November/December Government Canyon Karst Project Report November 7, 2015 Participants: Niki Lake, Marvin Miller, Joe Schaertl Only Joe and Niki joined the project for what threatened to be a rainy day. The ground was very wet from rains in the preceding days so the trails were closed. I asked Niki, who is the Resource Specialist at Government Canyon SNA, about the new pit that had been found on the Gallagher tract, on the west side of Hwy 211. It had actually been found several years previous by a bird survey team but the property did not fully transfer from the City of San Antonio to Texas Parks until recently.
The pit was named Loca Guera Pit by the team that discovered it. Niki had only a location marked on a small topo on a poor scan of a Zara Environmental report. Sometime after the pit's discovery Zara did a karst invertebrate survey over some of the ridgetops on the tract and they had noted the cave. The report Niki had did not contain the appendix with the GPS coordinates. Using the poor topo image and Niki's memory we set out trying to find the pit. We did one sweep up the ridge that it was supposed to be on without finding it. We regrouped and changed our strategy. In our trek to the point we were going to start our next sweep we came across a marked karst feature. The tag was numbered PR-10. This made us happy because PR-10 was also located on the topo and the topo had a scale bar. We calculated a heading and a distance to the pit and started walking - and walked right to it. Niki had to leave to attend to other duties so Joe and I rigged the pit, a 7.6 m drop, and surveyed it. Sadly, there was no ongoing passage at the bottom. The entrance is roughly diamond-shaped and about 2.5 meters across. >From the pit bottom the floor descended a slight scree slope and then went flat to the back wall. We surveyed a total length of 15.72 m and 8.61 m deep. When Joe touched down after rappelling first he noticed a diamond-backed rattlesnake on the floor. The floor was wide enough that we could skirt around it. It never made any indication that it was disturbed by us. The cave floor has had significant infilling. Large stalagmites along the back wall penetrate the floor. There are also two sets of initials inscribed on the back wall. The lower initials look more weathered than the top, dated set, and, surprisingly, are located only about .3 m above the floor level. Is it possible that sometime before 1957 (the date with the upper set) the floor level was quite a bit lower? Discussions with George Veni suggest that significant surface erosion of top soils has occured since the beginning of ranch activities in the late 1800's/early 1900's. After surveying the cave we headed back to PR-10 and dug on it for a couple of hours. At first it looked very promising but by the time we finished we were digging down the floor of the sink, hoping to find an open space. The soil and rocks are still loose and the dig should be continued. December 5 & 6, 2015 Participants: Jorge Carcamo, Lauren DeLeon, Mike Gibbons, Sarah Gorton, Niki Lake, Marvin Miller, Shauna Mohler, Mary Moore, James Morrow, Donnie Roland, Victoria Sommers, Aarron Wertheim Saturday Activities Donnie Roland was in attendance on Saturday morning and was keen to go looking for a cave that he knew lay close to Horseshoe Canyon Cave. Both caves were found by Donnie in 1995. Horseshoe Canyon Cave is in one of the private property inholdings on the northeast side of the SNA, but from Donnie's description the new cave might be located on SNA property. Donnie was also interested in finding a spring cave in the same area, but probably on SNA property, that he had seen in the same 1995 timeframe. He had led teams to look for this cave twice before, without success. With the recent transfer of properties to the SNA there were more places that were open for searching. Other attendees Saturday morning were Jorge, Lauren, Niki, Victoria, Aarron, and I. We made one large team and went looking for the caves. Donnie said the cave close to Horseshoe Canyon Cave was called 9 Meter Cave. I had coordinates from the TSS database for Horseshoe Canyon Cave so we set out to go there first and, from there, find Donnie's cave. On our traverse to the coordinates we came across a cave and Donnie pronounced that it was the sought-after 9 Meter Cave. The cave has a low sloping entrance in a sinkhole but then opens immediately to a 1.3-m-tall dome with a sky light. Another dome follows that one to the end of the cave. On a flowstone shelf at the end of the cave a too-small tube continues onward. The cave taped out at 5.90 meters, so the 9 Meter name was a hopeful guess. After inputting the coordinates of the cave into the TSS GIS database, WallsMap, I saw that the location is within the inholding, and thus is not a Government Canyon cave. However, this property may be transferred to the SNA in the future. After this we decided to continue to nearby Horseshoe Canyon Cave just to have a look at it. We followed the