Amendment001.pdf

(x)

AG-7604-S-14-0015

x x copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted; or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT

THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

x

ALBUQUERQUE NM 87109

101 B SUN AVE NE

PAN AMERICAN BLDG SUITE 200

WO AQM IT SUPPORT BRANCH

USDA FOREST SERVICE

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required) is not extended.is extended, Items 8 and 15, and returning

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods: (a) By completing

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

FACILITY CODE CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6)CODE 6. ISSUED BY

PAGE OF PAGES

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO.3. EFFECTIVE DATE2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicable)

1. CONTRACT ID CODE

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority) appropriation date, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return __________________ copies to the issuing office.

ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

Amendment 001

This amendment is to supply information and post pre-proposal conference notes,changes to the PWS and additional information.

List of documents:

1) April 1, 2014 pre-proposal notes

2) April 2, 2014 pre-proposal notes

3) Blanchard Springs Caverns Background information

4) Tour Guides T-Times

Continued ...

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer)

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

sophiamarshall Typewritten Text

ITEM NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

NAME OF OFFEROR OR CONTRACTOR

2 25

CONTINUATION SHEET

REFERENCE NO. OF DOCUMENT BEING CONTINUED PAGE OF

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)

AG-7604-S-14-0015

5) Measurements of trail distances

6) Submitted Questions and Answers

List of Changes:

Page 6 of PWS under 12.0 Government Furnished Propoerty/Government Furnished Information number

2) Installation of contractor supplied cabling with in the visitor center and cavern.

Is deleted.

The Government expects that all cabling will be supplied and installed by the contractor awarded the contract.

Replace current page 6 with attached revised page 6.

NSN 7540-01-152-8067 OPTIONAL FORM 336 (4-86)

Sponsored by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.110

Blanchard Springs Caverns Pre-proposal Conference and Site Walk-Through

April 1, 2014 Start time: 10:10am

The pre-proposal Conference started out with introduction of the Contracting Officer and the reason of the Pre-proposal Conference.

Sophia Marshall Contracting Officer: Hello everyone today we will be going over all the RFP Documents, there will be a brief back ground given of the Blanchard Caverns and its current radio system. Then will explain the environment impacts that the contractors will encounter and will need to mitigate. Then we will have a brief safety briefing before we start the walk through. Then we will have a wrap up of any concerns that the contractors have and take any questions. Now here is Ann Sarnecki who will be giving a brief summary of Blanchard Caverns.

Ann Sarnecki Supervisory Promotions Specialist: Hello everyone if everyone would like let us move to the exhibit hall where we have a three dimensional model of the Caverns. As you can see by the model that we have three trails, the Dripstone, Discovery and Wild Cave, each cave are stacked above each other. We have been conducting tours for 40 years, this is the very pristine and un-travel caves, all tours are led by guides. There are three main tours the first is the Dripstone it’s the shortest of all three tours it start at the visitor center, it is about ½ mile long and after the tour you are picked up by a bus and driven back to the visitor center. Second tour Discovery is over a mile with 700 stair steps it starts at the elevator then you will make a loop at the top of the Dripstone tour trial and go down, at the end of this tour visitors are picked up by bus and driven back to the visitor center. The last tour is our wild cave tour. The first two tours the Dripstone and Discovery are sidewalk tours, wild cave tour is an off trail tour more rugged which requires crawling and slide on your bottom, some of you will have an opportunity to go on this tour which is also guided. For visitors it’s a plan tour that has optional routes that will be discussed tomorrow. We only allow 12 people per wild cave tour and the Discovery and

Dripstone 35 people per tour are allowed. About 70,000 persons visit the caverns a year. We are open year round some of the tours are not open year around but are going to be open today to allow contractors to view that part of the cave. Discovery tour is not upon because of hibernated bats, this tour is not open until after Labor Day.

DIS Contractor: How long is the wild cave tour the distance?

Ann Sarnecki: The distance is about ½ mile, we also will be giving handouts of the wild cave tour because this is the hardest to map. We will start all the tours at the visitor center, we will start with the

Dripstone and then the Discovery do you have any questions about the tours that may help you. I will give you a brochure that gives you a description of the tours.

Jim McCoy District Ranger Sylamore-St. Francis: The current radio system consists of a combination of land line phones which consist of seven and on any given day maybe three will be functional, most of the time the phones are unreliable. Right now how we communicate with anyone in the visitor center is by sending two guides down, and one of them is a runner which is used in case of an emergency they will go retrieve help. Our buses have radios that they can communicate with the visitor center. Our current radio system consists of three parts, the radios in the buses, the land line telephones, and a runner. As far as the aspects of the radio, there are VHF and we use Midland handhelds and mobiles.

