Backdoor Activity, A Very Good Weekend

November 23 - 24, 2002

This was a very busy and very productive weekend for the CCC.  The weather could not have been better for late November.  Progress was made on Carroll history research, sinkhole survey, schoolhouse renovation, introduction trips, photo documentation and work on the shaft and ladder preparation.

Jeff Page, our Carroll Cave Historian, has provided the following report.

My trip to Carroll Cave land began Thursday with a driving tour of the area, a visit to the Camden County Library in Camdenton, and a call to Mr. Traw to confirm our time on Friday.  At the library, I delved into the Traw Family History, which is extensive thanks to the efforts of Jeri Traw in the 1990s.  Also browsed other books on local history.

Friday, I met with Mr. Traw at his home.  He is a charming man, 85 years old, who has lived in the area all his life.  He lived in the house whose chimney stands across the fence from our new cave entrance until he was 12. He attended school at the Sweatt Schoolhouse and shared verbal and written memories of that time.  He allowed me to copy some printed material on the Traw and Dodson families and gave me a copy of a family photo from the 1880s.  We went out for lunch and a drive of the area before returning to his house.  We spent over five hours together that day. I'll be visiting
more with him in the near future.

Saturday was devoted to plotting UTM locations of area sinkholes with the aid of Greg Fry who has numerous leads from his neighbors.  People generally seem eager to share their knowledge of sinks with us.  With Greg driving, Aime Wolaver taking notes and sketches, and myself taking GPS readings and photos, we managed to locate 14 sinks in four hours.  Greg still has leads on twice that number.  It will take many return trips to get them all, but we're excited about what we got done that day.

Sunday, I went along on Rick's photo trip which was the icing on the cake. Great weekend at Carroll!  By Jeff Page

A photo by Jeff of Greg and Aime standing in a sink is attached.

The trip leaders will publish detailed reports on the two-team survey trip and the Tom Lounsbury intro trip later.  A brief summary of the survey progress by Tom follows. 

The survey team is preparing its detailed trip report. It should be exciting with a mix of emotions.  The t-survey puffed out after an additional 80' (wish I would have known that). The side passage work has begun. Survey UL1 (Convention Hall passage) is the first left-hand side passage from the CCC entrance. Over 300' of good data was collected and several high leads were noted with "booming passage above." It will take two maybe three long trips to get the baseline up to station UL1. Ron, you will be standing in water so dress appropriately and choose your help wisely.  We have as of now all the primary new inexperienced surveyors qualified for integration into our current experienced teams. Avoid placing two newcomers on one team at all cost Dec 7th. I do not want the burden of the survey teams being training; it should always be the collection of q! uality data. Two newcomers are just too much distraction and abrades the smooth flow of survey teamwork.


The UR1 survey is up high about a 300' past the round room (I think) and goes 30' wide and 12' high. It's dry and nearly virgin. The survey team maintained one trail at all times through here and were wishing they had something to mark the trails with, (survey has no funds for trail tape and does not agree that flagged trails are the best way yet, waiting on trail marking guidelines from the board or Preservation committee?)  It resembles the Tim McClain passage I was telling you about earlier in the year. The survey stopped after 400' due to time restrictions, they learned a great lesson on this trip and they are getting there Carroll legs if you will, and have realized they must set there time out much later. They are very strong cavers and could easily handle the 18 hour trips the survey may soon demand. Bill Gee was the newcomer on this crew and did remarkably well and was a great asset to the team. The six man survey crew came out at about 11:00 PM and was served h! ot chili prepared by Tina and Peddgie.   By Tom Lounsbury

I'll try to summarize the work at the backdoor and the photo trip.

Saturday Workers and Sunday photo crew: Randy Bruegger, Bill Copeland, Jeremy Eaton, Bill Gee, Mike Hartley, Peddgie Heinz, Rick Hines, Dan Isbell, Gary Johnson, Ken Long, Tom Lounsbury, Dave McCool, Jeff Page, Terry Sherman, Marsha Walker, Aime Wolaver, Chris Wolters.  Several others that were part of the Lounsbury intro trip or the survey trips also pitched in to help.

