September 2009 Cave Trips

Smittle Cave September 4th	Max White, Charley and Jeff Young	Max White led a group through Smittle Cave (Wright Co). With Max were Charley and Jeff Young of SPG, Kayla New from Russellville, AR, Justace Clutter and girlfriend Megan, Jim Cooley and Pic Walenta from KCAG. The group visited the Formation Passage and the Water Passage, while Jeff, Kayla and Megan were able to make it to the Terminal Room. They found gray bats clustered just beyond the Formation Passage and also noted hundreds of millipedes, along with three or four pickerel frogs.
Hall Branch Cave September 5th	Roy Gold, Jon Beard and Bob Taylor	Roy Gold and Jon Beard assisted sketcher Bob Taylor in the continuing survey of mazy Hall Branch Cave (Greene Co) as part of the Greene County Project. They also took photos of fauna and speleothems. Afterwards the group checked out some of the further reaches of the cave to help determine how much more cave remains to be surveyed.
September 11th	Jon Beard	Jon Beard gave a PowerPoint presentation about cave and groundwater conservation to the Mississippi Valley Region of the General Federation of Women's Clubs at the Ramada Hotel in Springfield. He also handed copies of Caring for Your Karst to the audience. Natural resource conservation is one of the primary focus subjects of the GFWC, founded about 150 years ago.
Smittle Cave September 12th	Charley Young, Roy Gold, Max White, Jeff Young and daughters Abby and Sarah.	Charley Young led a group of girl scouts through Smittle Cave (Wright Co). Those present from SPG to help Charley were Roy Gold, Max White, Jeff Young and daughters Abby and Sarah. The group visited the Formation Passage, the Breakdown Passage and then made their way through the Canyon Passage to the Snow Mountain Room. They saw a cluster of gray bats just beyond the Meander Niche. Most millipedes that had been observed earlier were either dead or gone, and they found one grotto salamander and five or six pickerel frogs. Note to Roy: Watch those ledges!
Tumbling Creek Cave September 12th	Tom Aley and Doug Gouzie	Tom Aley and Doug Gouzie led Missouri State University students on an educational field trip through Tumbling Creek Cave (Taney Co).
Hall Branch Cave September 13th	Jon Beard, Bill Heim, Marissa Berger and Bob Taylor	Jon Beard, Bill Heim and Marissa Berger assisted Bob Taylor in the continuing survey of Hall Branch Cave (Greene Co), mapping some of the southwestern section of the maze. Several of them explored and photo documented another section of cave, including a nice speleothem area.
Smittle Cave September 15th	Charley Young, Brian Goeppner, Mike Deckard and Lucian Shockley.	Charley Young led another trip to Smittle Cave (Wright Co). Accompanying him was SPG member Brian Goeppner, Mike Deckard and Lucian Shockley. They visited the Formation, Breakdown, Canyon and Gravel passages, reporting gray bats, one grotto salamander, a very few millipedes and three pickerel frogs. This ended the autumn window of opportunity to visit the cave.
Jones Spring Cave September 16th	Max White, Jon Beard and Jerry Vineyard	Max White led Jon Beard and Jerry Vineyard to a spring in the southeast section of Springfield. The small spring, located in a residential area, contributes water to Galloway Creek, which is later pirated to the north branch of Sequiota Cave. They saw several crayfish, but it was difficult to determine what species because of algal blooms in the water. The spring issues from a small 5-foot long cavity too small to call a cave. The spring could possibly be the drain to a piracy of a west-to-east surface branch. After this, the group visited Jones Spring Cave, one of the larger springs in eastern Springfield with only about 20 feet of low air passage before it sumps. Some photos were taken there before calling it an evening.
September 17th	Charity and Eric Hertzler	Charity and Eric Hertzler checked out a cave lead in Christian County. They found a small spring issuing out of a bedding plane too low to enter. This feature is not far away from Moonshine Cave, a known mapped cave.
Fitzpatrick Cave, Breakdown Cave September 19th	Charity Hertzler	Charity Hertzler led a group of teens sponsored by the Springfield Nature Center on a guided educational tour of Breakdown Cave and nearby Fitzpatrick Cave (Christian Co). In Breakdown, Charity found two cave salamanders and three grotto salamanders as well as two tricolor bats. In Fitzpatrick, she found several frogs in the cavefish pool, but no cavefish. She also noted a cluster of three myotine bats near the pool
Onyx Mountain Cave September 19th	Jon Beard, Bill and Bonnie Heim	SPG members Jon Beard, Bill and Bonnie Heim were among an MCKC group that cleaned the interior of the old gift shop over Onyx Mountain Cave in Pulaski County. They also removed some trash around the back of the building, along with much of an old trash dump up the hill from Boiling Spring. This is part of the continuing effort to beautify and clean the area around the cave and spring. Klaus and Jon then joined Jim Kaufmann as he examined the gate to the cave to determine future maintenance/repair work.
Breakdown Cave September 25th	Evan Christiansen	Evan Christiansen led three friends (Caleb, O'Shia and Sarah) through Breakdown Cave (Christian Co). Evan guided them through the Main Room and some of the side passages and loops nearby, then the group squeezed through Hell's Gate into Canopy Avenue. They continued past the Register Room all the way to the known end of the passage. Evan reports that the tricolor bat population is still down from the catastrophic flooding in 2008 and 2009, finding only two bats.
Watkins Cave September 26th	Roy Gold, Bill and Bonnie Heim, Jon Beard, Melvin Johnson and Jack Rosenkoetter	Roy Gold, Bill and Bonnie Heim, Jon Beard, Melvin Johnson and Jack Rosenkoetter participated in Great Outdoors Day sponsored by the MDC at Bois D'Arc Conservation Area west of Springfield. SPG members guided members of the general public through Watkins Cave (Greene Co) on educational tours about safe caving and cave conservation. Most adults were given copies of "Caring for Your Karst" while youngsters received some cavefish labels and cavefish placemats along with copies of Ron Kerbo's children's book about caves.
Hall Branch Cave September 27th	Jon Beard and Kevin Helton, Bob Taylor	Jon Beard and Kevin Helton assisted Bob Taylor in the continued mapping of Hall Branch Cave (Greene Co). Today’s mapping work continued in the left-hand maze. While Bob sketched, Kevin and Jon did some photography including macro shots of pseudoscorpions. After mapping was done for the day, the three did some photography of the cave's best speleothems, in areas still beyond the survey.
September 28th - October 2nd	Jon Beard	Bruce Herschend and Chris and Jody Gertson of Talking Rocks Cavern hosted the 2009 National Caves Association Convention in Branson. Tom Aley and Merlin Tuttle led presentations and discussions on White Nose Syndrome, and Jon Beard made a presentation on cave restoration. Various caves were featured during the week including Riverbluff Cave (Greene Co), Smallin Cave (Christian Co) and Talking Rocks Cavern (Stone Co).