[Texascavers] trip report fromCamp Eagle

2008-04-25 Thread Nancy Weaver


--


CAMP EAGLE CAVE QUEST

Friday April 25, 2008:

8 cavers from San Antonio and Austin area
converged on Camp Eagle about 20 miles from Rock Springs on the
headwaters of the Nueces. The 1400 acre camp has a mile of river
frontage with springs, shallow waterfalls and deep swimming and
boating stretches and caters to mountain biking, rock climbing and
challenge course events. Camp personnel were excited about finding a small
cave on the land and rumours of others and issued a Texas wide
invitation to cavers to come explore and ridge walk.

Rene Shields, Nancy Weaver, Scott and Steve Serur, Barbara
Noffsinger and JohnTirums,  Kurt Menking and Kitty Swoboda arrived
between dusk and late on Friday to set up camp under the live oaks
or crash in the spacious dormitories.

Over Saturday breakfast, which was provided by the camp, we met our host Matt,
the activities director, got maps and hiked out toward the cliffs
and the location of the rumoured caves - an entrance big enough to
walk into, but covered up with rocks 15 years ago as the ceiling
looked unstable.  With Red Arrow and Pape Caves are only a mile or so
away in a direct line, this seemed promising. We found a few small
features and one dig which several of the guys launched into, but
Matt needed to leave soon and wanted to show us the known cave, so
we headed cross country to a nice drop down entrance into a large
collapse room. Kity and Kurt volunteered to survey the
named on the spot, Eagle Cave, and the rest of us headed off to find 
more. Barely

200 yards away, contouring on game trails, Nancy spotted a nice
entrance which she and Rene popped into after hooting for the others.
Porcupine Cave, named for the enormous resident denned in an upper
passage, is likely also a large collapsed chamber. What remains is a
12 x 20 x 4 foot high room with a hands and knees crawl that goes
about 75 feet looping around the outer perimeter of the room. This
information is thanks to Barbara and Scott who pushed the crawlway.
John and Nancy were examining the very fresh, too big for a coon and
hopefully too small for a bear scat, when John shined his light into
the upper passage and discovered glittering eyes way in the back. As
the rest of us exited rapidly, speculation included: a sheep, a
rabbit, alive, dead and finally, definitively, a very large
porcupine, alive. The cave is also host to one small brown bat who
finally got fed up with our presence and fluttered off.

Thoroughly invigorated by the find we split into pairs and spent
quite a few more hours traipsing over hills and down arroyos. We
covered perhaps a third of the camp with no new finds and limped back
for hydrotherapy at the spectaular swimming section of the river. A
steep set of steps down a cliff leads to gorgeous clear cold water
with kayaks to paddle and a challenging plastic 'iceberg' with
climbing holds attached. The goal being to swim out to the iceberg,
haul oneself to the mid point or the 25 foot top and launch off the
smooth side like a walrus or penguin.

Then it was time for camp provided pasta dinner and brownies, lots of old tales
and possibly tall tales and bed under the live oaks and full moon.

Sunday's search did not find any new caves.  A few small questionable
sinks were found and dug on, and Kurt, Scott, Steve and John dug more 
on some of the features

found Saturday, but nothing they found was very promising.

Kitty and Kurt's eagle cave survey was 413' without any horizontal 
adjustments.  The

cave was mostly crawling over breakdown, much of which was popcorn
covered.  A few walking sized rooms were also surveyed.

Camp Eagle is a birders paradise: the camp grounds above the river
were in constant motion and song while male vermillion flycatchers
chased one another, blue herons were seen mating along the river,
whip poor wills, wild turkeys and owls called through the night and
innumerable sparrows and wrens, woodpeckers, swallows and swifts and
unnamed others flitted around us.

The camp staff is friendly, knowledgable and hospitable and a return
trip is planned for the end of summer camp season.

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RE: [Texascavers] trip report fromCamp Eagle

2008-04-25 Thread mark . alman
Great report, Nancy!
 
Do you or any of your cohorts have pix from this trip?
 
