In May 2020 William H. Pfantz passed away. Bill was a long-time member of Carroll Cave Conservancy.
The photo collage below is from various activities around Carroll Cave.
8 March 2020 Surface Work Day
Carroll Cave Work Day
8 March 2020
Jeff Page
Tim Delk
Kellen Delk
Bill Gee
A few weeks ago Tim Delk made a trip to the Carroll Cave silo. He made notes on the electrical system installation, and planned for some upgrades. On March 8 we had a work day for Tim to implement some of the upgrades. We accomplished some other work as well.
I drove down early Saturday morning, arriving at the silo just a few minutes after 0800. The survey team from yesterday’s survey trip (March 7) was just waking up. I talked to Tony Schmitt for a few minutes about what they found, then went out to do some exercise walking.
7 March 2020 – Survey of DL4
7 March 2020
Dan Lamping
Tony Schmitt
Josh Hafner
Alex Litsch
Objective: Survey side passage found on previous trip. Experiment with drone in lower Thunder for checking high leads.
Alex, Josh, and I arrived onsite Friday evening around 9pm. We set up camp and rigged the hole to hopefully ward off the inevitable milling about on Saturday morning. It was a cold and windy night on the surface. I was thankful to have my camper.
15 Feb 2020 Fixing the SkyCrapper
Trip date: 2020-02-15
Project manager: Rick Hines
Trip purpose: Site Work and MCFPD Site Visit
Areas of Cave visited: Campground
Trip participants: Shannon Robinson, Martin Carmichael, Krista Bartel, Tim Delk, Kellen Delk
Entry Time: 10 am
Exit Time: 3 pm
The trip report: Krista Bartel, Martin Carmichael and I, spent the day Saturday working on the SkyCrapper. The goal was to place it up on bricks and attach the steps. It is now operational. Despite it being frozen to the ground, we figured it out. Our concern is that it will settle this spring so we made the steps self-supporting to prevent damaging them or the SkyCrapper. Many thanks to Krista and Martin for changing there “Fun” plans at the last minute to work on a shit house.
2 and 3 June, 2020 Work Day and Safety Orientation
Update – This event has been canceled. It will be rescheduled to some future date.
From Shannon Robinson:
We have confirmed a date for the Orientation/Familiarization, including Cave Entrance with the MCFPD. It is June 3rd, at 8am. The plan is to meet-and-greet and show the Volunteers of the Mid-County Fire Protection Department (MCFPD) how to access the Site, Silo and Cave. Introduce them to the operation of the Winch, and other safety measures in place. We will awe them with Maps of the Cave. Those that want to can also experience a trip down into the abyss of Carroll Cave. We will entertain 2 groups of MCFPD and other Institutions associated with them (those that MCFPD would call-in to help them) throughout the day. One group of 15 in the morning, and another group of 15 in the afternoon. We will provide Coffee, Hot Choc, Donuts and Bagels to our Volunteers. This is a Rain or Shine event. If it rains, we will address parking then. The goal is to acclimate them to the site and introduce ourselves to each other.