Colorado Bend State Park Project

Project Date: March 8, 2003

Reported by: Terry Holsinger

Report Date: June 4, 2003

Person-hours: 214.5

Personnel: (18 folks) Mark Gee, Keith Heuss, Dale Barnard, Ron Rutherford, Terry Holsinger, Bobby de Vos, Butch Fralia, Logan McNatt, George Kegley, Jim Kennedy, Jody Horton, Mark Harlow, Scott Boyd, Julia Germany, Bill Tucker, Milo Marks, Silas Wright, Sharon Mastbrook

Travel hours: 86.0

Team one was Mark Gee, Milo Marks and Bill Tucker. They headed across the river and preceded to Chock Stone Cave were they started and finished the survey of the cave. They then proceeded to another close by cave and were unable to fit into the small entrance, so they looked for caves on their way back to the river. Nothing was found. They then visited Icebox Cave on the drive back to camp, noticing 9 pips.

Total field hours: 25.5

Team Two was Jim Kennedy, Jody Horton, Mark Harlow. Julia Germany, and Scott Boyd. The team returned to SABK20 Black Eye Pit to continue their widening of the entrance. After about four hours the entrance was finally large enough to gain entry. This feature turns out to be only a 3.2-meter drop to a very small drain that would require too much energy to try and enlarge. The feature is tagged, and a gps location was recorded.

The team returned back to camp for lunch and then headed down the old road towards Gorman Falls to survey Tire Eater Cave and Ankle Biter Cave. Both were just barely qualifiers for cave status. Both were tagged with their names as the team did not know what SAB number was to be used next. They next went to Puberty Pit, joined by Ron Rutherford and Bobby de Vos. While the main group visited Puberty Pit, Jim and Jody visited another dig lead that Jim had left and continued to work on it. They did not tag this feature and it is still a dig. They team then returned to camp/

Total hours for this team: 33.5

Team Three was George Kegley, Logan McNatt, and Julia Germany. This team went to Gorman Cave to continue the Historic Graffiti survey, started in 1996 by the TPWD Archeological survey. They worked the area just past the “Bath Tub” and into the “Big Room”. They photographed and made dotes of the graffiti found, the oldest of which is from 1870. Data is with TPWD Cultural Resources Program by way of George Kegley.

Total Hours for this team: 18.0

Team Four was Bobby de Vos and Ron Rutherford. This team was sent to three caves to generate written description. The caves they visited were: SAB 211, SAB 212 (Danny’s Carlsbad Connection) and SAB 213 (Beginners Luck). They managed to find all three caves and complete this task. Data will be entered into the database at a later date.

Total hours for this team was: 16.0

Team Five was Keith Heuss, Butch Fralia, and Scott Boyd. Last month,(February 2003) Cory Evans mentioned that he needed some video work done for the wild cave tours. Butch and I volunteered to do the video work for him during the next work project trip. March, we were ready to do the video, so we showed up at the main office at the river around 10:30 AM on Saturday morning. I hadn't coordinated with Cory before the weekend, so we missed him than. We drove to his house and talked to him for a little about the video. It was decided to do some video on the Gorman Cave tour on Sunday.

After lunch, we had some time to do some GPS work. Butch showed up this weekend with his new Garmin Etrex GPS with WAAS capability. We tried it out at Railroad Crowbar Cave and nearby Cavity Creep Cave. We got a good GPS, however we did not get a WAAS lock at these locations. Next, we got several POL readings on the railroad bed near the two caves. Again, we did not get a WAAS lock. We were back at camp at 4:00 PM.

Total Hours for this team was: 11.5

Team Six was Keith Heuss, Butch Fralia, Mark Gee, Susanne Ross, Madeleine Ross, and Ben Wright. On Sunday, we met ranger John Byrd at the Gorman Cave tour parking lot. Butch and I did video work from that point. We got some video of the hike to the cave as well as his talks at the several stops. In the cave, Mark, Susanne and Ben held 50 Watt video lights for Butch and I to light the cave up. After taping in the cave, we headed back at our own pace. Butch got a GPS reading on both entrances to Gorman Cave. Next, we stopped by the Upper Gold Mine and got a GPS on it. Next we did a GPS on Red Gate Cave. Neither GPS had WAAS active during the reading. All of the GPS readings will be put into the locations spreadsheet. After the weekend, Butch contacted me and said that we had some good video to work with. Butch will be editing the video to a VHS tape.

Total Hour for this team was: 24.0