| May 1st | Todd Twilbeck, Roy Gold and Jon Beard |
Todd Twilbeck, Roy Gold and Jon Beard led a group of Evangel University students on an educational trip through Breakdown Cave (Christian Co) while Charley Young took macro photos of springtails along the way. They toured the Main Room, North Loop, Lower Level Maze Loop and Southeast Passage. Afterwards, Jon, Roy and Charley visited Hall Branch Cave (Greene Co). Here they attempted to restart the siphon hose to drain a deep pool to allow mapping beyond that point on a future date. |
| May 2nd | Roy Gold, Jon Beard | After finding that the siphon hose had lowered the water level of Hall Branch Cave (Greene County) four feet overnight, making it only knee deep, Bob Taylor and Jon Beard completed the survey of that cave, adding 191 feet to its total. Hall Branch, at 2,003.7 feet, is now unofficially the ninth longest cave in the county. While Bob sketched, Jon took several photographs and a short video of the speleothems in the north passage |
| May 5th | Charley Rey | Charley Rey guided 18 students and another teacher around Springfield to observe, study and do a lab associated with surface karst features. They observed many southwest Springfield sinks, estevelles, uvalas, springs and karst windows. The highlight of the morning was to be Devils Den in Webster Co. The students has seen pictures of it so they thought they knew what to expect, but were a bit disappointed upon arrival as the water level was only 20 feet below the rim. This was the highest Charley had seen water levels there, having visited the feature twice a year for nearly 30 years. |
| May 8th | Melvin Johnson and Jon Beard | Melvin Johnson and Jon Beard visited Giboney Cave (Greene Co) in Doling Park. While Melvin and other park employees set up display booths and conducted educational tours of the cave for the general public, Jon donned his wetsuit and pushed an estimated 700 feet up the watercrawl past the tour trail to where the passage height becomes too low at a subaqueous flowstone cascade. He photographed the water passage as well as one small bristly crayfish. |
| May 12th | Charley Rey | Charley Rey, his 18 Science Honors students and another teacher, visited Breakdown Cave (Christian Co) and nearby Fitzpatrick Cave. The students charted their course within the cave and filled out a lab sheet pertaining to the cave and its features. They saw a number of dead frogs in Breakdown's Sally's Pond and the Coral Pool, along with two grotto salamanders and one cave salamander on the rim of the latter feature. Twelve of the students accompanied Charley through the Hell's Gate constriction. During the trip, they recorded 12 tricolored bats in Breakdown Cave, one grotto salamander and five tricolored bats in Fitzpatrick Cave. |
| May 14th | Melvin Johnson | Melvin Johnson spent the day helping to organize and manage the grand opening of Springfield-Greene County's newest unit of their park system--Lost Hill Park. Named for an abandoned loop valley of the South Dry Sac River, it contains several natural bridges and numerous caves. |
| May 19th | Charley Rey | Charley Rey took 13 students and another teacher to Lost Hill Park to show them the many caves and karst features there. They saw two remnant features, Low Arch and High Arch along with a number of associated caves (High Arch Cave, Low Arch Cave, Crevice Cave and Cozy Cave) and then moved up the hill to do a practice survey of nearby Stalactite Cave. They also visited Keyhole Cave and Devils Slide Cave, nearby caves that are outside the park. |
| May 22nd | Maria Thompson, her nephew Hutch and Jon Beard and Bob Taylor |
Maria Thompson, her nephew Hutch and Jon Beard assisted Bob Taylor in the resumption of the resurvey of Devils Slide Cave (Greene Co), a 650-foot cave with a large room and several short satellite side passages. Although heavily vandalized through the years, it continues to have several beautiful speleothems. On this trip, Bob completed the upper level loop of the cave, leaving just a few areas remaining to be mapped. While Bob sketched, the others busied themselves with photography. One particular "ebb and flow" soda straw was most interesting. It pours for about one second, drips quickly for about 10 seconds, then stops completely for 11 seconds. It then begins the sequence all over again and apparently repeats this pattern indefinitely (at least during wet weather). |
| May 29th | Roy Gold, Bob Taylor and Jon Beard | Roy Gold, Bob Taylor and Jon Beard returned to Ash Grove Cave (Greene County) to continue Bob's survey of that cave. After helping Bob set up the tape and first shot, Jon and Roy struggled to re-attach the top three or so feet of a stalagmite to its rightful place atop a nearby stump using glue and steel pins. Meanwhile, Bob nearly completed the sketch of Dripstone Hall with just a bit of complex passage to finish. Apart from that, Bob still has two or three trips to the north and one to the south to complete his map of the impressive cave. These surveys are dependent upon drier times. |