Government Canyon Karst Project Report
January 2, 2016 Participants: Pam Campbell, Bennett Lee, Leah Miller, Marvin Miller, Joe Schaertl Saturday was a cold, rainy day but 3 participants showed up to join my daughter Leah and me. Because of the weather I decided we would do a monitoring trip into Dancing Rattler Cave. I also thought that Leah might be able to make it through a tight, fragile spot to inspect a lead that I had known about for a long time. The woods were wet and cold but the cave was dry and warm. We all made it through the first three squeezes but Pam had a bit of a struggle. She decided not to negotiate the last obstacle which requires a backward squirm into a short pit. Leah is short enough she was able to do it head first and get her legs under her into the pit. Once in the Dance Hall section of the cave I took Leah to the place where a screen of stalagmites and stalactites prevents a larger person from getting to the space beyond. Leah was able to make it through and reported that the holes beyond were too small. I then led her, Bennett, and Joe to the Pool Hall. We hoped to find the rimstone pools below the Frozen Cascade full of water but they were dry. We then exited the cave and returned to the Volunteer/Research Station. Our trip had taken about 3 hours. February 6 & 7, 2016 Participants: Kolin Beam, Luciano Bejerano, Bernadette Flehmer, Sarah Gorton, Leia Hill, Marvin Miller, Kevin Pride, Joe Schaertl, Matt Waterreus On Saturday, Joe led Kolin, Sarah, and Matt to ridgewalk in Area 9. They finished an unwalked region close to the south end of the area and immediately west of the Sendero Balcones trail, and then proceeded to do a transect along the northern boundary of the area. Unfortunately, the team found nothing to reward their efforts. I led Bernadette, Leia, and Kevin to continue excavating feature FC-096, which is a fairly large sink that my daughter Leah and I started working on in September, 2015. The sink is also located in Area 9. We dug the floor of the sink down to a rock floor that sloped on into the sink. We continued to dig in the narrow confines between floor and ceiling until we confirmed that we were just digging out a bedding plane void with just a few cm of air space between the in-filling dirt and the ceiling. When we couldn't see any hope of getting into a larger space we stopped the dig. It was only about 3:00 so I suggested we head back to Sendero Balcones and go north the short distance to Sure Sink. Those who wished could explore the cave. While hiking north we met Joe's team coming south. They had had their fill of brush-crashing with no reward. They turned around and headed north with us to the cave. Kevin, Joe, Kolin, Leiah, Sarah, and I entered the cave, but not all at once, because it isn't big enough for that many. While small, the cave has some challenging tight spots and some fun climbs. I took some photos in the cave. On Sunday Leia and Kevin were back and we were joined by Luciano Bejarano. Luciano was the discoverer of Lilyhammer Cave in December of 2014 and he hadn't been back to the project since then. Knowing that there was a dig lead in the cave that needed micro-blasting, I decided that with Luciano joining us, it was the appropriate time to go work on this lead. The trek to the cave is a long one and we got there about lunch time. The cave is located in a creek bed and takes considerable water at high flow levels. Leia had been on the team that first explored the cave but I hadn't been there since the day Luciano found it on a ridgewalk. On that day we had not been able to proceed past the small entrance room. We traversed the sloping entrance crawl for 5 meters and then the floor dropped about half-a-meter into a higher space. A fracture oriented perpendicular to the entrance passage contributes to the taller ceiling in this area. In less than 2 meters the ceiling comes back down to about 30 cm from the floor and extends at this height and 4 meters wide in the same direction as the entrance passage for an uncertain distance. However, this space is mostly filled with organic debris and dirt washed in from the surface. At the left end of the larger space the ceiling comes down and the walls come together to form a constriction, with more space visible beyond at a higher level than the low, dirt-filled extension. Two previous teams had tried to get through this spot with muscle power alone. Using micro-shaving techniques we removed several inches of rock from the right wall. Then Luciano tried to fit through and found it was not yet large enough. Kevin gave it a try and made it through. While Kevin explored I started drilling to make the spot a little bigger, but almost immediately Kevin yelled that he had found a pit. He evidently down-climbed the pit because he then started yelling about it getting big. This excited us and I commenced to setting one more charge. After it went off and knocked off another flake of rock, Luciano was able to make it through. He and Kevin hammered a bit more at the edge from the far side. Before long, Leia was able to squeeze through and then I came after. Past the squeeze the passage widened and immediately went up-slope for about 2 meters to where a 7 cm diameter column sat in the small flat area at the top of the slope. Behind the column was the pit that Kevin had reported. This shaft was easily free-climbed 2 meters down to a sloping floor. The ceiling of the associated room was about a meter above the floor at this point, but the floor sloped dramatically for about 2 meters to a 1-meter drop and then sloped again to a larger space, the top of a larger pit. Large formations hung off the walls and the ceiling. At the lip of the pit a flowstone cascade came down from the left, hinting at possible passage above. The pit was approximately 1.5 to 2 meters in diameter. It dropped about 6 meters in 2 steps, with the larger floor at the bottom coming back under the sloping floor area further up. We took some photos and then I headed back to the constriction, intending to remove a large rock in the floor to open it up some more. While I was working on this, Kevin and Luciano climbed to the bottom of the pit and started pulling rocks out of what looked like a lead in the floor. As they did this they heard rocks falling some distance below them. They got a crack opened up and Kevin climbed down about 6 meters to a room about 10 meters wide. A further drop descended from this room to an even larger space 6 meters further down. Slippery mud on the floor prevented Kevin from descending and exploring further. He noted several other leads besides the obvious one. We had a big breakthrough and it sounds like there is plenty more to explore. If Kevin's depth estimates are accurate then it is also one of the deeper caves in the State Natural Area. With its creek bed location it is a significant recharge cave. On the next trip to the cave we will begin the survey.
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