Cliff Upton Electronics Tech: The radio system we have is an admin network that they can talk back to

Hot Springs and the Supervisor’s Office general located in Mountain View we have a pair of frequencies that were provide to you in the PWS. Contractor has ask what type of radios would the Forest Service provide they will be Midland handheld that can work on analog or digital, but currently we are running analog on the Forest . The Midland repeater that we have, if you can use it then please use it if not then you will need to provide one.

Sophia Marshall: If you are able to provide a receiver that can work with our radios please provide this information in your proposal. As we have stated we are looking for a turnkey system that will be able to operate here in Blanchard. If you can provide a more robust system then go for it, the PWS only outlines minimums (two camera and thirty tracking devices) and we are asking for a system that is fully functional.

Cliff Upton: I will be going down with you to the caverns, and will be the COR on this project, and will be administrating all the technical aspects of this project during the performance of the contract.

Contractor: Where would you like the cameras?

Sophia Marshall: Wherever you feel would make most sense we are relying on you to provide the technical expertise on where it would be most advantageous to have cameras.

Contractor: What do you plan on doing with the cameras?

Jim McCoy: Web cam type of stuff

Contractor: Would you like it mounted on helmets?

Contractor: Do you want it mounted in a room?

Sophia Marshall: As I have told my group they can ask everything under the sky but it will cost, so I need you to be practical, web cams on helmets may be great but are they practical, I have said that cost it not the main determination factor but it will be looked at. We are looking at you for technical expertise in this type of project to help implement a system taking into consideration the current needs of

Blanchard, based on how the caverns are located, what kind of service we provide to the public and the safety to the public and employees. If helmet cameras are an option put it as an option is it realist option, is it something you have used widely in the industry, is it a standard in industry or is a wall mounted in a certain room more in line with what is used for this type of project.

Jim McCoy: You are wanted to provide the intent.

Sophia Marshall: Yes

Jim McCoy: So the intent of the radios is to allow a ground level communication with the visitor center especially in the wild cave tour. The Wi-Fi is for a marketing avenue that will allow visitors to snap pictures then post on Facebook. The tracking devices are for the guide supervisory to track where in the tour the guides are so they can process more tours. The camera will be used as an advertising tool mount to take in the view of the carven rooms.

Shane Avery Support Services Supervisor: If you look at the map behind you, we will start the tour by going down 316 feet by elevator to the Dripstone, there is only about ¾ mile passageway but its three different levels. We will try to provide you with access to the interruptive tour sites and how everything connects. We will can take you to place where the general public doesn’t go. If you look at the diorama all the trails are stack up together, and they all come out on the side of the cliff, however I think you all want to see how everything is connected, and we can do that while down in the cave today and tomorrow.

Contractor: Do you have any technical drawing of the cave?

Shane Avery: Do you mean blue prints?

Sophia Marshall: If we are supplying blue prints we need to supply it in bulk.

Jim McCoy: These caves were build 40 years ago and many of us were not here, and things change, so we don’t have any technical drawings.

Shane Avery: We have these maps that you can take with you.

Contractor: Are there any bore holes that the power comes in to?

Shane Avery: Yes if you need the transform locations and power locations in the caves we can provide that for you.

Jerry Alguist: Shane they will see that when I take them to the mezzanine and elevator shaft.

Contractor: You said you wanted to use Wi-Fi as a marketing tool do you plan on using it in an internal network.

Jim McCoy: that requires technical approval and the Forest Service is very shy on allowing access to the internal network. It is technically possible but we don’t have authority.

Contractor: We have worked with USDA on Wi-Fi access and discussed how secure it is.

Sophia Marshall: That’s great to here but Agency wide we still need approval and at this time we do not have that approval, so any Wi-Fi access will be public.

Jim McCoy: Did that answer your question?

Contractor: Yes

Sophia Marshall: Now we are going to have Jessica give you information about environmental impacts that you will encounter that you must be aware of and be able to mitigate.

Jessica Hawkins: There are bats that hibernate in the cave, they are usually not there in larger numbers but now there are, we do have an endanger species. There are 215,000 bats we also have other species like the crap, and a river system. Beware of trash not being put in the system and deposit of all trash correctly. We current have White Nose Syndrome.

Contractor: What is that?

Sophia Marshall: It’s a fungus.

