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hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 19, 2014 7:13 pm
by curiousexplorer
hey, the name is matt, im 23 living in Fresno, CA. Im a big outdoors person, always hiking or camping or the such, got interested in caving a few months ago when i stumbled upon a cave while hiking, which further research informed me that it was Lilburn cave located in kings canyon national park. iv been doing further research into caving and finding out the legalities of entering caves i have since attempted to contact the local grotto in Fresno but with no response. i have a great interest in this and would hate to have to give up on it. any information or help would be great! thanks

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 19, 2014 9:46 pm
by caver.adam
One of the most active groups I know of in Northern California is the CRF. They are also the one that manages the Lilburn cave exploration coincidentally. Or at least they did a few years ago. I'm just not sure how to get a hold of them.

The Pasadena grotto is very active. If you look up their webpage they may be able to get you in contact with someone farther north. I'm too much out of the loop there now to be much help I'm afraid.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 19, 2014 9:47 pm
by caver.adam
Best link I can come up with for CRF is: http://www.cave-research.org/index.php.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 19, 2014 10:32 pm
by curiousexplorer
thanks!! i tried using the NSS directory of grottos in cali but no one has responded from either of the emails i sent messages to

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 2:23 pm
by caver.adam
The northern California grottos seem to disappear quite frequently. It's really a matter of shotgunning out emails unless someone else on the board can help.

If interested: here's contacts for the SoCalGrotto. Don't know if they'll do much up your way or not. http://www.southerncaliforniagrotto.com ... eccom.html

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 3:33 pm
by johncwoods
Try going to the meeting tomorrow night. They are open to the public and the location is on the website.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 5:32 pm
by Caving Guru
johncwoods wrote:Try going to the meeting tomorrow night. They are open to the public and the location is on the website.


Yes, I agree with John. Going to the meeting will allow the members of the San Joaquin Valley Grotto to get to know you and it is also where you will hear about upcoming cave trips. According to their website (http://www.caver.com/sjvg/), meetings are held the third Thursday of each month starting at 7:30pm at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in the Tioga Conference Room at the address of 7300 North Fresno Street, Fresno, CA, 93720. California does have some caving but not a lot (or at least not a large number of long and deep cave systems compared to say Tennessee with 221 caves with a mile or more of passage whereas California on the other hand has 15 caves with a mile or more of passage). You are in a pretty good location though relatively speaking for caving in California. Church Cave is in Fresno County, CA with 4 miles of passage and in neighboring Tulare County, CA there is Lilburn Cave (22 mi), Crystal Cave (3 mi), and Hurrican Crawl Cave (3 mi). Most of what I have heard is that the grottos in California are not very active such as with organized cave trips. But who knows. I may be completely wrong for all I know. I wish you good luck on your endeavors, Matt.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 6:49 pm
by cavedoc
Hi Matt,
The SJVG does indeed exist. We are meeting tomorrow at Kaiser as advertised, though it's now on the second floor. Go up the elevators to the second floor and hang out. someone will find you. We don't have a lot of organized trips but we are fairly well plugged into CRF and can direct you as needed. There is a program on local canyoneering.

Roger

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 7:03 pm
by Steven Johnson
caver.adam wrote:The northern California grottos seem to disappear quite frequently. It's really a matter of shotgunning out emails unless someone else on the board can help.


SFBC (San Francisco / southern Bay Area) and Diablo Grotto (Oakland / eastern Bay Area) are both quite active and do a lot of trips to the SEKI area -- they aren't particularly convenient to you meeting-wise but you could try contacting them to see about joining trips.

http://www.sfbcgrotto.org/
http://caves.org/grotto/diablo/

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 10:12 pm
by Caving Guru
Steven Johnson wrote:
caver.adam wrote:The northern California grottos seem to disappear quite frequently. It's really a matter of shotgunning out emails unless someone else on the board can help.


