Trip Report - 12 March 2005 Biology Project
                                      
Participants: Bill Gee, Andy Isbell, Jay Kennedy, Rita Worden, Pete
Wittereid, Janet Wittereid, Terry Sherman, Charlie Knight.

Time in: 10:30 am. Time out: 11:00pm.

Purpose: Basic biota survey between the breakdown pile and the first
waterfall in far Upper Thunder River.

Trip report by Bill Gee    Bill's blurb  Charlie's chatter  Andy's additions

I was the first to arrive at the schoolhouse Friday evening just before 7pm.
When I went to bed, no one else had shown up. Sometime during the night
Charlie Knight, Terry Sherman and Jay Kennedy arrived. The other four
participants arrived Saturday morning.

Our gathering time was to be 9am at the schoolhouse. We waited until about
9:30 for the final two people, but they never arrived. Jay, Charlie and I
drove up to the silo a few minutes before the rest so we could rig the drop.
Jay brought a nearly new PMI Pit rope that we used. We started dropping the
hole about 10:30 and by 11:00am everyone was down. That rope gave a nice
smooth ride.

Ten people signed up for the trip and we had two others that were "maybes".
We were given two trip permits, one for myself and one for Andy Isbell as
leader. Eight people actually showed up. We figured we would get out past
the mapped end, then divide into two teams to do the bio survey.

It took us about an hour to get to the Round Room where we paused for a few
minutes. I took the opportunity to examine two previously know bio sites.
Both had critters on them, so I showed everyone else what they looked like.
This was a good chance to do a little participant training.

The floor site had millipedes and springtails. One person reported a
ptomophagus beetle. The other site, on a boulder off to the side, had some
springtails and a large (1 cm) millipede.

It took longer than I thought to get the rest of the way to the Mapped End.
We arrived there about 1:30 and prepared for that gruesome crawl. Rita
Worden went first. When I followed, I found the pinch about 20 feet in. It
was smaller than I remembered at about 12 inches wide and 16 or 18 inches
high. There was 4 or 5 inches of water flowing pretty fast through there. I
had to back off and make a second run to get through. The real problem was
pushing my pack in front of me.

For future reference, the best way to get through the pinch is to send the
first person through without a pack. Then pass packs through, then get
people through. Just past the pinch is a stand-up area where everyone can
gather their wits for the rest of the crawlway.

The rest of the crawl takes 300 or 400 feet. You are in the stream for some
of it and up in rocky crawls for some. There is one more pinch which is only
10 or 12 inches high, but it is 8 feet wide and not in the water.

We encountered a problem getting through the first pinch. Jay Kennedy started
in, then decided it was not his day to go through there. It was a
combination of being out of shape, out of practice, poorly fitting coveralls
and carrying a pack that was too large. Jay backed out and said he would
wait for us while we went on. I was very uncomfortable with leaving him
alone in the cave like that, even though Jay is a very experienced caver.

Andy Isbell and Rita Worden came to the rescue. Although they had already
come through the pinch, they went back out to help Jay get out of the cave.
The rest of us went on. This was about 2:00pm. Andy reported later that
they made it back to the ladder about 5:30 or 6:00. Jay had a hot meal, then
felt up to climbing the ladder. They were out about 6:30pm. Before Andy
left I told him our team would work to an out time of 10:00pm.

We got out of the crawlway about 2:30. The cave became walking height again,
but it is not nearly as large as the downstream portions. Immediately we
started examining the stream for isopods and fish. We found both. Some of
the isopods were the largest I have ever seen, about 1.5 cm long. Isopods
were visible both on rocks we picked up and on the stream bed.

In an alcove to the side of the stream we found a really nice gypsum beard.
It extends about 18 or 20 inches, the full height of the alcove at that
point, and is about an inch in diameter. Surrounding it are single strands
of gypsum 2 to 4 inches long hanging from the ceiling. We found another
small gypsum beard about half-way back to the waterfall.

