Project Date: April 7-9, 2000
Reported by: Dale Barnard
Report Date: 5/13/2000
Person-hours: 221
Personnel: (22 folks)
| Dale Barnard | James Lopez | Lisa Rowan |
| Bill Castner | David Turner | Doug Mammoser |
| Jim Kennedy | Julia Germany | Felicia Vreeland |
| Erin Vreeland | Grace Borengasser | James Overfelt |
| Aimee Beveridge | Meredith Turner | Chris Vreeland |
| Terry Holsinger | Melonie Alspaugh | Russ Johnson |
| Curtis Vaughn | Susan Austin | Andy Gluesenkamp |
| Jason Richards |
This month, fewer people attended, possibly due to threatening
weather, but as has been the case this whole season, the weather turned
out wonderfully. A lot of survey was completed. Most people already had
projects lined up before they got here so very little organizing was needed.
Also this month, a bunch of volunteers came out to help out with
the Earth Day project, netting $700+ for the Friends of Colorado Bend State
Park organization and having a great time. The volunteer hours for this
event are not included on this report.
Team 1: James Overfelt, James Lopez, Bill Castner, Lisa Rowan, Rafal
Kedzierski
Time: 7 hours *4 people = 28 hours
This team went ridge walking and found a tagged grotto with a pour-off. Numerous karst features were found along the canyon and the intersection of the canyon where it “Y”s with another canyon within 0.25 miles of the river. They then removed a 300 lb. rock from an unnamed cave, leaving a 500 lb. rock for later. They toured Caroline’s Hole and surveyed with Rafal and James Lopez.
Team 2: Jason Richards, James Lopez
Time: 2 hours * 2 people = 4 hours
Late Saturday night, this team returned to Gorman Falls Cave and completed the resurvey sketch. They noted higher flow in the streambed than last time, along with poor air quality, but still passable.
Team 3: Melonie Alspaugh, Susan Austin, and Terry Holsinger
Time: 5 hours * 3 people = 15 hours
This team walked from Gorman Falls toward Sulfur Springs, recording features in the limestone cliff along the river. Melonie found one that qualifies as a cave. This was Susan’s first cave and she had the chance to see her first flowstone, first harvestmen, first cave crickets, and first scorpion. Melonie did a rough sketch. They plan to return to tag the cave.
Team 4: Curtis Vaughn, Russ Johnson, Andy Gluesenkamp
Time: 8.5 hours * 3 people = 25.5 hours
This team returned to the now-almost-dreaded Gorman Creek Crevice. When the got to the cave, they decided to forego the original plan of spending 12+ hours of work cleaning up survey at the back of GCC. Instead, they surveyed the digging lead that Jody Horton found on the previous trips. They surveyed approximately 70 meters of new passage to the point that the passage pinched and required more digging. However…it still goes……..
Team 5: Aimee Beveridge, David Turner, Grace Borengasser, Doug Mammoser,
Meredith Turner
Time: 6.5 hours * 5 people = 32.5 hours
This team hiked toward the feature SAB180 in Lively Pasture. They were looking for the new cave that they discovered in February that they called Great Dane’s Cave. They got to SAB180 and noticed that the marker was removed, but they found it on the ground by the big oak tree. They didn’t have a GPS (how shameful!) that would read ATM coordinates so they were not sure which way to go to get to Great Dane’s Cave. After 2 hours and a loop back toward SAB180, they decided to fan out toward the NW where they located it less than 200 feet from SAB180. They finished the survey of it by adding one extra survey point, checking three leads, and finishing the sketch. Now, they need to draft the map!
Team 6: Dale Barnard, Felicia Vreeland, Terry Holsinger
Time: 7 hours * 3 people = 21 hours
This team went trail building. They flagged new trail from the Gorman Cave tour parking area to a reflector on a post at the Sweet/Sour parking area. Cory said that the trail will likely be approved even though there is no master plan for the park.
Team 7: Dale Barnard
Time: 3 hours * 1 person = 3 hours
Dale returned to trail flagging on Sunday, completing another kilometer or so of trail. One or two more weekends should connect the trail to Lively Pasture.
Team 8: James Lopez, Jason Richards
Time: 1.5 hours * 2 persons = 3 hours
On Sunday, this team returned to the cave near the road where the new hiking trail crosses. They used a cable to remove a hazardous rock, but the cave did not seem to go very far beyond it. This pit qualifies as a cave, but not by much. James and James decided to call this Nylon Squeeze Pit.
Extra volunteer hours
In addition to the hours accumulated on this trip, an estimated 30 hours was spent during January on project-related activities. An additional 59 hours was spent commuting to and from the project. This brings the total hours for this month to 132 + 30 + 59 = 221.
What Should Be Done Next:
· Melonie’s crew should tag the new cave in the bluff along the
river, upstream from the falls.
· Curtis and Russ’ crew needs to survey past the pit in GCC
and continue the dig in Jody’s passage.
· Draft the map for Great Dane’s Cave.
· James Lopez needs to tag Nylon Squeeze Pit.