Mammoth Cave Restoration Camp, Aug. 1-7, 2005 The Bridge is Out! Bonnie Curnock said it so well on her T-shirt design for the camp. The 1100-foot long creosote wooden bridge above the Echo River is completely gone. At the beginning of the week 130 feet of bridge remained. On Wednesday the last 4 feet were removed with great celebration by everyone involved! Work began in 1997 and now, thanks to this year's camp of 51 cavers from 9 states and one from Germany, the nasty environmental hazard is gone. Our group included 10 scouts and leaders from Troop 807 from Shelbyville, Indiana. These scouts were real workers and fit in well with the old time cavers. John Vargo, along with his wife and one daughter, Ruth, was there all week. Years ago he invented the famous Vargo Tool to help remove the bridge posts. John's invention greatly cut down the time required to remove the posts that were deeply buried in mud and water. Other than the continuing dedication by all of the volunteers, the Vargo Tool was the reason this project was ultimately successful. You have never seen anyone work with more enthusiasm, except maybe Steven Peterson, who was right in there with John all week. All of the biota in the cave should be happy.
We were surprised that the project was completed so quickly. Rick Olsen and Roy Vanhoozer realized on Tuesday that we would be done on Wednesday. Everything was removed except for the last four feet that were left for a photo-op session on Wednesday afternoon. Acting Park superintendent, Bruce Powell, came to see the site and expressed his appreciation. Later Bruce said that an estimated 59,000 caver working hours were required to remove the bridge. At an entry level maintenance salary that was worth $900,000. Bruce noticed some wood in the water and when he mentioned this, Rick Olson said that yes, of course, we were going to try to remove all of that also. So, later in the week part of the group got back into the water to extricate as much as possible. Some people stood at the end of the metal catwalk and directed the cavers in the water to the submerged wood. Another group was sent on a search for creosote wood down the Echo River. The main section of Echo River was about 45 feet wide and 15-20 feet high with wall to wall water about knee to waist deep. Imagine that, a checkout of the main drain. Not many get to go there these days. Along the way we observed many white crayfish and some large (3 inch long) white blind fish. This was heartening because the health of the ecosystem was the whole reason for this project, and there they were, thriving in the river. We also located a cache of unused wood downstream on a high sand bar. One afternoon I talked to the ranger leading the Sand Cave Ranger talk. He told me that there were four boat docks on Echo River when they were running the boat tours. His first job at Mammoth Cave was returning the empty boats to the starting dock for the all day trip. After the tourists reached Cascade Hall by boat they would continue on foot and come out the Frozen Niagara entrance. He would take the empty boats back for another tour to use. If not "The Bridge is Out!" another slogan for the week could have been "The ferry is down!" This was the first thing that most of us encountered as we joyously drove toward the ferry. What did that sign back there say? Ferry closed to RV Traffic? Well, OK, it's always closed for RV's. But no, when we got to the river crossing, the gate was across the road and a sign said the ferry was closed. In fact, the ferry was grounded on the river bank and shut down all week due to the low water level of the Green River. This meant an extra 45-minute drive each way, every day, for everyone. Ouch. We discovered that we could easily wade across the Green River since it was less than waist deep. We went swimming there several times and that was fun, but with the ferry out of service, everyone except waders had to drive around through Brownsville each morning and afternoon. By the way I found out that the original ferry location was further up-river on the road that goes by the Historic entrance. We thought about renting a canoe on Sunday to float from Dennison Ferry to Mammoth Cave Ferry but we went nature watching around Sloan Crossing Pond instead. We observed a huge snapping turtle, many frogs and several varieties of damsel and dragonflies. Monday night just before dark a bicyclist rode into Maple Springs. She was exhausted from an extra 30 mile loop that she had ridden that day, a result of bad information about the best route to the main park campground from a local lady. She rode by Maple Springs and noticed some tents, so she turned around to check it out. I was the first person she encountered and she explained to me that she just wanted a safe place to sleep for the night. With Roy Vanhooser's OK she pitched her tent in the yard. Later she told us of her travels. Katrin teaches English in Germany. She loves to travel in the states where she once was an exchange student She started her journey visiting her old host family in Wisconsin and she bicycled from there to Mammoth Cave, the ultimate goal for her trip. She was very interested in our project and asked if she could help us. She ended up staying and working with us the whole week. Everyone enjoyed Katrin's enthusiasm for the project. She loved to tell us, "This is not work, this is FUN!" This year the reward-educational trips were simply the best. During the week cavers were able to tour Adwell, Dogwood, Great Onyx, New Discovery, and the Floyd Collins Crystal Cave. No one could ever remember such a fantastic variety of trips since the restoration work began. The trip into New Discovery was to the most decorated part of the cave, "they say." On Saturday 12 lucky cavers made the trip to Floyd's Lost Passage. This may be the most famous trip in the system due to the book, The Caves Beyond by Joe Lawrence and Roger Brucker. That book is the highly recommended story of the Floyd Collin's Crystal Cave exploration in 1954, the C-3 Expedition. I was scheduled to be on the Lost Passage trip but I woke up with a pulled muscle or pinched nerve in my left side and that did not clear up until the afternoon. Those cavers returned after an 11-hour trip all saying it was their best trip ever. 5 hours in and 2 � hours out. The rest of us took an interesting tour of the upper part of Crystal Cave led by Kenna and Taylor of the Park Service. We were all amazed at how hard Floyd and his brothers had worked to develop this great cave for tourists. The improvements on the Crystal Cave ticket office that Floyd built himself in 1921 are mostly complete. During the week I purchased and read most of the book on The Life and Death of Floyd Collins by his brother Homer Collins as told to Jack Lehrberger in 1995 and printed in 2001. I highly recommend this book for an interesting insight on Floyd. By the way the new book by Angelo George is a must read. It is titled Mammoth Cave Saltpeter Works. On my copy Angelo wrote "Mammoth Cave is an honorary Western Kentucky Cave!" So remember to buy a copy of the Western Kentucky Speleological Survey Report 1985-2005. It includes partial details of 100 miles of cave survey and not many groups can claim that landmark. In anticipation of the Mammoth Cave boardwalk project's completion, volunteers who had attended previous camps were invited to the banquet on Friday night. It was great to see all of them. John Fry came in for the event and everyone was glad that he could make it. After dinner we had our annual awards ceremony. The park service gave everyone very nice hats with "Volunteer" on them and also very classy coffee cups inscribed with "2005 Mammoth Cave Restoration Field Camp. 17 Years of Blood, Sweat, And Cheer." The cups also have both the NPS logo and the NSS logo on either side of the inscription. The volunteers will treasure these gifts and it is clear to us that the Park Service put quite a bit of effort into them and that our volunteer effort is appreciated. Thanks to Rick Olson, Bob Ward, and Bruce Powell of the Park Service and Roy Vanhoozer, Larry Matiz, Kevin Betz, and all of the other cavers for the satisfying week. The work was very fulfilling and the reward trips were the best ever. Thanks also to Patty and Shawn from Lexington. They were our cooks for the week and their meals, the cookout, and the banquet on Friday evening were all fantastic. And last, the Mammoth Cave Restoration Group received the NSS Group Conservation Award at the 2005 Huntsville Convention. Shari and I highly recommend joining the Mammoth Restoration week long camp, the first week of August, or one of the 3 weekend camps each year, the first weekend of November, March , and May. There are a limited number of openings for each camp so sign up early. Contact Roy Vanhoozer at [email protected] Cavingly, Preston and Shari Forsythe To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to mailto:[email protected] with the following message--unsubscribe cavetex. For help and information go to www.cavetex.net. List administrator: mailto:[email protected]
