Quite a number of us from the Cleveland Grotto attended this year's OTR. Tara, Glenn and I arrived at the muddy TRA campground around 10PM on Friday. I was person number 1,517 at sign in. It was windy and a light misty rain was falling. The roads mainly consisted of sloppy mud ruts, but luckily where the tents were pitched was grassy and 'dry'.

Saturday morning was overcast and the misty rain continued. Some of us went to check out vendors row, some of us walked around looking for Josje, Karl and Judith who camped in the party section because they couldn't find the Cleveland Grotto tents. Around 11:30AM we gathered everyone and decided on the horizontal Simmons-Mingo Cave. The rain had pretty much stopped at this point.

Simmons-Mingo is a nice cave system. We spent a fair amount of time in there before heading out and back to camp for a night of revelry. Before not too long the band was playing and the huge bonfire blazed brightly as throngs of cavers milled about.

Sunday we awoke to bright, but overcast skies. It hadn't rained in a while so we were confident that a vertical cave wouldn't be a bad idea. After gathering a group of fellow Cleveland Grotto members we drove the hour to Carpenter-Swaygo Cave. We entered through the Carpenter entrance. On the walk to the cave we passed up Roadside Pit which was, interestingly enough, on the roads' side. A rope was tied off on the tree above it and a couple cavers were suiting up to drop it. The pit is about a foot and a half by a couple feet wide hole that's a couple inches from the cinder road.

Carpenter-Swaygo is a multi drop cave. First is the 75' drop, a 15' then a 40' drop. Before the 40' drop is some cave that you can explore. At the end of the 40' drop is a LOT of cave that we explored. Our group of about 12 split up and checked out the 2 waterfalls and checked out a side narrow canyon passage which involved some chimneying and climbing.

Sunday night involved more free beer, Tara and her friend, Taz, being dancing machines in the pavilion, and more frivolity.

Monday I woke up to my brother's voice imploring me to wake up. I stuck my head out of the tent and to my suprise all of the tents around us were gone and people were finishing up packing up their cars. I sure slept through a lot a ruckus.

I'm glad I made it to this year's OTR and didn't let the threat of a rain filled weekend deter me from attending.

Excerpt from the FYI page at OTR:
The Old Timers Reunion or more commonly know as OTR is the largest gathering of cavers in the US. It meets annually in West Virginia at the TRA campground. It's a chance for cavers to get together and visit friends, do some caving and participate in typical caver activities. OTR is strictly a volunteer event, and relies heavily on the strong bond between cavers to work together to make each years reunion become a reality. OTR typically consists of about 2,200 cavers and guests. Our largest reunion was the 50th reunion in 1999 which had 2,408 attendees.