reported by Jim “Crash” Kennedy, expedition leader

[For general background on Punkin Cave and previous survey expeditions, please refer to past postings on CaveTex]

Punkin Cave in Edwards County, Texas, continues to get longer through the efforts of a team of very dedicated cavers.  This is a brief report of the most recent trip.

Due to work obligations and the concurrent trip to Múzquiz, Coahuila, we only had 21 people on the roster the week before the trip, and 4 of those dropped out by the day before the trip.  Of the 17 left, 2 stayed on the surface all day, working on the cabin.  So we split up the remaining cavers into four teams, 12 veterans (“Punkinheads”) and 3 who have never surveyed in Punkin before (“Punkin Sprouts”).  Even so, we mopped up many leads, and (as usual) left many more for the next time.

The first team, TEAM DUNGEON, led by sketcher Jim Kennedy, headed directly to the Pancake Room with team two.  After orienting Team Pancake and pointing them to their leads, Jim, Sean Vincent, and newcomers Yazmin Avila and Caleb Mayeux continued down to the Dungeon.  There Yaz checked out leads while Jim sketched some survey lines from the February trip.  Sean and Caleb moved rocks and pounded restrictions to try to get into some enticing leads in the floor, in hopes of getting deeper.  This area is a big riser with loads of airflow, and hopes are that it leads to much deeper passages.  Alas, we were thwarted by the tightness of the passage which could not be enlarged with the tools at hand.  Still, 35.46m (116.3 feet) was surveyed in 14 shots, for an average of 2.53m (7.71 feet) per shot.  An upper loop was also surveyed, and there are still unsurveyed leads in that area.  Next time we will return with bigger tools.

The second team, TEAM PANCAKE, left Crash’s team and quickly started on the SMW (“Sado-masochist Wobble”) survey.  Sketcher Saj Zappitello ably led Matt Zappitello and Arron Wertheim through this thoroughly confusing part of the Medusa Maze.  They completed several loops with the help of a little hammer work to get the bigger guys through the tight maze.  44.47m (145.6 feet) were surveyed in 11 shots, for an average of 4.04m (13.3 feet) per shot.  This survey helped fill in more of the Medusa complex, but there are still leads remaining in this crazy area. 

The third team, TEAM WEST MAZE, consisted of sketcher Lee Jay Graves, veterans Bonnie Longley and Josh Rubinstein, and Sprout (and excellent lead pusher!) Mallory Mayeux.  Josh was able to hammer through a restriction into an enticing lead, that quickly opened up into nice passage.  The team extended the WM survey another 12 shots, committing another 39.41m (129.3 feet) to the survey book, for an average of 3.28m (10.76 feet) per shot.  There are at least 3 “pits” in the floor of the area where they quit that still need checked, as well as a lot of upper level leads passed up in the quest for depth.  Needless to say, this area will also get more attention on the next trip.  This was the last group out of the cave, and big thanks are owed them for derigging the two entrance drops.

Finally, the last team, TEAM ORGY ROOM, started toward a large room found but not surveyed on the February trip.  Team leader and Sketcher Geary Schindel lead veterans Lydia Hernandez and Joe Ranzau and Sprout Sara Ranzau to the start of the survey.  There was a fair bit of confusion, since Lydia was originally assigned to Lee Jay’s team and had half of their survey gear.  Eventually the teams got sorted out and survey began, but Geary had to exit the cave early because an unhealed rib injury was bothering him too much.  Lydia bravely took over sketching duties, recording 11 shots, but unfortunately there is no accompanying sketch, so another team will have to go back to that area on the next trip.  At any rate, we still got 40.19m (131.86 feet) of new lineplot to fill in some gaps on the map, an average of 3.65m (12.0 feet) per shot.

We had a bit of excitement on our way out of the cave, when we came upon Joe Ranzau who narrowly escaped death when his chest roller came apart and he almost became completely detached from the rope about six feet below the lip of the drop.  Luckily, his quick thinking and assistance from Lydia and Sara got him up over the top on solid ground.  He is completing a detailed report and analysis to send to the American Caving Accidents editor so that others may learn from his experience.

