Participants
- Jesse Adamczyk
- Eoghan
- Ryan Marshall
- Pierson Miller
- Joshua Mokry
- Carrin
- Alex Seaton
- Erin Vair-Grilley
- Minori Yoshida
Friday
We had been expecting a smaller group for the weekend as there was a conflicting trip that Carrin, Minori, Ryan, and Joshua were planning to attend. However that trip was cancelled last-minute so we ended up with a much larger team.
Carrin, Jesse, Alex, and Minori were the first to arrive and set about preparing dinner for the weekend. For Friday we made a pasta salad and side salad. We also prepared dinner for Saturday, a slow-cooked chicken curry. We were soon joined by Joshua, Ryan, and Pierson, who is new to the project.
Erin and Eoghan arrived a little later, and with the full team assembled we discussed our plans for Saturday. We decided to have three teams of three, with teams working on ridgewalking, survey in Tummy Troubles, and exploration of Wedgie cave.
Saturday
Before setting out we sat down for a quick safety meeting. After that and a little extra faff, the teams headed out. The forecast for the day was looking great, so it was a relief not to have to worry about the weather for a change.
Wedgie cave exploration
Jesse Adamczyk (TL), Ryan Marshall, Minori Yoshida
Executive summary: it goes
We left the field house at 8:38am. Beautiful sunny weather made it almost a shame to go caving. There were the typical herds of cows in the field on the way out.
Ryan, Minori, and Jesse left the truck and walked out to Wedgie cave at 10:15am. The sky was sunny and the air was windy, but the temperature was quite pleasant. The goal of the trip was to chisel out the hole and attempt to enter into the lower room.
On the previous trip (the discovery of the cave in October 2024), Jesse found a small diggable hole in the floor of the passage. While trying to remove rocks from around the hole, Jesse got stuck below a wedged chockstone for about 10 minutes. The cave was named Wedgie cave in memory of the moment.
The team entered the cave and traveled to the work area. The passage above the hole is so narrow that Minori was immediately skeptical about whether or not we would be able to use the hammer drill. Minori started work first while Ryan and Jesse explored nearby passage. Due to the size constraints of the passage, the drill had to be held with one hand while lying sideways. Chipping out the hole was very strenuous.
Ryan and Jesse explored an offshoot passage that could be chipped out as well. The passage went horizontal down a narrow 1ft wide gypsym side passage and then turned off to the right. Down the right passage was very narrow at the start but passage several feet wide would be seen. After poking around they headed back to meet up with Minori.
Minori needed a break from the digging and chiseling, so Jesse took over for a bit. After about 5 minutes of chiseling there was the sound of bouncing metal. Jesse yelled out “F***!”. He had just dropped the chisel bit down 6 feet into the hole in the floor.
The team was now determined to break through the dig to get the chisel bit back. Jesse used the regular drill bit and resumed drilling and breaking rock. After a few minutes, he sent it and went down the hole.
Hooray, he made it down and got the chisel bit!
Inside the hole there was standing room in stream cut passage made of gypsum. Minori came down next, and then Ryan started his way down. Part way down, some of the sharp protruding rocks caught him at his chest. We were worried that if he came down further, he might get stuck.
Minori helped Ryan get back up into the narrow passage above to wait as the hammer drill was used to chisel off all of the sharp points. Dust was flying out of the hole and Ryan was hot-boxed by a cloud of gypsum dust. After a few minutes of chiseling, Ryan was able to easily drop down through the hole into the lower passage.
The team explored the lower passages for a few minutes, following the downstream direction. Ryan and Minori explored the stream passage for about 20 minutes. After discovering that the cave kept going, Minori suggested the team head out of the cave to get extra lights, food, and water before continuing to push deeper into the cave.
Lunchtime was pleasant; the sun was shining and the team was sheltered from the wind by the rock outcrop near the cave entrance. A plan was made to do a line survey of the beginning section of the cave, and then continue exploration further into the cave in order to determine how significant it was.
