Carroll Cave Reports Blog
21-23 January 2022 Survey in Barterland area of DL7
Return to Bartertown by Dan Lamping Recently, 8 cavers descended into Carroll Cave to continue mapping in the Bartertown area of DL7 in Lower Thunder River. The area had not seen much attention since 2011. We've long had the goal of getting some new people familiar with that remote arm of the cave for a while as well as the desire to finish some remaining leads in that section of the cave. To help make sense of the area and place names, here's some context along with some history of our efforts at pushing the frontier of DL7. Background In 2008, at the end of a long day mapping, Carroll Cave surveyors discovered a virgin side passage heading west in the far reaches of DL7. The passage was named Moonwalk. It begins as a crouching sized tube that pretty quickly turns into walking passage. It was immediately realized that this side passage, which had an active stream flowing through it, was virgin and was likely the most significant virgin find we had made since initiating the CCC...
2021 Stream Flow Project Report
The stream flow data and graphs for 2021 are attached to this post as a ZIP file. Download and open this file to see the data. All of the graphs are in .PNG format. Raw data is also included, both as comma-separated values (CSV) files and as .hobo files. There were no big flood events during 2021. Thunder River reached just under 4 feet in January, and never rose above 2.5 feet for the remainder of the year. The battery in the data logger in UL2 failed around the first of September. I graphed only the first eight months of data from that logger. We have sent the logger in to the manufacturer for battery replacement. The other loggers in the cave are approaching the end of their battery life. I will pull them on the July service trip and send them all in for battery replacement. This year we have rainfall data from two sources. We have a rain gauge and logger mounted on the silo. This year I signed up for reports from Climate.com. They use radar estimates to provide rainfall data at...
22 January 2022 Data Logger Service
Participants: Bill Gee (leader), Mike Kovacs, Candace Kovacs, Scott Wenzel, Kayla Heady Trip report by Bill Gee Time in - 9:15am. Time out - 2:45pm. There is a link to YouTube video at the bottom of this post. The video was recorded by Mike and Candace Kovacs using several GoPro cameras. Editing was done by Mike Kovacs. There is also a picture gallery. This trip was originally planned for January 8, but due to weather and lack of participants was delayed twice. The goal was to download date from all of the stream flow data loggers in the cave. We also changed the battery in the rain gauge logger mounted to the silo. Scott, Mike and Candace had never been in Carroll Cave, so this was an introduction trip for them. Scott Wenzel and I drove to the silo early Saturday morning. We arrived about 8:00am. The gate was chained shut but not locked when we got there. We left it that way. The temperature was about 25 degrees, so the first thing we did was start Scott's Mr. Buddy heater in the...
15 January 2022 Carroll Passage Photo
Trip date: 2022-01-15Project manager: Kristen VogelTrip purpose: PhotographyAreas of Cave visited: Carroll Passage, TurnpikeTrip participants: Kristen Vogel - Leader. Kathy Christensen, Chase Cunningham, Joseph Garten, John Nigro, John Roth, Rita Worden, Shannon Zaloz Entry Time: 10:30am, Exit Time: 5:30pm Trip report by Kristen Godfrey: Two people braved the cold weather and camped at the silo Friday night. Four of us stayed at an Airbnb Friday night and arrived at the silo at 8:40am. Two others drove to the silo on Saturday morning. One of those was late due to getting lost, so he was not in the picture taken at the silo. That picture only has seven people in it, when we actually had eight. We started down that shaft shortly before 10:00am, with the last caver getting in at 10:30. We quickly set off down Carroll passage. This was the first time in Carroll for 2 people, and the first time past the data logger for several, and I was not sure how long it would take to get to the lunch...
28 February 2021 Convention Hall Photo
Shannon Zaloz , Victor Munsen , Kohl Mitchell and Martin Carmichael We arrived at the silo around 9am. The field was incredibly soggy so we all kept our vehicles parked on the gravel. I opened the silo and rigged our rope for rappelling in. We went over quite a bit of basic information, the entry and exit logistics, how to use the cable ascenders and the emergency equipment. All four of us were in the Silo by 10:30. We first went to the water barrier. From there we walked back to the ladder and then headed up Thunder River to Convention Hall. Due to the snow melt and recent precipitation, the water level was up perhaps 4-6”. This was my third trip to Convention Hall and the amount of water pouring from the ceiling was much greater than usual. Perhaps before it had been a very light shower, but this time it was a steady pour that dissipated into a very heavy shower. We spent a considerable amount of time setting up lighting for photos of formations, passages and fauna. Victor brought...