After looking over the stream, we started examining the breakdown pile that
fills most of the room. We found no insects. There was lots of individual
particles of bat guano, but no concentrations. Most of the guano was very
old and had been reduced to a black powder. The effect was like someone had
sprinkled black pepper on the rocks. There were some guano particles with
fungus growing on them.

We saw about a half dozen live bats roosting. One was flying around. There
were two mostly intact bat carcasses (one of them still smelled) and a lot of
scattered bat bones. One of the bat carcasses had something crawling on it
which I did not get a good look at. It was probably a millipede.

About 3:45pm we declared a lunch break. That took about an hour. We then
packed up and headed for the far end of the cave.

I estimate about 3000 feet from the end of the crawlway to the waterfall which
is almost the end of the cave. We did not have any compasses with us, so we
don't know for sure what direction the cave is going at that point. There
are a few side passages on the way. One is very short and ends in what looks
like the bottom of a sinkhole. We crawled up to the ceiling and most of the
way around the breakdown pile. The air at the top seemed to be warmer than
the rest of the cave. We could not see any light or openings to the surface.
It would be very interesting to get a radio locate on this pile and see how
it relates to the surface.

On the way to the waterfall we saw a few more bats hanging, but no fish. The
trail is out of the stream almost all the way. We reached the waterfall
about 5:30. We examined the area closely, especially the pool below the
waterfall. We saw 5 or 6 full-grown cavefish in the pool. There were lots
of isopods, again some measuring over a centimeter long.

Charlie Knight and I crawled up into the passage above the waterfall for about
30 or 40 feet. We saw lots of isopods but no fish. The passage here is 12
to 14 inches high and 6 or 8 feet wide, with about 4 inches of water flowing
very fast. The stream bed is black rock and fairly flat. Anyone wishing to
push this passage had better be very small and willing to belly crawl in a
stream.

Terry Sherman hauled out his camera and flash unit and took several pictures
of the team and the waterfall. We left the area about 6:15.

The trip back seemed to take forever. We had no real problems, but everyone
was tired from fighting through the crawlway. We exited the crawlway about
7:30. While in the crawlway there was a bat flying around. It may have been
the same bat we saw in the first room.

We stayed out of the stream coming back, so we avoided the swimming holes. At
UL3 I managed to lead the group into the side passage about 150 feet. I
figured out what was going on and we got back out. We reached the Round Room
about 9:00 and took a break.

From the Round Room to the ladder is normally a 45 minute trip. It took us
over an hour. We arrived at the ladder at about 10:30. Gearing up and
climbing out took about 30 minutes, and another 30 minutes to derig the rope,
change clothes and pack up.

Back at the schoolhouse we found that Rita had already gone home. Andy and
Jay were waiting for us. In spite of being late, Andy was not too worried
about us. Terry Sherman went on home and the rest of us went to bed shortly
after midnight.

Biology summary:

We found life everywhere we looked. There were full-grown cavefish both at
the waterfall and the crawlway. There were a few bats and evidence that the
area has seen steady but not heavy bat use. Isopods were everywhere and
larger than I have ever seen. We did not see any snails or any other insect
life.

Finding bats, even a few, that far from the natural entrance implies there is
some access they can use. Full-grown cavefish that far upstream implies that
they have a breeding area even farther upstream, probably in some area that
humans cannot get to. 

Additional comments by Charles Knight

charles-knight [at] uiowa.edu

As far as biology notes, I didn't always have a location to tie the notes to. Here is a supplemented summary of what I have.

In crawls beyond the "end" squeeze:
Abundant and relatively large isopods (3/16 - 7/16 in). There were areas where they could be seen by visually scanning the stream bottom (without turning over any cobbles).

Beyond the "end" things seem to get more gritty (abundant coarse sand to fine pebble sized material) with the banks of the cave stream often being composed of relatively soft and loose material, indicating that it was more recently washed in (as opposed to stiff, semi-consolidated mud banks). The loose material provided excellent conditions for conulite formations (mud
cups) with undulating walls, which were abundant along the edges of the stream. This relatively recent sedimentation should be associated with input of organic material for the isopods to scavenge.

