Trip Report: 7 December, 2002
Georgia Speleological Survey
c/o Brent T. Aulenbach, Treasurer
195 Windy Court
Lilburn, GA 30047-6442
2 January, 2003
Buddy Lane, SCCi Frick's Cave Property Manager
40 Hidden Brook Lane
Signal Mountain, TN 37377-2063
RE: Georgia Speleological Survey 7 December, 2002 Trip Report for Resurvey of Frick's Cave, Walker County, Georgia
Dear Buddy,
The sixth day of surveying in Frick's cave was held by the Georgia Speleological Survey (GSS) on Saturday, 7 December, 2002. There were eight participants making up two survey teams. Meeting time was 9:30 am, but we got a late start as we had to wait on one participant. An orientation was given to all participants and new surveyors were taught how to read survey instruments. Then both survey teams started into the cave between 11:05 and 11:10 am.
One team consisting of Andy Porter (sketcher), Steve Brewer (new surveyor), Sharon Brewer (new surveyor), and Wm Shrewsbury. They started surveying at 12:38 pm in the southwestern end of the cave at station J11. They mapped the passage south and tied the survey into the previously surveyed upper level passage at station H19. This required a tricky climb for which I tried to request permission on short notice to set bolts. Apparently bolts are not necessary. The loop closure was quite good with an error of 9.9 feet over a 1221 foot long loop for an error of 0.8%. The team reported that the lower level passage continues only a few additional stations but they ran out of time to survey this. They completed their survey at 4:00 pm and exited the cave at 5:06 pm. A total of 22 survey shots (continuing the J survey) were taken for 491.7 feet of survey.
The other team consisted of Brent Aulenbach (sketcher), ET Davis, Ben Theune, and Pam Piccirillo (new surveyor). They started surveying at 11:50 am going upstream in a low gravel stream crawl from station E27 where the majority of the water entering the cave was coming from. This passage had been explored many years earlier by Alan Cressler and John Stembel. They reported the passage as a long belly crawl eventually leading to some walking passage for a total of more than 1,000 feet of passage explored. The water was much colder than cave temperature due to the fact it was coming from a surface steam and not groundwater. It quickly became apparent that this passage will require wetsuits to survey in addition to pushing aside gravel and draining of the pool at the entrance of the crawl by moving a gravel bar (dam). After aborting the stream crawl, the team headed over to the connection between Frick's Cave and Little Frick's and surveyed an upper level room that was noted on a previous trip but had not been surveyed. The team finished surveying at 4:00 pm and exited the cave at 4:30 pm. A total of 9 survey shots were taken for 121.2 feet of survey.
We had three new surveyors who learned how to read instruments and set tape. Generally it is better to only have one new surveyor per team, but this did not pose a problem this time. Four of the eight people who participated had not been on a Frick's survey trip before. So far, 39 different people have participated on the project in six days of trips.
Brent Aulenbach was designated by the head SCCi Frick's Cave Property Manager as the SCCi representative.
The survey currently stands at 373 survey shots and 9849.7 feet surveyed. Surface surveys, spray shots and setup shots have not been removed from these statistics.
I will probably request a date for the next trip for either late January or early February as I am currently awaiting the birth of my first child Claire. The remaining areas to survey are the upstream gravel crawl, the most southern end of the cave, and to resketch a portion of the main trunk passage including surveying some side pancake crawls along this.
Respectfully Submitted,
Brent T. Aulenbach, Frick's Cave Resurvey Project Coordinator
Cc:
Diane Cousineau, SCCi Chair
Tom Moltz, GSS Chair
Andy Porter
Attached:
Copies of all survey notes with survey data files from Compass
Copy of existing map with passages mapped thus far highlighted
Line plot of cave from Compass
Survey statistics from Compass
Reduced station locations from Compass
Loop closures from Compass
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Last modified: Thursday, 10 April 2003 bta