Saturday Evening

8:30am, 9:30am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 12:30pm: Geocaching Trail Coordinates Available at Registration Desk in the Lobby.

4:00pm - 8:00pm: All You Can Eat Dinner Buffet in Lodge Restaurant ($)
After a full day of caving, what would be better than filling the belly with some HOT GRUB. The Chef does not do much caving, but feels for the ones that do. Terry has been in the kitchen all day working you up a meal you can consider a feast. The Lodge Dining Room is the place to satisfy a caver's hearty appetite. ALL YOU CAN EAT!

8:30pm: Keynote Speaker - Roger Brucker "Grand, Gloomy, And Peculiar; Stephen Bishop At Mammoth Cave."

Roger W. Brucker: A Little Peculiar, but Hardly Gloomy

Roger Brucker has been exploring caves and writing books about them for more than 50 years. He is the co-author of The Caves Beyond, The Longest Cave, Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins, and Beyond Mammoth Cave: A Tale of Obsession in the World’s Longest Cave. Through his writings, he has inspired generations of new cave explorers and promoted an appreciation of caves to millions of readers around the world.

Brucker’s newest book, not yet published, is Grand, Gloomy, and Peculiar: Stephen Bishop at Mammoth Cave. This historical novel tells the story of Stephen Bishop, the famous slave-guide at Mammoth Cave from 1838 until 1857, who was responsible for many important discoveries and helped to popularize the cave as a tourist attraction.

Other books and stories have been written about Stephen Bishop, but Brucker believes that non-caving authors cannot understand what drives someone like Stephen and the explorers who came after him.

“What’s missing is capturing the passion and obsession of the caver of Stephen himself,” Brucker says. “The result has been tepid stories of a ‘nice boy,’ full of respect and obedience for his masters, but overlooking what really motivated him. I have written about Stephen using all the factual information that exists, but adding to it with details and events that round out his character.”

Brucker is a co-founder and past president of the Cave Research Foundation, an Honorary Life Fellow of the National Speleological Society, and winner of the NSS 2004 Peter M. Hauer Spelean History Award. He is a co-founder of Karst Environmental Education and Protection, and recently helped organize Eight Rivers Safe Development, Inc., a cave preservation organization in West Virginia. Brucker is also a member of the board of the Dayton Underground Grotto. He and his wife, Lynn, go caving and also long distance bicycle travel. They make their home with four Standard Poodles in Beavercreek, Ohio.

More information is available at www.RogerBrucker.com.
.

This is the True Test of Will, Guts, and Stupidity. The preliminary rounds held throughout the day have determined the top four male and female finalist in each weight class. Tonight the Adult Squeezebox finalist will be front and center with a crowd of cavers to cheer them through the agony and pain it takes to become a squeezebox champion. The finalist will compete for the title and a years worth of bragging rights. A prize and a certificate will be awarded to the champion of each weight class. The champion will also sign the squeezebox itself for future contenders to view. A certificate will be given to all the finalist that is present and competes in the final competition.