PROJECT REPORT
Colorado Bend State Park Project
Project Date: May 10-12, 1996 Reported by: Dale Barnard
Person-hours: 173
Personnel: (25 folks)
Butch Fralia, Keith Heuss, Ernest Parker, William Chamney, Sharon Mastbrook, Robert Albach, Daniel Brown, Nico Hauwert, John Case, Diana ?, Jim Kennedy, Robin Cope, Christy Quintana, Summer Barber, Patty Kennedy, Dale Barnard, R.D. Milhollin, Chris Hutton, George Faust, Terry Holsinger, Sara Dierk, Debbie Blackburn, Derek Nash, Chad Tywater, Allan Adelman
We had a very productive final trip of the season with 25 people showing up. As usual, the day ended with sunburns and smiles and groaning about having to write trip reports. The storm on Friday intimidated us, but spared most of us from getting too wet. However, on Saturday morning, we found a flattened tent with three people missing. Thankfully, it turned out that they did not melt in the storm, but rather ended up in a motel for the night (for reasons not yet adequately explained!).
Dale's crew (Chris, John, and Debbie) spent 8.5 hours surveying 20 vectors for 49 meters in SAB194 Sore Back Cave. This included surveying as close to two day-lit passages as possible, but they are two small through which to exit the cave. The plan view of the cave can now be drafted, but a return trip will be necessary to finish the true vertical profile and to de-flag the cave.
Derek, Chad, and Allan spent four hours in Mystery Hole Cave pushing a lead that had previously been blocked by a dead animal. They pushed it about 40 feet, clearing 30-35 feet until they reached a 2-foot high room. They found another lead to push. We did not have enough sets of survey gear so the survey still needs to be completed.
William Chamney's crew (Jim, Daniel, Robert, and Nico) spent 5.5 hours in SAB246. At a pinch point between stations 7 and 8, Daniel had to turn back and instead joined the land survey crew (later in this report). The survey ended at station 12 and 15 at dead ends.
Daniel and crew (Christy, Diana, Summer, and Patty) spent 4.5 hours completing the overland survey between Cave of No Return and Sour Cave. Then, they visited to Sweet Cave so that they could get some caving in on this trip.
Terry and Sara spent 4.5 hours total organizing people. They showed the diggers where their cave was and showed the overland survey crew where to survey.
R.D.'s crew (Robin and George) spent 4 hours just trying to find SAB185. How's that for persistence? While roaming in Lively Pasture, they saw 12-15 tourists in sandals and sun hats peeking in the Gorman Creek Crevice entrance. They also found SAB198, 196 (needs plate reinstalled), 186 (large cricket population), 187 (could not get past initial restriction), and then looked up the hill and found several potential dig sites. Finally, they found 185, mostly by accident. They found several new small cave openings that have formed since the survey began. They also found several significant cave openings in the bed of Gorman Creek between the road crossing upstream of Gorman Creek Crevice and the area immediately downhill of SAB196. What a day!
Butch, Keith, Sharon and Ernest worked for two days, spending a total of 10 hours exploring the McLarrin Fissure System and collecting GPS location data. They were assisted for 4 hours by Dennis Burt, who came to the park with Dave Milhollin. They took GPS locations using Butch's and Keith's Magellan GPS-2000 receivers on 13 fissures that at least met the minimum definition for a cave. They took ten samples at each location, one minute between samples and estimate that they achieved an accuracy of within 50 meters. The data is included with this trip report as MFC01- MFC13. Dennis, Keith, and Ernest rappelled into MFC02 late Saturday evening. It has a small sink-hole entrance and drops about 25 feet to a small room with some very small stalactites and flowstone.
Keith and Ernest also rappelled into MFC10 on Sunday morning. It has an 8 foot by 4 foot