| Stinson Cave December 1st |
Zach Copeland | Zach Copeland helped in the clean-up of the entrance of Lawrence County’s Stinson Cave for the landowners, then also helped clean the path to the cave of downed trees left over from last January’s ice storm. |
| Big Spring Anastomosis Cave, Granite Quarry Cave, Powder Mill Creek Cave December 1st |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Jason Hardinger, Kasi Johnson, Nick Newman, Gabe Rodgers, Max White and Charley Young |
SPG cavers Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Jason Hardinger, Kasi Johnson, Nick Newman, Gabe Rodgers, Max White and Charley Young teamed with Scott House and Joel Laws in the restoration of three caves in Carter County. Jon, Kasi, Gabe and Joel removed profuse etched graffiti from the face and interior of Big Spring Anastomosis Cave, the small set of cave openings immediately behind Big Spring. They later joined the others who were refilling large illegal digs in Granite Quarry Cave. They removed some minor amounts of recent graffiti, then photographed old historical names. After this was done, the group visited Little Granite Quarry Cave to remove selected recent graffiti (saving the historical stuff). Afterwards, they briefly visited Blue Spring and the entrance to Powder Mill Creek Cave. |
| Bear Cave December 2nd |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Jason Hardinger, Nick Newman |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Jason Hardinger, Nick Newman along with Scott House and Joel Laws refilled four large illegal digs in Bear Cave of Texas County. After this, old rotten remnants of boards were removed plus glass fragments. |
| Rattlesnake Cave December 8th |
Max White, Charley Young, Evan Christiansen and Eric Hertzler |
Max White, Charley Young and Evan Christiansen joined Eric Hertzler in his efforts to update the survey map of Rattlesnake Cave. Max and Charley took pictures, while Eric and Evan surveyed. They surveyed about 200 feet before quitting for the day and doing some exploring, finding more cave than Eric previously knew existed. |
| Fantastic Caverns December 12th |
SPG held its business and election meeting in the Auditorium Room of Fantastic Caverns of Greene County. Afterwards, the 24 members and four guests participating took a casual stroll through the show cave section, taking several photos. | |
| Breakdown Cave December 15th |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Zach Copeland, Kasi Johnson and Gabe Rodgers |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Zach Copeland, Kasi Johnson and Gabe Rodgers hosted a small group of Kasi’s friends in an educational trip to Breakdown Cave of Christian County. Afterwards, the five hosts saw additional sections of the cave and did some macro photography of cave spiders as well as some speleothems in a seldom seen passage. Evan counted 83 pipistrelles in the sections of cave visited. |
| Buttram Hollow Cave and Bench Cave December 16th |
Charity and Eric Hertzler | Charity and Eric Hertzler traveled the Glade Top Trail in Taney County and discovered two new caves, Buttram Hollow cave and Bench Cave. Both are small and are likely less than 40 feet in length. |
| Shelf Cave, Fitzpatrick Cave Nevatt Cave #2 December 24th |
Jon Beard, Bob Taylor | Jon Beard, Bob Taylor and son Matthew spent some time attempting to contact the landowner of Shelf Cave in Christian County without avail. A hastily assembled Plan B was nearby Fitzpatrick Cave where the three spent some time photographing speleothems. An informal bio survey was conducted as well, revealing 16 pipistrelles, two northern bats and five little brown bats and multitudes of cave crickets. Before calling it a day, Jon entered and photographed nearby Nevatt Cave #2, discovered earlier in the year. It contains an estimated 13 feet of passage, up to nine feet tall and three feet wide with lots of cave crickets. |
| Fitzpatrick Cave December 25th |
Roy and Duncan Gold | Roy and son Duncan Gold visited Fitzpatrick Cave of Christian County. |
| Goss Cave December 26th |
Roy and Duncan Gold, Bob Taylor and Charley Young | Roy and Duncan Gold, Bob Taylor and Charley Young traversed most of Webster County’s 1,097-foot Goss Cave. They took many photos, some of which they were happy with. |
| Kiesewetter Cave December 29th |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Zach Copeland, Jason Hardinger, and Eric Hertzler | SPG members included on this trip to continue the survey of Kiesewetter Cave (Pulaski County) were Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Zach Copeland, Jason Hardinger, and Eric Hertzler. Members from KCAG included Jim Cooley, Bill Gee, and Laurie Schultz. LOG members included Brian Cook, Christen Easter, Ron and Lorely Lather, and Ken Long. The group was also blessed with the cheerful presence of the Brazilian Marcelo Kramer. The cavers split into three groups. Ron Lather finished up his survey of the Formation Passage with the assistance of Ken Long. Jon Beard was assisted by Zach Copeland, and Bill Gee in his survey of the "Squeeze Room” and the adjoining stream passage. Christen Hasty was joined by two other very skinny cavers, Marcello Kramer and Bryan Cook in the initial survey beyond the Kiesewetter Squeeze. Eric Hertzler was assisted by Evan Christianson, Jim Cooley, Jason Hardinger, and Lori Schultz in the stream passage beyond the "87 Room." With the Beard, Hertzler, and Lather teams all completing their survey's, a milestone in the project was accomplished with all the main passage minus the squeeze being completed. Total surveyed footage for the day was 873.9 feet. Some groups were in the cave as long as 10 hours but exited to find excellent hot chili waiting at the base camp. |
| Broken Knife Cave December 30th |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Eric Hertzler |
Jon Beard, Evan Christiansen, Eric Hertzler and KCAG’s Bill Gee spent the morning ridgewalking the Gasconade River bluffs near the Kiesewetter area for additional caves. Broken Knife Cave was revisited (mapped months ago by Eric), and its biology was investigated. Stygobitic flatworms and isopods were found in the 60-foot cave. Later, Eric found a 10-foot solution tube in the same bluff, but it was debatable whether to add the crawlway cavelet to the files. |