GPS down the horribly brushy canyon side and were rewarded with nothing. The TSS coordinates were obviously wrong. We made a plan to retreat to the ridgetop and then follow our further objectives. On the ridgetop we stopped to eat and Donnie started walking around, following his own memory as to where Horseshoe Canyon Cave should be located. He found it about 100m from where we were sitting. We corrected the GPS coordinates for the cave. >From there we went in search of the elusive spring cave. We didn't find it but Niki did find another little cave. A low crawl enters at an angle at the base of a cliff. The crawl is .3 m tall throughout the cave. The passage is just short of a meter wide to about 3 m where it widens into a "room". A too-small passage exits the far side of the room. The floor was very wet, probably due to recent rains, and was covered with a layer and piles of porcupine scat, which made for a very messy exploration. Victoria ventured in first but decided it wasn't worth a casual look. Of course, being the sketcher, I actually had to crawl through the mess. We tossed around several possible names for the cave including "Goopy Cave", "Don't Follow Donnie" and "Donnie's Folly". Niki said, "Don't Folly Donnie", and we all laughed, so that stuck as the name: Don't Folly Donny Cave. The location of the cave was close to the fence line that runs southwest from Old Squeaky Windmill. We hiked in the direction of the windmill, following the fence line. We went over the ridge and came down into the next canyon bottom, the canyon that contains Tight Cave and Creek Bank Cave. I was interested in checking out the canyon headwall for the elusive spring cave, since, topologically, it looks similar to the one where Donnie had us looking for it earlier. Except for Jorge, the rest of the team was tired of struggling with the thick brush and thorny bushes. So Jorge and I headed upstream while everyone else continued in the direction of the ranch road and the cars. While Jorge and I were searching the cliff bands of the headwall I came upon another low crawly cave. This one was also very muddy, with real mud, though it looked trampled by small hooves - javelinas? A .3 m high crawl enters at the base of a cliff face. After 1 m the entrance passage tees into a passage that goes left and right. To the left it looks too small to follow. To the right the passage continues as a crawl with a 1-m-wide, almost rectangular cross-section. After about 4 m the passage enters a low room to the right. A too-small passage exits this room and probably intersects the cliff face again. We did not survey the cave but I did a quick sketch, recorded the GPS location, and hung a flag and a tag in a tree. I also named it: Foot Tall Mud Crawl Cave. Sunday Activities On Sunday I was joined by a group of mostly first-timers. Only Sarah Gorton had any caving experience. But Mike Gibbons, Shauna Mohler, Mary Moore, and James Morrow were very interested in having that experience. We were able to borrow one of the SNA utility vehicles to carry the extra bodies, along with my 4Runner, and we all set up the trail to Big Dome Cave. I took the drill and micro-blasting toolkit along. The goal would be to start enlarging the passage at the southwest corner of the cave. The passage exits from a small room and extends to a corner about 2 m away. It is only 10 - 20 cm wide for the first half of that distance, but more than a meter tall. Some airflow has been noted from the passage and it appears to be phreatic. We got to the cave just about lunch time but everyone liked the idea of eating in the cave so we entered and made our way to the Break-Away Room. After lunch, I pointed out passages to Big Dome and to the formations in the first part of Velvet Underground. There are many holes to poke into in that part of the cave and Mike found a lead that we need to look into in the future. Meanwhile, James and I scooted into the little room and got to work on the target lead. Others who helped specifically in hammering or in assisting with the dig were Sarah and Shauna. We set off 4 charges. One was ineffective due to a pocket in the rock. In the end we removed enough rock that I was able to cram myself up into the passage and see around the corner. If it had looked promising I could probably have continued. Instead, disappointedly, after another 2 meters the passage was completely walled off except for a small hole at floor level - .3 m tall by .15 wide. This may just be an alcove because another wall is visible just 10 or 20 cm on. The walls of the passage could not be seen merging with the end wall, so a cross passage is not ruled out. A skinny person will be sent to investigate on a future trip. We left the cave at about 4:00. Everyone enjoyed themselves. The next trip to Government Canyon will take place on January 2nd and 3rd. Contact Marvin Miller for more details or check the TSA calendar on the TSA website. Marvin Miller
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