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.
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| 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.
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