*******************************************************************************
Permit: Unknown - Lawrence Ireland
Leader: Bill Gee
date: 13 Sep 2003
manager: Lawrence Ireland
Assessment: Upstream Thunder
participant1: Bill Gee
participant2: Aaron White
participant3: Andy Isbell
TimeIn: 10:00am
TimeOut: 5:30pm
Damage: No
Remote User:
Date: Tuesday September 16, 2003
Time: 06:34 PM
purpose:
Biological survey in Round Room and UL2.
details:
Trip manager was Lawrence Ireland. The purpose of the trip was to collect
biological data. Trip leaders were Lawrence Ireland and Bill Gee. Other persons
attending were Aaron White, Andy Isbell, Pete Witteried and Janet Aydt.
Everyone arrived at the school house by 9:00am. We all drove up to the entrance
and geared up. The first person down the hole was Bill Gee. Andy, Pete, Janet
and Lawrence followed. Before Aaron could go down, Eugene Vale arrived. Aaron
helped Eugene get geared up.
Eugene had a confedence problem getting down the ladder. Aaron spent some time
trying to coach him, but with no success. Eventually we decided that Andy would
go up from below and try to help.
While Andy helped Eugene, Lawrence, Pete, Janet and Bill went over to Thunder
Falls with the idea of doing a bio count in the first riffle downstream. The
stream level was too high, so we went back to the riffle at the exit to the
shortcut passage. Lawrence showed us how to find isopods and other critters.
Janet, Pete and Bill stayed to count critters at the riffle while Lawrence went
back to the ladder to see how things were going with Eugene.
We spent about 20 minutes looking over the riffle. We found several isopods and
an unidentified animal. Pete reported several snails. We saw no fish at
the riffle. Due to recent rain in the area, the stream was very turbid.
Visibility was less than 6 inches in the water. Thunder River was running about
6 inches above where it normally runs.
When we got back to the ladder, we found that Eugene had given up. Aaron,
Lawrence and Andy were waiting for us. We decided to split into two teams of
three. Lawrence, Pete and Janet went to the headwaters of Carroll river to see
if there was any life in the area. Andy, Aaron and Bill sent to the round room
to check the status of some bait traps and do general cleanup, then to
Convention Hall passage to count fish, isopods and whatever else we could see.
We had heard reports from others of juvenile fish in the stream in Convention
Hall passage and wanted to check it out.
Our team left the ladder at 12:45pm and arived at the Round Room about 1:50pm.
We checked the bait traps first. The trap with the cracker was completely empty.
The cheese trap had nothing but some black powder in it. There was also a white
crystalline substance under the cheese remains and a few inches away which
resembled salt. The cigar butt trap was untouched.
While Andy cleaned up some spilled carbide from several areas, Bill and Aaron
scanned the area for critters. We found no animals of any kind. In one small
pocket I found a very small spider web. The web was marked with flagging tape
and I took some pictures. We saw several bat carcasses, all of which were known
from previous trips. I found a few bits of bat guano. We saw no live critters of
any kind.
Along with the carbide, Andy picked up some other small trash. We found several
flash bulbs, one of which looked like it had never been used. We found burned
scraps of paper in several places. There were several places where the remnants
of melted candle wax could be seen. Several months ago we found a lot of
millipedes on one of the wax stripes. This time there was nothing living
anywhere near it.
We had lunch, then left the Round Room about 2:45 headed for the Convention Hall
passage. We arrived about 3:30. Andy and Aaron looked for fish while I
looked for isopods. The stream in the passage was flowing with considerable
force, more than any of us had ever seen before. Usually the stream in
convention hall passage is nearly stagnant. The stream was also much less muddy
than the main Thunder River, though there was still some turbidity. Visibility
was probably 2 or 3 feet.
In the first 200 feet of passage we found 4 medium fish and 3 large fish. No
juveniles were seen. I found 31 isopods. 3 of the isopods were found on rocks in
quieter parts of the stream. All others were found in riffles. At the riffles I
found isopods on almost every rock I looked at. One rock had 8 on it.
After we passed the first decoration area, the stream was so low under overhang
that we could not get to it. As a consequence we saw no more animals all the way
to Convention Hall.
At Convention Hall the water fall was flowing very fast. We looked around a bit.
About 4:50 we left to return to the ladder.
We got to the ladder at 5:30. Less than five minutes later Lawrence's team
arrived. We climbed out and were all on the surface by 6:00pm. The first three
people out were able to get changed before the rain started. It rained very hard
for about 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually the rain quit and we were able to
finish changing, pack up and leave.
There was about 8 inches of water flowing in the creek at the bottom of the
hill. It had been dry when we went up in the morning.
Vandalism:
RestoNeeded: