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Permit: Your Permit Number
Leader: Joe Sikorski
date: July 10 and 11
manager: Bob Lerch
Assessment: Upstream-Round Room or beyond
1: Kim Chiles
2: Dan Lamping
3: Joe Sikorski
 

Time-In: 12:30pm
Time-Out: 2:30am
 

Date: Friday July 30, 2004
Time: 08:31 PM

purpose:

Mapping the beginning of UL4

details:

Within the first shot coming out of the outer rim of the Bone Room just within the beginning of the UL4 passage, we realized that the complexity of this passage was going to require another survey at the lower level. This lower level was a blind canyon that would be too dangerous to climb down into from the top. The passage was mostly walking with occasional small lengths of crawl. The left and right wall estimates were tough to get due to the canyons and undercutting that went beyond what we initially thought were the walls. It took some additional scouting and poking around to get some of the estimates. What appeared to be a side passage coming out of the right wall end up being a expansive crawling size meander of the UL4 main. We came across a few other narrow canyon like leads that will take some additional investigation on the next trip. I imagine that they will take us down to the lower stream level which can hardly be seen from the top. The UL4 main appeared to be getting lower but I believe it could pop open again due the to canyons that weave in and out under the main passage. There were many soda straws and a few  spathites. Some small formation galleries yielded flowstone, stalactites, and stalagmites. Bat bones were also notice in the floor material. No alive bats were noticed. We had about 350 feet of survey. A lot time was spent sketching the left and right wall spans. Unfortunately that required crawling a good ways just to see what the canyons below the outer edges of the walls did. It was a fun trip even with the lack of sleep from the night before.
-Joe