PROJECT REPORT
Colorado Bend State Park Project
Project Date: February 9-11, 1996 Reported by: Dale Barnard
Person-hours: 188
Personnel: (24 folks)
Christopher Jagge, hoaiNam Nguyen, Christopher Moore, Shem Unger, Will Harris, Keith Heuss, Ben Heuss, R.D. Milhollin, Rafal Kedzierski, Dave Engelberger, Shawn Weinstein, Jeff Cloud, Eng-Shein Wu, Bruce Watson, Darren Baker, Dale Barnard, John Case, Stacy Case, Chris Hutson, Jim Kennedy, Patty Kennedy, Kevin Quindlen, Neely Jones, Terry Holsinger
We had another extremely productive trip with everyone participating in the work. It was a beautiful sunny day and some folks took advantage of the warm night to visit Gorman Cave. Christopher Jagge, hoaiNam Nguyen, Christopher Moore, Shem Unger, Will Harris, Keith Heuss, and Ben Heuss surveyed Crystal Crevice completely and then did some ridge walking which located what is likely a new cave. The new cave will be surveyed during a future trip. Their total time was 8 hours.
R.D., Rafal, Dave, Shawn, and Jeff spent 8.5 hours working in two caves. The first was formerly known as Cave that Rune showed us and was renamed to G-String Cave referring to what might happen to you as you try to enter the cave. It had too small of an entrance for most, but Rafal succeeded and surveyed the cave. In the meantime, R.D. started an overland survey. The second cave was formerly known as Cave by Rockpile and was renamed Emblem Cave, because the entrance is shaped like the NSS emblem. Everyone except Dave got inside the small entrance and participated in the survey.
Bruce and Darren spent 4 hours continuing the digging in Horseshoe Cave and made about 70 feet of progress beyond the East point. They notice more airflow and the cave continues to show promise. They again suggest a trash cleanup for the cave and more digging.
Dale, John, Stacy, and Chris Hutson spent 9.5 hours working in two caves. First, they finished up some cross-sections in Sweet Cave and pushed a lead in the back, which shows little promise. We then parked at the Lively Pasteur Trail Head and hiked in to SAB194 Sore Back Cave. We planned on finishing the remaining survey, which was expected to be minor. While I worked on straightening out some errors in a previous survey, Chris and John started climbing up a tall crevice. Before they knew it, they were crawling and chimneying through large new rooms full of beautiful formations. We found three chimneys that led back to other entrances, including SAB218 (mis-labled 213 on the topo), but none are passable. At one point, we can get within three feet of the entrance, but it is too small to exit this way. We contained our excitement to save it for next time when we will start surveying the new passages. We then finished surveying the original lead as planned. During the hike back to the car, we watched the first stars appear and by the time we reached the car, the night sky had become spectacular.
Jim, Patty, Kevin, Neely, and Terry spent 7 hours working mostly in Sour Cave and partly in Bitter Fissure. First, they easily opened up a new entrance to the cave, which is easier to enter. They continued surveying station 1 to B2 near the old entrance, digging part of it along the way before the passage ended. Jim located a new small room and a strongly blowing lead. They dug for about a body length and then abandoned it for a future trip. Terry and Jim then pushed another lead about 15 meters, which opened up in a low, wide room with several leads. Another good dig was left. They surveyed the rest of the passable areas of the cave and completed some overland survey between Sour, Sweet, and Bitter Caves. Then, they opened up Bitter Fissure. It has a good lead, but they were to exhausted to push it.