I don’t normally talk about all the other activities during our survey expeditions, instead preferring to focus on the actual survey.  But the social aspects of each trip are every bit as important as the caving.  Friday night we showed a movie on the big screen to those who arrived early enough.  There were the usual group meals, where we push the envelope of gourmet camping food.  And, of course, the usual sitting around telling jokes, smoking cigars, and drinking adult beverages.  Arron, Joe, Don, and some others even got a head start on dismantling the second floor of the back porch.  It’s a great group to cave with, and I’m sure that, like me, everyone is anxious for the next trip.

In summary, four survey teams in Punkin Cave put in another 48 shots of survey and added another 159.43m (521.7 feet) of passage to the length of the cave.  The average shot length of 3.32m reflects the slow nature of the surveys and difficulty of survey.  The new length of the cave is now 2981.6m.  It is still #13 on Texas Long Cave list, and we need another 373m to displace Natural Bridge Caverns and move into the #12 spot, 394m to pass Caverns of Sonora and move to #11, and 463m to bump Airmans Cave and move into the Top 10 list!  Despite out best efforts of the last few trips, the cave is still #28 on the Texas Deep Cave list, at 62.4m (204.7 feet). I would personally like to thank all the dedicated surveyors that keep returning time and time again to unravel the mysteries of this intriguing cave.  The next trip will likely be in October or November, and as usual, Punkin survey veterans will receive first notice before it is posted to CaveTex.

reported by Jim “Crash” Kennedy, expedition leader

[For general background on Punkin Cave and previous survey expeditions, please refer to past postings on CaveTex]

We started with 22 cavers signing up for this trip, 15 veterans (“Punkinheads”) and 7 folks who have never surveyed in Punkin before (“Punkin Sprouts”).  By the time we got there, we lost two due to disabilities and last-minute job assignments.  We lost another Saturday morning due to illness, and one of the Sprouts was a non-caver and did not intend to go in the cave.  So we had 18 folks ready to go, divided into 4 teams, most of which attacked the relatively poorly explored Western Maze.

The first team, TEAM ORGY, led by sketcher Allan Cobb, started on some new holes in the floor near the Western Parallel.  “So many holes to check out!” they lamented.  Assisted by team members Arron Wertheim, Jill Orr, and Lydia Hernandez (who was later traded for Sean Vincent), they made one vertical loop and ended up back in the entrance room before popping down another hole and eventually connecting to the Hellmouth section.  They made 23 shots and surveyed 96.26m (315.8 feet), for an average of 4.18m (13.7 feet) per shot.  There are other holes in the area still to be checked out in another orgy of exploration.

The second team, TEAM TOP, started the “ZZ” survey in yet another hole on the west side of the entrance room.  Sketcher Geary Schindel led Don Arburn, Ann Scott, Matt Turner, and Sean Vincent (later traded for Lydia) to map a bunch of shallow loops in the western maze, tying in to previous surveys from Lee Jay Graves and crew, and also to surveys from the other two teams in the area at the same time.  They closed several loops during their 25 shots, surveying 68.80m (225.7 feet), for an average of 2.8m (9.0 feet) per shot. 

The third team, TEAM FURTHER DOWN, started out improving sketches from previous western maze surveys, aided by a line plot provided in advance.  This team consisted of sketcher John Brooks, assisted by Chris Vreeland, Bonnie Longley, and Josh Rubinstein, all three of whom have been on previous surveys in this part of the cave.  They began new survey at station WM24, and put in 13 additional shots, gaining another 10m of depth and leaving many leads for future surveys.  Since some of their time was spent resketching old survey, they only got 50.45m (165.5 feet) of new survey, for an average of 3.9m (12.7 feet) per shot.

The last team, TEAM PANCAKE REVISITED, began cleaning up more leads in the Medusa Maze.  Visiting NCKRI cavers George Veni (sketcher), Dianne Gillespie, Lewis Land, and sprout Matt Zaldivar were guided to this complex area by an injured Jim Kennedy.  They began with one of two loops Jim remembered from the November survey, but soon got into more passage and didn’t complete the loops.  They ended up tying into both the previous Medusa Maze (MMM survey), and the Upper Medusa (UM) survey.  They found another room with Pissicles and strange chalky white minerals, probably also biogenic.  After the seemingly endless breakdown mazes, they started the survey of the Dungeon, the huge lift tube discovered in November.  However, George and Dianne were a centimeter too big for the top of the slot.  After some fruitless rock pounding, Matt, Louis, and Jim shot a line into the Dungeon room, but didn’t sketch it due to the approaching “out of the cave” deadline.  There are good leads there going down in this important part of the cave, and we still have to sketch that section, as well as complete the loops off the Pumpkin Pancake Room.  This team set 32 shots totaling 93.58m (307.0 feet), averaging 2.9m (9.6 feet) per shot.

