My team was the first to enter while survey group H did a little surface walk to try avoiding a total traffic jam in the entrance crawl. Either we goofed off to much at the entrance, or the others following were too impatient, but they caught up to us around the awkward 30 degree sloping crawlway to heaven. The crawl for myself was made more awkward then normal because beyond my normal survey gear I was hauling my vertical gear and 150' of 11mm rope by my ankle up that crawl. Next time I haul anything through that crawl I plan to wear a harness to allow me to drag my pack by hips. My gear dragging leg was a bit worn out after the crawl haul.
At the F10 junction room the teams parted ways and we began surveying to the fabled “vertical” section. The first shot out of that room was an awkward 10' shot at minus 33 degrees into a squeeze. Not an easy shot for Dave's first, and Ava's second survey trips. They did a good job though and improved as we got deeper into the cave. When we came to the vertical section, Dave D. had suggested we turn around, and go to one of our other leads, but Brian didn't hesitate to cross the traverse. Part of the goal for this trip was to acess the quality of the old bolts and install new ones if necessary. When Brian crossed, he used the old rope already in place while I used a munter hitch to belay him across. When he determined the bolts were safe, we tied the new rope off at both ends to provide redundancy to the questionable original rope. After setting the rigging, Brian helped both Dave and Ava construct makeshift harnesses and cowstails so we could cross the ~18' pit. Dave, Ava and I continued surveying in our first walking passage of the day while Brian dropped the pit to see where it went. The other side of the traverse was worth the gear haul. Our first walking survey passage of the day, some nice formations, and an excellend lead can be found on the other side of this traverse.
We exited around 10:45pm. The other team had apparently left a couple hours earlier, leaving us a note in the junction room. By leaving early, they dined on Mexican food, while we were stuck with Sonic. Brian drove home that night and hopefully got some much needed rest. We stayed up rather late inputting data so we could talk stats and gawk over how much the cave grew. Thanks to everyone who joined this trip. Dave and I will let everyone know our plans as soon as we select a date for the next trip. Perhaps then we will have the fabled three survey teams we've been dreaming of.
Stats:
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Total Included Excluded
Survey Length Shots Length Shots Length Shots Ave.Len.
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G 421.5 ft 27 421.5 ft 27 0.0 ft 0 15.6 ft
H 372.8 ft 32 372.8 ft 32 0.0 ft 0 11.7 ft
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Number Of Files= 1 Station Aliases= 0
Number Of Surveys= 8 Number Of Stations= 153
Included Shots= 153 Excluded Shots= 0
Ignored Shots= 0 Number Of Loops= 1
Absolute Stations= 0 Purged Stations= 0
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Included Length= 2086.0 Feet 635.8 Meters 0.40 Miles
Excluded Length= 0.0 Feet 0.0 Meters
Total Surveyed= 2086.0 Feet 635.8 Meters 0.40 Miles
Horizontal Length= 1981.9 Feet 604.1 Meters 0.38 Miles
Horizontal Excluded= 0.0 Feet 0.0 Meters
Cave Depth= 101.2 Feet 30.8 Meters
Pictures taken by Brian Williams with a simple point and shoot camera:
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| Sinkhole entrance w/ cow skull |
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| Very small bat jaw in a dry pool. Notice the dime for scale. |
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| Ava looked happier than the rest of us in all of Brian's pictures. |
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| Can you tell us anything about this troglodyte? A Cold Sink original perhaps? |
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| The traverse |
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| Rimstones are delicious! |