Cave fish were seen intermittently throughout the passage (~2 in. long). Some pools had multiple fish visible (up to three or four in single pools further upstream).

Of the cave I've seen (Lthunder down to DL7, Carroll down to Mt. Room) the bats here were fairly abundant. I'm no bat ID expert, I think they were mostly grays and some pips. A number of skeletons were observed as well as a bat in the process of decay. At one point in some breakdown duckways and crawls after the "end" I counted four separate bats in the air at one time. There were also areas where the temperature seemed to vary (although that can be fairly subjective, especially when moving in and out of water is involved).

Fibrous gypsum or unknown fungi (to me)? I observed three separate groups (<1/16 in. diameter) of white strands hanging down from the ceiling, ranging from around 1' long to a couple of inches. I don't know if this is a fungus that I know nothing about (some parts of one looked a little gooey, but could have been stream related residue) or whether these are fibrous gypsum speleothems (as Jay Kennedy pointed out a gypsum beard on the way out). According to "Cave Minerals of the World" these have been seen in Arkansas and I have seen them tons in the Black Hills caves. I would assume they occur in MO caves. They don't necessarily have to be gypsum, and they form anywhere there are condensation-evaporation cycles (usually seasonal) that cause over-saturation of a solution in the pore spaces of the bedrock so that mineral deposition occurs. Each deposition pushes the previous mineral growth away from the pore space, forming a filimentary growth that can hang down or push out of the wall.

From the overall observations, I think it makes the most sense that the bats are getting in from somewhere in the area. We are moving up-dip as we move west, so the Gasconade is getting closer to the surface (as seen in Helwig's cross-section and evidenced by the collapse originally believed to terminate the passage). This makes it more likely for doline features to penetrate to the surface.

I've got some geologic notes on the way-
Charlie
 

Additional report by trip member Andy Isbell

blkhole1956 [at] yahoo.com

participant1: Andy Isbell
participant2: Jay Kennedy
participant3: Rita Worden
participant4: Charlie Knight
 

Purpose of Trip - Biology Survey
details:
Found decayed log about 4ft. long 1ft. above stream level. There was no good way to mark location on this report. Took a sample to be carbon dated by Charlie K.
Started upstream at 10:45 and arrived at the round room at noon. 1hr and 15 min. We found some Betles - Millepede - Springtail. Everyone was able to see what bugs we would be looking for past the mapped end and how small they are.
Our pace was comfortable. Not fast or slow. Charlie was observing water flow over mud banks - sand ect. drip tubes and holes.
At the end of mapped passage 7 of the 8 of us were able to get through the breakdown. Jay was to large to maneuver the squeeze in the water crawl. He is really not that large it's just tight. Take note of this if you know me (Andy Isbell) you can't be much bigger then my size to get through the breakdown. there are other squeezes past there.
Bill and I had a Pow Wow at this point and decided to not leave Jay alone there. But for myself andone volunteer to head out with Jay. Rita went with us. Charlie switched teams here and continued with Bill.
On our way out we stopped at the collasped dome room. Then proceeded down the river passage back out. Not the high route.  We went swimming twice before the river rejoins the trunk passage. I like this route out (lots of cold water).
Near Survay marker u53s1 or Bio marker 14 upstream on the ceiling I found a Gypsum beard. These are very FRAGILE do not touch!!! They look like fungus or spider web. This beard is 10 - 12 inches long.
We didn't show Jay Thunder falls. He said he will see it another time.
Thank you Bill for rescheduling this trip over and over until this trip happened.
Thank you deep cavers for makeing this trip happen.
Thank you Rita for turning around at the starting point. We really needed a third to head out. Safty in numbers.
One last thing LETS DO IT AGAIN IN MAY 2006
Andy Isbell
Special Momet - Laying on the bank of Thunder River link 3 snow angles pondering death by huge boulder. Arms length away