Jessica Hawkins: It’s a disease that kills bats, it can kill 90% of bats in a cave or more, it has been sweeping down from the northeast and it is here now, so we need to take precautions. We will need to decontaminate everything. We will take more later, but today we have to limit what we take in today, so whatever you take in will need to be decontaminated. Be aware of that so if you are taking in a camera, it will need to be clean with a Lysol wipe at least, and any other items.

Ann Sarnecki: No don’t allow to aware belts, wallet need to be in plastic bags, no hand bags.

Jim Swafford: When you start working on the project your companies will probable want to ensure they allow you to sets of boots. One to wear into the cave and one to ware when you are leaving for the day.

Sophia Marshall: Information or coordination of mitigating any environmental issues will be address with the contractor that is award the contract. That mitigation, staging etc. will be part of the project plan that will be put together by the contractor and coordinated with Blanchard staff.

Jim McCoy: To limit impact of work, you may want to consider bringing tools and equipment that can be stored on site, because if you bring it out it’s going to cost 10 minutes or more to decontaminate.

Ann Sarnecki: You cannot touch the formations, but there may be situation that we many need to reconsider and allow this to happen.

Sophia Marshall: You will have a staff with your crew to help mitigate and guide you to help prevent this from happening.

Jessica Hawkins: Some of the formations are very fragile so please don’t touch.

Sophia Marshall: It will be standardize work hours Mon-Friday 40 hour work week, and one of the attachments is a Service Wage Determination.

Jerry Alquist: I’m Utilities Supervisor and I’ll be giving a safety briefing. Make sure that you have boots, if you are working with tools use safety glasses. Condition down in the caverns that you need to be careful with is that in some areas it’s wet and slippery. There are electrical lines and boxes try not to step on those, the lights fixtures don’t grab or pull them they will break. There are trail that we have develop that I have used to repair light fixtures use this as must as you can. Low lighting and muddy areas, we have low areas that have water, we can provide booties.

Jessica Hawkins: When we go down to the cave with the bats you need to be quiet, you can whisper, but do use a loud voice, we are using head lights.

Jerry Alquist: Make sure that you are aware of your surroundings, the footing can be bad there are areas with low lighting and you can slip and fall.

Contractor: Is there lighting in all the work areas.

Jerry Alquist: No there will be places that there is no lighting.

Sophia Marshall: If you are award the contract you must take into account that you will be working in areas that there is no lighting.

Jerry Alquist: The walkways have limited lighting; depending on where you lay your cable will depend who light the area will be.

Jim McCoy: Walking lights, we do have lights to light up formation displays but they are not working lights. You can’t use work lights for long extend periods because it will degrade the formations.

Jerry Alquist: While preforming my duties like changing light bulbs checking wiring I do not have a problem doing my job using a hard hat and a head lamp.

Shane Avery: On the wild cave portion the power source is about ¼ mile.

Sophia Marshall: you will also need to take into consideration this, because you may need to use cordless power tools.

Jessica Hawkins: be aware that there is equipment down their extension cord is run down the causeway on the wild cave tour so is careful.

Sophia Marshall: We will do the office stuff, looking at where the telephone lines are run and the power source is.

Jerry Alquist: I’ll take them to the office then to the mezzanine that should take about 10 to 15 minutes.

Only one contractor will be able to go up the ladder to the mezzanine. All the electrical is run down the elevator.

Shane Avery: the Elevator runs 260 feet there is a catwalk that runs down the entire length.

All participated will take lunch and meet in the front to begin the Discovery and Dripstone tours. This will take two to three hours.

Adjourned 11:30am

Re-adjourned 4:00pm

Sophia Marshall: I hope that everyone had a good walk through. I had scheduled a question and answer session, but if the group prefers we can have a question and answer and wrap up tomorrow after the

Wild Cave tour.

Everyone in the conference room agreed to have one question and answer session after the Wild Cave tour tomorrow along with wrap session.

Adjourned: 4:30pm

Blanchard Springs Caverns Pre-proposal Conference and Site Walk-Through

April 2, 2014 Start time: 10:00am

The second day of the pre-proposal Conference started in the front visitor center.

Sophia Marshall: Good morning everyone, today one person form each company will be going through the Wild Cave, along with Cliff Upton Forest Service COR, Jeff Keener Forest Service Radio System

Designer, Jim McCoy District Ranger, Shane, and Megan Forest Service employees and guides. Once you have return from the tour we will convene in the Auditorium to conduct a question and answer session then wrap up the conference. Jerry Alquist and I will be going with the group up to where the

Wild Tour begins. Does anyone have any questions about the tour? Then please follow Shane and

Megan to get coveralls, knee pads, hard hats and head lights.

