Trip Report

Date of trip: 11/15-17/03                                         Trip Leader: Eddie Simmons

Project/Manager: Restoration (some biology and geology), Mike Hartley

Purpose of Trip: Experiment with the possibility of floating from Thunder Falls

To Jerry’s Karin. Water Samples to be taken from Lower Thunder. Riffle locations in Thunder checked for presence of Isopod. Identifying breakdown locations on the current map.

Time in: 5:30pm Friday                                                  Time out: 5:30pm Sunday

Participants: Mike Hartley, Terry Sherman

Trip Report: We entered the cave as a group of six. However, on Saturday, we would break into different groups to accomplish our goals. Jamie Zyicky would be the other Trip Leader with Aaron White and Jamie Euliss. Mike had really spent some time on his efforts to float Lower Thunder. He came with a nice inflatable boat and his gear packed nicely inside. The boat proved to be a little big, but the material was worthy. There were many places to float throughout the trip to camp, but likewise, there were more shallows and riffle areas than anticipated. Overall it did work, although, not the most time efficient.

By the time we got to camp, it was already much later than expected. (This would prove costly for Saturday.) After we were all settled in and beginning to fade out for the night, it was well after midnight.

            On Saturday, Jamie took his group to go float the Lake. It probably wasn’t till after 1 or 2 p.m. that they finally got on their way. With it being so late, the three of us decided to not hinder their efforts. We would let them go and decide what we would do later. As it got later, it was becoming evident that if we were to do much caving, we would definitely put a damper on the exit time for Sunday.  Instead, we would stay close and take some pictures, and discuss the variations possible to float Lower Thunder. We had hot food and drink ready for them when they arrived back, but they were a couple hours early. General fatigue had put a toll on some, requiring the group to turn around just short of their destination. This truly is no place to mess around. If one gets tired, you cannot be afraid to say so. As they did, you make the right call, and head back.

            Again we didn’t get to sleep till after midnight, so Sunday turned into a long day anyway. We were finally able to exit the cave around 5:30pm. Fortunately, it wasn’t horribly cold.

I will write a story to further document this trip and some of the more specifics. This will be turned in as soon as possible.

Note: Two pieces of shock tube were found again in Lower Thunder, both only a couple inches long. Interesting though, one was found in the ceiling in an area with about six feet or so of air space above the water.