report from Punkin Cave Survey Expedition #12That was a fine interesting funny
timely trip report. Suggest save something for the newsletters, at least the
pictures!
Good caving,
Preston up in KY
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Kennedy
To: CaveTex ; Mark Alman
Cc: George Veni ; Geary Schindel ; Don Arburn ; Ann Scott ; Matt Turner ;
Sean Vincent ; Dianne Gillespie ; Lewis Land ; Matt Zaldivar ; John Brooks ;
Chris Vreeland ; Bonnie Longley ; Josh Rubinstein ; Allan Cobb ; Arron Wertheim
; Jill Orr ; Lydia Hernandez ; Lee Jay Graves
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 7:10 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] report from Punkin Cave Survey Expedition #12
Punkin Cave Survey Trip #12, 5-7 February 2010
reported by Jim "Crash" Kennedy, expedition leader
[For general background on Punkin Cave and previous survey expeditions,
please refer to past postings on CaveTex]
We started with 22 cavers signing up for this trip, 15 veterans
("Punkinheads") and 7 folks who have never surveyed in Punkin before ("Punkin
Sprouts"). By the time we got there, we lost two due to disabilities and
last-minute job assignments. We lost another Saturday morning due to illness,
and one of the Sprouts was a non-caver and did not intend to go in the cave.
So we had 18 folks ready to go, divided into 4 teams, most of which attacked
the relatively poorly explored Western Maze.
The first team, TEAM ORGY, led by sketcher Allan Cobb, started on some new
holes in the floor near the Western Parallel. "So many holes to check out!"
they lamented. Assisted by team members Arron Wertheim, Jill Orr, and Lydia
Hernandez (who was later traded for Sean Vincent), they made one vertical loop
and ended up back in the entrance room before popping down another hole and
eventually connecting to the Hellmouth section. They made 23 shots and
surveyed 96.26m (315.8 feet), for an average of 4.18m (13.7 feet) per shot.
There are other holes in the area still to be checked out in another orgy of
exploration.
The second team, TEAM TOP, started the "ZZ" survey in yet another hole on the
west side of the entrance room. Sketcher Geary Schindel led Don Arburn, Ann
Scott, Matt Turner, and Sean Vincent (later traded for Lydia) to map a bunch of
shallow loops in the western maze, tying in to previous surveys from Lee Jay
Graves and crew, and also to surveys from the other two teams in the area at
the same time. They closed several loops during their 25 shots, surveying
68.80m (225.7 feet), for an average of 2.8m (9.0 feet) per shot.
The third team, TEAM FURTHER DOWN, started out improving sketches from
previous western maze surveys, aided by a line plot provided in advance. This
team consisted of sketcher John Brooks, assisted by Chris Vreeland, Bonnie
Longley, and Josh Rubinstein, all three of whom have been on previous surveys
in this part of the cave. They began new survey at station WM24, and put in 13
additional shots, gaining another 10m of depth and leaving many leads for
future surveys. Since some of their time was spent resketching old survey,
they only got 50.45m (165.5 feet) of new survey, for an average of 3.9m (12.7
feet) per shot.
The last team, TEAM PANCAKE REVISITED, began cleaning up more leads in the
Medusa Maze. Visiting NCKRI cavers George Veni (sketcher), Dianne Gillespie,
Lewis Land, and sprout Matt Zaldivar were guided to this complex area by an
injured Jim Kennedy. They began with one of two loops Jim remembered from the
November survey, but soon got into more passage and didn't complete the loops.
They ended up tying into both the previous Medusa Maze (MMM survey), and the
Upper Medusa (UM) survey. They found another room with Pissicles and strange
chalky white minerals, probably also biogenic. After the seemingly endless
breakdown mazes, they started the survey of the Dungeon, the huge lift tube
discovered in November. However, George and Dianne were a centimeter too big
for the top of the slot. After some fruitless rock pounding, Matt, Louis, and
Jim shot a line into the Dungeon room, but didn't sketch it due to the
approaching "out of the cave" deadline. There are good leads there going down
in this important part of the cave, and we still have to sketch that section,
as well as complete the loops off the Pumpkin Pancake Room. This team set 32
shots totaling 93.58m (307.0 feet), averaging 2.9m (9.6 feet) per shot.
In summary, four survey teams in Punkin Cave put in another 93 shots of
survey and added another 309.09m (1014.12 feet) of passage to the length of the
cave, the best in the last five expeditions. The average shot length of 3.32m
reflects the slow nature of the surveys. The new length of the cave is now
2822.2m. It just moved from the #19 spot on the Texas Long Cave list to #13,
displacing Spring Creek Cave, Prassell Ranch Cave, Phantom Springs Cave, Rocket
River Cave System, River Styx Cave, and nearby Deep Cave. It only needs
another 532m to hit #12 and displace Natural Bridge Caverns, and another 553 to
pass Caverns of Sonora, and 622 meters to knock off Airmans Cave and enter the
Top 10. The depth of Punkin has not changed in several trips, remaining at #28
on the Texas Deep Cave list, but the Dungeon area holds great promise for
something deeper. The next trip will likely be in early June, and as usual,
Punkin survey veterans will receive first notice before it is posted to
CaveTex.
