Government Canyon Karst Project Report
April 2 & 3, 2016 Participants: Lauren DeLeon, Steve Gutting, Leia Hill, Leah Miller, Marvin Miller, Greg Mosier, Victoria Sommers, Arron Wertheim Saturday Activities Greg Mosier, my daughter Leah, and I composed the Saturday team. We headed up to the northern part of the SNA to the sink that Greg had identified on the March trip and had opened to an obstruction over a pit. The feature is called JAG Sink. We worked on it until all of my rock-shaving supplies were used up, but we still hadn't cleared the bridge of rock over the pit. There are two small holes that look down into the pit and what can be seen is free-climbable. Some more work is required. We left JAG Sink at about 4:00 and took a little time to look at several of the other nearby identified features. On the March trip Greg had looked at FC-009, -010, and -011. Of these, FC-010 could probably use a little more digging before calling it done. Sunday Activities On Sunday Lauren, Steve, Leia, Victoria, Arron, and I headed north again, this time to Feature 20-54. This feature is about 56 meters north of JAG Sink and is a dig that Steve and I had worked during the March trip. Steve had assembled a rock-shaving kit of his own and was anxious to try it out. His first shot was a blast and we heard rock tinkling down into the hole - the sound of success. Leia and I left him and the others to keep working at it while we went to check out some other identified features in the area. We dug a little at FC-003 but didn't see anything that excited us and gave it up. While travelling to FC-015 we came across the nearby FC-014, which I didn't even have on my list to look at. Both sinks looked promising. At FC-015 we felt a nice breeze coming out of a little hole. We rolled aside a large surface rock but the dig quickly revealed an 8 cm wide crack extending down as far as we could see. By the time we had finished we didn't feel any more air either, so maybe our first sense had been an illusion. We left that sink and went back to FC-014. This sink was approximately 2 m long by 1 m wide by .3 m deep. There was a possible drain at each end. Leia took one end and I took the other and we both started digging. It wasn't long before Leia's dig started looking more promising than mine and I went to help her. We were stopped by a root that was holding in a large rock. We went back to FC 20-54 to see how the work there was progressing and to get a saw for the root. When we got there Victoria and Arron were in the cave! Steve had been the first one down and had already come out. The cave turned out to be a free-climbable pit that starts narrow at about a half-meter wide (after the smaller, blasted entrance) and bells out to about 1.5 m at the bottom. The depth to the floor is about 5 m. A short section of passage extends only about 2 m from the bottom. The floor is flat dirt and the ceiling in the passage section is about a meter tall. Some signs of life were observed: a cliff chirping frog and a spider web. Steve named the cave Double Shot Drop. Cave # 61 for Government Canyon. After everyone had exited the cave we packed up and I led the way to the dig Leia and I had started. We continued digging and by the end of the day had it about a meter deep. The dig is characterized by large loose boulders interspersed with smaller rocks and loose dirt. Lauren was the last one digging and she uncovered a small solution passage trending steeply down along one wall. The passage is too small to get into as of yet, but the walls of the sink are starting to bell out and we seem to be on top of a debris pile. While the dig was going on I took the drill, a couple of benchmarks, and the die kit and installed benchmarks at Government Canyon Blow Hole and Lilyhammer Cave. The numbers incised onto the benchmarks are the TSS Bexar County identification numbers for the caves. We left the sink dig at about 5:00. The next project weekend is May 21 & 22. This will be the last one until October. We start at 9:00 both mornings in the parking lot of the Volunteer/Research Station. To get there enter Government Canyon State Natural Area at the main gate and then take the first right. (Don't go as far as the pay kiosk). There will be a closed gate that opens to the code 1234. Follow the road for about a mile till it ends in front of a building. The parking lot is to the right. Camping is available. Contact me to set it up. Marvin Miller (210) 415-5190
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