 
Thanks,
 
Mark
 
 



From: Nancy Weaver [mailto:nan...@io.com]
Sent: Fri 4/25/2008 8:12 AM
To: Texascavers@texascavers.com
Subject: [Texascavers] trip report fromCamp Eagle




--


CAMP EAGLE CAVE QUEST

Friday April 25, 2008:

8 cavers from San Antonio and Austin area
converged on Camp Eagle about 20 miles from Rock Springs on the
headwaters of the Nueces. The 1400 acre camp has a mile of river
frontage with springs, shallow waterfalls and deep swimming and
boating stretches and caters to mountain biking, rock climbing and
challenge course events. Camp personnel were excited about finding a small
cave on the land and rumours of others and issued a Texas wide
invitation to cavers to come explore and ridge walk.

Rene Shields, Nancy Weaver, Scott and Steve Serur, Barbara
Noffsinger and JohnTirums,  Kurt Menking and Kitty Swoboda arrived
between dusk and late on Friday to set up camp under the live oaks
or crash in the spacious dormitories.

Over Saturday breakfast, which was provided by the camp, we met our host Matt,
the activities director, got maps and hiked out toward the cliffs
and the location of the rumoured caves - an entrance big enough to
walk into, but covered up with rocks 15 years ago as the ceiling
looked unstable.  With Red Arrow and Pape Caves are only a mile or so
away in a direct line, this seemed promising. We found a few small
features and one dig which several of the guys launched into, but
Matt needed to leave soon and wanted to show us the known cave, so
we headed cross country to a nice drop down entrance into a large
collapse room. Kity and Kurt volunteered to survey the
named on the spot, Eagle Cave, and the rest of us headed off to find
more. Barely
200 yards away, contouring on game trails, Nancy spotted a nice
entrance which she and Rene popped into after hooting for the others.
Porcupine Cave, named for the enormous resident denned in an upper
passage, is likely also a large collapsed chamber. What remains is a
12 x 20 x 4 foot high room with a hands and knees crawl that goes
about 75 feet looping around the outer perimeter of the room. This
information is thanks to Barbara and Scott who pushed the crawlway.
John and Nancy were examining the very fresh, too big for a coon and
hopefully too small for a bear scat, when John shined his light into
the upper passage and discovered glittering eyes way in the back. As
the rest of us exited rapidly, speculation included: a sheep, a
rabbit, alive, dead and finally, definitively, a very large
porcupine, alive. The cave is also host to one small brown bat who
finally got fed up with our presence and fluttered off.

Thoroughly invigorated by the find we split into pairs and spent
quite a few more hours traipsing over hills and down arroyos. We
covered perhaps a third of the camp with no new finds and limped back
for hydrotherapy at the spectaular swimming section of the river. A
steep set of steps down a cliff leads to gorgeous clear cold water
with kayaks to paddle and a challenging plastic 'iceberg' with
climbing holds attached. The goal being to swim out to the iceberg,
haul oneself to the mid point or the 25 foot top and launch off the
smooth side like a walrus or penguin.

Then it was time for camp provided pasta dinner and brownies, lots of old tales
and possibly tall tales and bed under the live oaks and full moon.

Sunday's search did not find any new caves.  A few small questionable
sinks were found and dug on, and Kurt, Scott, Steve and John dug more
on some of the features
found Saturday, but nothing they found was very promising.

Kitty and Kurt's eagle cave survey was 413' without any horizontal
adjustments.  The
cave was mostly crawling over breakdown, much of which was popcorn
covered.  A few walking sized rooms were also surveyed.

Camp Eagle is a birders paradise: the camp grounds above the river
were in constant motion and song while male vermillion flycatchers
chased one another, blue herons were seen mating along the river,
whip poor wills, wild turkeys and owls called through the night and
innumerable sparrows and wrens, woodpeckers, swallows and swifts and
unnamed others flitted around us.

The camp staff is friendly, knowledgable and hospitable and a return
trip is planned for the end of summer camp season.

