Fat Boy’s Pork Palace, Franklin, WV
On August 24, 1996 the intrepid members of the Federal Filings Caving Society set out to conquer the depths of Hamilton Cave in Pendleton County, West Virginia, one of the four Trout Rock Caves owned by the National Speleological Society.
Fat Boy’s Pork Palace, Franklin, WV
From left to right, members of the FFCS present on the Hamilton caving trip are: Dave Taverner, Ben Gerenstein, Joanne Frank (honorary member), Bruce Frank, Dave Sheremata, Holly Wright and Don Cabana-boy (honorary member). Here we are stopping for lunch en route.
Joanne in a narrow passage
Joanne emerges from a crawl-way.
We went through sections of walking passage with occasional places requiring crawling or climbing.
Cavers sprawl in low-ceilinged room.
The cave had several large rooms, some large enough to stand in. There were some stalactites. The Little Brown species of bat lives in the cave although we did not see any on this trip.
Unnatural Formations Room
Hamilton Cave has a good example of an unnatural formations room. These rooms tend to be found in caves which have a good supply of malleable clay. Another contributing factor is whether there is a supply of cavers with too much time on their hands. Often an unnatural formations room will form if there is a clay-covered area near a place where cavers must wait, such as the base of a pit where cavers must ascend a rope one at a time.
We only visited the front section of Hamilton Cave. There is a rear section of the cave accessible only through a squeeze-way known as the Air-Blower. The Air-Blower tube is so narrow that only the thin (those with 8 1/2" or smaller chest thickness) can make it through. We hope to return some day to attempt it.
Copyright © 1999 Bruce