Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips December 06

Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips December 2006
Sequiota Cave December 3	Alicia Beard Jon Beard	Alicia and Jon Beard visited the entrance environs to Sequiota Cave (Greene County) to photograph icicles. They were quite surprised to see the cave stream flowing a bright brick red color due to large quantity of suspended clay.
Kiesewetter Cave December 9	Eric Hertzler Jason Hardinger Bryan Cook, LOG Ken Long, LOG Bill Gee, KCAG Jay Kennedy, KCAG	Eric Hertzler was assisted by LOG members Bryan Cook and Ken Long in the survey of Hartwig’s Paradise and upper passage beyond in Kiesewetter Cave (Pulaski County). A second team of Bill Gee (KCAG) and Jason Hardinger (SPG) assisted Jay Kennedy (KCAG) in the survey of a passage leading to the 87 Room. Nearly 300 feet was mapped, bringing the total survey thus far to 1578.5 feet.
Smallin Cave December 10	Jon Beard Roy Gold Bob Taylor	Jon Beard and Roy Gold assisted Bob Taylor in continuing survey work in the Smallin Cave (Christian County) system, this time working on the Jeff entrance side of the system. Beginning at the Connection Crawl, they surveyed north and east to the largest of a number of offset dome rooms characterizing the Jeff section of the cave. Several photographs were taken of cave passage and closeups of biota that included a bristly cave crayfish, an adult grotto salamander, pickerel frog and fungi growing on a large rotting tree trunk washed in by storm water.
Rio Frio Cave (Belize) December 10	Bob Harvey Diane Kelsay Luis Godoy, Belizean	Bob Harvey (SPG) and Luis Godoy guided 8 North Americans on a photographic outing in Rio Frio Cave near St. Augustine in Belize. The cave is about 1/3 mile long and about 120 feet in diameter – a large tunnel – with a perennial stream running through it. Due to abnormally heavy rains, the stream was flowing at more than 20 times its usual volume. The rains also created a steady flow of water onto a massive flowstone, cascading from there onto usually dry but extensive rimstone terraces and also as a series of 15 foot high waterfalls.
St Herman's Cave (Belize) December 12	Bob Harvey Diane Kelsay Luis Godoy, Belizean	Diane Kelsay, Bob Harvey (SPG) and Luis Godoy guided 8 North Americans on a photographic outing to St. Herman’s Cave in St. Hermans Blue Hole National Park in Belize. This cave has a set of concrete steps at the entrance sinkhole and a marked trail for the first half mile of the cave. Due to ongoing rains and high water most of the group contented themselves with photography at the cave entrance where they found at least 10 large colonies of webworms dangling from the ceiling. Some of the group, led by Bob and Luis, traversed through a flooded trail just inside the entrance and continued for about ¼ mile into the cave where they photographed a large column. Waist deep water (clear and rising) and a strong current dissuaded the group from venturing further.
Sequiota Cave December 14	Melvin Johnson Waylon Cavinder (Park Board) Matt Forir (Park Board) Kara Warren (Park Board) Dave Grant, MSU Jess Heugel, News Leader Wes Johnson, News Leader Matt Kenner, WCO Mike Kromry, WCO	SPG member Melvin Johnson of the Springfield-Greene Co. Park Board led a canoe trip into Sequiota Cave (Greene County) to study the brick red silted cave stream. With Melvin were Waylon Cavinder, Matt Forir and Kara Warren also of the Park Board, Dave Gaunt of MSU, Jess Heugel and Wes Johnson of the Spfd News-Leader and Matt Keener and Mike Kromrey of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks. What they found was a new 10-18" silt deposit in the main stream channel, fed by an input into the eastern tributary stream. The spill is ongoing and has lasted the entire month. As a result it represents a threat to aquatic species including the bristly cave crayfish. It is suspected that the source may be due to a natural collapse or subsidence event or perhaps a broken water main. Due to the lack of organic material found in the silt, it is assumed that surface activity is not directly tied to the siltation.
