Sorry for the lateness of this report. It has been a busy month for me!
-- Jim
Project date: 13–15 January 2012
Reported by: Jim Kennedy
Report date: 1 February 2012
Person-hours: 302 hours (200 work, 102 travel)
Personnel: (21 folks) Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Jerome Cap , Andy Edwards,
Ryan Fabich, Galen Falgout, Mark Gee, Lee Jay Graves, Devra Heyer, Terry
Holsinger, Jim Kennedy, Maya Liu, Karen Masters, Ryan Monjaras, Kris Peña,
William Quast, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith, Matt Turner, Liang Wu
(+10 Boy Scouts and their leaders)
The beautiful weekend weather combined a good turnout for another successful
Project weekend. We continued working on small caves needing survey, cleaning
up the data set to weed out duplicate and non-karst points, and answering other
questions about the less-well-documented karst of Colorado Bend State Park.
Team 1 Lee Jay Graves, Karen Masters, Kris Peña, William Quast
Will and Kris took a break from Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197) this month
since sketcher Heather Túček was home sick. So Lee Jay and Karen eagerly
recruited the couple to help them finish up the profile and cross section of
Centennial Cave (SAB239). After a brief delay caused by a return to camp for a
forgotten headlamp, they finally rigged the cave’s entrance and began their
work. They investigated the few leads at the bottom of the cave, and began
digging at the most promising, the natural bridge and the crawlway behind the
flowstone. They also photodocumented this rather pretty cave. About 6
tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) were seen in the main room of the cave.
Upon exiting, Will discovered that the narrowest part of the entrance drop was
free-climbable.
Before heading back to camp, the group helped to ground-truth the correct
location for MM Hole (SAB191). Jim had 2 different waypoints for the cave in
his data set, but the northernmost was discovered to be off the Park, and the
southern was correct. A large rock was pulled out of the bottom of the cave,
and Will lowered Kris headfirst to look at the potential for continuation.
Only another meter of very tight passage was seen, making this a karst feature,
not a cave.
Team one’s hours: 24.0
Team 2 Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Ryan Fabich, Galen Falgout, Maya
Liu, Jim Kennedy, Matt Turner
Jim continued his quest to clean up questionable locations in the Park, and
teaching new cavers survey techniques, especially sketching. They headed out
towards Glory Hole (SAB220) and the Bill Larson Caves. Matt found the first
new karst feature, named Sounds Hollow karst feature (SAB816). It was a nice
looking entrance that plugged too quickly with sediment, but could probably be
dug open. They then moved on to one of the two locations Jim had for Bill
Larson Cave #2 (SAB594). Yaz and Galen got separated from the group on the way
there, and by the time they were finally found and reunited, Galen noticed that
Lee Jay’s Stenlight, which was on his helmet outside his pack, got knocked off
and lost somewhere on the ridge. Yaz and Galen went back to look for it, to no
avail. Meanwhile, Jim located a nice lead in the creekbed which was where Bill
Larson Cave #2 was supposed to be. It was obvious, however, that the cave was
never large enough for humans before we got there. Jim and Matt soon had it
opened to reveal a nice-looking fissure below stream level. Maya entered, and
Ryan sketched, and it was re-named Honeybee Cave. A temporary aluminum tag was
finally found with “594” written on it, but we have no idea who put that there,
or when. The new virgin cave mapped out to 5.89m long, all depth.
Jim and Galen and set out again to look for the lost headlamp and for Yaz, who
got separated again from Galen and lost a second time. Over an hour was spent
with no success, but Jim found Yaz as Galen returned to the rest of the group.
On his way back to the team, Yaz wandered off again, getting lost for a third
time. Jim decided to check out another questionable point on the way back to
the group, labeled only as “Fat Bob.” It turned out to be a nice-looking cave
with two entrances. He went to collect the rest of the group to survey this
cave, and they finally were able to make voice contact again with Yaz, and
holler her in to rejoin the rest.
Fat Bob Cave (SAB557) turned out to have 22 meters of passage and was about 8m
deep. It has some nice speleothems, at least 3 or 4 hibernating tri-colored
bats, and is used as a porcupine den at least part of the year. It also has
ticks. It was a great practice survey cave, so Yaz and Emily both sketched
while Jim coached and Matt and Galen set stations and got attacked by bugs.
