Volume 24 Issue 2 April 2010 Rediscovering Caves on the Irish

Volume 24 Issue 2 April 2010 Rediscovering Caves on the Irish

The The Kansas City Area Grotto Volume 24 Issue 2 Guano April 2010 Rediscovering Caves on the Irish Wilderness Biology Project Work at Carroll Cave Photography project at Ennis Cave Table of Contents Events The Irish Wilderness May 12 ­ October 2007 KCAG monthly meeting - 7:00pm at the Part two. Feature article by Jim Cooley. Photos by Arthur Mag Conference Center on the Jim Cooley, Craig Hines, Marcello Kramer and DJ campus of Midwest Research Institute. Corner of Cherry and Volker in Kansas Hall. City, Missouri. Page 4 May 15-16 Carroll Cave biology students ­ April 2009 Missouri Speleological Survey meeting. Rolla, Missouri. Project caving (survey) Trip report by Bill Gee. Photos by Dr. David Ashley on the Paddy Creek Wilderness on the and Bill Gee. 15th. The meeting is on the 16th. Page 18 May 16 Missouri Caves and Karst Conservancy Carroll Cave biology project ­ July 2009 (MCKC) meeting. Rolla, Missouri. Trip report and photos by Bill Gee. May 15-20 Page 21 National Cave Rescue Commission week- long seminar. Mentone, Alabama. Ennis Cave photography http://www.caves.org/ncrc/national/2010 ­ March 11­16, 2010 Seminar/seminar2010.htm for Trip report and photos by Rick Hines information and registration. Page 24 May 22 KCAG Cliff Day at Truman Lake. Practice your vertical skills. May 26 to June 2 25th annual Ennis Cave Blowout. http://www.enniscave.org for information. June 5 Annual KCAG summer picnic. Details will be sent to the grotto email list. August 2-6 National Speleological Society annual convention. Essex, Vermont. http://www.nss2010.com/default.php for information and registration. 2 The Guano The Guano April 2010, Volume 24, Issue 2 The Guano A Message From is published on an irregular schedule as dictated by the trip reports submitted to the editor. Submit articles via e-mail to the editor: the President [email protected]. Preferred file format for trip report attachments: As we discussed at length in Microsoft Word. Please submit photos our last meeting, the White in JPG or PNG format. Nose Syndrome (WNS) President: Jim Cooley epizootic (i.e., pandemic) [[email protected]] will dominate caving for the V.P./Treasurer: Pam Rader Secretary: Cyle Riggs foreseeable future. WNS has just been verified in Dunbar Web Master: Sam Clippinger [[email protected]] Cave in Tennessee, a show Editor: Bill Gee [[email protected]] Copy Editors: cave only 103 miles from the Pam Rader, Jim Cooley Boot Heel of Missouri. The Anyone interested in caving or disease is propagating speleology is welcome at our business meetings, normally held on the second rapidly. Resource management professionals predict Wednesday of every month except June that Missouri will be hit next winter, perhaps heavily. and December. Actual membership in The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) just the Kansas City Area Grotto is by invitation only, and requires a finalized their response plan, then went immediately to demonstrated commitment to cave Level Two of a four­tiered response. Like the Mark conservation, successful participation in three KCAG-sponsored caving trips, Twain National Forest, MDC has now closed most of nomination by a member in good their caves to the public. Hopefully, MDC will get the standing, and a vote of the membership. Cave Stewards portion of their plan operational shortly, which will allow cavers to do something The Kansas City Area Grotto is affiliated positive to combat White Nose Syndrome. So far, all with the National Speleological Society and the Missouri Speleological Survey. the agencies are unanimous in praising the support and KCAG is a founding member of the compliance of the organized caving community. Let's Missouri Caves and Karst Conservancy. not screw that up! NCRC Callout number - Emergency It appears to be our fate to live in interesting times. use only! Central Region (502) 564- 7815. This number may be used for cave rescue emergencies in the states Jim Cooley of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michiga, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. Cover Photo An example of the nice formations in Blair's Creek Cave. (photo by Bill Gee) The Guano 3 October 17-20, 2007. Lost Caves of The Irish “I thought you were a ve­ Wilderness. Feature article by Jim Cooley. getarian,” I said to Craig, as we waddled away from the Photos by Jim Cooley, Craig Hines, Marcello Haleys’ camp, after bidding Kramer and DJ Hall. Part two. them adieu and many Finally, Wednesday after­ other words ­­ early in the thanks. noon we arrived at Whitten last century. (I later learned “Be serious,” Craig said. Access, just