The team decided to split responsibilities: Ryan would lead the way and scout ahead to find the best route through; Minori would set survey stations and use the laser rangefinder to identify the next stations based on Ryan’s position ahead; Jesse would shoot points using the DistoX and record data with TopoDroid.
The team surveyed into the cave through the narrow passages, and dropped down through the enlarged hole. Survey was challenging due to the highly constricted space. On the way down the chiseled hole, Ryan’s cave suit got caught and he yelled “I just got a massive wedgie!”. The cave had now claimed a second victim.
Once the team dropped through the dig hole, survey was done upstream through a series of stream cut passages. The upstream passage has beautiful stream cut gypsum, but all leads pinch off or end in breakdown. Only about 10-15 yards of upstream passage can be traveled through.
The furthest upstream part of the the upstream passage looks to be an infeeder nearly below the entrance of the cave. It is likely that water and debris flow in by the cave entrance through several different channels.
Surveying downstream went smoothly for the next few stations. The team then hit a section of breakdown with passage above and below. Minori climbed very high up on the breakdown and found that the air was stagnant and hot at the top. She suggested that the top of the breakdown pile was likely only a few feet below the surface.
Ryan went under the breakdown and found that the passage was very crawly but kept going downstream. Minori followed Ryan in through the crawl and Jesse took up the rear.
The crawly passage opened up into rooms made from large blocks of breakdown with wet and muddy floors. The breakdown passage led to stream passage where we found a tiger salamander. Minori and Ryan moved the salamander to a small hole so it would not be in the crawl way.
The stream passage started moving in the upwards direction at which point the floor changed from went mud, to dusty dry mud cracks. At this point, the passage split into two different directions; stream passage going up and to the right, and stream passage going horizontally to the left.
Jesse pushed the right lead and scrambled up a dirt floor slope. There were patches of fluffy white mold on the cave floor that looked similar to when a tissue goes through the washing machine.
The passage became narrower and narrower until it required crawling on one’s side. The passage continued to narrow. Minori and Ryan crawled up the passage at Jesse’s request (he got stressed out pushing the tight lead alone), and we decided that the passage was narrow enough that it should be explored another day.
The team went back to the junction and started exploring the left lead. The passage was stream cut gypsum with some debris on the floor. After a few minutes of crawling, the team arrived at a place where a large flake of gypsum appeared to be precariously held up by small block of gypsum on the floor. Jesse crawled past the precarious rocks through stream cut passage for about 30 more feet and then turned back before the passage made a right turn. The team decided it would be best to head back towards the entrance of the cave.
The team crawled back out towards the entrance of the cave until they arrived at the original dig area. There was a bit more time before they needed to be out of the cave, so some additional survey work was done. Jesse shot points, Ryan marked points, and Minori scouted ahead. After about 1 hour of survey, the team picked up all of the gear and exited the cave. All members of the caving party were out just after sunset. The drive back to the field house was uneventful.
Ridgewalking
Carrin (TL), Pierson Miller, Joshua Mokry
We set out with three sets of POIs to check. The first and second sets were two-POI clusters just north of a ranch. The first set was accessible, but the route took us uncomfortably close to the ranch’s private property. The second set was near the first but on the opposite side of a fence and with no easy access that avoided the ranch. The third set was farther north and was our main interest, as it contained six POIs. We decided the best way to access the second set would be from the north after checking the six-POI area, giving the ranch a wide berth. As it turned out, finds were good enough in the northern set that we never got to the second set.
In a classic induction for Pierson to Project Yeso, the area of the first two POIs was a trash dump. One POI was a beautiful, nicely round, 15-foot-diameter pit… filled with household waste. If all that junk were cleared out, the pit would be a nice one to rig and drop and could have leads at the bottom. No way to tell without a cleanup!
We confirmed the second POI as not a cave. In a stiff breeze, Joshua and Carrin walked the rest of the feature to be sure we didn’t miss anything, and Pierson ran along the fence line to see if there was a gate that would let us access the second set of POIs. There wasn’t, so we got back in the car to head for the six-POI cluster.
