Darn it, this sentence should have read this way: >>> On Wednesday morning we were joined by Arkansas cavers Deitra Roberts and >>> Brent Biely (actually lives in Oklahoma), AND DFW GROTTO MEMBER NATASHA >>> GLASGOW, and that day WE did 186' Cagle's Chasm and the 80' second drop in >>> it, rigging a crossover, and at dusk did 165' The Sinkhole. <<<
Sorry, Natasha. She and I are co-authoring the article about our epic TAG trip. Bill -----Original Message----- From: speleosteele <[email protected]> To: lmcnatt <[email protected]>; Texascavers <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Dec 9, 2011 3:41 pm Subject: [Texascavers] Other trip reports of recent caving Yesterday Logan McNatt wrote in response to Jim Kennedy's Punkin Cave trip report saying, " I think a lot of us on the list would enjoy reading more trip reports from those who actually go caving." I for one honestly didn't realize that. Thanks for saying so, Logan. Here are a couple of trip reports: Texans Do TAG: There is a feature article in the works about this trip for an upcoming issue of the Texas Caver. On Saturday, Nov. 19, Ellie Watson (Bexar Grotto), Mallory Mayeax (Greater Houston Grotto), Steve Webb and I (DFW Grotto) drove from Irving, Texas to Scottsboro, Alabama and met up with Jim Smith of Atlanta. For the next three days the four of us (with Jim as our faithful guide) did some classic TAG pits: 164' Neversink, 147' Stephen's Gap, 227' Valhalla, and 285' Mystery Falls. On Wednesday morning we were joined by Arkansas cavers Deitra Roberts and Brent Biely (actually lives in Oklahoma) and that day did 186' Cagle's Chasm and the 80' second drop in it, rigging a crossover, and at dusk did 165' The Sinkhole. I climbed out of The Sinkhole first and then drove solo about 120 miles to Nashville to pick up Diana Tomchick at the airport. In the dead of night Diana and I found everyone else on a farm near Sparta, TN, where 37 mile-long Blue Springs Cave is located. The next day was Thanksgiving Day and in the morning legendary TAG caver Marion Smith (he told me that he's been in 7,500 different caves) and sometime Texas resident Phillip Rykwalder showed up and went with us deep into Blue Springs Cave. We went 3 1/2 miles into it and back out, with over two miles of it in gigantic borehole tunnel, though some of it was long and hard crawling. The BO Crawl was said to be about 3,000 feet long, with a couple of respites where you could stand up. That night we had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast around a campfire, the highlight of which to me, was the homemade cranberry and mango sparkling wine Brent had made and brought. On Friday we went to Cumberland Caverns, a renown show cave, and were guided far off the tourist trails with one of the original explorers of it, Bill Walter. Bill started exploring in Cumberland Caverns when he was 15 years old and he's 73 years old now. We were warned ahead of time that it's not easy to keep up with him, but we did, though it was not easy. He moves very effortless through a cave. Our time was running out, but we did squeeze in one more pit on Saturday morning. Our last one was 251' Ferris Pit, said to be the deepest open air free fall pit in TAG, and it's quite a beauty. It was wet, and everyone got drenched, which is always good practice. We headed back to Texas at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 26, doing an all-nighter with three drivers and getting back to Irving around 7:00 a.m. Last Saturday, Dec. 3, there was a trip to Spring Creek Cave, Kendall Co., Texas. Spring Creek Cave is a DFW Grotto project and we have been pushing its passages and mapping more cave there for the past three years. Our objectives last weekend included doing a tank haul for Jean "Creature" Krecja and and James Brown so they could push a low airspace passage (which may sump soon) about a mile into the cave at the top of the Shower Stall waterfall. Logistics kept the dive from happening, and a return trip this weekend with mostly Austin cavers in support of Creature and James, should end up with more exploration and mapping done upstream of the Shower Stall. Once we tank haulers got Creature and James into their lead, we went to the Soda Straw Heaven and Wallow side passage and pushed it another 14 survey stations with 213 feet of survey before calling it a day and picking up dive gear on the way out. Now coming up for Diana Tomchick and me soon, in fact next Wednesday, we're flying to Chongqing, China and caving on an Erin Lynch led expedition. The cave is Er Wang Dong, and you can Google it if you're interested in what's been going on there. Happy holidays and good caving! Bill Steele
