PROJECT REPORT

We had another great weekend at the park. Fewer people showed up because of the holidays, final exams, and the cooler weather, but a great deal of good work was accomplished.

The project leaders and regular participants would like to extend a big welcome the new park superintendent. This park has been a special part of our lives for many years. No one knows the beauty of the park's natural resources better than the cavers, some of whom have studied them for more than a decade. We hope to work closely with the new superintendent and all of the rangers to further study and survey the park's cave resources for many years to come.

Team 1: Robin Havens, Andy Gluesenkamp, Melonie Alspaugh, Charley Savvas

Time: 7.5 hours * 4 people = 30 hours

This team made a historic connection between Horseshoe Chimney (SAB182) and Gorman Creek Crevice (SAB183). We have suspected this connection since we started analyzing the maps on the computer, but it seemed unlikely that it could be connected. This team added about 120 feet to the previous survey, tying into a blue flag from the GCC side. They set a couple of rock cairns to note the connection point. This connection extends the already-longest cave in the county.

Team 2: Dale Barnard, Liam Town

Time: 6 hours * 2 people = 12 hours

This team continued the survey of Grand Cedar Cave (SAB292). They encountered bad air just inside the entrance. They rigged a rope and descended about eight meters to a muddy floor. With headaches, nausea, and shortness of breath, they managed to spend five hours inside, setting 12 stations and completing about 50 meters of survey. The cave has many formations and is quite vulnerable to human impact. They tried to finish the cave, but the air quality made it difficult, so two small leads were left for another trip.

Team 3: Terry Holsinger and Curtis Vaughn

Time: 6 hours * 2 people = 12 hours

Saturday, after dropping off the release forms and a copy of the new Turtle Shell Map at the park headquarters, Terry Holsinger and Curtis Vaughn headed out to Lively Pasture so that Curtis could learn his way around. Since he is helping with the GIS data for the project, he felt that it would be important to get a better feel for the park. After a day hiking in the drizzle and rain they headed back to camp. I'm looking forward to seeing whether Curtis gets lost again.

Team 4: Felicia Vreeland, Paul Trowbridge, Brian Trowbridge, Leticia Trowbridge, Laura Rosales

Time: 4 hours * 5 people = 20 hours

This team visited Sweet Cave (SAB105) to write an extensive description. They encountered some surprisingly bad air in a little crawlway in the back.

Team 5: Travis Kinchen, Chris Sobin, Butch Fralia, Bear, the fetch magician, Travis Lanham

Time: 8 hours * 4 people = 32 hours

Keith and I had planned on doing some GPS work in the Lively Pasture area. Keith was trying to arrange for a 1 meter satellite DGPS system to work with our Garmin 12 GPS units. Travis Kinchen, his son Little Travis and Chris Sobin joined me in his stead. Travis and Chris were great contributors to the project when they were part of the A&M grotto. Chris has been back many times since leaving A&M but Travis has been pursuing other interests. They never had the opportunity to see much of the Lively area so it was an opportunity for them to see a new area of the park for them.

We all crowded into my Jeep Cherokee with Chris enjoying the attention of a large black lab in his lap. We drove to the southeast corner of the pasture and began with caves in that area.

The reason for the exercise was to retake readings on various caves with the Garmin 12 XL GPS. Many of the caves in the pasture were located using a Magellan 2000 GPS receiver that was sometimes squirrelly at best! The Garmin has proven more reliable in repeating measurements. Of course there’s a large difference in technology between the two units. The Magellan 2000 is a single channel receiver while the Garmin is a twelve channel parallel receiver.

Our first cave was SAB273, Coon Scat Cave. I took a GPS reading averaged for ten minutes at the entrance nearest the tag. Looking back through old notes, the entrance is located about fifty feet from the entrance. Looking back over the previous location data taken on the cave, they are very close to the readings from this weekend. The first readings on this cave were taken with the Garmin 12XL.

Moving to the opposite end of the fissure system, we located SAB291. I remember the entrance but not placing a tag on it in any previous visit. I haven’t taken location data on it in the past. I don’t find any information on it in my notes. I’m not sure if I’ve lost the data or someone else put the tag on the cave. Travis, Travis and Chris explored the cave and wrote a description on it. I assume it was turned over to Dale Barnard.

Closer to the fence corner, we visited SAB218 – Spider Web Cave. SAB218 previously belonged to another cave until a connection was discovered between it and another cave. A ten-minute GPS data average was performed.

SAB272 (Unnamed) is located very close to SAB218. Another ten minute GPS average was performed and that ended the fence corner survey.

It was time to move on to other caves. They move on to SAB186, Napolitos Cave. More GPS data taken, this time for fifteen minutes while Travis, Travis and Chris explored the cave.

The next cave was SAB185 – Ricotta Razor Rift. The cave was explored and GPS’d for 10 Minutes.

Moving on the next cave was SAB198 – Unnamed Cave #5, it was GPS’s but not explored.

We next began looking for SAB196 – Cenote de Carne. A large sinkhole was located in the approximate area of SAB196 but no entrance. They finally found an entrance with the tag SAB197 – Dog and Butterfly Cave. It was quickly explored and GPS’d. I said it was quickly explored. The explorers came out and started searching for SAB196 again while the GPS average was completed!

Travis, Travis and Chris were looking for the cave when I heard someone yelling. I saw Terry Holsinger standing with them, pointing down. I walked back over to the opposite side of the large sinkhole and found the missing entrance. I did the GPS thing while the cave was explored.

That ended the weekend. Saturday, they expended 32 hours toward the volunteer effort.

Cave Locations:

SAB185 – Ricotta Razor Rift

Overland Survey: XXXXXX XXXXXX