Hey from michigan.

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Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 4, 2012 8:10 pm

Spent the weekend in mammoth cave doing the various wild tours and my girlfriend and I loved it. Been trying to get in contact with a grotto around these parts, and not having much luck! Recently joined the nss, (yesterday) so I dont even have a ID number yet. Doing alot of reading, well did, even before mammoth and I'm looking to get more involved with it all. Looking to learn everything I can!

thanks for reading. :grin:
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby NZcaver » May 5, 2012 12:00 am

:kewl: Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the NSS! :waving:

Hope you hear back from some local Michigan folks. I know they're out there somewhere!
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Cody JW » May 5, 2012 7:06 am

Cavers from Michigan ( Detroit Urban Grotto) did lots of survey in parts of Mammoth Cave and the area around Mammoth. Not sure if any of those people are still involved , they were very active back in the 80s .
It only takes one person to surrender a dog to a kill shelter ,but it takes many to rescue it.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 5, 2012 10:29 am

The Detroit urban grotto does appear to still be active, but apparently do not offer menbership to newer cavers. Bummer. :/
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Cody JW » May 5, 2012 10:53 am

You might also try St. Joesph Valley Grotto in Northern Indiana. Do not know where in Michigan you are but this group welcomes new cavers and have good people.
It only takes one person to surrender a dog to a kill shelter ,but it takes many to rescue it.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 5, 2012 12:13 pm

I decided to contact the Detroit grotto anyway. (hey you never know) and noticed that the Indiana grotto you mentioned was only about 200 miles away which doesn't seem too bad so I contacted them as well. So maybe in getting somewhere. :)
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Squirrel Girl » May 5, 2012 5:32 pm

Sixx77 wrote:Spent the weekend in mammoth cave doing the various wild tours and my girlfriend and I loved it. Been trying to get in contact with a grotto around these parts, and not having much luck! Recently joined the nss, (yesterday) so I dont even have a ID number yet. Doing alot of reading, well did, even before mammoth and I'm looking to get more involved with it all. Looking to learn everything I can!

thanks for reading. :grin:

That's awesome! That's how I started caving, too. Welcome!
:waving:
Barbara Anne am Ende

"Weird people are my people."
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby NZcaver » May 5, 2012 6:02 pm

Sixx77 wrote:The Detroit urban grotto does appear to still be active, but apparently do not offer menbership to newer cavers. Bummer. :/

This seemed really odd to me, but sure enough that's essentially what the DUG website says:

We are a caving club primarily involved in exploring and mapping the Fisher Ridge Cave System in Hart county, Kentucky.
...
Unfortunately, because of our singular focus and the challenging nature of the cave, we do not usually offer beginning caver instruction or trips suitable for newer cavers.

Hmmm. Not the first welcome that springs to mind when somebody says "NSS grotto". This is more like a survey project than a grotto, but at least they're up front about it.

Anyway... if you haven't already done so, check out the grotto finder page for beginner-friendly grottos in Michigan and surrounding states. Good luck!
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 5, 2012 8:45 pm

Actually not a single grotto in Michigan has responded to me! I did get in contact with the one in Indiana. But thats still quite a drive. So I guess I play the waiting game and see if anyone responds to my emails.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby NZcaver » May 5, 2012 10:36 pm

Now that I think about it, you're not the first person to mention problems finding active/accessible grottos in Michigan. Where are you located? A couple of years ago another newbie Michigan caver ended up connecting with St Joseph Valley Grotto in Elkhart Indiana and had a good time with that.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 5, 2012 10:41 pm

I'm located in the port huron area. Thanks for the info! On a side note, the girlfriend and I are planning a move to Kentucky in December. So if all else fails, I'll hopefully have that.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Dave Luckins » May 6, 2012 10:21 am

Matt,

Send me an email at OVP@caves.org and I'll give you the local contacts to all the grottos in Michigan...it's my home state.

Dave Luckins, NSS OVP
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby Sixx77 » May 6, 2012 10:45 am

Email is on its way. On that note, I also tried two different contact methods for the Michigan interlakes grotto. One email got returned saying that is wasn't valid anymore, and the other, a contact form on the website I have not heard back from.
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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby JeanDeVries » May 6, 2012 10:21 pm

Hey Matt!

I got your email from Friday, sorry I didn't get back with you. I was out of town for the weekend. I shot you back an email. Let me know if you didn't get it!

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Re: Hey from michigan.

Postby self-deleted_user » May 7, 2012 2:26 pm

I just moved to Huntsville from Rochester, MI.

I feel your pain, good luck finding cavers up there!

Detroit Urban Grotto - you are right, they will not accept new members, I got the same reply. They are active in the Fisher Ridge system still though.

MI Interlakes Grotto - goes to the little cave up north the...third? saturday of the summer months. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunguramy/ ... 608559608/ You'll get bored with that fast. They don't do other trips.

Most all the other grottos in the tristate area even remotely close require you to attend 2-3 grotto meetings prior to any cave trips with them, so expect a 10-12 hour round trip drive for a couple hour grotto meeting a couple times during the weekenights first (who has time to take off for work, gas money to pay for that these days?!)

Your best bet bar none - St Joseph Valley Grotto. They accept brand new members, will take you on cave trips without ever needing to attend the meeting, you can Skype in to the meetings (2nd thursday of the month, 7pm), they are based out of Elkhart, IN. They are also on your way to the caving regions and will carpool. Grotto page: http://www.caves.org/grotto/sjvg/ It took me about 8 months to find them, but it is a very friendly group that got started because they were sick of the grotto crap in other grottos up there! So they are very different...$1/month dues, active caving, loves taking new people, etc. There are a couple hangout houses in IN too we'd stay at on trips down to southern IN to where the caves are.

Now...you'll notice that they don't have any 2012 dates on the site...the members kinda got sick of the same cave trips every year in Indiana so not many trips are being led this year, BUT there are plenty of active cavers just ask for a trip and you'll get one.

KY is a great place to cave, quite a few of the Michigan/Indiana cavers go down there regularly and you will meet the KY people. Lonestar Preserve is the place to stay in Ky! Speleofest is Memorial Day weekend, you'd be good to check it out and attend, you will meet lots of the cavers you will be spending time with, they have trips for newbies to advanced running, and vendors (On rope 1, amazing people) to get any gear you need and they'll let you try it out first before buying which is the best way. In fact I know of some KZoo cavers going down there who are always looking to carpool, I will shoot you a PM in a moment with their contact information. Good people. I've been where you are, stuck in a non-caving area and struggling to find decent people! Took me almost a year to find 'em, but they are there, and I'm happy to pass on the info to you so you don't have to go through what I did!
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