Spring 2017 MSS Meeting

The Spring 2017 meeting of the Missouri Speleological Survey and the Missouri Caves and Karst Conservancy will be held on Sunday, May 21, 2017 at Onondaga Cave State Park in Leasburg, Missouri at 10 :00 AM.  

Camping

Onondaga Sate Park is allowing us to camp in a cleared area just south of the maintenance buildings.  To get to the camping area, as you enter the park from the north, make a right across the street from the ruins of the Missouri Caverns entrance to Onondaga Cave.  Drive past the two seasonal workers' cabins and through the park gate.  Go past the maintenance buildings and there is a clearing between the road and the woods.  You can camp anywhere between the woods and the road outlined on the map.  To save space for tents consider parking on the east side of the gravel lot by the maintenance buildings after setting up your spot.  Do not camp on the east side of the road.  That is towards the visitors center.  The gate at the bottom of the hill should be open to allow folks to drive to the campground for showers and restrooms.  See map below and camp inside the area shown inside the white dots.

Meeting Site

It's shaping up that the meeting site will be none other than inside of Onondaga Cave within the Missouri Caverns section which is further into the cave off of the traditional tourist trail.  This means that you will need to bring headlamps and a camp chair and will have a bit of stroll down the tourist trail through spectacular Missouri cave passage.  We'll meet Sunday morning at the Visitor's Center and likely enter into the cave as a group by 10:00 AM.  Please plan to arrive a little earlier than that in case there are last minute plan changes or other logistical issues.  We do have their pavilion reserved for us as well, if needed, but right now, the plan is to have the meeting in the cave.  The MCKC meeting may also be in the cave.  As of this writing they were still discussing the issue.  If so, there may have to be some coordinated to take folks out after the MSS meeting and bring others in for the MCKC meeting.  Likely we'll figure out the logistics that weekend.  If you're only coming down for the meeting on Sunday the safest bet will be to arrive at the Visitor's Center in the morning with a head lamp, camp chair and open mind.

 

Caving

There will no doubt be some fine opportunities to go caving on Saturday including both monitoring and survey trips.  Best to arrive Friday evening sometime if you're planning to cave on Saturday or let us know if you're planning to arrive Saturday morning so we know to plan for you.  The earlier you get there, the less likely you are to miss a trip as some trips may leave before 10 AM.  If you're arriving Saturday morning first check the camping area described above and then the Visitor's Center parking lot if you're looking to go caving.  We're working out objectives within Onondaga State Park and in the Missouri Department of Conservation's Huzzah Wildlife Area.  In both cases the caves are technically closed so we will only have access to specific, preapproved sites and it is expected that everyone follows USFW guidelines for gear decontamination to help minimize the human potential to spread WNS.  In addition approved trip leaders with an MDC permit in hand will be needed on each trip to an MDC cave.  All that said, there should be more than enough for us all to do.

 Contact us for details

 

Date: 
Saturday, January 28, 2017

Powered by www.learnthebluedrop.com
Privacy and Cookies Policy