On the way north, we passed Wedgie Cave and Minori’s vehicle. Fun knowing friends were nearby in the field! Again we found ourselves on the wrong side of a fence to reach our POIs, but in a great stroke of luck, we came to a sturdy BLM gate that was closed but not locked, and we sailed right through, closing it behind us. As frequently as we run into fences, private property, and locked gates in the gypsum plains, it felt like good fortune to find one unlocked.
Drive-up caving! We parked very near the six-POI cluster and struck out. The first POI we labeled a dig, as body-sized passage may well exist beyond the mud and debris plug blocking the entrance. The presence of a large red bucket about 2 feet into the entrance indicates there’s more passage size under the mud; we found a similar bucket elsewhere in the field that was ~2.5 feet in diameter.
We confirmed the second POI of this set as not a cave. It was a doline 25 feet in diameter with no holes. Funny how much of this landscape feels like it should be cavey but upon inspection isn’t. On our way to the third POI of the set, Carrin noticed a nearby feature that wasn’t marked as a POI but was worth a short detour to check. Funny how many features on this landscape turn out to be caves! This is where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
There were two openings along a ledge of rough gypsum blocks. Pierson got after the first one—a tight squeeze that took quite a bit of doing, only to reveal a small pinched-out cavity in the base. Significantly more doing to get out, including some arm-pulling assists by Joshua and Carrin.
Around this time, Joshua noticed our QField tablet was down to 5% battery. This was a significant issue if we were to spend the rest of the day ridgewalking. Fortunately, we did not, so instead we mark it as a lesson: bring battery packs to charge tablets in the field, and always keep a backup wayfinder running simultaneously.
While Pierson was wrestling the tiny hole, Joshua checked out the other opening in the ledge. Once Pierson was free, Joshua exclaimed, “You guys—this one goes!” And go it did.
Joshua slithered in the downsloping, 3-feet-wide, pancake entrance and popped out into a larger chamber where he could stand. Before we could follow, he called out to have his camera passed to him—there was a tiger salamander!
Pierson and Carrin followed in, and the team poked around for a way on. Pierson explored a small route that pinched out, and all three tried dropping through a small hole into a nice void visible below. But the opening was too small, and none of us could pop through.
Joshua broke through when he checked a small hole near the standing room. This route led to a significant lower level with walking passage and another salamander. Joshua scouted ahead ~30 ft, enough to see that the passage continues and enough to get us excited about a real cave find. Time required us to exit (reluctantly!), but this unnamed cave awaits a return trip. It has real potential!
Late in the afternoon, Pierson thoughtfully suggested we find some way to celebrate Ryan’s 21st birthday back at the fieldhouse. He would be totally surprised! The team decided to leave the field a bit early to swing through Capitan and locate a birthday cake and candles. Happy birthday, Ryan!
Tummy Troubles survey
Alex Seaton (TL), Eoghan, Erin Vair-Grilley
Due to Alex’s excessive faffing, we were the last team to leave the field house (8:50am), and got to the parking spot for the cave at around 10am. The wind was pretty relentless in the morning, so we were glad to reach the cave entrance and get some shelter.
Our first task was to investigate the area that Carrin and Nikki had reached on the last trip (B survey). They had reached a junction and stopped because it was very dusty. We were equipped with masks, so poked around a bit. Both routes on are tight and grim as promised, but there’s a fair amount of passage so we agreed it would be worth surveying in future.
With the reconnaissance complete, we continued on down the main route towards the A-survey front. On the previous trip, Erin and Alex had finished part way along the walking passage (station A34).
We reached the survey front at around 11:30am and stopped for a quick snack break before getting to work. Erin was keen to continue sketching, while Eoghan set stations. Alex helped Erin out with the sketch and took photos.
Erin quickly got back into the swing of things with Topodroid, and we made good progress. We quickly finished surveying the walking passage and progressed back into crawlway.
After a couple of hours, we reached the bottom of the shafts that lead up into the dome room. We decided to leave mapping this for a future survey trip, and to continue on down the main passage.
However, Erin was getting hungry and Eoghan needed to use the restroom, so we decided to pause for a break. We headed back to the walking section where we had started. We ate more snacks and then Erin and Alex headed back to the survey front while Eoghan took care of business. He joined us shortly afterwards, declaring his bathroom visit to have been “moderately successful”. Having avoided a major disaster on this front, we continued surveying.
