October Government Canyon Karst Project Report
*October 4, 2014* *Participants:* Bernadette Flehmer, Joe Schaertl, Casey Tucker The lone Saturday morning team was Joe, Casey, and Bernadette. It was Bernadette’s first time on the project. The team’s goal was to continue ridgewalking Area 20 in the NW corner of the SNA During the course of the day they found three features and a likely cave. The entrance to the approximately 3 m deep pit is 1 m x ½ m that narrows to just body-sized before belling out again. A rock is chocked in the narrow part and will need to be removed before the pit can be entered. Joe reported that a flow of air was coming from the entrance. *October 5, 2014* *Participants:* Crystal Martinez, Leah Miller, Marvin Miller, Tom Rogers, Casey Tucker Crystal, Leah, Tom, Casey, and I went to finish the survey of Big Dome Cave. This was Crystal’s first time on the project. I gave Tom a hammer, chisel, and crowbar and set him to work on a downward dig lead plugged with rocks at station A2. The crawl at A2 was also one of our survey objectives. First, however, we went to survey the small room at DD4 and check out the ceiling lead there. The ceiling lead went nowhere but at the top of the slope in the room a .4-m diameter hole dropped at least 2 m. Some rocks needed to be cleared from the top of the hole, so when Tom didn’t get anywhere with his first lead, I set him to this one. At the bottom he found continuing narrow fissure passage that, after a tight meter or two, opened into a standing room 3 m long by 1 m wide. There was nothing passable after that. The survey team tied the DD survey into the A survey and then surveyed 9.92 m from A2 to where the crawl got too tight. We also tied this survey into DD3 via the pass-through dug open by George, Lasha, and me on the previous trip. We ran out of time to survey the little bit of passage that Tom found. The survey length now stands at 357.81 m. This is the first trip to the cave that I didn’t feel good airflow. The next trip will be on Nov. 2, Sunday only. We meet at 9:00 in the parking lot of the Volunteer/Research Station. Enter the park at the main gate and then take the first right. Go through the unlocked gate and drive about a mile to the VRS. The parking lot is on the right. Camping is available. Contact me for more info. Marvin Miller (210) 415-5190
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