*******************************************************************************
Carroll Cave Conservancy
Trip Report
Appraiser/Video trip in coordination with Bill Gee’s Biology trip
March 10, 2007
Participants:
Rick Hines – Trip Leader
Ron Jaeger
Brad Loraine
David Nunn
Ted Dahl
In: 11:45 AM
Rick Hines
Ron Jaeger
Bradley Loraine
David Nunn
Ted Dahl
Out: 2:30 PM
Rick Hines
David Nunn
Ted Dahl
Out: 3:00 PM
Brad Loraine
In: 3:30 PM
Rick Hines
Out: 5:00 PM
Rick Hines
Ron Jaeger
Ron Jaeger, Craig Hines and I arrived at the silo about 10:00 AM Saturday morning. Ron had made an 8 hour drive from Wisconsin to get to my house in KC Friday. The original plan was to meet Tom Loraine (Chris Danuser’s attorney), Brad Loraine (Tom’s son and land developer), and two appraisers (David Nunn and Ted Dahl). The original trip request called for the seven of us to do a trip with two purposes. The main goal was to help Chris Danuser establish a value for the cave rights associated with his property. The second goal was to prepare for the Carroll Cave Video Project. We wanted to let Ron Jaeger see the areas of the cave that may be in videoed in the first few trips for the video project that he is leading. Ron and I wanted to test a new high def video camcorder in the cave.
We knew Bill Gee planned a Biology trip for Saturday but assumed we would not see them since they planned an 8:00 AM start. When we arrived at the silo we found Bill Gee, Shawn Williams and Andy Isbell on the surface waiting of the fourth member of their team to arrive. A phone call soon confirmed that their fourth would no be able to make the trip.
Bill and I decided to regroup to try to accomplish as much of goals of our two trips as possible. Craig joined Bill team to get to the four man minimum. Bill agreed that his team would help me with appraisers before starting their biology work.
When Tom Loraine, Brad Loraine, David Nunn and Ted Dahl arrived I learned that Tom planned to stay on the surface (I have taken him in on a previous trip). That left me with a team of 5 and Bill and team of 4. (Tom, Brad, David and Ted have all four joined the CCC.)
All nine of us started in at 11:45 AM. We worked our way up the Carroll Passage talking about and pointing out, box work, soda straws, spathites, rim stone and white formations. On the way back we took the shortcut to Thunder Falls . When we returned to the ladder I asked who wanted to go on Angel Pool Passage. Brad wanted to go but the two appraisers were ready to head out. I went out first to help get the appraisers off the steel safety cable when they arrived. While they were climbing out Bill led the rest of the crew on a short trip into Angle Pool Passage. After getting the appraisers on the surface we continued our discussion and I gave them copies of the CCC NSS article and other material. As we were finishing I heard the cable rattling and went back to the silo to help Brad out.
Ron stayed at the base of the ladder and Bill, Shawn, Craig and Andy finally got to start their fish count in Upper Thunder River (see Bill’s separate report).
After the appraiser group had left I rigged 4 video lights and our HD camcorder to the pulley and lowered them down the shaft to Ron. Ron had waited at the base of the ladder after returning from the Angle Pool Passage. I climbed down and Ron and I tested the camera. I am quite pleased with the camera’s low light ability and the optical stabilization. The HD 16 X 9 footage of some of the close up shots of the formation around the ladder look better than any cave video I have ever seen! The hardware will be ready for our first official video team shoot April 21. We could still use people with experience or training in videography, video productions, or HD video editing. Please let Ron Jaeger (rrjaeger@sbcglobal.net) know if you can help with the Carroll Cave Video project.
Thanks to all who helped on the trip with the appraisers. The hope is that they will be able to come up with a value for the cave rights that will lead to a donation of those rights to the CCC.
Rick Hines