Good morning, all!
If you're looking for something to do this weekend and have experience
and a hankering for some surveying, the Longhorn Caverns Project could
use you!
Lyndon Tiu and Peter Sprouse are looking for a few additional seasoned
surveyors and sketchers to help out adding unmapped passageway to the
Longhorn Caverns map.
Unfortunately, I have a prior commitment with my daughter and will be
unable to attend.
If you would like to help out, please contact Lyndon.
As always, we will meet up at the LCSP Visitors Center at 9AM Saturday
and caravan over to the Crownover entrance.
Camping is available Friday and Saturday night in the picnic area, near
the observation tower.
Contact Lyndon for the combo.
One other note: LCSP Staff have asked us to please stay away from the
tourist entrance and the amphitheater behind the Visitors Center, as
there is a wedding going on this weekend.
Your help and consideration is appreciated!
Thanks!
Mark and Lyndon
>From the latest issue of The TEXAS CAVER, written by Lyndon Tiu:
While the 1st and 2nd teams continued their work of widening the primary
passage. The 3rd team decided to stop digging and do some exploration of
the rest of the cave.
It is known from maps of Longhorn that the rear of the cavern was not
passable due to high water (see map, "Passage Blocked by High Water").
Knowing that we are in the middle of a serious year long drought, we
thought perhaps water levels have dropped and the rear would now be
passable.
A few cavers went all the way to the back and saw an ear dip passage.
One of the cavers did not have proper water proof lights. So the whole
group turned around. It was lunch time anyways. So a plan was hatched:
We go back up the surface, eat, re-group, get the right equipment
together and go back in and push to the back of the cave.
After lunch, the majority of the 24 cavers opted for the through trip
from the commercial entrance to the Crownover entrance A smaller group
of 7 cavers from ASS and GHG went for the rear of the cave to see how
far we can go "past the map".
We went through the ear dip passage with no incident. The ear
dip was about 10 feet in length, with air space narrowing down to about
2 inches in parts. So narrow, a few of the cavers in the group decided
to remove their helmets just to get Through and still stick their noses
above the water to breath.
From the most recent maps, we knew that the surveyed cave
terminus extended not too far from the Crownover entrance (see map,
"Cave Extends Further"). After passing the ear dip and crawling for a
while, we were very certain that we were no longer "on the map".
We crawled and walked through mud and debris for about 45 minutes after
the ear dip when we reached what seems to be the end of our journey to
the rear. We were now at a sump surrounded by soft mud, crawling full of
crayfish.
The mud was so soft and deep we would sink to our ankles while walking
over it.
Along the way, we saw white spikey fungi growing on some dirt on
the cave floor. I noticed the "basement floor" of the cave after the ear
dip is smooth white dolomite covered in most places by a thin layer of
mud. We noticed cave crickets in a small segment of the cave, indicating
an entrance is nearby. We saw a few forks in the cave. But since this is
our first time in this cave passage, we decided to stick to the main
passageway and come back next time for the side passages.
We are planning on going back next month to survey the cave
after the ear dip. We are also planning on exploring and surveying the
side passages we saw (but did not have time to explore) and see if there
are any leads to the surface. In the process, we wish to officially
extend Longhorn further on the map.
We had hoped we were in virgin cave passage, but some research burst our
bubble. According to an excerpt from the Caves of Burnet County
Publication, it says: "Members of the San Angelo College Speleological
Society and the ITSS explored the northernmost portion of the cave
beyond the Salamander Trail on 30-31 March 1962. They found that the
reported sump at the end of the cave was open and were able to continue
exploration for several thousand feet to another sump. Unfortunately,
no survey of the cave was made during the trip."
Rain has been falling since. This may mean we can never go back and
survey as the ear dip passage may be fully underwater by the time we get
back next month.
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