[Nmcaver] Important: Labor Day Regional Location Change!!!

[gypcaver at comcast.net]

Hi everyone!
     Well, as you recall, when we sent out the original notice for the Labor Day Regional, we said the only problem might be if it rains, so of course, what has it been doing all the last month?  Getting in and out of the site that we had selected will be problematic at best so we have found a different, and perhaps better site, still in the Sacramento Mountains.  
     We, (SWR Chair Kenny Stabinsky, SWR Vice-Chair Slim Baxter, MVG Sec'y Jeff Lory, myself, and a few other MVG members visited the site today and concur that it would make a better location than the one we previously selected.  The access road is an all-weather gravel road with good drainage if it rains, and it is much closer to known caves and other activities for those who want to go.
     First, the location:  We will be camping at the trailhead for Forest Trail 119, located 7.0 miles down WestSide Road south from High Rolls, NM.  To get to WestSide Road, take Hwy 82 East out of Alamogordo towards Cloudcroft.  High Rolls is a small village just past the tunnel.   West Side Road is a right turn just past the Post Office in High Rolls.  There is a sign for the Post Office on the highway, and a street sign for West Side Road.  For those coming from the east, it will be a left turn, just before the Post Office.
     The first 1.1 miles of WestSide Road is paved and switchbacks up the side of the canyon.  Once the pavement ends it winds along the west face of the Sacramento Mountains with some outstanding views of the Tularosa Basin and White Sands National Monument.
     There will be a sign at the turnoff for the trailhead for Forest Trail 119 before noon on Friday.  We may put a sign in High Rolls as well, but probably not, as it is pretty well marked.
     
Potential Caving Activities:  

1)  Slim's Fault is about a 1.5 - 2.5 mile hike down a road from the campsite.  (Small tectonic cave - the road is blocked to vehicular traffic). 

2)  Boulder Cave is aboout 5 miles as the crow flies down Dry Canyon from the campsite, but it's about a half hour drive and 1/4 mile walk to get to it.  Boulder Cave was one that Slim had been to over 30 years ago and we just relocated today.  It has a few hundred feet of passage known, and a surface pit entrance that drops 30 feet or so that we did not drop today.  (Slim recalls that it led to more passage).  It needs surveying.

3)  Wimsatt's Cave is just over the hill on the East side of the Sacramento Mountains.  It would be a about a 30 mile drive.   Anyone interested in Wimsatt's should call the Forest Service for a permit.

4)  We can still go to Nigger Ed Canyon for ridgewalking, if, by some miracle, it doesn't rain all next week.  One can continue down WestSide Road (it deteriorates significantly as one continues south) to the trailhead for Nigger Ed Canyon, if you dare to try it after a rain (not recommended).

5)  There is a place a short distance from the campsite where Slim observed (from a distance) a couple of fellows disappear into the ground.  We tried to locate it today and were unsuccessful.

6)  There is a prominant limestone bluff a short distance from camp that has not been ridgewalked, according to Slim.  

7)  For those interested in more "touristy" stuff, Cloudcroft is a short drive from the campsite.  

     Please make sure everyone who is planning on coming to the regional gets a copy of this if they aren't on the New Mexico Caver's Mailing list.  I know it's pretty short notice, but it's the best we could do.
      See everyone there!



--
Steve Peerman

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
    attributed to Mark Twain, but no record exists of his having written this.