reported by Jim “Crash” Kennedy, expedition leader

Punkin Cave is a fascinating long cave located deep in the heart of Carta Valley, in rural Edwards County, Texas.  It, along with nearby Deep Cave (also a major cave with ongoing survey) are owned by the Texas Cave Management Association, and managed for their considerable scientific value.  Limited recreational trips are permitted in non-sensitive areas of each cave.  Both caves are excellent examples of hypogenic cave formation, and in addition, Punkin Cave is a major bat cave.  Since 2005 I have tried to run 2-3 survey trips there a year outside of the bat season.  This is a summary of the most recent trip.

After postponing the usual June trip due to a little event called ICS, we were all anxious to get back to the cave to pursue leads left from the April expedition.  The usual call out to previous Punkin survey veterans (“Punkinheads”) produced about 12 positive replies.  A post to CaveTex produced a few more.  The expedition was on!

We arrived at TCMA’s Carta Valley fieldhouse on Friday.  Those of us smart enough to take off from work Friday got there before dark.  Those not so lucky trickled in the rest of the night, with the latest arrivals showing up around midnight.  An evening movie and snacks entertained us early arrivals while waiting for the others.  The cabin easily sleeps over a dozen, but only 5 of us stayed indoors.  Others slept on the spacious new back porch or in tents nearby. 

The next morning, Arron Wertheim and I whipped up a delicious batch of pumpkin pancakes and sausages to give everyone fuel for the day’s surveying.  We broke into four teams, and people rapidly got their gear together.  The first team left for the cave by 9:30, with the other teams right behind.

At the cave I quickly rigged both the main entrance (~45’, or 14m) and the small entrance (~30’, or 10m).  Having both entrances rigged helps keep the ropework from being a big bottleneck for so many people.  No one seemed to have any problems with the rappel, and we were soon gathered again in the entrance room, leaving our vertical gear behind until the trip out.

The first team, TEAM FLACO, left to pursue some tight leads trending downward on the east side of the entrance room.  Joe Datri, Lacey Heath, Sean Lewis, Heather Túček, and Andy Zenker set 22 stations and surveyed 39.63m (130.0 feet), for an average of 1.8m (5.9 feet) per shot.  Their survey continues down into a black spot on the map, and may possibly eventually connect to Superstition Maze with more work.

The second team, TEAM PANCREATITIS, returned to the extensive west maze off the entrance room.  Led by an ailing Lee Jay Graves, who bravely soldiered on despite his discomfort, the team set 17 additional stations and surveyed 44.89m (147.3 feet), for an average of 2.6m (8.7 feet) per shot.  Assisting Lee Jay were veterans Bonnie Longley and Chris Vreeland, and new Punkin surveyor (“Punkin Sprout”) Josh Rubinstein.  This is a really "hot" area of the cave, with loads of good leads everywhere.  The current survey also trends down into a very large blank spot on the map.

The third team, TEAM GORDO, consisted of Don Arburn, Allan Cobb, Joe Ranzau, and Ann Scott, who became the designated lead pusher and checker.  They started out mopping up some mid- to upper-level leads in the Medusa Maze section, and ended up making multiple loop closures with previous surveys and Team Four’s survey that day.  This was very important to us to “finish” off that section and flesh out more of the map in that complex area.  This team surveyed 75.29m (247.0 feet) in 21 shots, for an average of 3.6m (11.8 feet) per shot.

The last team, TEAM PANCAKE, also started off cleaning up leads in the Medusa Maze, but ended up in someplace altogether different and exciting.  Gary Franklin, Tone Garot, Jim Kennedy, Linda Palit, and Arron Wertheim made a whopping 31 shots totaling 96.14m (315.4 feet), averaging 3.1m (10.2 feet) per shot.  Arron climbed a fissure to an obscure lead and discovered the Pumpkin Pancake Room, a nice find with 6 leads.  Several were connected into previous surveys in the ER (Entrance Room) and MS (Nightmare on Maze Street) sections.  Another was tied into Team Three’s survey, and one went deep.  Jim found an obscure pit hidden by some rocks which he removed.  Tone took over rock removal duty while Jim returned to the rest of the team to finish sketching.  The pit is free-climbable and goes an estimated 27m (90 feet) or so before hitting loosely-cemented breakdown.  It is very reminiscent of Fifty Fathoms, and awaits a name from the future surveyors.

