Folks Cave, High Slot Cave, Maynard Cave |
Eric Hertzler | Eric Hertzler visited Camden County to get GPS locations on four new caves for the cave files: Folks Cave, High Slot Cave, Maynard Cave and Ozark Caverns Annex. |
| Carroll Cave June 2nd |
Eric Hertzler | Eric Hertzler with Bill Gee of KCAG assisted Dr. Dave Ashley and students in a biology trip to Carroll Cave (Camden Co). |
| Breakdown Cave, Fitzpatrick Cave June 4th |
Zach Copeland | Zach Copeland took Brian Goeppner’s sons to Fitzpatrick Cave (Christian Co). They looked for frogs near the pit pool, but didn’t find any. Then they visited nearby Breakdown Cave, seeing the Rimstone Bathtub, Lower Level Maze Loop, Formation Loop then to Hell’s Gate and Brent’s Room. |
| Steins Creek Cave June 6th |
Roy Gold and Charley Young and Bob Taylor |
Roy Gold and Charley Young assisted Bob Taylor in the beginning of the survey of Steins Creek Cave (Wright Co). Aragonite crystal growths were noted. |
| Watkins Cave June 7th |
Jon Beard, Kasi Johnson, Gabe Rodgers and Jack Rosenkoetter | Jon Beard, Kasi Johnson, Gabe Rodgers and Jack Rosenkoetter spent the day removing or masking large quantities of graffiti in the northern section of Watkins Cave (Greene Co), a 1,500-foot MDC-managed cave. There remains a significant portion on the ceiling remaining to be dealt with, but ladders will be needed for that. There are also speleothems requiring cleaning. |
| Steins Creek Cave June 12th |
Charley Young, Bob Taylor, Roy Gold and Chris Parish | Charley Young, Bob Taylor, Roy Gold and Chris Parish continued the survey of Steins Creek Cave in Wright County. |
Garrison Cave #2, |
Jon Beard | After a major rain event, Jon Beard checked the water level of Garrison Cave #2 (Christian Co) and found it normal. While there, Jon cleaned and oiled the gate lock, then spent ten minutes running the siphon system for the First Watercrawl to make sure it was functional. Afterwards, Jon checked the water levels in Breakdown Cave and found some of the lower levels partially submerged. He also cleaned some muddy handprints from columns, and did some restoration on some floor flowstone in the entrance passage. |
| Fitton Cave June 14th |
Zach Copeland and Lawrence Ireland | Zach Copeland and Lawrence Ireland went on an OHG trip to Fitton Cave (Arkansas). The group entered by the dry entrance, played in the New Maze for a while and exited the cave by the wet passage. Due to a big rain storm the night before, the water was roaring through the wet passage. The trip lasted about nine hours. |
| Round Spring Cavern June 21st |
Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Jason Hardinger, Lloyd Morrison, Bob Taylor, Max White and Charley Young | Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Jason Hardinger, Lloyd Morrison, Bob Taylor, Max White and Charley Young of SPG plus Shawn Williams of MVG, Scott House of the CRF and Kristen Schulte of the ONSR convened at Round Spring Cavern (Shannon Co) to repair steps and add chat to rough spots and depressions along the show cave trail. Afterwards, some of the group spent a couple of hours photographing the Left Passage’s speleothem areas. A few pipistrelles were seen as well as cave salamanders. Also, Charley delivered three sign mounts to Scott that will be used for interpretive signage within this national park. |
| Johnny Hollow Cave, Little Tunnel Cave and Dripping Bluff Cave June 22nd |
Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Jason Hardinger and Bob Taylor | Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Jason Hardinger and Bob Taylor rumbled and stumbled through the jungle of Johnny Hollow in Shannon County in search of V-Tree Cave, which Jason found first. A 15-foot by 5-foot by 3-foot trench had been illegally dug by vandals. In a couple of hours, the trench was refilled using the spoils piles. Johnny Hollow Cave, Little Tunnel Cave and Dripping Bluff Cave were also checked for vandalism, but all three were found to be in good shape. Some of the group later discovered they had violated the park's "take nothing but pictures" rule by inadvertently taking a number of ticks home with them. |
| Garrison Cave #2, June 25th |
Jon Beard | Jon Beard checked the level of the First Watercrawl of Garrison Cave #2 (Christian Co), then turned on the Thompson Siphon System to begin lowering the water level in preparation of next Saturday’s survey trip. While there, Jon did some additional sketching on a passage cross section about 100 feet inside the cave. |
| Garrison Cave #2, Honey Branch Cave June 28th |
Ben McCall, Roy Gold, Zach Copeland and Jon Beard | Due to heavy and persistent rainfall the scheduled mop-up survey trip to Garrison Cave #2 was pushed aside in favor of “Plan B.” Unfortunately, Ben McCall, Roy Gold, Zach Copeland and Jon Beard had no idea yet as to what “B” would be. They first attempted to learn the identity of the new owner of Virgin Cave (Christian County), hoping to visit that long-closed cave, but had no luck. Then they got permission to visit Honey Branch Cave (Douglas County). They saw its less muddy Canyon/Waterfall section, then took photos of aragonite in the Breakdown Room and waterfall area. They had a very good time and got some great photos. They returned to Garrison Cave to find that the air space in the First Watercrawl had been reduced from nine inches the day before (after 48 hours of running the cave’s siphon system) to just one and one half inches after four inches of rain. The lower entrance was issuing no water earlier, but now was gushing a raging torrent. |