across the Eleven from Cindy Price, MTNF ar­ “Faced with a breakfast of Point River from the western chaeologist, that the USFS fresh trout fillets, dipped in boundary of the Irish Wilder­ lists these ruins as “a re­ corn meal and deep­fried in ness, only to find it occupied sort.”) My keen little re­ peanut oil, served out­of­ by several late­model pick­up covered­alcoholic mind doors in front of a roaring trucks clustered around a immediately understood why hickory­log fire on a cool fall large, black school bus. the long­lost cave on the Ir­ morning in the Ozarks, no Craig and I introduced ish Wilderness with a still in one can remain a vegetari­ ourselves as cave hunters to it was probably across the an.” the Haley brothers, Mike and river and up Bliss Hollow, Tim, and their dad, Carson. Below: Typical cobble floor of Coffin the “approximate” location Cave. (photo by Marcelo Kramer) They and two friends were squirrel hunting and fishing for trout. After half an hour of friendly “get­to­know­you” conversation, they insisted we stuff ourselves on a huge mess of deep­fried rainbows and corn fritters, followed by fried apples for dessert. They told us they had been hunting that land for dec­ ades, being personal friends of the landowner whose ground it had been before the Forest Service bought it for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Riverways system. After more friendly conversation about squirrel hunting and .22s, they told given in the Wihebrink docu­ Editor's Note ­ This is the us how to get in touch with ment. That’s exactly where second of a two­part feature this landowner, advising us I’d put it, just across the Elev­ article by Jim Cooley. Part one appeared in the March 2010 to mention their names. en Point, if I were the SSRI issue of The Guano and (Sole Source of Rotgut Intox­ They also described where described events up to the point we could find some nearby icants) serving a facility de­ where Jim and Craig start into ruins, including a swimming voted to humankind’s oldest the Irish Wilderness. In part pool, that had been used as a profession. two Jim and Craig rediscover “gentlemen’s entertainment As I said, there is no sub­ Coffin Cave. facility” ­­ a whorehouse, in stitute for experience. The Guano 4 We drove half a mile north rounding hills, until the Oz­ Above: A group of gours and rimstone dams in Coffin Cave. (photo by DJ of the boat ramp on a dirt ark Timber Company had Hall) road, to a camp spot in a raped and ruined Oregon crook of the river cut into County between 1890 and feel comfortable and some­ three tiers in the silty loess 1906, causing massive what secure before I hiked that chokes the narrow allu­ erosion. It started to drizzle. straight to heart of a track­ vial channels of the Eleven The forecast called for a full less forest with only a com­ Point. It was obviously a night of rain. pass and topo map for popular party spot. Trash Craig, not intimidated by guidance. Gary Johnson, an­ was everywhere, scattered anything out of doors, other KCAG member and fre­ around the remains of three wanted to load our packs for quent trip leader, had told us bonfires, one on each level. four days of primitive camp­ several stories of nearly im­ Much of this 10 to 15 vertical ing and plunge off into the penetrable brush­busting in feet of organic sediment had wilderness. I, on the other the Ozark National Scenic spent the Pleistocene era hand, wanted to ease into Riverways (ONSR) trying to happily hugging the sur­ this adventure, wanted to get to caves. Craig and I had both tasted of that misery The Guano 5 back in April, on Gary’s ON­ SR cave inventory trip down the Jacks Fork River. Was I ready to jump right into six miles of that kind of night­ mare with 40 pounds of gear on my back, late in the after­ noon, in the face of a major thunderstorm? Um … maybe not. So we compromised. It was by now 3:00 p.m. Craig agreed we’d cross the river, cut into the White’s Creek Trail, then walk north three miles until we hit Brawley Pond spur or for an hour and a half, whichever came first. At 4:30 we’d turn around and head back, trying to be Above: More of the cobbles typical to point; that was the last of out of the woods by dark. So Coffin Cave. (photo by DJ Hall) our brush­busting. We fol­ we had a plan. Craig doffed lowed the spur to the junc­ his daypack, boots and leather sandals while wading tion with the main White’s britches and waded barefoot to protect my piggies. We Creek Trail, where we dis­ across 75 yards of knee­deep, crossed the river again with covered the wooden trail fast­running shallows, to our day packs and the rifle, sign with mileage informa­ make sure it could be done.

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