Our first task Saturday was to dangle 144 feet of rope lights down the shaft.  The lights did and excellent job of lighting the shaft and the excess 30 feet brightened up the landing area in the cave.  Bill Copeland and Ken Long were the first down and they worked on lowering the debris pile and digging a hole for a concrete base for the ladder.  I worked on chipping the shaft to expand and smooth the bore.  The lights were a help to the surface crew that for the first time could easily see the elevator from top to bottom of the shaft. 

Jim Stamper (driller of our 9" hole) stopped by on Saturday and offered to take one of our crew to get a GPS location of a well he had drilled that dropped into a 30-foot void.  Dan Isbell took his GPS and went with Jim and got the reading. 

Dave McCool continued the demolition of the schoolhouse roof he had pulled down Friday.

About 10:00 Saturday we took a break from our chipping work while the 8-person Tom Lounsbury intro trip rappelled in and then again when the six-person survey team rappelled in.  I started chipping on the shaft at the top and had reached within a foot of the cave ceiling when the intro trip returned.  The topside crew pulled me out and we then proceeded to pull the intro trip participants out on the elevator.  Three came out but five spent an additional hour taking down the debris pile to help get ready for the ladder base.  After pulling the last of the intro crew out we could smell dinner cooking a half-mile away at the schoolhouse so we lowered a rope for the survey team to exit on and headed for dinner. 

We dined on salad, chili with all the extras, baked potatoes, and fresh baked cornbread.  Thank you Peddgie and Tina.  We ate around a "white man" fire fueled by the oak rafters from the schoolhouse demolition.  Thank you Dave.  

Peddgie was up at 11:00 PM giving the survey crew a chili reception with hot leftovers.  

On Sunday morning Peddgie was again laboring over a hot stove.  I assumed she was heating water for coffee until I saw her pouring the boiling water into her cave boots to prep them for the 8:00 AM photo trip. 

Photo trip participants:  Randy Bruegger, Peddgie Heinz, Rick Hines, Ken Long, Jeff Page, Terry Sherman, Marsha Walker, Chris Wolters.  Mike Hartley tagged along to "monitor" for the access committee. 

The photo/intro trip didn't actually start until a little after 9:00 AM.  After a brief lesson on the operation of the slave flash equipment and a few practice shots on the breakdown pile at the backdoor, we followed our guide, Terry Sherman, down the Carroll passage toward the water barrier.  The crew and the equipment performed flawlessly throughout the trip.  The only problem was too many beautiful and unique formations and not enough time.  We saved just enough time for a few quick shots at Thunder Falls before heading out at the preplanned 2:00 PM exit time. 

With the newly expanded and smooth shaft diameter and with Bill Gee's steady control of the horses under the hood of his truck we all had a smooth ride to a chilly reception on the surface.  The weather was finally starting to feel like November.  Thanks also to Bill Copeland, Tom Lounsbury, Jeremy Eaton and other for their help getting us out. 

Before heading home Terry and I stopped by to wish Greg Fry a happy 40th birthday.  Terry had a 1999 copy of the Carroll Cave Calendar he had made to give to Greg.

Scheduled Events (see the Calendar at WWW.CarrollCave.org for more detail)

Nov. 29, 2002 - Sauna Ground Breaking, Friday 11/29/02
Richard Cindric needs help Friday 11/29/02 and Saturday 11/30/02 to lay the foundation for the CCC Sauna. It will be located behind the schoolhouse.  Please contact Richard Cindric (913 262- 2006 or cindricr@swbell.net) if you can help.

December 7, 2002 - Survey weekend.   

December 14, 2002, work weekend and Tom Aley trip.  I need more help!
On December 14 I will be taking Tom Aley into the cave.  Tom wrote the 1976 report that resulted in the designation of the natural entrance as a National Natural Landmark.  We will take photos and will need help with slaves.  We need help on the surface to operator the elevator and will need a few very experienced Carroll cavers to help guide.

January 12, 2003, Semiannual Members Meeting, Sunday, 1:00 PM, Camdenton Fire Station.  Be there for election of Officers.

Carroll photo and sink photo attached.

Rick Hines      913 - 897 - 4258    or    rickhines@aol.com