May 2009 Cave Trips

Breakdown Cave May 3rd	Jon Beard	Jon Beard conducted cave restoration on floor flowstone in Breakdown Cave (Christian Co). Much of the entrance passage is floored in flowstone and rimstone terrace covered by debris. Much work remains to be done. He also repaired some reflective markers, which define a trail through the main passage.
Crystal Caverns May 8th	Bill Heim and Jon Beard	Bill Heim and Jon Beard traveled through a rain storm to Crystal Caverns (Barry Co) to host a group of young men who called about seeing the cave. However, the prospective guests did not arrive, so Bill and Jon made it a photography trip instead with more than 50 photos taken of the cave’s many speleothems and rain-induced shower falls. After lunch, Bill showed Jon the impressive collapse sink near Wayne, MO. The sink is more than 150 feet deep, but filled with water nearly to its rim, refreshed with runoff from a small ravine.
Steins Creek Cave May 9th	Bob Taylor, Charley Young, Roy Gold, and Jon Beard	Bob Taylor, Charley Young, Roy Gold, and Jon Beard returned to Steins Creek Cave (Wright Co) to resume Bob’s survey of this 1,000-foot plus cave. While Bob sketched, the others spent the time photographing the cave’s features. They noted four pipistrelle bats, a slimy salamander and a colorful centipede (the latter two near the entrance). Before going in they had a pleasant talk with the owner who informed them of another cave on his property.
Cozy, Cricket, Spider, Coyote, Coffin, Keyhole and Devils Slide May 13th	Charley Rey	Charley Rey took 56 students and two teachers to the Lost Hill area of Greene County to visit Cozy, Cricket, Spider, Coyote, Coffin, Keyhole and Devils Slide caves. At Devils Slide, the students had a cave mapping project. While there, they discovered a lot of vandalism—red paint, fire burns and a case of empty beer cans (minus one that hadn’t been opened yet). A juvenile slimy salamander was found in the cave, the first Charley had seen in the cave.
Watkins Cave May 16th	Gabe and Kasi Rodgers	Gabe and Kasi Rodgers took a group of kids to Watkins Cave (Greene Co) to remove spray paint graffiti and lots of trash. It appeared as if someone has had a big party in the cave, as witnessed by whiskey bottles and Mountain Dew containers. The group also saw one pipistrelle and lots of earthworms.
Slot Cave May 16th	Jon Beard and Bob Taylor	Jon Beard and Bob Taylor teamed with Lorin O’Daniell of Pony Express Grotto in the search for and mapping of Slot Cave (Phelps Co as part of the MSS/CRF research weekend. With Lorin as lead tape, Jon as instrument person and Bob as sketcher, they mapped the cave to a total of 19.1 feet. They found fungus gnats and a mouse nest along with two stalactites and some cave coral and old flowstone.
Cedar Bluff Cave May 21st	Roy Gold, Jon Beard, Bob Taylor, and Charley Young	Roy Gold, Jon Beard, Bob Taylor, and Charley Young of SPG were joined by the ubiquitous Ben Miller at Cedar Bluff Cave (Stone Co) for a multi-faceted trip, including survey, public education, conservation and survey. After Bob and Jon laid out and shot three survey lines, Bob began a detailed sketch of the entrance part of the cave while Jon removed some objectionable spray paint graffiti on a breakdown block. Then Jon and Roy led a group of 30 kids from Springfield’s Catholic Middle School plus their teachers on a 200-foot educational field trip through the dry section of the cave while Charley photographed everything. After the kids left (Charley ferried them across a spring branch to the bus with his truck), Ben and Jon waded and squeezed to the traversable end of the ponded cave and began surveying out while Roy helped Bob survey inward. Meanwhile, Charley continued to take photos, including several of Bob waist-deep in water, proof that Bob will sometimes suffer immersion for a good cause. The two survey teams met roughly halfway through the cave with about 500 feet mapped. However, a final trip must be made to map a 100-foot section that remained sumped due to recent wet weather.
Christian County Sesquicentennial May 23rd-25th	Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Bill and Bonnie Heim and Charity and Eric Hertzler	Jon Beard, Roy Gold, Bill and Bonnie Heim and Charity and Eric Hertzler set up and operated a covered display booth at the Christian County Sesquicentennial held at the city square in Ozark. Here many landowners discussed caves and springs with SPG members and were given copies of "Caring for Your Karst" and other pamphlets. Also SPG took the opportunity to announce white nose syndrome (WNS) and the closure of caves in Mark Twain National Forest (southeast section of the county). On display were several vintage photographs of such caves as Smallin, Countryman and Garrison including a photo of the ram pump at Garrison Spring, the original water source for the town of Ozark. 6
Smallin Cave, Sonrise Cave May 28th	Dave Ashley, Jon Beard, Brian Goeppner, Roy Gold, Charley Young and Sarah Young	Dave Ashley was assisted by WMSU students Josh Martak, Raunak Patel, Vishnu Reddy, Maja Sadikovic and Leila Thampy plus SPG members Jon Beard, Brian Goeppner, Roy Gold, Charley Young and Sarah Young in a seasonal bristly cave crayfish study trip to Smallin and Sonrise caves (Christian Co). They counted and measured eight bristlies in Smallin, two in Sonrise. They also counted more than a dozen ringed crayfish in pools near Smallin’s dripline, as well as other aquatic fauna further into the cave (included small larval salamanders and adult cave salamanders). They saw 12 or more large aquatic grotto salamanders in Sonrise. Many photographs were taken.
Jagged Canyon Cave May 30th	Jack Rosenkoetter, Lloyd Morrison, Roy Gold and Jon Beard	Jack Rosenkoetter, Lloyd Morrison, Roy Gold and Jon Beard conducted a photo trip to Jagged Canyon Cave (Crawford Co), an MDC permit cave. Jon, Roy and Lloyd were the photographers while Jack was trip leader. The Jagged Canyon Passage was seen prior to the group finishing with photos in the Altar Room. The only signs of graffiti noted were occasional arrows (some easy ones were removed), otherwise a cave in good shape.