14 November 2021 Biology Trip
Participants - Bill GeeJohn RothPamela Hart Time in = 9:45am, time out = 1:00pm In mid-October we received a trip permit request from Dr. Pamela Hart. No one had any idea who she was, but the trip permit mentioned Matt Niemiller who we have worked with in the past. After further discussion with Dr. Hart we figured out this was a legitimate request. Jeff Page left it to me as leader of the Biology Project to make appropriate arrangements. Dr. Hart describes her research like this: "My name is Pam Hart and I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oklahoma in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. I am a colleague of Dr. Matt Niemiller and Dr. Mike Slay (at the Ozark section of the Nature Conservancy). My work is NSF funded and focuses on the North American cavefishes of the Amblyopsidae and their non-visual sensory perception. My project includes laboratory experiments examining how sensitive the cavefishes are to water movement and disturbance as well as the genetic basis...
3 November 2021 Surface Work Day
On 11/3/2021 Bill Gee and I drove to the Carroll Cave silo for a planned workday with Cliff Gill to finish moving lumber from the schoolhouse to the silo. Before starting on the schoolhouse clean out project, we searched through the grass around the silo for the tree seedlings Bill and Rita Worden had planted last year. We found 22 cedars, 2 bald cypress, and 2 oaks. We placed six or so plastic shingles around the base of each tree to make it easier to locate and care for in the future. We checked the oil level in the red lawn mower. It had been turned upside down by the cattle, and we thought it might have leaked out all of the engine oil. As it turns out, it still had almost a full crankcase. During a prior conversation with Ben Royal, the current owner of the schoolhouse, he mentioned that several cedar beams he had stored in the schoolhouse were missing. Bill and I found the missing cedar beams stacked with our lumber by the silo. We loaded them in the truck and returned...
30 October 2021 Bat Census Trip
Participants - Bill GeeKristen GodfreyMatthew HernandezJohn RothMartin Carmichael Time in 0915, time out 1815. This was the annual bat census trip in Carroll Cave. We run this trip near the end of October every year. This year, besides counting bats, we had an additional task to exchange batteries and memory card in the bat roost detector in the Mountain Room. We also moved the bat roost detector to a new position that gives it a better view of the passage to the natural entrance. I drove to the camping site Friday afternoon, arriving about 1615. Even though it had rained about 3 inches in the previous 7 days, the field was not soggy at all. I found two of the lawn mowers were completely upside-down, and the third had obviously been moved from where we parked them. I turned the mowers over and parked them inside of the windbreak. I found a jug of gasoline laying on its side by the silo with no cap on it. It is almost certainly no good anymore. I did not try to run the red mower,...
9 Oct 2021 Convention Hall Photography Trip
Trip purpose: PhotographyAreas of Cave visited: Upstream Thunder, Convention HallTrip participants: David Fairbairn, Shannon Zaloz, John Roth, Victor Munsen, Cliff Gill, Alaina Borra, Kathy Christensen, Becca Marlin Entry Time: 10:00 amExit Time: 4:30 pm Alaina and I arrived Friday night shortly before 10pm and quickly set up camp. The grass in the driveway was about knee high which made it difficult to see if there were any hazards in the gravel on the way in. Saturday morning Kathy was the first to arrive at 8:30 followed shortly by everyone else. This was the first time in Carroll for 3 cavers so there was much discussion of what gear to wear/ bring into the cave. The first caver went down the shaft at 10:00am, and the last person was in the cave at 10:45. We all headed up Thunder and made our first stop at Angel Pool Passage for pictures and a snack break. From there we continued on with a goal of finding Convention Hall, which we arrived at around 1:30pm. Shannon and crew...
31 July 2021 Annual Member’s Meeting Minutes
Minutes of Carroll Cave Conservancy annual meeting - 31 July 2021 The meeting was held via Zoom conference. Attendees were Jeff PageBill GeeRick HinesDan LampingJay KennedyNick KennedyMarty GriffinJulianne RamseySeth ColstonKristen GodfreyJim CooleyJulie CottrellMartin CarmichaelHou ZhongAlex LitschDave ForanBill Copland The meeting was called to order at 10:04 by president Jeff Page. Minutes from 2020 were approved. Voting method chosen - Ask only for disapprovals. If no one disapproves then the vote carries. Discussion about Pic campground. The campaign ends today. We don't know exactly how much money we have yet.The maps were published online last year. No problems have been seen.The gate from the road to the field was moved into the field 50 feet. A major safety improvement. More gravel was added to the road, and it seems to be holding up well.Trees planted around the silo. Some have died, which will affect a discussion about fencing.Bill Pfantz' area is mostly cleaned up. Our...