Project Dates: January 11 - 12 Volunteers: Jim Kennedy, Matt Turner, William Quast, Kurt Menking, Kris Peña, Dale Barnard
Total Hours: 42 hrs work time + 27 hrs drive time = 69 volunteer hours Summary: We had the conference center reserved this month in anticipation of the TSA Winter Business Meeting and the TCMA Board of Governor's Meeting on Sunday morning. Saturday morning we woke to a delicious taco breakfast prepared by Kurt, assigned objectives and headed out. Dale wanted to return to Grand Cedar Cave (SAB 292) which was presumed finished, but had some holes on the map he wanted to investigate. Matt and Crash headed back out to the ever cavernous Lively Pasture to continue work on Varmint Trap. Kris and Will took park superintendant Kelby Bridwell out to view several of the easier caves to consider new caves to expand the park's cave tour program. By the time the team's started to arrive back at the conference center, more cavers had arrived for Sunday's meetings. Dinner was shared by all, followed by a family friendly movie. Both scheduled meetings convened Sunday morning. Full Trip Reports: Team 1 Participants: Dale Barnard and Kurt Menking Time Out: 10 AM Time In: 5 PM Total Hours: 14 work hours Data: Two looseleaf pages of survey paper and project GPS Objectives: Revisit Grand Cedar (SAB 292) and several other caves/features to tag and re-GPS Report: Followed GPS to Grand Cedar (SAB 292). Made more accurate reading. Rigged cave, Dale had to shimmy down off rope because rope was stiff and entrance tight. Ten feet down, horizontal passage thwarted him with vertical gear on, but they enlarged it a little with a hammer (mostly Kurt banging while inverted). Went through, but with bad air and only Dale's set of vertical gear, decided to save it for next month with proper backup support. Derigged. Found Porcupine Cave (SAB 253) and made better GPS reading and wrote detailed description. GPSed K32 and wrote description. Not sure what new SAB number should be. Didn't find two features supposedly less than 100 ft away. GPSed SAB 252, SAB 253, SAB 250, K13, SAB 292 all with 1 to 2 ft accuracy. All previous coordinates were at least 50 ft off. After much digging by Kurt, K13 remains a karst feature. See description. Dale plans to revisit Grand Cedar to add sketch details and/or note dig leads. Current surveys by Dale and RD Milhollin are accurate, but need better scans of sketch data. Team 2 Participants: Jim Kennedy, Matt Turner Time Out: 10 AM Time In: 5 PM Total Hours: 14 work hrs Data: none Objectives: Open parallel pit at Varmint Trap Cave Report: Matt and Jim went back to Varmint Trap Cave (SAB 178) to continue enlarging the opening discovered by Kennedy, Garot, Avila in November. This surface fissure goes to a parallel pit, not really visible from inside the cave, but connecting through a too-tight bedding plane opening. We worked for several hours, but need to return with bigger tools. Afterwards, we walked to Sore Toe Cave (SAB 179), Space Heater Cave (SAB 203), and Earth Day Delight Cave (SAB 257). We found a spot near Space Heater Cave with warm, moist air and moss and started digging on it, but again needed bigger tools. During that time we met up with Kelby, Will, and Kris who were looking at other potential caves for park tours. We eventually ended up hiking around Lively Pasture and visiting numerous caves, including Nopalitos Cave. Finally we walked around the Lost Petzl System (SAB 075), where Kelby and Will went in the Bear's Breath entrance and Kris tried vainly to enter the Blackburn Memorial Entrance. Team 3 Members: Kris Peña, Will Quast, Kelby Bridwell Time Out: 10 AM Time In: 5 PM Total Hours: 14 work hours Data: none Objectives: Review caves that have been suggested as possible tour caves to see if they would be appropriate for the park's guided tours. Report: Will and Kris left camp at 10 AM to meet up with Kelby Bridwell and view suggested caves as options for guided tours. The team headed out to the Lively Loop and stopped first at Marshmallow Cave (SAB 733). They entered through the original entrance and continued through to the back room. The pits in the bottom of that room which typically have very bad air had low CO2 levels confirmed by the CO2 meter. They were able to enter the back pit and loop through the lower level coming out the front pits before exiting the second entrance. They then met up with Matt and Jim to take a quick dip into Varmint Trap (SAB 178) and peek at the entrance to Space Heater Cave (SAB 203). They then moved further along Lively Loop and looked at Big Persimmon Cave (SAB 745) on the way to Cenote de Carne (SAB 196). They completed the through-trip there before meeting back with Jim and Matt for stops at Radish Run (SAB 187) and Nopalitos (SAB 186). Both teams wrapped up the trip with a final walk around the Lost Petzl System. Will and Kelby entered through the Bear's Breath entrance and crawled through the Winddigger Connection. Meanwhile Kris made every attempt to wedge herself as deep inside the Blackburn Memorial Entrance as humanly possible. Once all were successfully extracted from the cave, they returned back to their cars and headed back in time for dinner.
