texascavers Digest 29 Nov 2011 06:04:53 -0000 Issue 1442
Topics (messages 19101 through 19105):
Lost Oasis Cave Preserve workday announcement
19101 by: Jim Kennedy
Re: Goodenough Spring cave diving article in Dec TPWD magazine
19102 by: Josh Rubinstein
19103 by: Logan McNatt
November CBSP project report
19104 by: Jim Kennedy
UT Grotto Meeting- Wed Nov 30
19105 by: Gary Franklin
Administrivia:
To subscribe to the digest, e-mail:
<texascavers-digest-subscr...@texascavers.com>
To unsubscribe from the digest, e-mail:
<texascavers-digest-unsubscr...@texascavers.com>
To post to the list, e-mail:
<texascavers@texascavers.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Begin Message ---
Cavers, we need your help! The Texas Cave Management Association (TCMA)
will be having a work day Sunday 18 December to clean up one of our
properties, the Lost Oasis Cave Preserve in Travis County (south
Austin). We plan to prune limbs, cut weeds, bag trash, and just
generally make the property more attractive. We need people, saws,
loppers, weed eaters, gloves, and even a chain saw. Bring your own
drinks and snacks for the work. TCMA will provide bottled water. The
cave preserve is across the street from Bailey Middle School, 4020 Lost
Oasis Hollow, in the West Shady Hollow subdivision. All visitors to the
Preserve will be asked to sign a liability waiver. Park along the
street, and meet at the chain link fence surrounding the cave at 10:00
am. We should be finished with the work by noon. Preserve Manager Ron
Ralph will open the cave gate then if anyone wishes to enter the cave.
Bring your own cave gear. Ron can be reached at 512-797-3817 (cell) in
case any one gets lost, or if you would like coordinate more details
with him. I also have a map that I can send if necessary, since CaveTex
doesn't do attachments. Contact me off list for the map, but no need to
RSVP if you are attending. Just show up!
Thanks for your support of TCMA and cave management.
Jim "Crash" Kennedy
TCMA Preserves Chair
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Great article, but Edwardian Limestone? Maybe the explains the decorative
touches.
The link for the article is
http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2011/dec/ed_2_cavediving/
Josh
On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 5:41 PM, Logan McNatt <lmcn...@austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Austin-based caver Rae Nadler-Olenick has written another interesting
> article for the Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. The article in the Dec
> 2011 issue is titled "Deep, Dark and Dangerous" and describes the
> exploration of Goodenough Spring, the 3rd largest spring in Texas with a
> discharge of 100 to 200 cubic ft per second. The entrance was inundated by
> Lake Amistad (on the Rio Grande in Val Verde County near Del Rio, southwest
> Texas) in 1968 and is 165 ft below the surface of the water. In the early
> to mid- 1990s, Dallas based diver R.D. Milhollin, with Ise Kalsi, Terry
> Scoggins, and Robert Laird were the first to successfully overcome the very
> formidable challenges of entering the cave and mapping it to a
> gravel-filled passage at -200 ft. Exploration resumed in 2000 by the
> Houston-based Goodenough Springs Exploration Project, whose divers received
> the NSS Cave Diving Section's Exploration Award in 2009 for making the
> deepest cave dive in the U.S. They reached -515 ft, and IT GOES. The
> article includes lots of photos, and a list of "Five rules for cave
> diving", and "Four stages of cave diving certification".
>
> The same issue has a photo essay on the drought and recent wildfires in
> Texas. TPWD magazine sells for $3.95 at stores; an annual subscription is
> only $12 for 10 issues (reduced from 12 issues because of budget cutbacks).
>
> Logan
> TPWD Archeology Survey Team, Austin
>
>
> ------------------------------**------------------------------**---------
> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
> To unsubscribe, e-mail:
> texascavers-unsubscribe@**texascavers.com<texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com>
> For additional commands, e-mail:
> texascavers-help@texascavers.**com<texascavers-h...@texascavers.com>
>
>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Josh, thanks for sending the link, and for catching that bit of "creative geology". I missed that one, but it does sound more significant than
plain ol' Edwards! :-)
LowGun
On 11/28/2011 10:39 AM, Josh Rubinstein wrote:
Great article, but Edwardian Limestone? Maybe the explains the decorative
touches.