Shane Avery: If everyone is set let’s head out to the bus which will take us to the Discovery session outlet, from there we will walk down some stairs and then go off trail.

Jim McCoy: If everyone could set their extra pair of shoes here, then follow Megan single file.

Shane Avery: As you can see here is the last junction box where power can be drawn from.

Tour Start: 11:00 am

Group arrives back at the visitor center and Pre-proposal conference resumes in Auditorium with a question and answer session.

Question and answer session start 3:00 pm

Sophia Marshall: Today we have some maps that we have that give you an idea of the layout of the caves. Ann do you have something to share.

Ann Sarnecki: Yes, we don’t have a technical map that give distances of the caves however the map does give you a scale and it give you the locations of the phones, also I have here a print out the gives more information and distances of the caves, also we have brought the map that was hanging in the exhibit hall so if you want to take pictures to help with developing your proposals here it is.

Contractor: How many amps do the junction boxes have?

Jerry Alquist: 110

Contractor: How many feet to you want the sensors to be for the tracking devices?

Sophia Marshall: You are asking for you to use your best business practices to determine based on what you have seen where those sensors should be.

Jim McCoy: As far as the tracking devices we are wanted a passive monitoring system , where when a guide moves pass the sensor that information is relayed to the visitor center, so they can determine when to start another tour, so they are not overlaying them an causing a backup.

Contractor: We more specific information as far as how many feet, because we want to be able to provide equal amount of sensors, so it is easier for the Forest Service to compare proposals.

Sophia Marshall: As I said before, that cost is not the major determining factor, but past performance and technical knowledge. We as that based on your experience and best business practice what would be a good distances.

Contractor: Ok, do you want them at least at each of the interruptive point on the tours.

Jim McCoy and Ann Sarnecki: Yes we would like that.

Ann Sarnecki: I can give you a timeline and locations of those points in the tour, will that help with developing your proposal.

Contractor: Yes it would.

Sophia Marshall: When you are submitting your proposal please indicate all your assumptions and options clearly, also we are asking for additional warranty coverage on the equipment and support and maintenance.

Contractor: What do you mean maintenance; we usually don’t give any support and maintenance for the life?

Sophia Marshall: We understand that, we understand that is a commercial service with industry standard warrant and support and maintenance that is usually 90 days on equipment we are asking for extension to a year and as far as support and maintenance we don’t expect that the contractor to be responsible for maintenance for the life of system, but we are asking for extension of standard industry of year to 18 months and that support will entail troubleshooting help (via telephone, training on the system, manuals).

Jerry Alquist: We are asking for if I have a question that I can call and you can walk us through the problem.

Contractor: We provide trouble shooting via remote access so will need network access.

Sophia Marshall: As we said yesterday, that we current do not have that authority to allow remote access to our network, so any remote access will need to be done via a public access point. Are there any more questions, ok if there aren’t any more questions then let us processed with wrap up.

Wrap up:

Important dates for you to remember: April 4th at 3:00pm MST is the last day to submit questions. April

11th at 3:00pm is the date to submit proposals. No late submissions will be allowed, also make sure that you submit the attachments: 1, 2 and the GPAT or VPAT. Ensure that you clearly state all assumptions.

If any of you will like to take pictures of the maps please do it at this time.

Distances Information:

Dripstone Tour: .6 miles from Elevator Discovery Tour: 1.2 miles from Elevator Wild Tour: .5 miles from Discovery Tour Bat Passage: .5 miles from Discovery Tour Visitor Center: 216 Vertical Feet above Elevator

Discovery & Wild Exit Tunnel Exit air lock tunnel 35’ Exit “foyer” (outside to airlock door) 7’

Dripstone Exit Tunnel Exit air lock tunnel 30’ Exit “foyer” (outside to airlock door) 21’

Adjourned 4:30pm

Dorrnancy: There are sotre dry speleotlterns in changing course of the water. These forrnations

Blanchalcl Springs are considered dorr

CaveF{s u,hich attest to the , not - just dead, because impse of i ts l i fe . I t 's l ike le ca\/e has constantlv been

\'varer may retunr one day. our rrier.l,in_q of the cave is iust a tin seei'g o'e f}ame of a long playing ,',',oui. - one fi-oze,r'instant.,z changing in the past ancl it ',viil continue to clo so in the future.