The sun was starting to set and the temperatures were dropping, so the team
headed back to the truck parked along the Park road. But, as usual, several
more new karst features were discovered, within sight of a Park trail. They
were named Offtrail karst features (SAB818), and a little digging was
attempted. But the lateness of the day and general low spirits (from the lost
light) cut the efforts short. However, they did relocate and get improved
coordinates on two long-misplaced caves, Polish Pit (SAB233) and Crystal
Crevice (SAB029) and collected coordinates for Puny Pond Pit (SAB308), which we
apparently never had before. All three caves were near roads, and all were
visited in about 30 minutes.
Team two’s hours: 52.5
Team 3 Sandi Calhoun, Devra Heyer, Terry Holsinger, Sean Lewis, Liang
Wu
The group left in Terry’s truck and parked at the old Caver Camp. Following
the recently-corrected coordinates, they easily found the entrance to Scorpion
Pit (SAB289), a slim, triangular opening. Photos were taken as Sandi entered
the cave with survey gear. One very narrow spot, measured at 22cm, excluded
some of the group, and gave the others trouble getting through with their
vertical gear. Sean and Sandi ended up mapping the cave, getting 44.27m in 8
shots. The lowest level drain has a good going lead, and a brick hammer left
in the cave from the first exploration 20 years ago. Two tri-colored bats were
noted, as well as an unidentified frog, cave crickets, and lots of bones.
Afterwards, the group looked at nearby karst features that might possibly turn
into caves with some digging and hammer work. Finally, they stopped by Puberty
Pit (SAB244) on the way back to camp.
Team three’s hours: 35.0
Team 4 Jerome Cap, Andy Edwards, Scott Serur
Scott led the latecomers back to his latest obsession, Deep Dream Cave (SAB769)
to try again to gain entrance. They spent 4 hours breaking rocks and finally
were able to enter. About midway through this process they were joined by
members of Team 5 who were working nearby. They set a bolt, rigged the pit,
and sent Andy in first to check it out. It went down 6m to a 2.5m x 4m room,
leading to a second drop perpendicular to the first. This went down another 8m
to a natural bridge and a climbdown to a steeply sloping fissure for another
9m. Airflow was noted at the cobble-filled drain. Another 4m could be seen,
at which point the passage appeared to enlarge and make another left-hand turn.
Digging is necessary to continue. Scott and Andy, joined by Bryce (from Team
5) surveyed out of the cave, noting that it is about 17.5m deep so far.
Team four’s hours: 22.5
Team 5 Mark Gee, Ryan Monjaras, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith
Mark’s goal was to head back to Blood and Guts Cave (SAB768) and map it. Upon
arrival, they removed a rock from the entrance with the aid of a big rock bar.
The three skinny guys entered while Mark began the survey. The cave
unfortunately only dropped 4m to a 4m long fissure plugged by breakdown at each
end. It ended up being 8.54m long in three survey shots. Afterwards the
dejected foursome joined Team 4 for their more interesting cave.
Team five’s hours: 28.0
Team 6 Yazmin Avila, Emily Booth, Galen Falgout, Maya Liu, Jim
Kennedy, Ryan Monjaras
On Sunday morning Jim led a group to Gorman Cave (SAB054) to admire the new bat
gate. It is holding up quite well, and all were suitably impressed. Matt,
Emily, and Maya then left, while the others climbed the bluff to clarify
another set of bad points. We had two sets of coordinates for Pat Geary Pit
(SAB 231). It turned out that one set was fairly accurate, and the cave is
less than 2m from one of the new hiking trails. This cave still needs to be
mapped.
Team six’s hours: 10.5
Team 7 Kris Peña, William Quast, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, Keenan Smith
Taking advantage of the beautiful Sunday morning, this group headed back out to
Lively Pasture to have a go at Peps Pit (SAB315). Rattlesnakes had been
reported from almost every previous visit. Despite that threat, the pit was
rigged and William descended, finding bad air at the bottom. The “snakes”
turned out to be an old set of bedsprings dumped in the cave, that “rattled”
when hit by rocks tossed in to see if snakes were present! He stayed in long
enough to make a survey, finding the cave to be only 14.7m deep, with no good
leads. After Will emerged, Kris, then Bryce entered to check it out. Will is
already at work on drafting the map, his first.
Afterwards, the group wandered around Lively pasture, stopping at Coon Scat
Cave (SAB273), Hard Wedge Cave (SAB272), Spider Web Cave (SAB314), Good n’
Tight Cave (SAB283), Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197), Arizona Cave (SAB282),
Flying Log Sink (SAB740) and numerous other karst features, some of which may
even be new. As usual, there is a lot more to do out there.
Team seven’s hours: 27.5
