Excellent trip report, Marvin! Bill
> On Jul 4, 2022, at 9:34 AM, Marvin Miller <cave0mil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > 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. > _______________________________________________ > 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