Rhodes Spring Cave December 14	Lawrence Ireland Leo Thompson	Lawrence Ireland and Leo Thompson visited Rhodes Spring Cave (Douglas County) to see if Lawrence could crawl into the cave and check it out. However, the volume of water was up too high and the entrance was partially sanded in. A future trip is planned to try again.
Crystal Caverns December 16	Bonnie Curnock Bill Heim Bonnie Howard Jack Rosenkoetter	Bonnie Curnock, Bill Heim, Bonnie Howard and Jack Rosenkoetter visited Crystal Caverns in Barry County where Bill Heim repaired the vandalized door to the cave. They also saw much of the cave, giving Bonnie C the opportunity to see the former show cave. No new vandalism was noted in the cave despite the damage to the door.
Watterson Cave December 17	Jon Beard Charley Rey Anita Baughman (friend)	Jon Beard, Charley Rey and friend Anita Baughman visited Watterson Cave in Wright County. The lock on the gate had been cut by vandals, but otherwise the gate was in good shape. They climbed down into the cave and found no vandalism. Photographs were taken of the cave including its bizarre "soda mites". They descended into the unmapped lower level and explored about 250 feet of that level before climbing back out.
Sequiota Cave December 17	Charity Gramm Eric Hertzler Ron Martin	Charity Gramm, Eric Hertzler and Ron Martin briefly visited Sequiota Cave (Greene County) to see that after at least two weeks, bright brick red silt is still being carried by the cave stream into Long Lake outside.
Bols Museum Cave (Belize) December 17	Bob Harvey Diane Kelsay Luis Godoy (Belizean)	Diane Kelsay, Bob Harvey (SPG) and Luis Godoy went on an inspection visit to a cave in Belize discovered in 1986. Bols Museum Cave (gated) begins with a 15 foot vertical drop and then travels some 100 feet with several side chambers and passages. After continuing downward on a steep incline about 40 feet to a "main chamber" the ceiling is 40-50 feet high with numerous active speleothems. Several of the passages had been artificially terminated by the Maya using piles of limestone rubble. The main feature of the cave was numerous alcoves full of a great variety of Mayan artifacts. There were also skeletal remains of at least two individuals.
Crystal Cave (Belize) December 18	Bob Harvey Diane Kelsay Luis Godoy (Belizean)	Diane Kelsay, Bob Harvey (SPG) and Luis Godoy found and made a small incursion into Crystal Cave in St. Hermans Blue Hole National Park in Belize. The group set out to see whether the cave was as special as reported and to assess damage from previous caving. Crystal Cave is an amazing large cave with a huge entrance room (well over 150 feet across, 120 feet deep, and at least 500 feet long) containing many layers of breakdown and rapidly building speleothems including a 30+ foot column. Much of the floor was littered with ceramic materials left behind from Mayan ceremonial use including some engulfed by active speleothems. There are reports of human remains further back in the reportedly long cave. This cave is unmapped – perhaps a future opportunity for SPG.
Waterson Cave December 21	Charley Young	Charley Young retrieved the lock box from Watterson Cave to make improvements to make the next lock more difficult for vandals to damage.
Lowel Cave Little Smittle Cave December 28	Roy Gold Charley Young Sarah Young Duncan Gold (Roy's son)	Roy Gold and visiting son Duncan Gold, Charley Young and Sarah Young visited Lowell Cave and Little Smittle Cave in Wright County. First, Charley showed everyone a possible new cave for the files. Then, they went as far as the start of the watercrawl and also climbed up into the upper canyon passage in Lowell, then later went to the end of Little Smittle Cave not far away. They endured temperatures of 58 degrees and crawled on their hands and knees in mud and water.
Fry Creek Cave December 30	Jon Beard Roy Gold Charley Young Jeff Young	Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Charley Young and Jeff Young spent the last Saturday in 2006 photographing several breakout dome rooms and other features in Fry Creek Cave in Wright County. The cave is developed just beneath the Northview shale, which is an effective aquiclude, and thus, the cave has zero speleothems. There were 106 pipistrelles found plus an epigean crayfish and a rove beetle in the 4,500-foot main passage. There is a string someone laid down along the entire length of the main passage. At least three pipistrelles were using the string in two rooms to hang from.