The link for the article is
http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2011/dec/ed_2_cavediving/
Josh
On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 5:41 PM, Logan McNatt <lmcn...@austin.rr.com
<mailto:lmcn...@austin.rr.com>> wrote:
Austin-based caver Rae Nadler-Olenick has written another interesting
article for the Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. The article in
the Dec 2011 issue is titled "Deep, Dark and Dangerous" and describes the
exploration of Goodenough Spring, the 3rd largest spring in
Texas with a discharge of 100 to 200 cubic ft per second. The entrance was
inundated by Lake Amistad (on the Rio Grande in Val Verde
County near Del Rio, southwest Texas) in 1968 and is 165 ft below the
surface of the water. In the early to mid- 1990s, Dallas based
diver R.D. Milhollin, with Ise Kalsi, Terry Scoggins, and Robert Laird were
the first to successfully overcome the very formidable
challenges of entering the cave and mapping it to a gravel-filled passage
at -200 ft. Exploration resumed in 2000 by the Houston-based
Goodenough Springs Exploration Project, whose divers received the NSS Cave
Diving Section's Exploration Award in 2009 for making the
deepest cave dive in the U.S. They reached -515 ft, and IT GOES. The article
includes lots of photos, and a list of "Five rules for cave
diving", and "Four stages of cave diving certification".
The same issue has a photo essay on the drought and recent wildfires in
Texas. TPWD magazine sells for $3.95 at stores; an annual
subscription is only $12 for 10 issues (reduced from 12 issues because of
budget cutbacks).
Logan
TPWD Archeology Survey Team, Austin
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit our website: http://texascavers.com <http://texascavers.com/>
To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com
<mailto:texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com>
For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
<mailto:texascavers-h...@texascavers.com>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I suspect that there will be several trip reports posted to CaveTex from all of
the Thanksgiving caving that went on. But I wanted to beat the rush with a
slightly older report, from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!
-- Jim
Project date: 11–13 November 2011
Reported by: Jim Kennedy
Report date: 28 November 2011
Person-hours: 269 hours (151 work, 118 travel)
Personnel: (27 folks) Don Arburn, Yazmin Avila, Laurie Culbert, Andy Edwards,
Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Mark Gee, Natasha Glasgow, Lee Jay Graves, Scott
Grimes, C. P. Jerome, Rafal Kedzierski, Jim Kennedy, Maya Liu, Ryan Monjaras,
Kris Peña, William Quast, Rob Reasor, Rachel Saker, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith,
James Taylor, Julie Taylor, Heather Túček, Matt Turner, Nicholas Yasui, Andy
Zenker
After cancelling the October Project weekend due to scheduling conflicts,
everybody was anxious to get back to the Park in November. We had a great
turnout, wonderful weather, and some highly productive teams.
Team 1 Andy Edwards, Kris Peña, William Quast, Heather Túček
William and Kris were eager to return to Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197) to
survey the new passages seen that were not on the old map. Heather and Andy
were recruited, and after Andy borrowed Galen’s vertical gear, they went
directly to the cave. After some initial exploration, including digging
through two low crawls to create a loop, they decided to start the survey from
the surface, resurveying the couple of shots that made up the old map. An
initial climbdown lead to a 8.5m (28–foot) pit with they rigged to natural
anchors. In the first level above the 8.5m drop they saw a porcupine
(Erethizon dorsatum). They surveyed fifteen shots for 64.4m, which is already
59.2m longer than the previous survey. On the next trip they plan to survey
down the 8.5m pit, through the next level, and into a newly-discovered pit for
which a second rope is needed.
Team one’s hours: 30.0
Team 2 Yazmin Avila, Natasha Glasgow, Jim Kennedy, Andy Zenker
Jim and Yaz showed up in camp early Saturday morning and got everyone signed in
and divided into teams. After dropping off the paperwork at the Park office,
the foursome headed out to Lively Pasture for the now-familiar hike to the Lost
Petzl Cave System (SAB075). They immediately started rigging the Chimniers
Delight Entrance (SAB075h) and geared up. The drop from this rig point is
awkward at the top, but conveniently takes you the whole way to the stream
level passages. Everyone stashed their gear at the bottom of the drop and made
their way downstream to tackle more unsurveyed leads. About a dozen
tri-colored bats (Parastrellus subflavus) were noted in this section of the
cave. They picked up the survey at one of Jim’s old stations, and made some
easy shots down a nice-sized tube. This eventually turned into wide, flat
infeeder with flowstone and filtered out Jim. Andy took advantage of the easy
nature of the passage to keep book and practice his sketching. While the three
skinnies finished the infeeder, Jim dug through some silt fill and connected to
the survey crew on the other side of the flowstone. He and Yaz enlarged a
helmet sized wall opening to allow the rest of the crew to continue their
survey and make a nice loop. After a much-needed lunch and pee break, the crew
continued the survey through another restriction to the cave’s drain, an
impassable rock-and gravel choke. A few additional shots were completed before
heading back to the vertical gear and rope via another unsurveyed route. Eight
hours were spent in the cave and 22 shots were made, for a total of 78.8m. The
next trip we hope to have both a digging team and a survey team.
