Pisgah Crater Jan 25

Every time I teach the hundred-student intro geology course I offer an optional field trip to give the keener students a chance to get out of town and ideally spark some curiosity, fascination, and interest. Over the years I've adapted the strategy somewhat, stepping back from more ambitious field trip itineraries and moving the trip towards the start of the quarter to get the students to open up in class and labs earlier. My go-to has become Pisgah Crater and the Lavic volcanic field, which is well suited for covering topics covered in lecture and allowing open exploration. At about a 2 hour drive from Riverside, it makes for a manageable day trip and a unique experience for the students. Typically I get about 20 students sign-up and 10 that actually show up but this time I managed to get 20 students appear. This time around the mine at the crater seemed inactive with plenty of boy scouts camping nearby, but we still parked near the gate and walked around the cinders then worked our way across the lava with some lecture stops along the way. Though the lava flows here are thousands of years old, the desert environment preserves the intricate flow features well enough that the students can directly relate what they see to footage of recent Iceland eruptions. I led the way to SPJ Cave, one of the longest lava tube caves in the field where I deployed the extension ladder I brought for students to climb down into the tube to explore. 

The students seemed to have a good time branching out to explore some of the different passages in SPJ in both the downstream and upstream directions, with a few students managing to find the small manhole-sized backdoor entrance upstream. The light beams coming into the main SPJ entrance were the best I had seen and students seemed to enjoy taking their selfies and poses.

Once they were satisfied with SPJ, we snacked on the surface and I gave the students a choice of what to do. Surprisingly this crop of students was keener than previous years, with all opting to explore more of the lava field. Two groups set off with one group more interested in checking out some of the other lava tubes and summiting the crater rim and the other group nearly as ambitiously circumnavigating the crater following rough wasteland flows. I followed the lava tube group past Suicide Bridge, into the back of Glove Cave, and up to the crater rim (windy!). 

Around 2pm we all assembled at the car and worked our way back, the traffic mostly forgiving thanks to my decision for a Saturday field trip. All in all the trip seemed a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. One student even made two more trip out there on their own with friends since! Thanks especially to the grad student helpers I had.

Carrizo Badlands Jan 18-19

With so much more mud caves to survey, several of us rallied for a second time in two weeks to head into the Carrizo Badlands. This time to make the most of the time constraints we had, Heather and I backpacked in Saturday with the plan of doing some mop-up survey in Chaos Canyon and then meeting cavers to survey another nearby cave I had tentatively been referring to as Five Star ("*****") for the 5/5 rating I gave it for its length and overall quality, not with any intention for that to be its final name. Anyway a chill morning and drive got Heather and I backpacking in the mid-afternoon. The temperature was pleasant but with the weight of lots of liquids I soon got sweaty. We did my cross-badland traverse route in 2 hours, smooth other than plenty of grumbling from Heather at the steep and loose slopes. 

We dropped all our gear at the Chaos wash junction then strolled up to the Chaos Canyon North caves. After a quick crash course in surveying for Heather, we finished surveying the second cave. I scouted the third cave (not particularly comfortable dimensions but worth surveying) and then we surveyed up through the top of it. The bottom half of the cave was mostly knee-crawling on sharp rocks, then after a short boulder climb the cave changed to follow a moderately-dipping oyster bed to its top entrance. We wrapped the survey around 6pm, (completing the second cave's survey at 275ft and the third one at 98ft) and worked our way back through the cave to set up our primitive camp on the sharp shell-crete floor and satisfy our grumbling stomachs. A canned margarita, hot meal, tiny fire, and bright stars made for a very pleasant (if cold and desolate) evening.

Overnight the temperatures dipped much lower than the 45F forecast and probably approached freezing. Relatedly we were a little slow to get moving until the first hint of sunlight dipped into our wash. We packed a daypack, leaving the bulk of our gear for the hike out, then walked down the wash towards Five Star, leaving a few notes on flagging for our friends to find us (removed on the way out). Heather and I went through the main passage of Five Star to the top entrance, then went overland around to the lower entrance. 

