Trip Leader: Brandon Kowallis
On Trip: Brandon Kowallis, Leon Kilgrow, Thorpe Cox, Byron Crye, Jake & Beth Hunter, Braydon Williams, Ralph Powers
With a choice of doing some vertical training or going real caving I opted out for real caving since originally some of the folks that wanted to go dropped out at the last possible minnit and I already had committments to Byron and his mom to take them caving whenever they're available to go.
Since his mom had previous committment or a preferred priority (over caving??) then she would join in on another trip.
Brandon K. had decided that he would provide his expertise to teach others how-to survey. Oak City Cave was in need of an updated map and thus was chosen for the "class".
We met at the McDonalds near UVSC and managed to get everyone into two vehicles. The drive out was uneventful and we got to the cave in good time.
At the entrance Brandon started out with showing the various tools used to map a cave. He allowed any who wanted to "try-it" to do so. I took it upon myself to be unofficial class photographer.
Soon we were taking measurements and crowding into the cave's entrance room as the wind was blowing harder and getting colder the longer we were outside.
The boys were growing impatient and fidgeting but listening to Brandon's lessons along with the adults. Once duties were established we went to work. I took point as I had previous experience doing that and was promised to be "rotated" later on inside the cave.
We took some good shots by way of length and I was able to find stations that allowed other shots to be splayed out in various directions towards various side passages. Other shots ranged in the 25 to 30 foot lengths with the longest being 35.2 feet (in tenths).
When we reached the back of the cave we had roughly 11 stations and Brandon decided after asking around that to close the loop that's located back there. It was there that everyone switched out, I took plan/book and being for my first time too. Brandon was pleased with my results... at least with my sketches anyway. He also tried out a new method of passing information, instead of just giving the distance and azmuth readings along with LRCF, with his palm pilot sporting the Compass program he gave the grid markings to me to translate to the paper, i.e. up four grids and left two grids to make my point on the map and then draw the line. Double checking with the protractor we were right on. Made it much easier we thought.
We managed to close the loop with a minimal amount of error and ended up with a little over 300 feet of survey for the day. Not bad at all for a bunch of ameteurs and first timers.
Afterwards Brandon allowed us to go ahead and just play around exploring in the cave since about half of us had never seen it before.
This allowed Brandon time to double check the survey and for me to simply relax.
When it was all said and done we ate at Nephi and headed on home.
A good trip with everyone learning something new to take home with them. I have some good photos of the class and of the fun so when ever I'll post them up.
| Photography | ||||
 Survey training starts outside Ralph Powers |  Delegating various tasks is the next step Ralph Powers |  Taking a difficult shot for the first time Ralph Powers | ||
 Of course not all shots can be comfortable Ralph Powers |  Byron wonders, "What's with all the spray-paint?" Ralph Powers |  Taking a break from photo and survey duties. I'm in my element! Leon Kilgrow | ||