Saturday I drove down to do some Lost River surveying.  The plan was to go way out west, a long trip...  I went in with Bernis, & Tom.  Mark took Bob with him so he assigned us what Burnis called "the shit".  What's new?  Mark got to sample "the shit" at Hackney.  Anyway,  today's trip was a wetsuit trip which slowed us down considerably on the way in since Tom had borrowed someone else's wetsuit.  Burnis told us we had to find the way back out so I tried to memorize the multiple twist and turns.  I was starting to think I might actually remember everything until we got further out west and there were so many rights and lefts I was sure I'd forget everything.  The water was very low though not where we were surveying.  Despite the drought it had stayed the same level.  After awhile we came to a very wide stream passage about 3 feet high.  The water loudly descended in front of us and to the left which were both virgin and unchecked (not sure why?).  We popped up through the ceiling and passed over all of this.  We finally got to our section to survey. 

Surveying was pretty fun.  Magically Tom & I read instruments almost perfectly the whole time despite some not so pleasant conditions.  The first passage we began surveying wasn't so bad.  A nice hands and knees crawl and not to wet.  That changed!!  I was leading the survey and placing stations.  I had a heck of a time figuring out the best route once the passage hit the water again and we had to maneuver around breakdown.  Now we were in a descent water crawl until the ceiling lowered or the water increased leaving about 4 inches but that didn't stop us.  We surveyed the lead to its end where it was near enough sumped (about 1 to 2 inches).  Surprisingly after being near sumped for so long the last shot took us into a standing  room about 15 feet long and 7 feet wide, Strange. 

We were surveying in the vicinity of a swallow hole / resurgence so I was hoping the next lead would lead out since we quickly saw roots hanging from the ceiling and the passage advanced upward.  There were actually formations and the passage was dry.  Feet were racked up quickly and then we hit water again.  For no reason at all the upper route lead into 3 holes to a watery level.  I expected this was an infeeder but maybe not.  Lost river is so crazy it's hard to tell.  We wrapped up a watery loop underneath and decided to do the "shittiest" passage yet (a small connection from our earlier survey to this one.  Being the small one I tried to shove myself backwards through the chest constricting passage and shoot instruments and pull tape.  I almost made it but didn't feel my butt would slide any farther...  We wrapped up surveying and started out.  We accumulated about 440' which is pretty crazy considering how much time it took. 

Well despite Burnis telling me I walked straight out, I often needed help finding the way.  It took forever to get out (a two hour + trip no matter how fast you were).  We had to stop often for Tom to rest and I sat there in the dark and witnessed how surreal absolute darkness really was taking everything in.  I remembered areas here and there.  There was really quite a bit of walking passage which I didn't expect.  Everything is mud and slime covered but that's to be expected.  I thought we were about out when we saw a stream disappearing under the rocks and was totally disoriented when we climbed up a steep mud bank and continued to raccoon run.  Finally we neared the mountain room.  I had thought it would be a bitch climbing up that slick spot on this side of the mountain but I jumped up it easy enough.  After being in the cave for such a long time I marveled at how large western avenue really was (since I had time while waiting).  Man, it would have been cool to pop through a hole and see it for the first time.  I got to the sandy crawly and flew out unhindered to see if Mark and Bob were out yet.  I didn't have any navigating problems at this point thanks to my last trip with Nate. 

It was dark when I got out.  I started down the trail which seemed to disappear.  I found it again, or so I thought, and walked right into a briar filled sink hole.  I recovered after a minute or so and felt stupid.  Mark and Bob were out and had been waiting since 5.  It was currently past 9.  We'd been in for over 10 hours, WOW!

Overall, it was a fun trip.  My wetsuit worked extremely well (I love my wetsuit!!).  And my trusty Walmart light shown the whole time surveying with only a few adjustments.

I camped at the horse camp which is "fun" to find during the dark.  I spent at least twice as much time as normal finding it since I was very tired and the roads are crazy. 

The next day I woke up late and had to meet Mark at 10:00.  I was at least an hour away normally  and woke up at 9:30.  Stupid driving got me there by 10:20.  He told me his thoughts on a gate and then we all went home.  65 had less trucks today so I was happy.   I HATE SEMIS!!!

I enjoyed the radio and drove on home.  I got in more caving then driving, yeah!!