Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips January 07

Springfield Plateau Grotto Caving Trips January 2007
Upper Loder Hole Cave January 5	Bob Taylor Roy Gold	Bob Taylor was assisted by Roy Gold in the continuation of the survey of Upper Loder Hole Cave of Shannon County. They also found six other caves in the area and were able to get the GPS locations of four of them before sunset. They will get the locations of the other two on a subsequent trip.
Gardenia's Cave January 6	Eric Hertzler Charity Gramm Jon Beard	The trip started with Eric and Jon spending an hour sawing, kicking and pulling out a giant tree “root of all evil” out from under the car that had lodged up behind the engine compartment while driving in a field toward the cave (with no apparent damage to the vehicle). Afterwards, Charity Gramm and Jon Beard helped Eric Hertzler survey about 220 feet of the downstream portion of Gardenia’s Cave of Greene County, bringing the sum up to 335.2 feet. The 700-800-foot cave has a few dripstone areas and many rimstone dams. Biota noted included stygobitic isopods, six pipistrelles, several heliomyzid flies, an adult cave salamander and many webworms. The cave apparently has also been a popular hangout for raccoons.
Remnant Cave Racetrack Ridge Cave January 7	Eric Hertzler	Eric Hertzler did some reconnaissance work in Taney County, using his GPS to locate two new caves in dolomite for the Missouri cave database. Remnant Cave is a small and short cave located in a highway roadcut. Racetrack Ridge Cave has two entrances, a low horizontal opening and a 5-foot deep pit. Entering through the pit, he followed a 2 x 3-foot passage for 20 feet to a ceiling projection where he stopped for the day. On his way out, a startled raccoon raced by him, causing both man and beast to scream. A return trip is planned with reinforcements to more fully explore the cave and help ward off terrorist raccoons.
Watterson Cave New Grove Cave Kelly Sinkhole Murrell Cave January 9	Charley Young Roy Gold	Charley Young and Roy Gold completed the repair on the vandalized gate at Watterson Cave in Wright County with a new lock and a reinforced lock box. Also on this day, they took GPS readings on New Grove, Kelly Sinkhole and Murrell caves, also in Wright County. The latter is a 125-foot tunnel with sink and creek entrances.
Tumbling Creek Cave January 11	Eric Hertzler	Eric Hertzler noted about 30 salamander eggs that had been laid in small white trays attached to an experimental cavesnail breeding apparatus in Tumbling Creek Cave of Taney County. The eggs were transparent enough that embryos could be seen inside them. The eggs were solitary, not massed together. Charity Gramm intends to photodocument them. Although the apparatus has not yet been used to breed cavesnails, it apparently has worked quite well thus far in breeding salamanders.
Tumbling Creek Cave January 17 & 18		Eric Hertzler accompanied National Geographic photographer David Liittschwager through Tumbling Creek Cave in Taney County for an upcoming article in *On Earth* magazine to be written by Kevin Krajic. Both Kevin and David spent a week at the Ozark Underground Laboratory gathering information and photos for their article featuring Tom and Cathy Aley. Eric collected a variety of species in the cave for David, who specializes in photographing endangered species. These included the Tumbling Creek cavesnail (Antrobia culveri), Aley’s cave millipede (Chaetaspis aleyorum), Ashley’s cave isopod (Brackenridgia ashleyi), the Onondaga cave amphipod (Stygobromus onondagaensis) and a host of others.
Hercules Lookout Cave January 22	Eric Hertzler Charity Gramm	Eric Hertzler and Charity Gramm began a survey of Hercules Lookout Cave of Taney County. Because of the cold day, they surveyed only 54 feet from the entrance before calling it a day. While Eric sketched, Charity took photos of the biota that included 5 pips, hundreds of mosquitos, 6 cave salamanders, dozens of cave crickets, a slimy salamander, 5 webworms, 5 grotto salamander larvae, several surface type aquatic isopods and 2 big-eared bats—all in the first 54 feet. From the dripline, the cave is 12 feet tall, narrows to 2.5 feet tall, then enlarges to 5 feet tall where the survey stopped.
Giboney Cave January 23	Melvin Johnson	Melvin Johnson directed a Springfield school group through Giboney Cave in Doling Park in Greene County as part of the Giboney Cave Outdoor Underground Classroom. Many other groups will be guided through the cave in the upcoming weeks with the help of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks and the staff of the Wonders of Wildlife Museum.
Fourteen Forty Cave Fox Creek Cave January 27	Charley Young Charley Rey Roy Gold Jon Beard	Charley Young, Charley Rey, Roy Gold and Jon Beard visited Fourteen Forty Cave (Wright County) and Fox Creek Cave (Douglas County) to perform maintenance work on the cave gate locks (both caves were gated in 1995). Unfortunately for Fourteen Forty Cave, a pool of water adjacent to the gate persuaded the group to postpone activities there. The going was better at Fox Creek, where the group spent a few hours photographing the profuse speleothems there.
Tumbling Creek Cave Hercules Lookout Cave January 27	Eric Hertzler Dr. David Ashley students (including Steve Potter of Pony Express Grotto)	Eric Hertzler joined Dr. David Ashley and his students (one of whom was Steve Potter from Pony Express Grotto) for a student field trip at Tumbling Creek Cave of Taney County. Many of the students helped Dr. Ashley with his ongoing crayfish study there. Crayfish (a surface species) were collected, and their capture location was noted. Their lengths were measured, they were weighed, tagged and released. Other students were involved with a surface temperature comparison study of hibernating bats and their immediate surrounding environment. In the afternoon, the group then conducted a cricket/salamander study at nearby Hercules Lookout Cave.
Smallin Cave Sonrise Cave Sequiota Cave Walkway-all-the-way Cave Crawlway-all-the-way Cave January 28	Eric Hertzler Jon Beard Dr. Dave Ashley Students Laura and Michelle Steve Potter of Pony Express Grotto	Eric Hertzler and Jon Beard as well as Steve Potter assisted Dr. Dave Ashley and two of his students (Laura and Michelle) through the first 1,400 feet of Smallin Cave in Christian County to count, measure and sex 12 bristly cave crayfish. Also noted were a couple of pipistrelles, heliomyzid flies and a cave salamander. Due to precipitation this month, the cave stream was flowing strong, making it a challenge to search for biota. Nearby Sonrise Cave was checked by Eric for biota, containing one large bristly cave crayfish. Afterwards, Eric and Jon visited Sequiota Park in Greene County. At Sequiota Cave, Eric replaced charcoal packets for a dye trace study as Jon cleaned some trash out of Walkway-all-the-way Cave and Crawlway-all-the-way Cave nearby. NOTE: Although listed separately, these three caves share a common dripline.