On Saturday, July 2, seven cavers entered Cascade Sink (not the commercial cave) in Comal County. Three persons – Gerry Geletske, Marvin Miller, and John Young – were a survey team hoping to find a sump in the cave open and pushing the resurvey of the cave further. The four others – Adam Daw, Crystal Grafft, Tobin Hays, and Mio Kitano – were there to take the opportunity to see the cave and ended up pushing further into it than anyone has been since probably the 1980’s.
John rigged the cave with a nice rebelay at the ledge above the free drop. A rattlesnake on a ledge above the bottom pool provided some excitement. The first sump in the cave is in the low passage that leads from the bottom of the pit. It was immediately obvious that the water level was lower than had been witnessed before and that this passage would not be a problem. The survey team traversed this bit of passage with a nice 10” of airspace and popped out into the tall fissure passage that runs straight south and a little east for 105 meters to the second sump. This sump had not been expected on the first resurvey trip, organized by Jean Krejca on 10/19/19 and consisting of 3 teams. The plan had been to survey as much of the known cave as possible but it was cut short by finding the unexpected sump. On Saturday the survey team found it open with about 8” of airspace. The sump was about 2 meters long and then the ceiling went back up as the passage teed into a tall fissure passage. Surprisingly, on the other side of the sump an old steel anchor was found bolted to the floor. The only explanation is that early explorers, finding this sump frequently closed, installed a line to assist in the short free-dive. As the survey team started the survey the other team - let’s call them the push team – caught up. It was suggested that they explore to the left – upstream – which was plugged almost immediately at stream level with flood-borne debris, but which might be traversable higher in the fissure. The old map indicated that this was the case. A small stream flowed from the bottom of the debris plug and on down the passage to be surveyed. From this point on the passage was mostly hand-and-knees crawl in 20 – 30 cm of water. The passage was a tall fissure but got too narrow a meter or so above the floor, so walking was generally not an option. The passage width at floor level was typically 1.0 to 1.5 meters. The push team caught up to the survey team again and announced that there was at least 30 meters of passage they had explored going the other way. The push team passed the survey team and was soon out of earshot. At one point the floor in the passage sloped down and water level got to about chest deep. This chilled the survey team and they were happy to find just past this area a nice island of stream cobbles that spanned the passage and provided plenty of space to sit out of the water and eat a late lunch. While sitting there they heard the push team returning and soon saw their lights. They reported dry, crawly areas of passage, two dry pancake rooms, and several options for routes. They did not make it to the large room that is reportedly at the end of the known cave. Remarkably, they found leopard frogs living, and apparently healthy, this deep into the cave. Several places in the water passage, before the start of survey and after, large tadpoles had been spotted. After the push team headed out the survey team continued until setting station D23 (first station was D1) on a large dam of dirt and rock that seemed to be holding back water in the passage. The far side of the dam sloped down into water and a low-ceilinged passage. John explored ahead for a bit and reported that the passage comes out of the water but stays low and the rough nature of the bedrock floor made crawling difficult. It was 4:00 p.m. so the team decided to end the survey there in order to make their exit time of 6:00 p.m. Tobin, of the push team, had a bit of excitement at the bottom of the entrance pit. She was the last of the team to climb, and as she was getting on rope in the knee-to-waist deep water the rattlesnake decided to join her in the pool. She stayed cool and was able to avoid it and start climbing. The survey team didn’t see the snake at all when they got there and exited without incident. 105.5 meters were surveyed. More trips are planned to take advantage of the current dry conditions.
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