RE: [Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas
I feel I need to add my bit to the story of the upstream push that Hal Lloyd and I did in Powell's. My version is a little different from Pete's -- the difference being in what I saw in the cave and what we were each told by the Ft. Worth caver. The survey gear was being carried by that caver, who told me and Hal about 20 minutes up the passage that the extra pack with the gear got left behind somewhere in the cave. He guessed it probably floated off down the passage, and so he didn't notice it was gone when he just grabbed his regular pack. Hal and I waited a long time for him to return, we even took a long nap and woke up pretty cold. He shouldn't have been gone more than 45 minutes, and we waited at least an hour. We needed to start moving to get warm and decided to scout out upstream. Just the same, we traveled pretty slowly at first to give the other caver plenty of time to catch up. If he was returning to us, he couldn't be far behind and could have easily catch up. We never saw him until we got out of the cave. I was pretty bummed when we got to the end of survey because we couldn't continue the survey. I was also bummed to reach the terminal breakdown and not see a way on, although it was nice to see some leads in the area to push in the future. After we left the cave and spoke to the Ft. Worth caver, he said he found the pack way far down the passage and although he did return part way upstream to rejoin us, he decided it was too long a slog and headed out. Like Pete, I was hoping to return to survey this section of the cave but it never worked out (but got done by others years later), mostly because I was focused on finding someone to help me finish the survey between the sumps connecting Powell's and Neel's. There were at least three times when I arrived at Powell's ready to make that dive, only to find my dive partner didn't arrive or didn't arrive prepared to dive. It still remains unsurveyed. Damn. By the way, the 21-hour trip that Randy Waters and I made that connected the caves, with no sherpas, each of us carrying a scuba tank, a pack with regulators and dive gear, and an ammo box with caving gear, during which we added about 400 m survey while establishing the connection and through-trip, probably qualifies for the hard list. Randy and I were fond of saying, We went in one month, and we came out the next month (31 July to 1 August 1982). George -Original Message- From: Pete Lindsley [mailto:linds...@raytheon.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 5:04 PM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Cc: speleoste...@tx.rr.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas Bill, here's some Powell's Cave history: Dave McKenzie was the first to push upstream Powell's in the 60's. Then I went on several trips both up and downstream. The lack of wet suits was not a big factor at first. Each team pushing upstream surveyed about 1000-1200 feet per trip, so it got harder and harder. My team put in the last station at the end of the 100 foot long gun barrel passage and the walking cave continued. However we were following the map as you explore concept. At that time it was a long hard trip, perhaps 12-14 hours or so. We quit the survey in the cave because the whole Texas region was just burned out on the cave. I couldn't find anyone to go back upstream with me to continue the survey. I was also there on that next trip in the 70's. The teams were assigned and four went upstream to continue the survey. About a quarter mile in, the Ft. Worth caver realized he had left either the tape or compass in camp and decided to go back and get it. I believe two left for the entrance and George and Hal (who had slept in the Ft. Worth car all the way down to the cave the night before) promised to wait. The two exited ASAP, retrieved the missing equipment, and hauled back to the meeting place and beyond. George and Hal were long gone, apparently hot to scoop the passage that the previous teams were surveying as they explored. The two left the cave, exhausted from their speedy back-track, their trip ruined. The real heroes here are the next couple of teams that went back and did the survey that the scooper's left. Perhaps George and the others that ran the survey line to the breakdown can fill us in on more details. In hindsight the upstream Powell's trips put me in a good mental condition to push the longest cave later in Kentucky when we were surveying Hawkins River. Those were 26 hour trips and required a wet suit carry through a 3/4 mile crawl, then down 160 feet of pits, then an upstream swim in deep water, and then miles of river passage. Great fun! - Pete speleoste...@tx.rr.com wrote: Here's another hard Texas caving trop to throw out there: the end of the upstream passage in Powell's Cave. If I remember the story correctly, the beginning of that passage had been explored and mapped by Texas cavers in the 60s, but they didn't have wetsuits back then, so
[Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas
It will probably now be argued whether or not a tank haul trip to the back of Honey Creek Cave is the hardest caving trip in the state of Texas. However, I’ve been an active caver in Texas for 30 years, and it’s the hardest trip I’ve taken in the Lone Star State, and I've done several. Last Saturday, May 19, ten cavers carried a share each of the cave diving gear from the shaft entrance of Honey Creek Cave to the upstream sump, an in-cave distance of about three miles. The ten were James Brown (McKinney), who did the dive, Ed Goff (Dallas), Roy “Puppy” Lewis (Houston), Diana Tomchick (Irving), Don Morley (San Antonio), Daniel Dase (Ft. Worth), Michael Cicherski (Boerne), Mark Gee (Dallas), Edwin Lehr (Krum), and me (Irving). We entered the cave at 10:45 a.m. and waded upstream. We reached the sump around 5:00 p.m. Our objective was for James to follow the dive line laid in the upstream sump by John Schweyan in two dives he did in 1989 and 1990. Schweyan surveyed 1,168 feet into the sump and it still goes the same. James Brown’s dive was an hour and 45 minutes long. He came to two places that the dive line was broken, so he patched it. When he got a foot cramp he turned around, still about 270 short of the end of the line. His visibility was about 30 feet going in and 20 feet coming out. The water was about a foot higher than when some of us had visited there last October, planning this effort. The trip out was smooth, though very long. Times spent on the trip varied by three hours between the first to reach the shaft entrance and the last two: 16 hours to 19 hours. A special thank you goes out to Don Broussard (Driftwood) and Kurt Menking (San Antonio). They manned the surface and operated the tractor to lower and raise us in the shaft entrance. They were up all night, keeping a camp fire blazing. Of special note was Daniel Dase, the new Maverick Grotto chairman. He's a new caver, but already he's a grotto chairman and a veteran of the hardest caving trip in Texas. We plan to return to the sump for James to push farther upstream in the fall. Bill Steele - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas
Hey, good summary, Bill! This was a hard trip. Maybe James's trip was the hardest in Texas since 1990--and after coming out and sleeping for 3 hours, he did a marathon drive to Zacaton. For the rest of us, it could be the hardest trip with a four-hour nap in the middle. ;) I think I remember being more exhausted after a push trip past the Mile Long Crawl. I still haven't ever done the through trip--maybe that's harder. Let's hear from other people about their hardest caving trip in Texas. I bet there are some good stories out there. Ed It will probably now be argued whether or not a tank haul trip to the back of Honey Creek Cave is the hardest caving trip in the state of Texas. However, Iâve been an active caver in Texas for 30 years, and itâs the hardest trip Iâve taken in the Lone Star State, and I've done several. Last Saturday, May 19, ten cavers carried a share each of the cave diving gear from the shaft entrance of Honey Creek Cave to the upstream sump, an in-cave distance of about three miles. The ten were James Brown (McKinney), who did the dive, Ed Goff (Dallas), Roy âPuppyâ Lewis (Houston), Diana Tomchick (Irving), Don Morley (San Antonio), Daniel Dase (Ft. Worth), Michael Cicherski (Boerne), Mark Gee (Dallas), Edwin Lehr (Krum), and me (Irving). We entered the cave at 10:45 a.m. and waded upstream. We reached the sump around 5:00 p.m. Our objective was for James to follow the dive line laid in the upstream sump by John Schweyan in two dives he did in 1989 and 1990. Schweyan surveyed 1,168 feet into the sump and it still goes the same. James Brownâs dive was an hour and 45 minutes long. He came to two places that the dive line was broken, so he patched it. When he got a foot cramp he turned around, still about 270 short of the end of the line. His visibility was about 30 feet going in and 20 feet coming out. The water was about a foot higher than when some of us had visited there last October, planning this effort. The trip out was smooth, though very long. Times spent on the trip varied by three hours between the first to reach the shaft entrance and the last two: 16 hours to 19 hours. A special thank you goes out to Don Broussard (Driftwood) and Kurt Menking (San Antonio). They manned the surface and operated the tractor to lower and raise us in the shaft entrance. They were up all night, keeping a camp fire blazing. Of special note was Daniel Dase, the new Maverick Grotto chairman. He's a new caver, but already he's a grotto chairman and a veteran of the hardest caving trip in Texas. We plan to return to the sump for James to push farther upstream in the fall. Bill Steele - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas
Here's another hard Texas caving trop to throw out there: the end of the upstream passage in Powell's Cave. If I remember the story correctly, the beginning of that passage had been explored and mapped by Texas cavers in the 60s, but they didn't have wetsuits back then, so they reached their limit pretty soon with a big passage going off into the darkness. Then, in the late 70s, none other than George Veni and the irreverent Hal Lloyd did a push of upstream Powell's Cave. In their wetsuits they swam, waded, crawled, and slogged in mud for many hours until that hit breakdown. I don't remember how long their trip was, but it was real long, probably in the 20 hour range, and the story goes that they were so beaten down by the trip that everyone was afraid of that passage for many years. Eventually it was pushed hard and quite a few trips went out there. During the time of those trips to the end of the stream passage in Powell's Cave, I brought Michael Cicherski into caving. His first caving trip was to the end of the stream passage in Powell's. So was his second. To him it was the norm. When he came out to Powell's Cave for his third trip, he was standing around the campfire on Friday night, and a couple of fairly new cavers asked him how much caving he'd done. He said that this was only his third caving trip. Where are you going tomorrow, they asked. Upstream, was his reply. Up the stream passage? they asked, looking at other in amazement. Do you have any idea what you're doing, they asked. I should, said Michael, that's the only place I've ever been caving. With who?, they asked. With Bill Steele and Mark Minton, why? The two cavers wandered off to their tents, leaving Michael to ask Minton and me what that was all about. It was then that we explained that his introduction to caving had been much different than most people's. Bill - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] The Hardest Caving Trip in Texas
Bill, here's some Powell's Cave history: Dave McKenzie was the first to push upstream Powell's in the 60's. Then I went on several trips both up and downstream. The lack of wet suits was not a big factor at first. Each team pushing upstream surveyed about 1000-1200 feet per trip, so it got harder and harder. My team put in the last station at the end of the 100 foot long gun barrel passage and the walking cave continued. However we were following the map as you explore concept. At that time it was a long hard trip, perhaps 12-14 hours or so. We quit the survey in the cave because the whole Texas region was just burned out on the cave. I couldn't find anyone to go back upstream with me to continue the survey. I was also there on that next trip in the 70's. The teams were assigned and four went upstream to continue the survey. About a quarter mile in, the Ft. Worth caver realized he had left either the tape or compass in camp and decided to go back and get it. I believe two left for the entrance and George and Hal (who had slept in the Ft. Worth car all the way down to the cave the night before) promised to wait. The two exited ASAP, retrieved the missing equipment, and hauled back to the meeting place and beyond. George and Hal were long gone, apparently hot to scoop the passage that the previous teams were surveying as they explored. The two left the cave, exhausted from their speedy back-track, their trip ruined. The real heroes here are the next couple of teams that went back and did the survey that the scooper's left. Perhaps George and the others that ran the survey line to the breakdown can fill us in on more details. In hindsight the upstream Powell's trips put me in a good mental condition to push the longest cave later in Kentucky when we were surveying Hawkins River. Those were 26 hour trips and required a wet suit carry through a 3/4 mile crawl, then down 160 feet of pits, then an upstream swim in deep water, and then miles of river passage. Great fun! - Pete speleoste...@tx.rr.com wrote: Here's another hard Texas caving trop to throw out there: the end of the upstream passage in Powell's Cave. If I remember the story correctly, the beginning of that passage had been explored and mapped by Texas cavers in the 60s, but they didn't have wetsuits back then, so they reached their limit pretty soon with a big passage going off into the darkness. Then, in the late 70s, none other than George Veni and the irreverent Hal Lloyd did a push of upstream Powell's Cave. In their wetsuits they swam, waded, crawled, and slogged in mud for many hours until that hit breakdown. I don't remember how long their trip was, but it was real long, probably in the 20 hour range, and the story goes that they were so beaten down by the trip that everyone was afraid of that passage for many years. Eventually it was pushed hard and quite a few trips went out there. ...snip... Bill - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