In summary, four survey teams in Punkin Cave put in another 91 shots of survey and added another 255.95m (839.77 feet) of passage to the length of the cave.  The new length of the cave is now 2513.1m.  It just moved up to the #19 spot on the Texas Long Cave list, displacing Stowers Cave.  It only needs another 49m to hit #18 (displacing River Styx Cave), 59m to hit #17 (displacing Rocket River Cave System), and 61m to hit #16 (displacing Phantom Springs Cave).  Deep Cave is still 217.3m longer and 14.6m deeper.  The depth of Punkin has not changed in several trips, remaining at #28 on the Texas Deep Cave list.  The next trip will likely be sometime in February, and as usual, Punkin survey veterans will receive first notice.

Survey Expedition #10

3-5 April 2009

Jim Kennedy, Expedition Leader

This past weekend, 11 cavers converged at TCMA’s Carta Valley Fieldhouse to try to unravel a few more of the mysteries of Punkin Cave.  Punkin is a wonderful 3-D maze cave formed largely through hypogene processes and modified by collapse.  The two entrances are both vertical drops into the huge Entrance Room, a large collapse chamber well-lit by daylight.  From there, a wide-sloping area leads to the north, and is used as a major summer roost for a non-maternity colony of Mexican free-tailed bats.  From that northern end, and all around the Entrance Room, passages take off in all directions.  Nine previous mapping trips pushed the cave to 2116m in length and 63m in depth, and there is still no end in sight.

This time we had 3 teams in the cave.  Team one, Team Upper Medusa, consisted of Jim Kennedy, Liza Colucci, and Corrine Wong.  They spent about 6 hours mopping up leads above last November’s Medusa Maze survey.  They surveyed 99.05 meters in 29 shots, for an average of 3.42m per shot.  Along the way they closed 5 loops, and found the Pissicle Room, an area of active, dark yellow speleothems apparently stained by urine from overlying bat guano.  Much passage remains in this area, particularly at UM10 and UM20.

Team 2, Team East Maze, was the “big boy” team with the token skinny lead-pusher.  Geary Schindel, Gary Franklin, Arron Wertheim, and Andy “Flaco” Zenker started pushing the most obvious vent holes on the east side of the Entrance Room.  They spent about 4 hours or so and got 39.10m of survey in 8 shots, for 4.89m per shot.  There are still leads left for a skinny team at the end of the survey, and other holes on the east side remain to be mapped.

Team 3, Team West Maze, consisted of Lee Jay Graves, Bonnie Longley, and George-Paul Richmann.  They started mapping down the numerous holes on the western side of the Entrance Room, near the Western Parallel.  After a delay where they went back out of the cave for another rope only to find a way to freeclimb a pit, they surveyed 38.18m of passage in 11 shots, for a 3.47m per shot average.  Time spent was about 7 hours.  They explored ahead in large passage that they plan to return to next trip.  This is a complex area with many large air-flow corrosion vents, and hopefully will lead to something great.

While we were all having fun in the cave, Rick Corbell plumbed the new water pump, allowing us to have showers when we came out of the cave.  Some other folks headed into Deep Cave on Sunday with Geary for some trip leader training while the rest of us worked on various projects around the cabin.

In summary, three survey teams in Punkin Cave put in another 48 shots of survey and added another 140.67m of passage to the length of the cave (after some splay shots were removed from the totals).  The new length of the cave is now 2257.1m.  It is still in the  #20 spot on the Texas Long Cave list, only needing another 134.1m to hit #19 (displacing Stowers Cave), 304.9m to hit #18 (displacing River Styx Cave), and 314.9m to hit #17 (displacing Rocket River Cave System).  Deep Cave is still 473.3m longer and 14.6m deeper.  The depth has not changed, and the cave remains at #28 on the Texas Deep Cave list.  The next trip will be sometime after ICS, and after the bats are gone for the year.  Punkin survey veterans (“Punkinheads”), stay tuned!

Jim “Crash” Kennedy

Punkin Cave Survey Coordinator