Project Date:  March 9-12, 2000

Reported by:  Dale Barnard

Report Date:  3/15/2000

Person-hours:  329

Personnel: (38 folks)
 

Aaron Addison	Brandey Johnson	Brian Trowbridge
Brian Gaas	Christy Sylvan	Cristina Arriens
Dale Barnard	Dan Swain	David Ekrut
Dennis Renner	Derek Nash	Eric Flint
Howard Haddock	Ignacio Ruiz	James Overfelt
James Lopez	James Ekrut	Jeff Farroni
Jesus Alberto Sanchez	Jim Kennedy	Jody Horton
Justen Ellis	Keith Heuss	Kevin Tolly
Letesia Trowbridge	Micheline Young	Paul Trowbridge
R.D. Milhollin	Rafal Kedzierski	Richard Sultana
Rosanne Larson	Sean Young	Terry Holsinger
Tony Sultana	Travis Scott	Troy Castillo
Will Harris	Ed Young

 

 Friday evening in San Saba, Texas, a Friends of Colorado Bend State Park meeting was held. Cavers in attendance were Keith Heuss, Pat Copeland, Dale Barnard, and Terry Holsinger. Representing the park was superintendent Cory Evans and ranger Zane. Several local residents attended, including fire fighters and law-enforcement officers. While we had hoped that more locals would attend, three local San Saba residents were elected as the first officers of the organization. The Friends organization will allow funds earning during fund-raising activities to be given directly back to the park, as seen fit by the organization's members, instead of being sent to the central parks office where it is divided amongst all the parks. The first significant fundraising activity will be the Earth Day celebration on April 22, 2000.

 After several cavers were caught unprepared for the chilly nighttime temperatures on Friday night, by Saturday morning, the sun had come out and the weather turned out to be beautiful, although still somewhat chilly throughout the day. Terry Holsinger spent most of the day discussing cave resources with superintendent Cory Evans while the rest of the cavers completed a variety of projects in many parts of the park.
 Many people are included on more than one team in this trip report, proving that we can all wear more than one hat in life.

Team 1: Dale Barnard, Keith Heuss, Derek Nash, Christy Sylvan
Time: 6.5 hours * 4 people = 26 hours

 This team spent Saturday flagging the proposed hiking trail. They completed about 1.5 miles of new trail locations. An effort was made to find a route that is accessible to mountain-bikes. They believe that a mountain-biker of medium skill would only have to get off of a bike two or three times along this stretch of trail. Once approved, the trail will need to be cut with chainsaws, cleaned up by moving rocks, and the cut branches will need to be removed. Hopefully, this effort can be completed with the help of several volunteer groups. Approximately 2 miles of trail still needs to be flagged so that Lively Pasture can be connected to the river zone at the park office entirely by footpath.

Team 2: Dale Barnard, Will Harris, Paul Trowbridge, Brian Trowbridge
Time: 3 hours * 4 people = 12 hours

 On Sunday, this team went to the Red Gate area and tagged several karst features and one cave.

UTM NAD27
SABK031 only a few meters from Upper Goldmine XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SABK032      XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB304      XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SABK033      XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SABK034      XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Team 3: James Lopez, Rafal Kedzierski, James Overfelt
Time: 8 hours * 3 people = 24 hours

 This team followed the road to Gorman Cave and checked a karst feature near the Red Gate. Rafal and James crammed their bodies into it and had to be pulled out of the hole by a rope. Remember: We are professionals here. Don't try this at home.
 Bushwhacking to the east, they came upon a cave found by James Overfelt. It had a nice entrance that was very obscure. They mapped it as a loop, entering through one hole, hitting the floor, following horizontal passage, and then returning to the surface through a second entrance. They report nice speleothems. When the encountered Team 1, who was plotting the hiking trail, they got a new SAB tag and a karst feature tag from Dale. They went back and tagged the cave as SAB303.
 They then found two karst features. They tagged one as SABK036, but did not have a tag for the other.

Team 4: Will Harris, Aaron Addison, Travis Scott, and Kevin Tolly
Time: 7 hours * 4 people = 28 hours

 This team went to Hernia Hole (SAB251) and surveyed most of it. They used ropes to reach the bottom of a drop and completed 19 shots (survey shots, I hope). They encountered bad air in a 6-foot pit in the lowest part of the cave.

Team 5: Tony Sultana, Richard Sultana, R.D. Milhollin, Phil Sanders, Jesus Alberto Sanchez, Ignacio Ruiz
Time: 5 hours * 6 people = 30 hours

 This team pushed passage past the last survey station in Nila's VFC. They identified more passage, a room, and a drop in the room to a lower level. One crawlspace was required to traverse to enter the room. They plan to return to dig a bit, use a rope to haul their packs through a sump, and complete more survey.

Team 6: Jim Kennedy, Walter Pickett, Brandy Johnson, Dan Swain
Time: 7.5 hours * 4 people = 30 hours

 This team went to Close Shave Cave and surveyed approximately 42 meters, completing it. Then, they visited several caves for familiarization, including Pearson's Lost Cave, Biscuit Can Cave, Turtle Shell Cave, Snake Charmer, and Sweet Cave.

