Cave Trip Report – Carroll Cave 18 July 2026

Time in – 9:20am Time out – 3:00pm.

Participants – Bill Gee (data logger)
Rita Worden
Seth Colston
Matthew Chasen
Jocelynn Morris
Quentin Brown

Kristen Vogel (bio survey)
Mike Kovacs
Jason Maulrico
Jessica Wilson
Marty Griffin
Peter Schnegelberger

Permit number = 2101 (data logger download) and 2239 (bio survey)

Trip report by Bill Gee.

Twice each year I run a trip into Carroll Cave to download data from the stream flow data loggers. The loggers can hold a bit over 6 months of data before overwriting. This is a good trip for Carroll Cave newcomers.

This year I had way more people ask to go than will fit on one permit. After discussion with Kristen Vogel and Marty Griffin, we decided to get a second permit. To avoid having a large group traveling together, we came up with a different objective for the second team. When asking people to sign waivers, we did not worry about which permit they signed for. The important thing was to get everyone to sign a waiver.

This trip report concentrates on the data logger downloading. The list of participants above is everyone who was on either trip. Several other people signed waivers but did not make the trip.

I left early Saturday morning for the drive to the silo. I arrived at the silo at 6:50am. I found the road gate and the middle gate both standing open. I closed and locked the road gate but left the middle gate open.

The gate into our camping area was closed. Peter Schnegelberger was already there. He had run the mower over about half of the campground. Peter explained that the neighboring landowner was cutting hay on both of the fields, and it was the landowner who had left the open gates.

The lock on the silo door was hanging loose. I downloaded the rain gauge data logger, changed its battery and restarted it. I hung my rope in the shaft. The weeds at the silo door were quite high, so I got out the string trimmer and cut them back. There are some stout woody plants growing around there. We need to get a brush cutter to knock them back.

Peter got out the mower again and mowed the last 300 feet of the gravel trail approaching the campground gate. It was quite grown over and, for a person not familiar with it, hard to see.

Mary Griffin arrived a few minutes later. He got back on the mower and mowed more of the grass in the camping area. Everyone else arrived between about 8:30 and 9:20. It took about an hour to get everyone down the shaft. Last person in at 10:20.

In the cave we divided everyone into two teams. Six people went with Kristen to do a bio survey in Upper Thunder River. The remaining six went with me to download the data loggers. Kristen will file her own trip report for the work her team did.

I explained to the group how the data loggers work, then demonstrated the download process with the barometric pressure logger. When it was done, we all went down to the river to download the logger there. While there we did a short search for isopods. Only one was found.

Back up at the ladder, we grabbed our packs and headed down Carroll Passage to the data logger at the Rimstone Room. I also changed the battery and memory card in the cave intrusion detector.

We arrived at the data logger at 11:35. I did the download, then we all turned around and returned to the ladder. We were back at the ladder at 12:05. We paused for a few minutes to have lunch.

We left the ladder at 12:20 to head up Thunder River. Along the way I showed where the tile sites are. We arrived at the UL2 data logger at 1:15. I did the download and then we turned around to head out. On the way we stopped to admire a couple of formation areas. With three newbies in the group, we had to show off some of the Carroll Cave beauty.

The formations just outside UL2 had a flood light placed and turned on. No other people were seen. I assumed it had been left by Kristen’s team as they passed by, and they would pick it up on the return trip. After we got out of the cave, Marty Griffin confirmed that he had left the light. He picked it up on his way back.

The return trip included two more photo stops at the two shower heads. We stayed in the river all the way around the ladder to Thunder Falls. At Thunder Falls everyone walked out to the lip. It was flowing about normal.

After admiring the waterfall from above, we all went down the ladder to the lower level. I downloaded the data logger while the rest of the group went up to the waterfall for photos. Our group had just come back up to the upper level and was cleaning up when Kristen’s team arrived. We shared a quick update, then my team headed back to the ladder. We arrived there about 2:30.

Everyone geared up for the climb. I went first so I could help people get off the rope safely. Kristen’s team got to the ladder just as our last person was starting to climb. It was excellent timing.

Everyone on both teams was out of the cave by 3:15. We derigged the rope, changed clothes and went to Camdendon for Mexican dinner.

I noticed a couple of things around the campground that need attention. First – The road gate no longer has the short chain that keeps it open while driving through. That needs to be replaced.

Second, the padlock on the silo outer door was packed with mud. That is why it was not locked when I arrived. I used some water, WD40 and a small screwdriver to clean it out. I got it to close, but it was very hard to open. Rather than cause problems for the next trip, I left the silo outer door unlocked. That padlock should be replaced.

Third, there is a lot of woody brush growing up on the west side of the silo and pavilion. We need to get in there with a brush cutter and knock it back.