Team two’s hours: 36.0
Team 3 Don Arburn, Lee Jay Graves, Maya Liu, Nicholas Yasui
This group went to the McLarren Fissure area to look for more caves and check
GPS coordinates on known caves. Lots of features were found and checked out,
but a lot more work needs done in this area to sort out what is what. A lot of
the features don’t have coordinates yet, or entrance tags. The group
eventually got to Kick-ASS Cave (SAB 616), and found the coordinates to be
correct. A six-meter canyon led to a hidden way on to an active stream passage
with soda straws and about a dozen bats (most likely tri-colored bats). It has
multiple leads, and has not yet been surveyed. New caver Maya enjoyed herself,
and plans to return.
Team three’s hours: 22.0
Team 4 Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Ryan Monjaras, Matt Turner
This group also spent much of the day on the surface, hiking around the
McLarren Fissure area. They visited Honeycomb Fissure (SAB158), got corrected
coordinates at Meander Tube Fissure (SAB 328) and verified that it is a
multi-entrance cave, visited Carrot Cave (SAB 671), found a new feature called
Whoop Ass Fissure (no SAB number yet) with multiple entrances, and re-GPSed
both entrances to an unmapped cave (SBK 059). Afterwards, they took a
delightful hike to Gorman Falls.
Team four’s hours: 16.0
Team 5 Laurie Culbert, Scott Serur (and maybe the Aggies? Whose team
were they on, anyway?)
Scott and Laurie (and some unnamed others, maybe the Aggies [Jerome, Reasor,
Taylor, and Taylor]?) targeted Roofless Cave (no SAB number yet) as their
objective. Scott found a way to free-climb the cave’s entrance. He worked for
a couple of hours on a lead at the bottom, and eventually broke through to some
nice tube. This cave still needs mapped. Afterwards, they hooked up with Team
6 and continued ridgewalking in the area.
Team five’s hours: 12.0 (maybe more)
Team 6 Mark Gee, Scott Grimes, Rafal Kedzierski, Rachel Saker, Bryce
Smith
This last team was part of the cast of thousands that ended up hiking around
the McLarren Fissure area. It was a perfect day for it. The team first went
to a cave found in April, Creekside Sink (no SAB number yet) and reported a 4
meter tight fissure with an abandoned beehive and bones on the floor. They
then went to nearby SAB 378, formerly called GPC002 karst feature, but now
mapped and renamed Pop the Cherry Cave. Next they went to Cody Well (no SAB
number yet). It has a small oval entrance, about 0.5m in diameter, and drops
5m to a small crawl for another 2.5m. It remains to be mapped. Walking toward
the Colorado River cliffs, they then discovered Blood and Guts Cave (no SAB
number yet). The originally tight entrance was enlarged enough for the teem to
look in. It looks like there is a 10m drop to a 2.5m wide room, but needs
rope. Next they came to Whoop ASS Cave, but it is uncertain whether this team
or Turner’s team found it first. Finally they found Deep Dream Cave (no SAB
number yet). It is near the property line, and so far is the most
northeasterly cave in the Park on the San Saba County side. It was estimated
at 24m deep, and a rope is most likely necessary.
Team six’s hours: 35.0
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Howdy Caver,
You are cordially invited to attend the Underground Texas Grotto meeting
Wednesday November 30, 2011 from 7:45 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
University of Texas Campus in 2.48 Painter Hall (156 West 24th Street,
Austin TX 78712) http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/pai.html
Jean Krejca will be presenting the Program for the evening - Karst of New
Zealand.
This talk is about a spring 2011 expedition to the South Island, focusing
on newly discovered limestone areas in the fiordlands, then on sea caves
near Dunedin. Highlights include friendly Kia parrots and glowing worms! Come
check out the great program and for the fun and fellowship with Austin
Texas Cavers.
For information on Underground Texas Grotto activities, please see
www.utgrotto.org
Officer contact, trip reports, event calendar, and new caver training links
to beginner trips or vertical rope training are available.
Before the meeting, take advantage of Sao Paulo www.saopaulos.net for
happy hour specials. This area is the best place to park and meet folks
walking over to the meeting. Then after the official meeting, we continue
with the decades long tradition to reconvene for burgers, beer, and tall
tales of caving at Posse East. www.posse-east.com
The UT Grotto needs you, the caver with photos and a story to share about
your adventures, scientific research, or something else really cool.
Contact me.
Sincerely,
Gary Franklin
UT Grotto Vice Chair & Program Organizer
512-585-6057
v...@utgrotto.org
"Jean Krejca, Ph.D." <j...@zaraenvironmental.com>
--- End Message ---