After a snack and water we started surveying in from the lower entrance. About 9 stations in we heard scraping noises, surprising in that they were in the upstream direction. It turned out to be Fredrik, Carol, and Carl (once again two cavers bailing last minute). They followed us out to the lower entrance to say hello and come up with a plan. I had briefly called the cave Carrizo King (as likely longest in the area), but was quickly vetoed with the others actually preferring Five Star Cave and so thus it was officially christened. Happily, Carl had an all digital surveying setup like me so I knew that would help a lot with efficiency. I led them partway around so that they could survey in from the top entrance and we could continue our survey up towards them. All-in-all the surveying went smoothly and we ticked off all side leads in our section. Partway through there was a dramatic meander cutoff where about 50ft of passage was shortcut but cutting 2ft through a wall. At our station 26 we joined their station 26 to tie-off the main passage survey of about 750ft. Excellent! Regrettably all this productivity meant no photos though.

About 2:30p, Heather and I were out of time and needed to start heading back. Carl, Carol, and Fredrik rallied to survey the side branch passage as we took off back for our stashed gear. The report I later got was that they surveyed another 280ft with two leads and more cave to come back to. So as I guessed and hoped we managed to find a cave over a thousand feet in length, a notable milestone for mud caves most places! Heather and I had a less eventful hike out, taking 1hr50min to reach the car. We battled recreational vehicle caravans on the drive back and excitedly wolfed down dinner in Temecula.

Thanks to Heather, Carol, Fredrik, and Carl for some productive surveying. I guess we have to go back to finish! And then comes the real fun of compiling the surveys and drafting the caves. Below is my finished map of Chaos Canyon Complex.

Carrizo Badlands Jan 5

After being recruited for several days of fieldwork over the holidays, I was eager to try to get organized enough for the start of the quarter to meet up with some cavers to survey some mud caves. This would be my first time back to the western area I blitzed in a solo 8.5 mile/5 hour jaunt, scouting some of the most promising mud caves. I was promised three survey teams this time but I was still worried with our productivity on the commute with the larger group size. I ended up being able to drive out the night before to crash in Carol's Agua Caliente campsite. A nice soak in the warm pool was the just needed relaxation after the drive. In the morning we crawled out of camp slower than planned but eventually Carol, Greg, Chrystal, and I met Fredrick at the Domelands turnoff and drove into the trailhead. We did the climbout of Andrade Canyon I found on a previous trip and then tried to pioneer a new route against the grain of the badland network. This consisted of a stroll across a rocky fan surface, steep/loose rocky down, fluffy mud slope up, rocky fan, even steeper/looser down, even steeper/looser mud gut up, a third fan surface, the steepest mud descent with a short downclimb, then finally a stroll down a wash and up the other branch to the lower entrances of what I called Chaos Canyon for the mixture of large boulders. It took a fairly slow 2.5 hours to get here, despite what I would consider to be the best possible route. This left only about 2.5 hours to survey before the 2.5 hour hike back by sundown. With only two teams, I could already tell this would be less productive than I hoped for all the driving and commuting.  

Chaos Cyn South (at left) & Chaos Cyn North (at right)

After leading everyone through the atypically steeply inclined Chaos Canyon South Cave, Carol, Greg, and Chrystal surveyed their way back down. Fredrik and I began surveying Chaos Canyon North (really three caves with short wash segments in between). I got to use my BRIC/tablet setup for the first time in a US cave and was happy to see our efficiency with Fredrik smoothly leading the instrument while I sketched. Against the clock, we worked our way through the first cave (115ft length), continued our survey up the wash a short distance, and then into the second cave. This one was thankfully more spacious and varied, making for interesting sketching. We made it about 200ft through (most of the way) before needing to end the survey on a prominent high rock to return to the others. (Later I would complete the survey of this cave at 275ft length, and then a third final cave at 98ft) 

Back at the lower entrances the other group had just finished their survey. Fredrik and I quickly surveyed the wash between the caves so we would be able to join their cave to ours later. Together we managed to survey about 600ft of cave, not too bad for the short amount of time. Under lengthening shadows it was now time to retrace our steps back. Overall we were a little more efficient with time, finding a easier way to shortcut the last drop-in to Andrade. We briefly dropped packs and checked out the dryfalls just downstream (better looking than previously), and then strolled back to the car, still taking 2.5 hours on the return.

I hoped for a little more survey but it was a very pleasant day out and good to pioneer a new route to the most promising cave area. We would be returning sooner than I could have guessed. Thanks to everyone, especially Carol and Fredrik.