Bat Ranch: Caver’s Paradise

I’m sore, tired, relaxed, sunburned, and have a 2 foot long gash on my back. What a weekend!

This weekend I joined fellow cavers from the Madison University Student Grotto, Virginia Tech Grotto, and even a few from the Front Royal Grotto and Athens Speleological Society (from Georgia) for Spring Fling at the beloved Bat Ranch in the southwestern part of Virginia. The Bat Ranch, in short, is a guy named Mike’s home in the mountains that cavers love to visit, thus the name. There are 3 caves on the property, a field for camping, a fire pit, and even a stream that runs around the property.

I can’t say everything of what went down (haha, you’ll have to go there to find out!), but I’ll try and organize it into a few categories: caving (duh), camping, labor, tubing, and the fire pit.

Upon each person’s arrival, another tent was built. Eventually we covered most of the field in at least 20 tents of different shapes and sizes (even a few that you could stand up in!). It was a city set up in an instant! Most were staked down, as it would be windy from time to time, though one actually ended up rotating itself! Would’ve been a kite had a sleeping bag not been inside to weigh it down.

The fire pit was constantly swarmed with people. The menu of the weekend tended to fall under the choices of hot dogs and smores. Many were eaten of each, and let me tell you, you need a full day for your digestive system to recover after that! Since the stream was close to the fire pit, many (including myself) chose to jump into the cold mountain water, as was the custom. It’s quite exhilarating, I must tell you! Oh, and we also burned a chair, which was remarkably well-built to still stay standing until the very last of its frame fell apart.

As a show of good faith and thanks for letting us stay for free, we did some labor for Mike. It involved gathering logs and cutting down a few trees (on Mike’s property) to prepare for the next few months of firewood. We made short work of a couple of trees, sawing, breaking branches off, carrying the sticks and log pieces and throwing it all into a pile to dry out. This type of group effort is one of the factors in the Bat Ranch continually being a great place to visit.

While some went hiking, and others went caving, another group (including myself) went tubing down the stream. Luckily it was only a 5 minute walk to get to the upper part of the stream that would take us to the Bat Ranch in just under an hour. Talk about convenient! A fleet of inner tubes and people entered the water, at the mercy of the stream’s ever-changing currents. The stream had a few tricks up its sleeve, with shallow waters that caused you to scratch your back, rocks and logs almost hidden until you came right up to them, natural dams from fallen trees, and branches sticking out that had to be circumnavigated. I thought I made it out okay, until others saw the 2 foot long cut that I had gotten from one of the branches. I didn’t feel it since the water was cold, but it was definitely there!

And not to be forgotten, the caving! And of all places, I got to go see my favorite room in any cave, the Moon Room in Tawney Cave! Getting permission from Mike to go along with the key required to unlock the gate at the entrance, myself and 7 others (Lee and Kelton from M.U.S.G., Will and J-Watt from A.S.S., and Jeremy, Remington, and Chelsea) proceeded into the cave. Upon entering, we were met with a large room covered in flowstone, stalagmites and stalactites. After finding a fun 20 foot climb and subsequent tube slide that was very steep, we proceeded to follow the stream to my beloved Moon Room. Standing in the middle of the room and looking up, there was a round dome cutout from the ceiling at least 80 feet above. The room also echoed very well and standing in it would make one feel as if they were in some underground temple. There were interesting formations to look at everywhere in that room. After enjoying the scenery and seeing Jeremy fall victim to an all-versus-one mud fight, we decided to find the other entrance to the cave, a sinkhole! Climbing over a bunch of breakdown, then to the bottom of a hole, we found a stream passage that stretched a long way. Along that walk, Will looked up at the ceiling and noticed a portion of it that reminded him of the Cathedral Room from Pettijohn’s Cave in TAG (Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia caving region). It stretched up 100 feet from us, and looked like the inside of a Gothic cathedral with the lines of flowstone. Truly amazing! After continuing for a little longer, we came across a pole that was probably drilled by someone making a well. After going past that for a little bit, we decided to turn around and leave the cave to join everyone back at the campfire.

Sunday morning was bittersweet, as we had to take our tent city down and clean up after ourselves. A lot of us, including myself, had sunburns from both the sun and being in front of the fire for too long. I found a few more cuts and bruises, but that’s the name of the game. I’ve now been to the Bat Ranch 6 times, and don’t think I’ll ever stop going!