Trip Report

                                                 Carroll Cave Conservancy

                                                Restoration / Conservation

                                         Upper Thunder River Trail Marking

Project Manager: Michael Hartley

Trip Leader: Michael Hartley                      Phone # (816) 524-1979

Date of trip: 6-21-03

 Surface Contact Person and Phone #: Carolyn Hartley (816) 524-1979.

Purpose of trip: To continue trail marking Upper Thunder River to the Round Room.

Areas of the cave visited: between the New Entrance and the Round Room.

Trip Participants:

(2) Colby Johnson                       (5) Pam Rader             (8)                                                 

(3) Terry DeFraties                     (6)                                                         

(4) Peddgie Hinzes                      (7)                                                                                   

Time Entered Cave:  11:00 am   -     Time Exited Cave: 6:20pm                                         

Trip Report:

     We started the trip late that day. It was almost noon before everyone was at the bottom of the hole. Everyone rappelled in with the exception of Peddgie. As soon as we were in and organized, we headed up river following the trail markers we had placed back in April. As we proceeded I found it necessary to replace some of the markers. Some had come lose and fallen out, and there were a few it seemed to me, that were not in the right spots. I don’t think anyone had moved them, I just don’t think I had placed them right the first time, where they had needed to be.

     Continuing up river we would stop occasionally to take pictures and see if we could count any fish. Got some nice pictures, but didn’t see any fish. It had rained the previous week and the water was very cloudy. With all the stopping and starting it took us a little over an hour to get to Convention Hall. This is where we had stopped trail marking back in April, when we had started marking Upper Thunder river. After a short brake and some picture taking we headed up river and resumed placing markers as we went. After about an hour of placing more markers we stopped to rest and have lunch. I estimated we were about half way between Convention Hall and the Round.

     After lunch we began marking the trail up river again. Within an hour or so we ran out of markers, and had not reached the Round Room. Again I had underestimated the number of markers to complete the job. We decided to continue up river to see how far we were from the Round Room and discovered we were only about 10 min from reaching our goal. To finish the trip we looked over the Round Room, took some pictures, and then headed back down river. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to the entrance after stopping to rest and take pictures at several locations. We then exited the cave and returned to camp, where we spent the evening filling up on good food and drink and discuss sing the trip.

Trip Leader : Michael Hartley

Date: 6-21-03

Observations : on the way to the Round Room, we found some Graffiti in one of the mud banks along side the river. At the Round Room we found a cigar butt and a carbide dump. The general condition of the cave from the New Entrance to the Round Room was vary good with some areas being pristine.