Ben, How cool...the Capricorn Party Room!! Forever recorded in cave survey history! Ann, a Capricorn
Sent from my iPhone On Feb 9, 2012, at 12:17 PM, Benjamin Schwartz <b...@txstate.edu> wrote: > January 28, 2012 > > Cave Without A Name, Kinney County, TX > > Crew: Benjamin Hutchins, Benjamin Tobin, Benjamin Schwartz (Ben3) > > Report by: Benjamin Schwartz > > After a slow start leaving San Marcos on Saturday morning, the three of us > piled into my truck and headed out to the cave. On the way we had to stop > twice - once for breakfast tacos and another time for batteries (both > critical caving supplies), but we made it to the cave before 10:00 am. > Checking in with Mike Burrell, he reported that the water at our gauging weir > was up a mere 0.08 feet after all the heavy rain in the region earlier in the > previous week. The area around CWAN only got about 1.5 inches, and the stream > level hardly budged, while other areas nearby got several times that > amount and experienced more serious flooding. > > The plan for the day was to go to the Waterfall Room at the current upstream > end of the cave and continue pushing a virgin upper level stream crawl that > Brett Gerard, Ben Hutchins and I had turned around in on the previous trip to > this part of the cave. During the previous two years, a group of us have > systematically resurveyed the known cave in order to create a high quality > map and (we hoped) find additional cave passage. Sometime last fall, the last > previously enjoyed passage was surveyed and we were able to start pushing and > surveying some of the many virgin leads that remained. Admittedly, a number > of them are not very attractive when compared with the main stream passage, > but there is good airflow moving through parts of the cave and I am convinced > that there is potential for a significant amount of additional passage to be > found. > > Our goal for the day was 260 m, which was the amount required to move CWAN up > a notch in the TX long cave list. Quickly changing into our wetsuits and > gearing up, we managed to leave the parking lot and enter the cave before > scaring off too many tourists. We told Mike to expect us by midnight and > headed upstream around 10:40. A little while later, we looked at each other > and realized that none of us had a watch with us. This was strangely > reminiscent of the last trip into the cave! I sloshed and jogged back to the > surface, got my watch, and rejoined the others at 11:00 – finally we could > really move! > > The trip upstream took around two hours as we swam, crawled, waded, and > salamandered through the ~2.5 km of stream passage between the Tour Route and > the Waterfall Room. On the way, we speculated about what some of the virgin > side leads might do, and if we would get a chance to survey them on this > trip. The two very low air space leads were still very low, but still blow, > and none of the ‘sumps’ (low air sections, really) along the main route were > any lower than normal – including the third one which, in the main passage, > is the lowest and longest by far. > > At the Waterfall Room, we climbed into the upper part of it, traversed > into the upper level passage leading out of it, and paused for a quick taco > break and to push a potential breakdown lead. The lead didn’t look very good, > but I did find another point to access the stream (with no passable leads) > which feeds the waterfall entering the middle part of the room, as well as a > possible lead that seemed to be have potential for rejoining the same water > farther upstream. But more on that later… > > Our first lead for the day was another smaller stream in this upper level > section. Both this and the larger ‘waterfall stream’ are flowing to the > southwest and into the room, which is in the opposite flow direction when > compared with the main stream below it. The streams are also perched on top > of a green marly layer ~1.5m thick. The Waterfall Room appears to have > developed at a point where water has punched down through this layer, > intersected the main stream level, and caused a large zone of collapse which > is slowly being dissolved away to create the room. Another interesting aspect > of the room is that it is the largest known room/passage in the wild > cave and is comparable in size to the large parts of the tour route, but with > multiple levels and more complexity. > > Moving toward our objective, we traversed a section of complex dry breakdown > passage before dropping through breakdown and into a low, dry, stream bed ~ > .75m high and 2m wide. Following this upstream, the passage gradually became > lower as we passed tiny holes in the floor where trickles of water are > pirated away to some lower level during higher flow conditions. We soon > reached an active piracy hole and the cave turned from sticky muddy to > wonderfully wet and sloppy. Just past this, we arrived at the end of the > previous survey and quickly started doing what we came for; survey. Ben