Participants: Terry Holsinger, Jerry Fant, Chuck Cluck, Rob Tait, Sara Dierk, Felicia Vreeland, Aaron Addison, Aimee Beveridge, David Turner, Derek Nash, Butch Fraila, Sharon Mastbrook, Ben Heuss, Chris Heuss, Keith Heuss, Jim Kennedy, Randy Brown, Andy Grubbs
 

This weekends weather was the clearest we have had this season. The cold front arrived as most participants were on there way to the park. Upon arrival all set up camp in the 28 degree, 20 mph wind weather. Most made an early night and headed to the warmth of there sleeping bags early. Saturday dawned clear and calm, is still cold. Other then a couple of stragglers who staid at a hotel in Lampasas, all had arrived in the night. This weather was a welcome change from the wet cold we have had on the last three trips. With spirits high the teams headed off to there respective tasks.

Team one was Jerry Fant, Chuck Cluck, Rob Tait, Sara Dierk, Felicia Vreeland. They were lead to SAB283 (Good ‘n Tight ) to begin the survey. The last attempt to survey this cave was stopped because of the cold rainy conditions on the surface and the cold water dripping onto the backs of the personal trying to enter the caves tight entrance chimney. The team surveyed the "downstream" part of the cave for a distance of 55 meters. They noticed a deer skeleton in the cave, as well as a pool containing some white "amphiod like critters". These are the "cave shrimp" that one of the (young) first explorers noted. It would appear that the pool these critters live in is indeed a permanent one. The cave continues beyond the end of survey. The team is planning on returning to this cave and finishing the survey on a upcoming trip (Feb 99).

Total hours for team: 25.0

Team Two was Aaron Addison, Aimee Beveridge, David Turner, and Derek Nash. This team went to survey SAB  ( Cavity Creep ). This cave had been surveyed by Joe Ivy around 1989, but the notes have been "lost" in the different moves since them, and never drafted into a map. They surveyed 36 meters in this basically straight down "pit" cave. The cave "sumped out" at the lowest point, and no one chose to investigate the "sumps" depth. Aimee gave the following geological observations: "The walls of the cave showed obvious signs of karstic breccia and calcite veins. Floor of cave in Massive ,light-gray to cream, limestone unit with washboard surfaces dipping towards the bottom of the cave."  The team then headed to SAB108 Turtle Shell to survey the room that was missed on the last survey.

Total hours for the team: 18.0
 

Team three was Randy Brown, Jim Kennedy, Andy Grubbs who after about a year-and-a-half hiatus, finally got back to SAB217 (Be Excellent). Their objectives were to mop up as many of the short side leads as possible, eventually making it back to the siphon to see if it may have opened up. This was Andy's first time in the cave, and he was pretty cautious through the entrance climbs, a couple of short, narrow fissures interrupted by a little breakdown constriction hammered open by the original explorers.  A brief spot of walking passage appears before two more short drops, easily chimneyable when they are not wet.  After that comes a couple hundred meters of hands-and-knees to belly crawl over chert cobbles.  Ouch.
This first part of the cave was extremely dry, and even the two big puddles you have to crawl through, Lake Erie and Lake Superior, were totally without water.  We first pounded on chert protrusions blocking a lead at the bottom of the drops, but even Randy couldn't get in (although he tried!).  It needs a little more work.  We then crawled down the passage to our first lead, a cross joint in the ceiling where you could actually stand up.  Three shots and it pinched out into a tiny little infeeder.  The second lead, about 15 meters farther down the passage, was another cross joint.  This one was much taller (over five meters), and actually turned into a bit of walking passage!  "A bit" are key words here, since this lead also became a too-tight infeeder.  This one actually took us six shots.
We abandoned our survey at that point to check the siphon.  Everything was so dry that we didn't want to trash ourselves with more miserable survey before getting to the siphon.  After a couple more climbdowns, including one sporty 10m muddy drop, the passage once again turns to cobble crawl in a really nice tube.  The problem is the damn thing ends in water.  The pool level had not dropped, despite the dryness of the cave.  The water was clear, so Randy, who carried in his dive mask, stripped and swam out to the siphon.  He made a couple of exploratory "dives", enough to see that the passage widened, the water remained clear, and there was no obvious air space.  This is a nice wide area with a pretty decent beach, and could really use an actual certified cave diver to check it out.  Hauling gear would be a little bitchy, but we could round up enough volunteers to make it worthwhile.
There is still at least one survey trip left, mopping up the Dark Side as well as the side leads around the pits in the back of the cave.  It doesn't look like it will connect easily to SAB182 (Horseshoe Chimney) and SAB183 (Gorman Creek Crevice), but a detailed map should show where to concentrate our efforts. And who knows what the dive might find?
Total hours for team:  21.0

Team four was Butch Fralia, Benjamin Heuss, Christopher Heuss, Keith Heuss, Sharon Mastbrook This team left camp at 10:00 am Saturday Morning for the residence pasture to verify the locations of three caves there. They collected GPS data on three caves with the following results from 10 minute data samples:

SAB230 - Cavern of Sonora
UTM Data: Zone Easting Northing E/delta ovland N/delta ovland
Overland Survey    XXXXXX
Keith Heuss (GPS) XXXXXX
Butch Fralia (GPS) XXXXXX

SAB229 - DD29
UTM Data: Zone Easting Northing E/delta ovland N/delta ovland
Overland Survey XXXXXXX
Keith Heuss (GPS) XXXXXXXX
Butch Fralia (GPS) XXXXXXXX

SAB258 - Cave By Roadway
UTM Data: Zone Easting Northing E/delta ovland N/delta ovland
Overland Survey XXXXXXXXX
Didn’t take long GPS averages because GPS indicated on top of cave.

 This activity took until lunch. After lunch, attempts were made to locate SAB221 - Rangers Walk. This cave has been visited a number of times but the location never established by GPS or Overland Survey. Spent the afternoon ridge-walking the area but could not relocate the cave nor were any new caves located. Team returned to camp as 5:30 p.m.
Total hours for team 37.5 hours.

Total hours for weekend: 101.5