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Permit: 0410-3
Leader: Rick Hines
date: 10/23/04
manager: Lawrence Ireland
Assessment: Carroll Passage
participant1: Bill Gee
participant2: Lawrence Ireland
participant3: Andy Isbell
TimeIn: 10:15 am
TimeOut: 11:00 pm
Date: Sunday October 31,
2004
Time: 05:04 PM
purpose:
Inventory bats and take calendar photos.
details:
Biology/Photo Trip 10/23/04
Earlier in the month Bill Gee suggested combining his planned biology trip with
my 10/23/04 photo trip. With the combined trip we still only had five signed up
and with one no-show Saturday morning we made the trip with Bill Gee, Rick
Hines, Lawrence Ireland and Andy Isbell.
Bill, Andy and I camped at the school house Friday night and Lawrence arrived
Saturday morning. Bill was the first down the shaft to do a little repair work
on the phone tube. On a prior trip he had used plastic wire ties to secure the
tube to the ladder but they didn’t hold up as people drug their boots against
the ladder rails as they rappelled in. Bill added 1/8-inch aluminum tie wire for
a more durable solution.
I was the last one in at 10:15. But before entering I needed to make a phone
call to check on the no-show. I walked the field around the silo tying to get a
signal on my T-Mobile phone with no luck. I then climbed to the top of the silo
– Presto, two bars, a reliable signal and a completed call. If you ever need to
make a call from the area the top of the silo is the hot spot. I stuffed the
phone in the bib of my wet suit to free my hands to climb down. 12.5 hours
later, as I undressed after exiting the cave my drowned cell phone dropped to
the ground, never to speak again.
Andy and I climbed down the ladder using the 3/8 inch stainless steel cable and
the cable safety grabs. The system still needs a little work to get the grabs to
be free running on the way down. They worked fine climbing out. Since the trip I
have purchased 4 more of the better quality grabs off of eBay. I am
experimenting with connections system to get the grabs to be free running up and
down. We now have 6 high quality and 2 lower quality ones. The lower quality
pair are safe but will not “free run” up or down. You are welcome to test the
cable system. Just clip into your seat harness and the grab with about a 2 to 3
foot rope extension between the two points.
The cell phone was not the only technical problem. I was testing a new battery
system on my Nite Rider HID light. I supported my two batteries on military
suspenders to keep them dry since I had problems on the last trip with the
batteries belt mounted. The new arrangements did not work any better. The first
battery went dead after 3.5 hours even though it runs for 6 hours on the bench.
Worse yet, the second battery would not work at all. When I got home I found the
problem to be mud in the connector. After cleaning the connector the battery ran
the light for 4 hours. The batteries run at 15.8 volts at full charge. The
connector puts the two contacts about an 1/8 inch apart. When the connector is
wet or packed with mud current flows draining the battery. For the next trip I
will separate the positive and negative wires and use a separate connector on
each. Another technical failure was a new LED light and laser pointer
combination. I had hoped to use the laser pointer to let people know where to
aim their slave flash but the laser pointer failed early in the trip. The final
problem was a fogged camera lens but fortunately it fogged just after we
finished shooting at the Azure Pool. I would have taken a few more shots but it
was getting late so a fogged lens at that point was not serious. After getting
home I dried the camera in a vacuum oven and it now works fine. The vacuum oven
did not help the cell phone or the laser pointer. One part of the technology on
this trip that did work fine was my slave flash units. I have gradually up
graded the sensors and have directly soldered them into the flash circuit to
eliminate connectors and have sealed critical points with silicone rubber. All 5
units on this trip worked more or less flawlessly. I’ll keep purchasing the
sensitive slave trigger on ebay and will soon have 14 Vivitar 285s with SSL Wein
triggers.
The four of us moved down Carroll River taking photos, inventorying bats and
guano piles and keeping an eye out for other critters. Lawrence or Bill may add
more latter but I’ll give a brief report on what we saw. We found a grotto
salamander feasting on the insects on the first large guano pile.
At a stagnant pool just down stream from another guano pile we searched for flat
worms or planarian that had been spotted on a previous trip. We first saw a
number of small gnats and gnat parts on the surface of the water. Soon we
spotted a flat worm about 1/8 of an inch long moving along just below the
surface. In a few minutes we found 6 worms in a 5 foot by 3 foot area.
Lawrence pointed out long-eared, grays and pipistrelles as we moved toward the
Lunch Room.
As we did lunch in the Lunch Room we discussed where to go next, Turnpike or
continue down the Carroll River. We continued down the Carroll River to the Left
Fork and then to Paradises Passage. As we traveled down the Left Fork Lawrence
pointed out a ring-tailed cat skeleton, less the skull, that had been removed
many years ago for identification.
Photo of the Azure pool show the water level up about 4” from where it was in
June 03 but still about 2” below the where it was when the photo on the cover of
“The Wilderness Underground” was taken.
After taking the Azure pool photo my camera lens fogged on an inside surface
ending the photography for the day. We turned and headed out.
At the backdoor at about 10:30 PM three of us started the climb and left Bill
behind with most of the photo gear and packs. We rigged a pulley and lowered the
rope to Bill to tie on the gear. By 11:00PM we were all on the surface.
Thanks to Bill, Lawrence and Andy for hauling photo gear and helping with the
photography and for putting up with my slow pace on the way out.
Check the web page soon for photo from the trip.
The next photo trip is planed for February 26, 2005. Sign up now.
Rick Hines