Category Archives: Trip Reports

Trip reports from members

2023 October 29 – Stark Caverns lead push

Stark Caverns Trip Report – 29 October 2023

Participants – Bill Gee
Mike Kovacs
Candace Kovacs
Jack Rufener
Amy Hargroves

Time in = 9:30am
Time out = 2:15pm

There were three goals for this trip. The first was to get some better photography of an overlook just off the west end of the Onyx Circle. The second was to check out some tight leads and blowing air at the far end of the Rugged Canyon. Third was to run an endoscope camera into a very tight hole at the Half-Way Room to see if it read more

2023 September 10 – Stark Caverns Photo

Stark Caverns Photo Trip Report

10 September 2023

Bill Gee
Tristin Whetstine
Mike Kovacs
Candace Kovacs
Chloe Kovacs

On past photo trips we have covered most of Stark Caverns. The last area to be photographed was the Rugged Canyon. This is the longest and most difficult of the side passages in Stark Caverns.

Candace Kovacs was our main photographer. Her smartphone does an amazing job with cave photography. Tristin Whetstine had a GoPro on his helmet, and Mike Kovacs took some photos with his smartphone. read more

2023 August 20 Black Fathom River Cave

Black Fathom River Cave – Trip report by Tristin Whetstine

Black Fathom River Cave
August 20th, 2023
Entry Time: 7:30 Am Exit Time: Approximately 3 pm
There were no major injuries during the trip.
We didn’t see any trash in the cave, it was clean.

BFRC had the most fauna I have ever seen in one cave. We saw at least 20 fish including carp, bluegill, 3 baby catfish, and a 2-foot long catfish. We also saw 3 cave salamanders, a few pickerel frogs, multiple tadpoles, and a 12-inch yellow eared read more

2023 July 30 Stark Caverns Survey and Photo

Trip report 30 July 2023

Stark Caverns Survey and Photography

Participants: Bill Gee
Mike Kovacs
Candace Kovacs
Rabecca Marlin
Tyler Marlin
Sarah Peterson
Tristin Whetstine
Elyse Kincaid

It has been a while since we last did a trip at Stark Caverns. There are some details in the survey to clean up, and we wanted to get a start with off-trail photography. The photography may eventually become part of a coffee table book for the gift shop. That is just an idea now. Besides photography, decisions need read more

15 October 2022 Bridge Day

2022 Bridge Day Trip Report by Bill Gee

After two years (2020 and 2021) of being canceled, the annual Bridge Day (Wikipedia link) event was restarted for 2022. The event this year was on 15 October. It is always held on the third Saturday in October.

I attended Bridge Day in 2011 as a participant. In 2019 I was on the rappel safety team, and for 2022 I was again on the rappel safety team.  More information about the rappel is at Bridge Day rappel.

It is a long drive from Kansas City to Fayetteville, read more