Great report Joe!
Recent progress has also been made at CWAN and Spring Creek Cave. It
would be great to see posts on Texas Cavers from those surveys. I know
that the cavers involved are very busy people but the greater caving
community would be very excited to read these reports.
Mike Burrell
Manager
Cave Without a Name
On Jan 29, 2012, at 9:41 PM, Joe & Evelynn Mitchell wrote:
The most recent Deep Cave Survey Trip was held on Jan 6-7, 2012.
This was a two-day trip to clean up some previous survey and
continue the work from the last two survey trips held in July and
October of 2011.
On Friday, only 4 people were able to attend, myself, Don Arburn,
Jill Orr, and Mike Harris. Except for Don who had been out there
most of the week for a trip for cavers visiting from Tennessee, the
rest of us arrived on Friday morning. We got out to the cave before
noon and began by working on the B-survey, which is the high, and
mid-level areas back to the right from the Entrance Room. There were
several sketch problems, which were resolved, and a few possible
leads were checked but none had any promise. Eventually we worked
our way down to the D-survey, which began small so only Jill, and I
proceeded. This survey from 2005 had extremely poor closure and has
not been included in the length of the cave previously. We were able
to relocate 6 stations and reshoot them. Though the shots each had
problems, the biggest issue was found to be an incorrect tie in
point to the E-survey. Most interestingly, at the end of the D-
survey, many leads were seen heading off it multiple directions, so
would be an excellent location to send teams in the future. We were
then planning to go and tie in a hanging survey from a previous
trip, but the wrong notes were brought so, being tired from various
illnesses and wanting to save energy for Saturday, we exited the cave.
As we relaxed that evening, the remainder of the survey crew
gradually filtered in. Joe and Sara Ranzau along with Evelynn and
Kayla Mitchell (who were staying at the Ranzau’s) also came over to
visit for the evening.
Saturday was the main survey day with 19 people on the property. Sue
Schindel had come to relax and hang out at the cabin so did not go
into the cave. After breakfast and getting organized, the teams
entered the cave by 10:30 am with two teams visiting the Helictite
Room area and the others going out to the west end of the cave.
Bennett Lee led a team that included Steve Gutting, and Geary
Schindel. They carried out a survey of the perimeter of the
Helictite Room and to more carefully check leads off of the room.
Although this survey did not add much length to the cave, it did
provide a much better sketch of the room for map drafting purposes.
A previously unknown passage was found heading south from the
Helictite Room and is a good lead for future survey. This team also
tied into a hanging survey from the previous trip to add that length
to the cave. The team surveyed 11 shots for 86.13 m.
The next team consisted of Don Arburn and Gregg Williams. Mike
Harris intended to join this team but was unable to do so. This team
continued the survey of areas below the Helictite Room. They found
it difficult to sketch. There were several going leads that were
found and a passage that led deep into a room with a soft dirt
floor, which is unusual for that part of the cave. The area looks
like it took a great deal of water flow showing water lines about
0.75 m up the wall. The team surveyed 13 shots for 65.13 m.
My team consisted of Aspen Schindel, Jill Orr, and Tom Florer. Our
goal was to head out to Gotham City in the western part of the cave
and continue working the leads off this room. We traveled with
Marvin and Ellie’s teams to the Crystal Waterfall. Along the way we
stopped at the obelisk rock to install a permanent handline in
preparation for establishing a new visitor route into this section
of the cave. After separating from the other teams, we reached
Gotham City. The right wall leads were not promising but Aspen found
that the straight ahead lead went, so we started surveying there. We
went for 4 stations into a room where the route ended with poor
leads. Back in Gotham City, Jill found a good lead on the west wall
at the climb up to the LA survey. We surveyed this lead for 5
stations, which went into a series of rooms that corkscrewed above
itself. Several of these rooms were well decorated. Aspen then
checked a lead opposite the LB survey down below Gotham City, which
lead to a coral crawl but the team decided to save it for another
time. (Marvin's team ended up surveying into it later from the
opposite direction.) We then proceeded up to the Junction Room, and
after meeting Ellie's team in Metropolis, we surveyed north from the
Junction Room down a coral lined slope. This led to a winding
passage that eventually came up into the northern side of Metropolis
from below. Bat droppings and a flying bat were encountered in this
loop, which is rather far from the entrance by known routes, so was
surprising to see. Several holes lead down into a short series of
rooms, which remain to be surveyed. Just before the climb back up
into Metropolis, Jill discovered a steep climb down that goes into a
complex maze with many leads and larger rooms and no end in sight.
The team surveyed 19 shots for 74.87 m.
The next team was led by Ellie Watson and included Galen Falgout,
Joe Schaertl, and Andy Edwards. Their goal was to connect the
Sparing Cascade Maze to the Metropolis Room and then to survey any
of the maze leads beyond that point. They made the connection
successfully and ended up in the Metropolis Room. They saw dozens of
leads and explored a few of them but ended up ending their survey
early. A cave harvestman and cicurina were seen near the cascade
waterfall area. The team surveyed 7 shots for 28.37 m.
Finally, Marvin Miller led a team with Angela Edwards, Drew Munson,
and Gerry Geletzke. Their goal was to push the cave as far west as
possible from the end of the 2006 C-survey that went through and
past the Lunchroom. They began at the end of that survey at the “3
Dot Lead" which was the westernmost known extent of the cave.
However, their survey in this direction only went down into the next
room and no further leads were found there. They then backtracked to
a lead at an earlier point in the C-survey and followed it down to
the southwest, however it ended up tying into a location at the west
end of the Lunchroom after 4 stations. From this point, they saw
another lead going north and surveyed it for 8 stations to a pit.
This lead down into the Moonmilk Battery Room from the 2008 AR
survey, which provided the first loop closure to that survey. After
this, they continued for 4 more stations until they came into the
bottom of Gotham City and tied onto the survey there. Along the way
they passed multiple going leads to the northeast and east and one
digging lead to the west. The team surveyed 20 shots for 53.45 m,
connecting many previously unconnected surveys and showing that the
loop closure in the western portion of the cave was good.
Marvin’s team was the last out of the cave, arriving back at the
cabin by 9:30 pm, although Bennett stayed a bit later to do some
photography in the Forest of Columns. Dinner was the usual pot-luck
affair with lots of food and drinks all around.
Though this trip ended up mainly being about connections rather than
new directions, each team found new and promising leads on top of
the many others that still await exploration. This cave still has a
lot remaining to be explored and surveyed. After this trip, the new
length of Deep Cave is 3378.0 m, barely surpassing Caverns of Sonora
to move up from the 16th to the 14th longest cave in Texas. The
depth remains unchanged at 77.6 m. The next survey trip is planned
for the beginning of March.
Joe Mitchell
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