The Boy Scouts of Troop 366 from Denton worked ~3 hours on removing invasive cedar in an area between the Spicewood Springs Trail parking lot and the next parking lot going back towards the CBSP office.
After lunch, they were then lead by Mark Alman to Dynamite Cave, (which Kevin Ferguson, CBSP’s Acting and, hopefully, next Superintendent, was gracious enough to show yours truly how to get there) for a fun bit of exploration. I had the Scouts flag the heck out of the trail to the cave, so we’d be able to find it next month when ~60 Girl Scouts and a Boy Scout Troop from Brownwood will descend on the park the weekend of January 14th. Note: I will need volunteers for this, so if you’re interested, contact me offline at texascav...@yahoo.com. We discovered the bones from some small varmint and placed the bones on a makeshift altar formed from a dry stalagmite for all of the world to admire and enjoy. We then left Dynamite Cave and made our way to Turtle Shell Cave. No varmints were observed, but, the Scouts again flagged the trail so well to the cave that I believe Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller would be able to find it! They also reflagged the area inside the cave that contains bones and some delicate formations on the floor. This was done to insure no one would cross this area and destroy the flowstone. We contemplated dropping the pit in Turtle Shell, but, water was flowing very well into this area and we opted not to. (Note: No bats observed, but, this is the wettest I have ever seen this cave!). Around 4 PM, we parted ways, as the Scouts were wanting to hike to Gorman Falls and I had to make a beeline back to Dallas for the DFW Grotto Holiday Extravaganza at Natasha Glasgow’s house! Thanks! Mark From: Jim Kennedy [mailto:jkenn...@batcon.org] Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 10:23 AM To: CaveTex Subject: [Texascavers] December CBSP Project report Project date: 9–11 December 2011 Reported by: Jim Kennedy Report date: 12 December 2011 Person-hours: 275 hours (142.5 work, 133 travel) Personnel: (23 folks) Mark Alman, Laurie Culbert, Nate Culbert, Andy Edwards, Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Lee Jay Graves, Meg Inglis, Jerome Cap (incorrectly listed as C. P. Jerome on last month’s trip report), Robert Lassen, Jim Kennedy, Maya Liu, Ryan Monjaras, Adiah Oyefesobi, Muyiwa Oyefesobi, Kris Peña, William Quast, Riley Ross, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, Heather Túček, Matt Turner, Matt Zaldivar (+11 Boy Scouts and their leaders) We thought that the predicted cold temperatures, rain, and proximity to the Christmas holidays would give us a low turnout this weekend, but we were pleasantly surprised by the number of enthusiastic cavers that showed up. Friday was bitterly cold, but Saturday was quite pleasant. Saturday night was warmer than Friday, but it rained from about 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., making the exit from camp tricky for those folks with passenger cars and street tires. As for the caves, Dog and Butterfly continues to go, with a third pit discovered after some rock removal. Two small caves were mapped by Jim’s team, with another karst feature discovered and mapped. And several teams went out to ridgewalk and verify locations of known caves. Five teams had a very productive and fun weekend. Team 1 Andy Edwards, Kris Peña, William Quast, Heather Túček Last month’s Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197) team returned to the cave again, this time with new Aggie caver Jerome. While Kris and Heather surveyed the first pit and a room named “Olivia’s Chamber,” the boys went to work on the rock that was precariously perched on the edge of the second drop. Some hammering finally sent it to the bottom of the pit. William rigged this drop about the same time that the girls finished their survey. Everyone descended, and found that the passage continued through a mud squeeze, where they found a third drop! It’s at least 5m deep, and another drop or climbdown can be seen beyond that, but it is not freeclimbable and there are no natural anchors. Water could be heard below. The next trip will require yet another rope (the third) and a bolt kit to set an anchor. Team one’s hours: 32.5 Team 2 Maya Liu, Jim Kennedy, Adiah Oyefesobi, Muyiwa Oyefesobi Jim promised to help teach Maya some sketching skills, so this group headed out to some small caves that we didn’t yet have survey for. The group drove past the old Caver Camp and parked near Ankle Biter Cave (SAB591). They also walked past Tire Eater Cave (SAB615) before crossing over some nice fissure karst that Jim found many years ago. One spot actually turned out to have a real surveyable cave, but barely so. The enthusiastic group of new cavers took turns climbing into the cave, and Maya kept book while the others completed the two-shot survey. Maya made serviceable plan, profile, and cross-section sketches to scale while Jim coached. It was named Unexciting Cave (no SAB number yet), and it certainly lived up to it’s name! Next they walked towards Barrets Cave (SAB388). On the way they found another pit, which turned out to be Scorpion Pit (SAB289), which was mis-plotted by over 200m! We got better coordinates while Maya climbed partway in. She said that she saw water in there, also. From there, the group went straight to Barrets Cave, where they re-mapped it in 3 shots (7.39m). It had a mouse (Peromyscus sp.), and Cicurina spiders. It was the second sketch that Maya made, and the profile, especially, looks good. The next objective was Corys