Participants:
Mitchell Fry, Warren Netherton, Jim Pisarowicz, Karen Rosga

Duration of Trip:
13 hours

New Cave Surveyed:
450 feet

Entered the cave to continue the XT survey at the Beanery. This room was previously referred to as the Capital but as there was already a room by that name we changed it to the Beanery (origin of name = the Bunkhouse seasonal housing unit has a sign in it that says: "First International Bunkhouse, Bank & Beanery" and so we decided to call the room the Beanery).

Off the Beanery we surveyed into a mud room we called the Dog Pound. This name came about because Warren had said earlier to Karen that he was so happy to be going underground that he was wagging his tail like a wolf. Karen, Warren, and I surveyed around this large room while Mitchell pushed leads. The Dog Pound ended up being 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. This room has very interesting mud cracks in the floor. These cracks are up to 3 inches in depth and 2 inches wide. Photos were taken. The mud was only disturbed around the perimeter of the room and the more central area was left undisturbed. A side area off the Beanery and Dog Pound was also surveyed and contained clay layers exposed like book pages with the limestone weathered out. Very, very interesting.

After finishing the leads in this area we returned to Garganell's Castle to push the low lead which we called Garganell's Dungeon. There appears to be airflow here and we thought that we might be able to get into lower cave by following this down trending passage. Unfortunately Karen and Mitchell could not get through into this passage that I pushed into. Thus the survey did not continue down this way at this time. Gypsum needles shaped like teeth could be seen in this area.

The survey then returned to connecting the Beanery back into the Smurf Path making another loop. Once completed we returned to the Beanery and surveyed back to XT1 completing another loop. The XK survey was used on this trip for the Dog Pound.

Report by: Jim Pisarowicz