Tobin > sketched, Ben Hutchins did frontsights, and I got to do lead tape and > backsights for the first time in nearly forever! But glory was not to be mine… > > The passage slowly became even lower, the water became deeper, then > shallower, and the bedrock floor and ceiling got closer together and razor > sharp and snaggy. Between snaggy sections, we plowed through mud slurry in > low passage. Watching mud roll past your ears is always somewhat amusing when > you consider what most people do on the weekend. Near the end, the cave > completely shredded my shirt and somehow unzipped my wetsuit. I didn’t > realize it until I noticed that rocks stabbing me in the back seemed > unusually sharp. Thanks to Hutchins for helping me zip up again in the crawl. > We pushed the passage to a bitter ‘end’ where it does continue, but only 15 > to 20 cm high (with lots of snaggy rock protruding into that space) and 2 m > wide for as far as I could see – about 6-8m . Although there was a slight > hint of air moving upstream, it is not a priority dig lead by any stretch of > the imagination. The passage also contains many small fragments of fossilized > and well-tumbled bone and turtle shell. We named this passage the Bitter Ben. > > With this lead finished, we thrashed our way back downstream to the other > potential lead I had seen. The passage started off low in large breakdown, > and soon popped into what looked like some very nice walking passage. It was, > but only for a few steps. The passage is coated in loose fluffy and super > sticky mud; the kind of mud that peels up in 10 pound chunks when you put > your hand down and pick it up again. Just imagine what happens to your feet. > Unfortunately, the nice passage immediately degenerated into a small crawl > coated with the same mud. Being lead tape, I pushed into it and thought I > could see the end at a chunk of breakdown a couple short shots away. > When I got to the end though, I could squeeze up onto the block and peer > through a low slot into darkness beyond. Energized, I spent quite a while > digging, breaking, and moving chunks of rotten muddy breakdown in a very > tight tube. I finally opened the squeeze and pushed ahead and into the > blackness. It turned out to be a low and wide room about 4 x 9m and less than > 1 m high, with one short dead-end side passage off of it. I did a solo > survey in the room so Ben and Ben didn’t have to suffer through the crawl. We > called this section the Capricorn Party Passage in honor of a caver party > happening above-ground (the horror!). > > With this lead finished, we declared the upper levels in the Waterfall Room > complete, removed the handline and headed down to the waterfall for a 30 > minute shower to clean ourselves and our gear. The ~120m of survey had taken > us about 5 hours of very hard and muddy work. Clean again, we decided to head > back down to the stream and survey a virgin walking canyon passage that heads > out across the top of the 3m waterfall in the main stream – this is > downstream from the Waterfall Room by a few hundred meters. This lead looked > really nice and had the appearance of a paleo stream route. Currently the > stream drops down the 3m waterfall and flows through what is now the third > ‘sump’. We surveyed quickly and efficiently along a 2m high x 1-1.5m wide dry > and meandering canyon. After about 80 m, the passage abruptly ended in a > blank wall at a cross joint and the only apparent way on is a 2 cm diameter > hole down low in one end of the joint. After plotting the data up, this > passage has gone off into blank space to the east of the main stream, so it > is too bad it didn’t continue. > > Still short of our goal for the day, we moved back upstream to a comfortable > dry crawl lead on the NW side of the main stream canyon. This passage > stayed roughly the same for ~60 m before looping back to the main > stream and connecting with another known lead. Ben Tobin calculated that we > were only a few meters short of our goal at this point, and we decided to > finish up the day by tying in a hanging shot in a side lead much farther > downstream. In short order we arrived, did the two survey shots required, and > called it a day with right around 260 m of virgin cave survey in the book. > > We got out of the cave by 11:30 and enjoyed a TX version of winter weather; > clear, crisp, starry, and just cold enough to make a stinky wetsuit steam. > What a wonderful way to end a wonderful trip with great friends. It was not > until the next day that Ben Tobin entered the data and reported that > we were only a few meters short of passing Longhorn Caverns. Arghhhh!!! We’ll > pass it next time, for sure! > > Benjamin Schwartz > > Assistant Professor > Department of Biology > Texas State University - San Marcos > 206 FAB, Freeman Aquatic Station > 601 University Drive > San Marcos, TX 78666 > http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~bschwartz/ > b...@txstate.edu > office: 1-512-245-7608 >
