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.
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