Great trip report! Thank you for sharing it.
- from julia's cell Julia G Germany c: 281.979.9208 e: ju...@trigrants.com > On Jun 4, 2022, at 21:14, Marvin Miller <cave0mil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Kelsey Dennis and Mio Kitano joined me today to finish up a little bit of > muddy survey and to push leads in Dinosaur Cave. Dinosaur Cave is a 642 > meter-long cave in Comal County. The survey went about 2 meters down a hole > that had been too tight for the previous survey team. Both Kelsey and Mio > have slight figures ideal for these kinds of leads. The next survey shot was > 3 meters through a muddy trough into a small terminal room with some drops > falling from the ceiling. The drops had been a trickle when I had first seen > this room last year. The room isn't really terminal because there is a slot > in the floor that could be enlarged to get down to the next little space 2 > meters below but then there is another, tighter constriction. There is no > airflow so this is not a high priority lead. > > We struggled out of these muddy confines and headed back towards the entrance > till we stopped at a hole that dropped down in the middle of the passage. > This hole leads to a bit of walking passage in the breakdown that makes up > the floor and fills the lower part of the main passage. 10 meters along the > breakdown passage a small hole in the floor drops down into a small room, the > floor of which slopes further down to the opening of a small, horizontal tube > in bedrock. The tube is straight and clean-washed and can be seen to extend > at least 5 meters. The tube is intimidating (to me, at least) because it > looks barely larger than body-sized. Once you get into it there is actually a > little more space than that, and only one spot where you are scraping floor > and ceiling. At about the 5-meter mark you encounter a cross-joint which > provides some relief, and immediately after that the floor drops down into a > fissure and then the passage widens, opens up to the right, and drops over a > ledge into a small room. Bennett Lee pushed this passage and discovered this > room. A small trickle of water falls from a too-small tube in one wall. At > floor level a duck under the ceiling leads to a short 5-meter section of > passage, at the end of which was today's objective. At that point the floor > trends slightly down and the ceiling comes down to within 20 cm of the floor, > which is clean-washed from that point. I had tried to cram myself into this > lead when Bennett, Greg Mosier, and I surveyed the preceding passage but it > was a no-go. I couldn't even get far enough to see around the near corner. > Kelsey is a skinny girl and had no problem with it. There is a pool in the > floor just after it gets tight so she had to consider whether she wanted to > get wet, but in the end she committed to it and soon disappeared around the > corner. She kept a running commentary and informed us that just ahead it was > going to open up to walking - or at least stoop-walking height. She was soon > there and continued, sometimes in several cm of water. There was another > short constriction to be passed and then the passage dimensions resumed. She > had to stop, probably about 20 to 25 meters along, due to a boulder that was > filling the passage. She could see the passage continuing past the boulder. > Her assessment was that it could probably be broken up with a sledge or > rolled out of the way. There is good airflow coming out of this passage, > really the only airflow we have seen anywhere in Dinosaur Cave. > > When Kelsey came back out, excited by her discovery, we set to work on the > other passage that exits here, stacked almost right on top of the water crawl > below. The problem with this one was that it was almost filled with a 2 > meter-long, 1 meter-wide slab of breakdown. It wasn't very thick so we had > some hope that we could break it up somehow. We took turns beating on the > near end, and some bits broke off easily, but then it got hard. I decided it > was time to employ the hammer drill and straws. I had barely drilled 4 cm > into the rock when my bit got stuck and would not move. The only way to > rescue it was to beat on the rock some more. I started in on that and > suddenly the rock broke across its width about half-a-meter back. This large > chunk fell to the ground in front of the lower passage, and the remainder of > the slab started to slide down what must have been a slight slope towards us! > Fortunately, it stopped moving after 10 or 15 cm. We then had a discussion > that if a survey team was going to come back and attack the lower passage, > the slab would first need to be eliminated. We continued pounding on it - > with some care to have an escape route - and eventually were able to lever it > and chock it in a more stable situation. What all of that ended up doing for > us was open up space over the top of the slab to crawl across and see what > lay beyond. A quick look showed that the passage took a sharp right turn and > followed the trend of the lower passage. Mio ventured in and I noticed that I > could see a reflection of her light on the pool in the lower passage. There > were holes in the floor. In fact, she remarked that the floor was not stable > and there was a danger of falling through. Several rocks were dislodged and > fell into the lower passage. About 4 meters in, the passage was blocked by > flowstone, but she could see around it into a larger space. It is almost > certainly the same passage that Kelsey traversed. This is a possible bypass > to the lower level constriction. > > The new discovery is at the lowest point of the cave and the air was not very > good. We will wait until winter to organize further survey trips. We left the > cave happy, muddy, and tired. > > Marvin Miller > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