SFBC (San Francisco / southern Bay Area) and Diablo Grotto (Oakland / eastern Bay Area) are both quite active and do a lot of trips to the SEKI area -- they aren't particularly convenient to you meeting-wise but you could try contacting them to see about joining trips.

http://www.sfbcgrotto.org/
http://caves.org/grotto/diablo/


Very interesting. I did not realize that the San Francisco Bay Chapter and the Diablo Grotto were pretty active. I just looked at both of their websites and SFBC has on their public calendar about one cave trip a month but the Diablo Grotto does not seem to have a public calendar. So do you know how active the Diablo Grotto is, Steven Johnson? Also, I am curious as to what SEKI stands for. Thanks.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 20, 2014 10:13 pm
by curiousexplorer
cavedoc wrote:Hi Matt,
The SJVG does indeed exist. We are meeting tomorrow at Kaiser as advertised, though it's now on the second floor. Go up the elevators to the second floor and hang out. someone will find you. We don't have a lot of organized trips but we are fairly well plugged into CRF and can direct you as needed. There is a program on local canyoneering.

Roger


thanks for the help everyone, i really appreciate it. as for the meeting i will do my best to be there as long as nothing comes before hand

hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 25, 2014 11:30 am
by Ernie Coffman
Matt, I'm really surprised that no one contacted you, but did see where Roger contacted you about the SJ Grotto meeting, there in Fresno, so hopefully you made that meeting. One of the other things that's coming up is the NSS Western Regional Meeting is Sep 19-21 in Columbia, CA and now has online registration ready. This is on the WR webpage, as well, so check things out there, also. http://westernregional.weebly.com/

Going to a regional meeting, will give you a bird's eye view of a good number of cavers and what's happening, along with sessions on caving, some trips in the Mother Lode area, where a lot of cavers in northern California cave, as well as folks from southern California, also. Of course, down south, is where most of the southern caving takes place.

If you were just hiking in Redwood Canyon...and found Liliburn Cave, that's something, so you are definitely a great hiker. There are some good hikes up farther north, in California, so hopefully, you'll learn more about all of the caving/hiking from the folks at the regional...or at least there in Fresno.

Ernie
P.S. If I can assist you more, let me know. :cavingrocks:

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 25, 2014 7:43 pm
by Steven Johnson
Caving Guru wrote:Very interesting. I did not realize that the San Francisco Bay Chapter and the Diablo Grotto were pretty active. I just looked at both of their websites and SFBC has on their public calendar about one cave trip a month but the Diablo Grotto does not seem to have a public calendar. So do you know how active the Diablo Grotto is, Steven Johnson? Also, I am curious as to what SEKI stands for. Thanks.


I'm a member / officer of Diablo; we typically average one or more trip a month. Our calendar is private to grotto members.

SEKI = Sequoia / Kings Canyon

I hope you can make it to the Western Regional meeting in September.

Re: hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 27, 2014 1:08 pm
by curiousexplorer
Ernie Coffman wrote:Matt, I'm really surprised that no one contacted you, but did see where Roger contacted you about the SJ Grotto meeting, there in Fresno, so hopefully you made that meeting. One of the other things that's coming up is the NSS Western Regional Meeting is Sep 19-21 in Columbia, CA and now has online registration ready. This is on the WR webpage, as well, so check things out there, also. http://westernregional.weebly.com/

Going to a regional meeting, will give you a bird's eye view of a good number of cavers and what's happening, along with sessions on caving, some trips in the Mother Lode area, where a lot of cavers in northern California cave, as well as folks from southern California, also. Of course, down south, is where most of the southern caving takes place.

If you were just hiking in Redwood Canyon...and found Liliburn Cave, that's something, so you are definitely a great hiker. There are some good hikes up farther north, in California, so hopefully, you'll learn more about all of the caving/hiking from the folks at the regional...or at least there in Fresno.

Ernie
P.S. If I can assist you more, let me know. :cavingrocks:


i was able to make the metting thanks! it is my general plan to make the regional meeting next month and im really looking forward to it

hello from central california

PostPosted: Aug 27, 2014 3:59 pm
by Ernie Coffman
That's great news! Way to go! :clap: