PROJECT REPORT

Colorado Bend State Park Project

Project Date: December 13-15, 1996, Reported by: Dale Barnard

Person-hours:, 138.5

Personnel: (17 folks)

Debbie Blackburn, Derek Nash, Byron Ziegler, Dale Barnard, Jim Kennedy, Bonnie Longley, Kevin Stafford, Andy Grubbs, Greg Almsted, Kathy Potter, Russ Johnson, Dave Jordan, Terry Holsinger, Eric Flint, Robert Albach, Chris Hall, Christie Rogers

Debbie's crew (Derek and Byron) spent 8.5 hours in Lively Pasture with a potpourri of objectives. They first spent four hours looking for SAB191 and Cave No. 6, but failed to find either one. However, they did do an overland survey connecting SAB217 to two unmarked karst features that they located on their last trip. One of the karst features is a diggable sink about 200 feet from SAB217.

Then, Debbie went to Cow Bone Cave to open up the entrance a little. Derek and Byron went to Sore Toe Cave to check the air quality. As Debbie politely reported, Derek and Byron were so excited to get in Sore Toe Cave that they completely "forgot" to survey it. Terry chewed them out when they got back to camp. They made one more futile search for SAB191, Centennial, and Cave No. 6 before returning to camp.

I spent 10 hours away from camp, the first part of which consisted of drawing a true profile of Sweet Cave using a computer-generated line plot. I saw two Eatern Pipistrelles in Sweet Cave. Then, I walked back to camp and then out to Lively Pasture where I recruited Chris Hall for help with surveying a small cave near SAB194. However, I managed to stay lost for about two hours, losing the sunlight in the process, before finally finding the cave. By the time I found the cave, we were tired and it was too late to survey it. Oh well. We then walked back to camp.

Jim's crew (Randy and Bonnie) spent an amazing 11 hours surveying 107 meters in Be Excellent, leaving more passage for future surveys. They also saw two Eatern Pipistrelles in the cave.

Kevin's crew (Andy, Greg, Kathy, and Russ) spent 8 hours in the upsream portion of Gorman Creek Crevice, although Dave, Russ, and Greg left after 5 hours. They surveyed another 40 meters of passage, leaving some small side leads to be surveyed. The passage finally ended with a soil plug.

Terry's crew (Eric, Robert, Chris, and Christie) spent 7 hours surface surveying around Gorman Creek Crevice. They first surveyed between 4 karst features (dig leads), all of which take a lot of water when the creek is flowing, but none were passable at this time (check back in a couple of years). Then, they survyed between Gorman Creek Crevice and Horseshoe Chimney and Be Excellent. Christie Rogers studied a geologic cross section at the entrance to Gorman Creek Crevice to see whether it relates to other caves in the area.

That evening, Terry, Eric, Derek, and Fred spent an hour taking Ed Young to Sour Cave to investigate its use as a tour cave. They saw two Eastern Pipistrelles in the cave.