Team 7: Justen Ellis, Eric Flint, Jody Horton, James Ekrut, David Ekrut
Time: 7 hours * 5 people = 35 hours

 This team returned to Gorman Creek Crevice to push the virgin passage that Jody found last month. They doubled the new passage and it is still going. Small children are the preferred explorers for this low passage.

Team 8: Jim Kennedy, Terry Holsinger, And Rafal Kedzierski
Time: 1.5 hours * 3 people = 4.5 hours

 On Sunday, this team walked the ridge above camp and tagged Close Shave Cave with SAB294 and Pearson's Lost Cave with SAB290. Then, they tagged a big sink that has bones that is upstream from Pearson's Lost Cave with SABK019. Then, they tagged a big fissure sink that is perpendicular to the creek, located downstream from Close Shave Cave, with SABK020. They tagged Camp Sink (near camp) with SABK018. Finally, they went down the camp ridge to relocate Blue Ribbon Fissure, Puberty Pit, and A Mother Pit.

Team 9: Dennise Renner, Brian Gaas, Jeff Farroni, Tina Arriens, and Sean Young
Time: 6.5 hours * 5 people = 32.5 hours

 This team drew entrance sketches, took entrance photos, and took GPS readings for the following caves: SAB186, 187, 196, 195, 198, 185, 197, 218, 194, 193. They found an unmarked dig, which they photographed and GPS'ed. They wrote descriptions for several caves, but the notebook was lost somewhere while walking (sure...likely story). This was their first time in the area so they plan to return to continue their work.

UTM NAD27
SAB185 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB186 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB187 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB193 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB194 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB196 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB198 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB218 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Dig lead XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
SAB195 XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Brief descriptions, recalled from memory:

SAB187:

 Entrance blocked by tree. 1.5' wide x 5' wide x 20' vertical. Pinched off after 5' of depth.

SAB196:

 15' vertical crevice by 20' long and 2' wide. Down hole 6' x 2' and then into flat room with 3' ceiling x 18' diameter. 7x5' hole in the center goes down 7'. 1 passage 15' 'L' room with ripple rock. 1 passage under ledge to tunnel room 6x6' down into stream passage (possible continue off to right (.5 feet deep)

SAB186:

 15' vertical x 6' wide. Goes down 6' crawl into room 12' x 3' x 7'. Crickets and bats. Cave mouse

SAB198:

 12' tight chimney into 6' x 10' room.

SAB197:

 14' opening x 6' wide. Drops into 1 room. Nothing special.

Team 10: Ed Young, Micheline Young, Eric Flint, James Lopez, Rosanne Larson, R.D. Milhollin, Jesus Alberto Sanchez, Ignacio Ruiz, and one unidentified caver
Time: 3 hours * 9 people = 27 hours

 This team formed on Sunday, the only time that Ed Young could be there. He ended up with plenty of help, despite the late notice. Here is Ed's report:

 Left TSA camp Sunday morning at 10am. Parked at upper gold mine (with park staff approval) due to large amount of gear required for project. Ed, Mich, Eric, James and Rosanne hiked in gear and met tour in progress just past second entrance of Gorman Cave. Ed informed Park Ranger Kevin and tour group as to nature of project. A lead line was tossed over a natural rock bridge, in order to pull the main rope over. This accomplished and rope anchored, Ed ascended some 30' to the top of the natural bridge. The natural bridge is covered with an 8" thick layer of red clay, which the rope sinks completely through. This makes it very difficult getting ascenders onto the top of the bridge. Dewalt Hammer drill, 3/8" bits, 5 Piece Rawl Carbon Steel bolts with SMC hangers, hammer and wrench were then passed up. To keep the rope out of the mud on the next ascent, an anchor was set on the wall 3' above the bridge. The mud runs up the steeply sloped wall above the main passage to a height of approximately 6'. Only two more anchors were set due to time restrictions, steep, muddy conditions, and awkward positions limiting leverage.
 The next attempt will be to attach etriers to the highest bolt, which is just below a potentially climbable section of the crevice. If this section can be climbed, it appears possible to walk horizontally across another natural bridge, approximately 20' back towards the entrance of the cave where the crevice is wider and continues upward and downward to the main floor. The top of this natural bridge is approximately 40 - 45' above the main floor, and it appears that the crevice continues from there another 45' vertically. Additional bolting may be required from the second natural bridge.

Extra volunteer hours

 In addition to the hours accumulated on this trip, an estimated 50 hours was spent during January on project-related activities. An additional 30 hours was spent commuting to and from the project. This brings the total hours for this month to 249 + 50 + 30 = 329

What Should Be Done Next:

• Dale still needs to tag some karst features in the Red Gate area.
• Flag lots more hiking trail.
• James Lopez' crew needs to finish surveying the SAB303 and tag another karst feature near the newly-flagged hiking trail.
• Will Harris' crew needs to finish the survey of SAB251.
• Tony Sultana's crew needs to return to Nila's VFC to dig and survey more.
• Jim Kennedy's crew needs to tag Close Shave and Pearson's Lost Cave before they are lost.
• A team needs to survey the new passage in Gorman Creek Crevice and Jody's crew will continue to dig and push it.
• Ed Young will push his bolted lead in Gorman Cave.