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[ot_caving] cool arcade caving game

2008-04-25 Thread David
Cave-jumper - the video game



http://www.metacafe.com/watch/386018/cave_jumper_retro_platform_game/

or same thing at:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/cave-jumper-retro-platform-game/2369713709



It cost $ 18 to download at:

http://www.discount-softwares.com/soft/Games/Arcade_Game/27087_cave_jumper.htm

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[ot_caving] more web-videos about caves

2008-04-25 Thread David
Here is another site ( similar to YouTube ) that has a few web photos
about cave topics.


 
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/416425/pestera_ursilor_bears_cave_from_romania/

 http://www.metacafe.com/watch/321279/mammoth_caves/

Check out this video-cartoon.

   http://www.metacafe.com/watch/445421/linerider_cave/

I think that deserves an award for creativity, although it sends a message
that caves are places for stunt people to do tricks.

I only took a glimpse at the service that MetaCafe is offering.
At first glance,
it seems better than LiveVideo and YouTube.   But don't take my word for it,
check them out for yourself.

All of the cave videos will need to be on one-site someday and categorized
based on their importance to speleo-webography or whatever the term is.

David

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[ot_caving] Bay Leaves

2008-04-25 Thread Don Cooper
Dear friend and neighbor claims Bay Leaves are from the Olive Tree -
True or Not?
-WaV


RE: [ot_caving] Bay Leaves

2008-04-25 Thread RD Milhollin
No, a type of laurel, a bush (with a small case B)

 

  _  

From: Don Cooper [mailto:wavyca...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 8:20 AM
To: OT Texas Cavers
Subject: [ot_caving] Bay Leaves

 

Dear friend and neighbor claims Bay Leaves are from the Olive Tree - 
True or Not?
-WaV



RE: [ot_caving] Bay Leaves

2008-04-25 Thread Louise Power

Bay leaves are from plants of the laurel family:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_leaf


List-Post: texascavers@texascavers.com
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:20:09 -0500From: wavycaver@gmail.comTo: 
ot@texascavers.comSubject: [ot_caving] Bay LeavesDear friend and neighbor 
claims Bay Leaves are from the Olive Tree - True or Not?-WaV

[Texascavers] caving in Chihuahua?

2008-04-25 Thread Mixon Bill
El Municipio de Chihuahua, conjuntamente con la Universidad autonoma  
de Chihuahua, deseamos iniciar la segunda etapa de exploracion de las  
grutas de Nombre de Dios que, al parecer, son mucho mas extensas que  
lo que se conoce actualmente.
Estamos en la etapa de identificacion de grupos que puedan realizar  
una propuesta profesional para llevar a cabo esta exploracion.

En caso de interesarse, comunicarse con un servidor.

Elias A. Saad
Director de planeaciĆ²pn y EvaluaciĆ²n
Municipio de Chihuahua
elias.s...@mpiochih.gob.mx

[The agencies mentioned wish to undertake a second phase of  
exploration in Cueva de Nombre de Dios, which they think may be much  
more extensive than previously known. They would like to hear from  
groups who would like to provide professional help. Contact...]


According to Mexico News in AMCS Activities Newsletter 25 (2002),  
the city of Chihuahua opened that cave to the public. Exploration and  
survey at that time gave a length of 2 km and a depth of 95 meters. --  
Bill Mixon

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Re: [campfire] Digest version?

2008-04-25 Thread Charles Goldsmith
Annmarie, Don's idea does work, and has merit.  However, the easy way
to get the digest version is to send 2 empty emails:
campfire-unsubscr...@texascavers.com and then to
campfire-digest-subscr...@texascavers.com

Then you'll only get 1 email a day.

Charles


On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Annmarie Mikelski caveran...@yahoo.com wrote:
 Is there any way I can get on a digest version of this list?  It's turning
 into too many emails in my in box and I already get a bazillion emails as it
 is.

 Thanks, coz if not, then I will have to unsub from the list.  I can't keep
 up.

 AM

 Annmarie Mikelski
 Coastal WGSDRR
 www.coastalwgsdrr.org

 Support Rescue:
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