Cave (SAB385). But Jim found another sink next to it and everyone spent the next two hours digging dirt and moving rocks before it was finally opened. It turned out to be a beautiful circular well with a small pool of water at the bottom. Unfortunately, it was only 3.2m deep, and the drain was impassable. It was surveyed and sketched, and named Honeymoon Cave (no SAB number yet) in honor of Adiah and Muyiwa’s recent wedding. Finally, Jim also relocated Beckys Dig, which is NOT a karst feature and is being removed from the list of Park caves. Jim trashed a pair of cave pants, and Maya caved in ski mittens, but everybody made it safely back to camp before dark. Team two’s hours: 31.0 Team 3 Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Matt Turner, Matt Zaldivar After gathering a nice pile of firewood in preparation for the evening’s campfire (and thankful that the burn ban was just lifted!), the team left for Lively Pasture in order to continue work on Marshmallow Cave (SAB733). The air was good this time, but the passage (still unsurveyed) ends at a dig, and no tools were available. Thwarted, they drove further into Lively Pasture. They looked at several dubious digs that were previously recorded before stopping at Flying Log Sink (no SAB number yet). Apparently the recent rains washed it open some more, but it still needs a little digging and a skinny team. They then moved on to Peps Pit (SAB315), where they dropped in the downhole camera again and looked around. No rattlesnakes this time, and the room looks really good. This cave still needs surveying. They stopped by Dog and Butterfly Cave but the survey team was still inside. Finally, they went to Two Burnt Ropes Cave (still no SAB number yet!). There, they dropped in the downhole camera again. This cave needs the entrance enlarged, but it could probably be pushed with a very skinny team. Team three’s hours: 20.0 Team 4 Meg Inglis, Robert Lassen, Ryan Monjaras, Bryce Smith Due to the shortage of sketchers on this month’s expedition, Ryan volunteered to lead a group of enthusiastic cavers to a part of the park with a lot of known caves, but with only some of them mapped. On the way to their destination, they passed Yellow Ribbon Cave (SAB265). It was already mapped. There was a cowbell next to it, and a temporary tag with “K33” on it. They finally got to Litho Cave (SAB304), where they had lunch before entering the cave. It was tight, but Ryan was able to enlarge it a bit with a hammer and chisel. He estimated it’s length at over 8m with the help of a disto, and made a very rough profile sketch. At the bottom of the cave were a skunk skull and a pig skull. Next they went to Flakey Rocks Cave (SAB266), which Ryan finally remembered being in over a year before. The entrance filled in a lot since that time. Then they went towards Glory Hole (SAB220), which has also been mapped already. On the way they passed by Skatwalk Fissure (no SAB number yet) and Sheep Den Cave (SAB242). Ryan reports that there is a very good looking, easy dig at the end of the right-hand passage in Sheep Den Cave. They never found Glory Hole, but walked toward Harvestman Crawl Cave (SAB243) and checked out Bill Larson Cave #1 (SAB450) [previously mapped], and Bill Larson Cave #2 (SAB594) [unmapped]. They never reached Harvestman Crawl Cave before darkness began to set in. Team four’s hours: 29.0 Team 5 Laurie Culbert, Nate Culbert, Riley Ross, Scott Serur Scott was hot to revisit the northeast part of the San Saba side of the Park, where Rafal and Mark and others found some pretty deep fissures last month. First they stopped to check out a lovely, steep-sided canyon that Scott had been eying up on Google Earth. They didn’t find any caves for the first hour, but on the way back to the vehicle found two features in a cliff face. One is just a cave remnant, but the other turned out to be almost 20m long before it became too narrow. It was named Cotton Candy Cave (no SAB number yet) after all the spider webs which were cleared out with a stick, the resulting mass resembling a carnival treat. It was flagged and GPSed. Back at the truck, they drove to the end of the road and hiked to their target area. They went to one of the crevices found last month, named Deep Dream Cave (no SAB number yet). It is very narrow, but the widest spot was rigged, only to become impassable about 4m down. Scott broke a rock over another wide spot and set a bolt, since there was no natural anchor nearby. Again, he only got about 3m down, but it looks like the cave widens about 1m below that point, and a flat room or passage can be seen about 10–12m below. This entrance was also abandoned, and a third potential entrance was attempted. This is a joint intersection, but needs more rock breaking and removal before it is enterable. However, it definitely enlarges about 8m down. They then walked towards Roofless Cave (no SAB number yet) and marked a couple more features, including unmapped cave SAC002 (SAB377) and unmapped cave SBK059b (SAB375). Warm moist air was rising from the second spot, suggesting a good cave down there somewhere. Finally, they got to Wedge Cave (SAB171) so that the kids could actually get underground. They toured this pretty little cave and headed back to the trucks and a side trip to Gorman Falls before returning to camp. Both kids had a blast despite the occasional cactus spine and catclaw scratch. Marshmallows were roasted, and bread was baked on a stick over the campfire. But the cold temperatures and light sleeping bags sent this team home to Austin that night. Team five’s hours: 30.0