We soon reached the point we had finished exploring to on the previous trip. At this location we’d found a lot of organic matter, including vegetation and mats of mould. The area was completely dry, but still unpleasant to be around so we’d previously turned back at that stage. It appears that the debris enters via several shafts that presumably connect back to the surface. We didn’t attempt to explore these.
Given the grim location we tried to get through this area relatively quickly. Fortunately, the organic matter is localised to this area and the passage is nice and clean afterwards.
After the grim part, we reached a junction room where a small sediment-filled infeeder joins the passage (station A46). At this point there’s a small drop (roughly 5ft) and the passage continues. We decided this was a good place to stop surveying, and since it was almost 3:30pm we decided to push a little further ahead before turning back and heading out.
After the drop, the passage continues as a low crawl (2ft tall by around 5ft wide). Interestingly, there is a small amount of moisture here, unlike the rest of the cave which is bone dry. The crawl continues for around 50-100ft, before reaching a small chamber where there’s room to sit up. Interestingly here the walls are made of some kind of conglomerate.
We had a little more time to explore, but Alex needed some time to catch his breath and rest before the return journey. Erin and Eoghan continued into the unknown for 5-10 minutes. The passage again continues with similar dimensions as far as they could go, though they found another small chamber along the way.
Once Erin and Eoghan had returned, we took a short break before beginning the journey out of the cave at around 3:45pm. We took our time exiting, and had short breaks between sections of crawling. In the end, it was around 4:45pm by the time we reached the entrance.
While a faster team could cut down on travel time, the survey front is now a significant distance from the entrance, and much of this requires flat-out crawling. This will make future survey trips challenging.
Sunday
The weather on Sunday was unfortunately not good, with rain or a good chance of rain forecast for most of the day. We opted to play it safe and work in caves that we knew were unlikely to be affected by this.
We again had three teams, with one team tasked with installing cave markers, one surveying in Zia Christine, and one working on sketch near the entrance of Tummy Troubles.
Cave marker installation
Eoghan (TL), Minori Yoshida
Our task for the day was to set markers at the entrances to five caves: B.S.A Cave, Bogle Bone Cave, Tummy Troubles, Sidewinder, and Wedgie Cave. We set off from the field house at about 08:55 and headed straight for B.S.A cave.
I drove us over to B.S.A Cave through the fake gate that is really a flexible fence. This was my first time putting in a marker and it went pretty well, though the uneven surface of the limestone made it difficult to get the marker flush, and the rain didn’t help with removing the dust from the area around the drill hole.
Our second cave was Bogle Bone Cave. This marker installed better than the prior one, though in hindsight we should have drilled the hole about half an inch deeper. The rain held off here until we got back to the truck. At this point we had a bit of lunch before heading to Tummy Troubles. On our way to Tummy Troubles we passed Erin, Ryan and Jesse leaving Tummy Troubles heading to the rendezvous point – we weren’t late but they were early.
Minori and I made a quick dash across the field to the cave where we found the most perfect smooth piece of gypsum to drill into right above the entrance. Naturally the drill bit went in like a hot knife to butter, and the glue was shot into the hole. This is when something interesting happened; when we tapped the marker in, the cave rejected it! Before our eyes we saw the marker being pushed out of the hole. We would tap it down again and once again it would slowly push back out. I wish that I could have gotten this on camera but at this point my hands were covered in Loctite (and still are to some extent as I write this trip report 2 days later). In the end we removed (most of) the glue in the hole and tapped it home once and for all – albeit cockeyed.
Zia Christine survey
Alex Seaton (TL), Pierson Miller, Carrin
We made our way out to Zia Christine and got changed into our caving gear. The weather was gloomy and cold, and it started raining as we were changing. Alex loves to complain about everything, so complained about the rain and how his gear was damp with sweat from the previous day. Lovely.
