(For the first part of this story see the post dated 7/4/22). On Saturday four cavers returned to Cascade Sink to continue the resurvey of the cave. John Young rigged the pit and then rapelled. The time was approximately 9:30. He announced from the bottom that the young rattlesnake was still in attendance. Adam Daw went down, then Gerry Geletzke, with Marvin Miller bringing up the rear. At the bottom Marvin noticed that the other three had gone on through the low entrance passage with their gear on. He decided to take his off there at the bottom of the pit as had been his custom on previous trips. He hung his gear on a wall projection above the small, muddy ramp poking out of the water at one end, and then followed the rest of the team on into the cave.
In about half an hour they were at Station D23, the end point on the previous trip. The station was set at the start of a dam of stream cobbles and gravel that rose out of the water and held back the pool on the upstream side. On the downstream side the passage sloped down into a lower pool and turned a corner to the southwest. The pool was small and they were soon traversing a narrow bedrock-floored channel. Some small rimstone dams from an ancient flowpath were holding only gravel now and then a narrow side passage entered. The corroded flowstone showed that it was the ancient source of the water. "Lead for skinny person" was noted on the survey sketch. More potholes and gravel and a few meters further on, a drop down into a small pool. At the far end of the pool the passage changed character into a belly crawl on a bedrock slab. This was soon alleviated by a ceiling channel. The passage then sloped into another pool followed by another bedrock crawl. In bedrock slab areas Marvin noticed an interesting phenomena. Single web-like strands hanging from the ceiling that he had assumed to be spider-made, each appeared to be anchored to the ceiling by a small white protuberance. Upon closer inspection this white object was seen to actually be a creature that resembled a millipede. The creatures were immobile and many, but not all, had the strands hanging from their position. Small droplets of condensation or some other liquid clung to the strands. It reminded him of the habits of the glowworms of Waitomo Caves in New Zealand. Photos were taken and the survey resumed. Exploration by John and Adam showed that a passage to the left would loop around and connect to the route straight ahead through the belly crawl. The choice was made to survey the passage to the left first. A short crawl led to an interesting slope of softball sized smooth, white cobbles. The passage then became a tall, narrow fissure and headed down-slope to connect with the route across the belly crawl in another shallow pool. The fissure continued straight ahead along a wall of fantastically eroded shapes. It then got too narrow to stay at floor level and had to be traversed by chimneying along higher up. Around a few corners it became apparent through holes in the floor that the fissure was following the trend of a low, wide water passage down below. They got to a point where there was a larger hole into the lower passage and the fissure was found to end about 10 meters ahead. John had earlier explored about 30 meters of the water passage ahead and reported clear water, several rimstone dams, and not much more than 10 cm of airspace. He got to a point where passage was blocked by stalactites. They decided to end the survey at the hole that dropped down into the water and went back to finish the two shots to close the loop through the bedrock crawl. After that they headed out, exiting the cave at about 6:00. In the pool at the bottom of the entrance, Marvin found the rattlesnake coiled on the mud slope immediately under where he had hung his gear. In trying to decide what to do to get the snake to move, he noticed a long cedar stick wedged by floodwaters between the walls of the pit and just above his head. He removed the stick and was able to use it to hook his gear and retrieve it safely. While eating dinner at the Dodging Duck in Boerne they studied the notes and the old maps. The survey of the day had obviously gone 10+ meters past the end of the old map. Randy Waters' hand drawn sketch of what lay beyond the showed a wide, water-filled room. Along the left wall at the end of the wide area was a traverse up into continuing passage that eventually ends in a large room. That is what the team will look for on the next trip. Marvin Miller
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