PROJECT REPORT

Colorado Bend State Park Project

Project Date: November 8-10, 1996 Reported by: Dale Barnard

Person-hours:, 324.75 (a record by far since I've been writing these reports)

Personnel: (44 folks)

Butch Fralia, Sharon Mastbrook, Keith Heuss, Benjamin Heuss, Mike Anderson, Mark Porter, Dennis Renner, Clint Otto, Justin Teagne, Pete Baron, Tina Schmid, Chris Jagge, Chris Moore, Johnathan Young, Linda Parisian, Bobby Lewis, Darren Case, Kevin W. Stafford, Andria Bilich, Joe Ivy, Eric Flint, Debbie Blackburn, Derek Nash, Chad Tywater, Gabe Nighswander, Byron Ziegler, Dale Barnard, Chris Hutson, Marcus Barksdale, Chris Heuss, Becky Jones, Tim Stich, Melonie Alspaugh, Rafael Kedzierski, Stacy Case, Elayna (Stacy's sister), Mark Garrett, Randy Brown, Jim Kennedy, Bev Shade, Jonathan Franklin, Mike Pearson, Jerri Pearson, Connie Sparks

The nice cool weather drew 44 cavers to the park for this month's project. Jim Kennedy and Dale Barnard organized the work crews this week since Terry Holsinger was away on another trip. Jim made copies of the topo maps, which allowed us to send out work crews to find their cave(s) themselves. With the amount of work being done this season, we are quickly overflowing our file box, but we've still managed to be fairly organized (so far). We are working on making a decision about how to reimburse the project leaders for some of their expenses. We have spent around $40 recently to make copies of project data and this expense will be on-going. We would also like to earn enough money to buy a Suunto Clinometer and a fiberglass tape to complete the set of TSA survey gear.

Dennis' crew (Clint and Justin) spent 4.25 hours finding and surveying SAB216. They made two good loop closures and found small vertebrate bones and dead snails. Both entrances to the cave are enterable, but one smells like a skunk. They completed the survey and said that there are no promising leads.

Pete's crew (Tina, Chris Jagge, Chris Moore, Johnathan, Linda, Bobby, and Darren) spent 7 hours working in several caves. While looking for SAB214 and SAB215, they located three more caves, none of which were marked. One turned out to be SAB214 (BFC). The other two were in the vicinity of SAB215, but no markers were found. They surveyed all three caves. Two cavers fell in BFC, one of them scraping a leg and the other twisting a knee. I do not have a report on the seriousness of the twisted knee, but I think that they walked back to the vehicles okay. BFC will require safety ropes on future trips.

Kevin's crew (Andria, Joe, and Eric) spent 10 hours working in the upstream portion of Gorman Creek Crevice. They continued the survey for about 55-60 meters past one major stream passage split. The left hand side of the split led through tight passage to a room 4m tall, 6m long, and 2-3m wide. It had two small infeeders located high in the room, but they are only about 1" in diameter. They found a little trash here that might have come from Horseshoe Chimney. The right hand passage at the split led for 30m further and ended in a mud-filled constriction in a maze area. One more trip to this upstream area will allow them to finish surveying the right fork of the upstream passage.

Debbie's crew (Derek, Chad, Gabe, and Byron) spent 8 hours working in several caves:

·, They said that Crippled Deer Cave (SAB201) is really just a Karst feature, but they surveyed it anyway.

·, Byron found Cow Bone Cave (SAB202) and Debbie managed to skinny down it with some trouble. If you know Debbie, you know that she is not kidding about how small this entrance is. At the bottom, there is an excellent dirt lead that opens into a wide chamber with a pit (10-15 feet deep?). It looks like Debbie is our only project regular who can fit in this cave so it sounds like she just volunteered herself to push this lead. They did a quick survey of the entrance and a profile view.

·, They then went to Varmit Trap Cave (SAB178) and Derek descended almost to the bottom, but had to turn around due to bad air. He managed to sketch a lot of it before he had to get out.

·, They then took a break and conducted a mini-rappelling and ascending clinic for Chad, Gabe, and Byron.

·, They then went to Earth Day Delight (SAB257), which they also said is more like a karst feature than a cave. They did an entrance sketch and vertical profile.

·, They found a small cave about 40m away from SAB217 at heading 300-degrees.

·, Then, Derek, Chad, and Debbie rappelled into SAB217 and followed it until they encountered some ropes, but instead of finding out where they go, they called it a day.

Dale and Chris spent 7.5 hours completing the survey of SAB194 (Sore Back Cave). We carried computer printouts into the cave and sketched the true profile of the cave. We found some data-entry errors, but were able to work around them. It was a cold and breezy and wet cave that day and we quickly learned just how great it would have been to have "Rite in the Rain" sketch paper instead of computer paper since it turned to mush. This completed the survey of the cave and now the map will be completed.

Marcus, Chris Heuss, and Becky spent 7.5 hours completing the survey of the downstream passage of Horseshoe Crevasse. Marcus reminded us several times that he prefers to take a break from this miserable cave next time: Narrow passages, broken glass, and shredded metal. They found a former bat roost approximately 4 feet squared. They surveyed approximately 45 feet of passage to a 12" passage with a chest nodule blocking the way. Pushing this passage further would require breaking rocks with hammers and very difficult digging. The upstream passage still needs to be surveyed.

Tim's crew (Melonie, Rafal, Stacy, Elayna, and Mark Garrett) spent 6.5 hours finding and surveying SAB181 (Parsley Pit). They spent 3.5 hours just trying to find several caves that were on the to-do list, but this was the only one they located.

Randy's crew (Jim, Bev, and Jonathon) spent 7 hours continuing the survey of Be Excellent Cave. They report many good leads that they did not push. Imagine a group of surveyers who actually survey everything they see and save the rest for later! Nice job!

Mike Pearson's crew (Jerri and Connie) spent 8.5 hours surveying overland between two caves which may be SAB211 and SAB 212. The caves did not fit the description, though, and had no tags. They connected the overland to the fire pit at the caver camp. Now, we can process the data and see which caves they are (if they are reasonably near camp, then surely they are already known).

Butch's crew (Sharon, Keith, Benjamin, Mike Anderson, and Mark Porter) spent 7 hours on Saturday collecting cave locations using three (yes, three!) GPS units. I imagine that we had more GPS units at the park than pocket calculators since the Aggies had one, too. They started in Gorman Falls Pasture and started searching outward from the Gorman Fissure System, trying to find Gorman Sink (without knowing what it looks like). They found the following caves:

·, GP01

·, GP02

·, GP03

·, GP04

·, GP05

·, SAB263: Little Labyrinth Cave

On Sunday morning, four of the cavers spent an hour checking caves SAB213, SAB211, and SAB212. They still need to relocate SAB211 and SAB212, but they took a GPS reading on SAB213 to compare it to the map. It showed that it was about 200m different on the northward measurement:

·, SAB213: Beginner's Luck Cave