 a tunnel was open from the end of the Winding Way to facilitate the movement of tourist groups.)

In 1990 the local NSS grotto started what became an annual clean-up at the cave. This is done in January. Clean-up has included lint removal, coin pick-up, plant and algae removal, and other miscellaneous items. Earlier this year local cavers assisted in the reopening of Fat Man's Misery at the end of the Winding Way.