We then headed over to the cave. Our plan was to continue working on survey in the ‘D-survey’ section of Zia Christine, which lies under the southern rim of the doline. Unfortunately, as we started heading down into that section we discovered a couple of bats that were hibernating directly along our route. To continue on, it would have been impossible to avoid getting close to them, and we figured that there were likely to be more bats further in that section of the cave.
To avoid disturbing the bats, we opted to switch to our backup plan and work on mop-up survey in the northern ‘C-survey’ section. After the short trip to get there, we got the survey gear out. It was Pierson’s first time doing cave survey, so we explained the basics of how cave survey works. He wasn’t interested in trying to learn to sketch just yet, so we tasked him with setting stations. Carrin volunteered to do some sketch practice, and we got to work.
Zia Christine is a tough cave to sketch, since it is composed of various voids in breakdown. It’s hard to decide where to draw a ‘wall’; it’s always possible to find small voids in the breakdown that you could technically enter, but which in practice lead nowhere. Considering that Carrin already dislikes working with Topodroid, this made sketching a big challenge for her. Despite all this, she persevered and made a heroic attempt.
After a little while, we swapped roles, and Alex took over sketch to demonstrate the process a little. This seemed to help Carrin get her head around things, and after swapping back she made much quicker progress. After setting a few more stations it was about 1pm so we decided to stop and take some time to show Pierson the ‘crystal room’, which is right by where where we were surveying.
We explained the importance of being very careful about not damaging the formations, and then made our way through the squeeze into the delicate section. We took our time, and Pierson had a chance to get some photos of the formations.
By this point it was now 1:30pm so time for us to start making our way out to meet up with the others as planned at 2:30pm. Exiting the cave, we were again greeted by the grim weather. Fortunately, we didn’t get rained on too much while changing, and it only picked up after we were safely in the car on the way to the crossroads.
Tummy Troubles survey
Erin Vair-Grilley (TL), Jesse Adamczyk, Ryan Marshall
Ryan, Jesse, and myself headed out to Tummy Troubles. The weather that morning was on and off light rain, enough to wet the road, but not enough to soften the dirt into slippy mud. Of course, as soon as we parked and got out to change, the rain picked up and left us pretty wet going into the cave.
Needless to say we hustled to the cave for shelter. Our goal was to sketch from the entrance towards the “junction room”, completing as much as time would allow. Due to the stink of the packrat hideout (aroma added by a recently-ish deceased packrat (ID provided via Ryan)) at the start of the cave we started the survey sketch at station A4. I explained to Jesse and Ryan the basics of Topodroid survey and we set out doing the splays and sketching at A4. After giving them a brief tutorial we decided that they would go ahead and start to locate the subsequent survey markers while I sketched behind.
This was Jesse and Ryan’s first time in Tummy Troubles so they poked around ahead, exploring little side passages that we assumed connected to the main passage. They confirmed that one or two do indeed connect back. During their exploration they did see, and squish, two ticks… so Tummy Troubles is not as safe as we initially thought.
We were unable to locate survey marker A5 so I shot splays from A4 and A6, and freehand sketched in the gap in the survey (which was not big). A10 was a black survey marker on some black rock, which took a long time to recover. We thought two colors of sharpies might be helpful, a black and silver so survey markers can be recovered a bit easier. A bright color paint marker or something might also be a good idea.
I sketched to A13, and then Jesse took a turn and we walked through the sketching steps at A14. Jesse did a great job, sketching profile, plan and a cross section. By this time it was about 1 o’clock and we were at a decent stopping point so we packed up to head out. It took us much less time to exit the cave than we anticipated as we hadn’t gone through the sandy crawl. We definitely could have surveyed another station or two… next time we know better!
It was still lightly raining upon existing the cave, so changing back into street clothes was a quick endeavor, and before we knew it we were heading to the crossroads… much earlier than intended. While driving back we saw Eoghan and Minori driving out to Tummy Troubles to place a cave marker (efficiently using all the time allotted for cave related activities).
We waited at the crossroads for the other teams to return, which they did, all on time! We said quick goodbyes to each other since the rain was really coming down by that time.
Overall, another successful trip into Tummy Troubles to round out the weekend.
