February Government Canyon Karst Project Trip Report: February 1 Participants: Gloria Banasco, Scott Gantz, Steve Gutting, Marvin Miller, Petra Ostrov, Sarah Ostrov, Richard Purzer, Nicholas Scalercio, Vince Scalercio, Joe Schaertl Steve Gutting led Joe Schaertl and first-time caver, Scott Gantz to survey and push a lead in Big Dome Cave. They surveyed one crawl to a dead end at 6.65 meters. While Steve was sketching, Joe and Scott dug open a lead at the start of their survey that can be seen to step down about a meter to the top of a breakdown block, and then through another tight spot to a still lower level. The hole is now "large enough for a small person to enter", but none of the party was able to make it through, so it still may need some work. Several holes in the floor of the surveyed crawl - that probably lead down to the same area - were noted as having airflow. The team also checked for leads in the Breakaway Room.
Marvin Miller led the rest of the crew, which included two other first-timers to the project - Gloria Banasco and Richard Purzer - to Goat Cave to collect some photographs. We surprised a black vulture in the cave and it retreated into a narrow passage. The cave has a large, vertical, climb-down entrance. Upon entering we found one large, brown-dappled egg resting in a crude depression along one wall. In the scree below the climb-down Nicholas found a white-throated slimy salamander, a first record for this cave. Nicholas and I climbed up to the ceiling tube and squirmed our way to back of the cave to take some photos in the fissures there. After leaving Goat Cave we spread out east from the cave location in a ridge-walk team and swept north along the edge of the ridge. We were trying to relocate sink feature 19-33, first found in 1995 and described as a "12' long x 3' wide sink area". I also instructed the team to be on the lookout for Calcite Sink, which I knew was in that general area. Sarah came across the 12' sink at about the same time that I heard someone else mention a hole they had passed by "back there". The hole turned out to be Calcite Sink, which is only about 4 m deep and therefore not deep enough to be considered a cave. The feature is unique, however, for the abundance of quality calcite crystals imbedded in the rock of the entrance and scattered in the local area. We took some photos and got a GPS location. Then we returned to the sink that Sarah had found. We tagged and flagged it and recorded a GPS location. We dug out loose rock and dirt to a depth of about 40 cm and confirmed that it is a dig worth returning to. The team then headed west, back to the Joe Johnston Rd. We followed the trail north, continuing north where the defined park trail turns to the east and becomes Sendero Balcones. We continued north on the faint track to where it crosses Government Canyon Creek again. From there we spread out perpendicular to the creek and ridge-walked upstream. We were looking for another feature, 19-25, found in 1994 and described as being a collapse sinkhole with loose rocks and an "easy dig". The feature location had been marked on a topo map by the locating team on the south side of the creek and just east of the trail crossing. We swept east along the creek for several hundred feet and then back but did not find the sink. The gentle hillside south of the creek at the trail crossing quickly elevates into a cliff face as one heads upstream. I stayed in the creek bed on our sweep and came up on one of the features identified as either 19-28, 19-29, or 19-30. These are described as small undercuts in the cliff wall. The feature I came up to is actually fairly large, being about 4 m wide and .4 m tall at the opening. It was obvious from the lay of the flood debris that a good flow of water entered the opening during high water events. We dug on it a little with the short handled shovel we had along but it needs to be attacked with heavier tools. We collected a GPS location and headed back down the trail to the cars. The next trip will take place on March 1 and 2. Marvin Miller
