4-19-03

Mike Hartley, trip leader

Convention Hall, visted.

Participants:

Mike Hartley, Bill Copeland, Peddgie Heinz, Colby Johnson

11:00 am- 6:30 pm

Thursday April 24, 2003, 11:20 PM

Marking the Upper Thunder River passage with a line of sight reflector system to minumize impact to the echo-system.

We began entering the cave around 11:00am. Nobody that showed up, with the exception of myself, brought any climbing gear, but that was OK. With the new ladder installed, this would be a good opportunity to see how hard it would be using the ladder. After rigging a line, we began to descend the ladder one at a time. This was done for safety reasons. Not knowing the stability, or how well the ladder was secured to the wall was my biggest consideration. If something was to go wrong, it would be much easier to get one person out of the hole, compared to two or three. On average it took about 10 minutes for each person to climb down while wearing a harness and moving the ascender three or four rungs at a time. Climbing out is a different story. On average that took about 15 to 20 minutes for each person, depending on how many times the individual would stop and rest. When the rest of the mounting bolts on the ladder are installed, I think it will be safe enough for 2 or 3 people to climb in or out at the same time. After the crew was down the ladder, I got on line and repelled down the shaft. This was much faster and less cumbersome then using the ladder and it only took about 5 minutes. I would think this would be the preferred method for entering the cave, but for those people who do not wish to repel or climb out on line, the ladder works very well, just a little slower.

After getting our gear organized we headed across the natural bridge and up over the hump, then followed the trail down to the river. Once we came to the river it became apparent that the only way we could proceed was to enter the water and move up river by staying to the shallowest banks. Although their are mud banks on both sides of the river which extend most of the lenght of this part of the cave, because of the instability of these banks, it is almost impossible to walk on them without causing them to collapse. This would undoubtedly be of a negative impact to the echo-system. Another problem with using the mud banks as a possible trail through this section of the cave is that, it is relatively easy to climb up the mud banks on the down river side, but once you reached the upriver side, it was always a sheer drop off with no way to descend.

In my opinion, unless we build bridges or an elevated platform walkway the entire length of the river, or find some other way to stay out of the water, you can not avoid entering the water. As an alternative solution we have installed reflectors, placed in and along the mud banks, going in both directions, in order to guide people along the river and through the water with as little impact to the environment as possible. Our goal for this trip was to place these reflectors from the new entrance to Convention Hall. Unfortunately I under estimated the number of reflectors that would be needed, and we ran out about half way to Convention Hall. I guess we will have to finish this task next trip. When going up or down river stay on which ever the side of the river the reflectors are on. Their are several spots where you must change to the other side of the river. These spots are clearly marked with reflectors. Anyone having any problems with these markers, or if you think they can be placed some where better suited to marking the trail, please let me know and we will correct any problems.

Because we had no more reflectors to install, we decided to finish the trip with a visit to Convention Hall where we stopped for lunch. After lunch and a short rest brake, we started back down river, stopping here and their to take photos. Photos will be posted on the web page as soon as possible. All in all, this was a very good trip. Every one helped with placing the reflectors and got to see some of the cave at the same time. Next Restoration / Conservation weekend will be the third weekend in may. Sign up now, theirs lots to do.

At the natural bridge, by the new entrance, on a flat rock, their is graffiti carved into the rock.