w : P u r e . c a l c i t e i s n r i l k y t r g l i / h r c e n t r , v l r i t e , H o r v e v e r , p u r e l v l r i t espeleotlrems are rare. Most speleothenis are stainei S/irripurities ancl minerals ivhich are carriecl

:]t:jT :::* ly.water.ancl clepositecl betrveen thy{wsll.ls of calcite. Iron inrpur.ities ancl planr and hurnic acids typically cause rust.t'colorr tu9dns fronr pale yellou, and tan to brrlrvn and dark red'

.Black, blue-glay, ancl pastel blue colgldare ptotrabiy dLie to manganese cornl.rouncls. A saniple of dark stai's on the ca'e ceilirlg/or,er the loop in the Coral {oo.', was tbuncl io be ITlatga'ese dioxide.. However a sa'ip].doi hJue-E-ay flou,stone testecl b), a spectrophotor'eter contained only calciuttr, socl i tul. gxt ' iron. Cave rnicro-organisnrs ancl trga,ric mater-ials also probablv contribute to t l ie colors/unci in a cave. especial lyblack. brora,n alJrecl.

ln the very distant future: tat rernains fbr Blanchard Springs Caverns is fbr the surfhce erosion to lr,ear the cavem ceili tlrinrrer arrd thinrrer. EvenfLrally, hmtdt.eds of'rhottsttncls of years in the will collapse as a huge sinkhole. sedinrent q,ill rvash in to fill thefuture, the cavern cei sinlchole and rnay literate all sign of the Qtvs* system. Meanrvliile, lnore passages may be enlar-eing ancl nerv caves rnay be given entrances.actively fomtinpAnd

BLANCHARD SPRINGS CAVERNS

81,Dann1, P. Goodu, in May 8, 2008

Nole: This is the at'ticle tlzttt Darut.y "Catfish" Goodvtin v,rote./br the 2009 NSS Intertrctiionctl Congre.s,s of Speleolugy boul;.

- The Springfield Plateau of northcentral Arkansas is a rugged area incised and dissectecl by.rivers creating mountainous relief. Spring-f-ect streams line G valleys. The area's valleys and fblk culture nrn deep. The history and traclition of the Ozark people is knorun far-and rvide.

Hornesteads carved out of hillsicles ancl along the narrou,.creek .,,,ull"y, proviclecl subsistence for families he|e for over 150 -years. They knew of the large spring on,t natLrral shaft entrance to rvhat they called "half mile ca\re". While the Ozark tbi-klore is rvell known, the unclerground u'orld of Stone Cotrnty has not receivecl a iot of attention. one of t l i is nation's ]east knou,n treasures is located here. we know it as Blancharcl springs caverns. s'

The cornbination of forestect terrain, over'50 inJes of rainfall per year ancl allrost 300 feet of relief in highly soluble blue, grey ancl ivhite lirnestone sitting atop the St. peter sanclstone gives.you the iargest volurtte cave in Arkansas. Seconcl only to Fittons Cave in rnileage (a f-er.v counties alvay), Blanchard Springs Cavems has B.l niiles of ,r-,rr,.y"cl passage to date. But niore impressive than the ntileage is the volunre of the cave. Ro,urulancl Lave pror.i,l", t5e leaclu,aters for Blancltarcl and has beerr hydraulically connectecl rvith clye trace tci Blancharcl Springs Cavents. Recent surveys place traversable poilioris of tlie tu/o caves ,,r,ithin 100 f-eet of each other'

-Conttecting the two, l)o*'ever, requir is one to either squeeze through rat sized holes in breakdown. or crar'vl in a tight crack hali fillecl lvith r.vater lvhile playing bloLrlcler ctodgeball. A third' little talked-about option (going the rvrong way) is a clugout we looseiy refer to as the "rectum"' 'nuff saicl? A large section of the mountain lias collapseci, severing the tbn:ierl5' r'vell-connected Blancharcl and Rowland Car,'es. Even the rvater has trouble getting through. The lolar gradient ancl sloi,v velocity creates a backr.vater-floociinc e'vrronr'ent in

Rorvland during t.e wet seagon. close as it is, a hunrauly traversable corurection still eludes us'

Tr.re Blanchard_Rorvland cave System ,"ti. , ii*re over i 2 rniles of cave passageways suweyed'

Twelve miles is respectable; however, ti't*tut" is r.erely a historical retnnant of what it once was. Throughout the cave are segments of passagewayl ,"pr"t"nting the original five distinct levers. Erosion of tliese Boone cherl h;;l' ili;;liey incisioi't into trie 'nderlyirrg 1ir-'estones llas dissectecl and removed rnucrr of the upp"i ,*o revels. rn" n',ii-tevel with collapses i'to the lorver levels is the lo'gest remaining ,,g'''.,"n"t'i"'ut' U 7000 feet (as the crow flies)' The lower two levels are intact with inte.nittent p',r"uti" and vadose ,".iion. with siphons througliout tlre strearn level. The dor'i*aut joint set'Jo'i'""a 107 degrees' All 9i'Blan'ghard stretches ottt a'nost two mires west to east, terr'i"^ri,.'g at Blancrra.i- springs. water ti6m f{srvland a'd

Bla'chard spr'rgs ca'erns exits at Brancharrd Springs, *""i"1^r,r'u-u"rug. 58 clegrees dt a rate of

7000 gprn.

s an a:tive cave s,vstem. It has segnents in all stages of

0""","0'?lXlTi'i":H:t;ff['!,];o;;;.. piracv, t;;; nili'g/n-usrri'g' abandonment' f-orr'atioir creposition. seconclary aruinog" deveiopnr.ent, inJ "ottupr.l piracv will continue to occur in present u,."o* levels una uuti.y'in"irron *'r .on,i,ru" to ,.u* a'cl isolate the r-'id levels

,uve exlrlore toclay. The proce* i, ay'iu*i"' Cut't "uotution occtirs toclay a'd rvill continue to occur in the futute' T h e a g e o f t h e c a v e i s e s t i r r r a t e c l a t 5 0 - 7 0 m i ] l i o n y e a r s w i t h f o m a t i o n s d a t e d 2 - 5 rniuion years. noJrcs iuicr clown d"ri"; ll.r.l;:!::::rufi;1.ner1od (310 nrillion vears ago) to the lo*,er Ordivicia. Period (+00 nrillion years 'g"i ii""iae tfe, host rock' The cave has wearhered downwarcl througl.r ,i* 1b;;;;;; :*y.^,ff arorlnd tl." "ul:

ancl the uppenlost segr'ent of "uu.r,i-o io--';a i* the Boone Fornration, ivhich is a limestone/chert nixture of

'arying composition and color avera;;; ;t-t"n. zso unJ-:oo r"o thick' The next fonnation do*,n is trre cason sliale, varyi'g fro;:;io g feet tt i"r, *a""oio,r frorr-r darrc green to black'-The

Femvare Limestone is next. rt is c.ysialiirie and has a color that 'aries fi'om grey to wnlte;

someti'res uiith a pink ti'ge. Th: Fe'rvale averages i"lru""' 30 a'd 60 feet thiclt' The

Kir'rnswick Lirnestone is berow with a thickness up to i:

"rr"t ona is light grey to white and coarsely oiysrarline. itre plattin r_i,rrrrton. is'ext a*cr is a major unit at.a thicii'ess up to lzu feet. lvrost of trre Discovera r.*r roui o ;;,h" plattin Li;;t#. This unit is a blue-grey' finely crvsta,,ine, e"",;i,:?+""i'11y'1 T*triTiii*k'lii*ruXffi:k:Ii.ll"l"'.'J1"1;

is r-nainly phreatic' This secttoll ls ln t::-:]-^'"'-"-,...;t.'."

.;t n"a, the top of the St' Petel reaches a thickness of about 20 f.;;. r},.-.pring, t},",',1"tu., ,rt n"ur the top of the st' Pete sandstone. This sandstone memb.. r"t]gt, uitn'1Jn I 25 and 160 feet thick'

Chernical rveatl-rering pilnrJir?-iv .*uo-11 u"iJ "n*gecl joint.fractures in the host lirnestone rocks' The cave is joint i"'ii#"a at 107 t1;;;";;'ff"il9i to' the strike of the beds'

The carre <leveroped as a sha'o* p*,*u,r. systein urong I^Jot"inant joi't, tbllorved by piracy to lower ancl loi.,.,erlevels. Eac' successively cleeper.pass;g;;;;;r'igrating dow'clip to the south i' conrpliance with the rocar aip or f.J, u,'ich is less"than 5 clegr-ees to the south-southeast'

There is strict aclhere'ce to the aon,i.iu*lor,ri ,vith rittre meanclerinlg off corrse or joint jurnpi'g'

The subordi'ate joint set is alig.ti'"" +i aegrees' *h;; ;; ;;outi e0 degree offset' Tiie totai relief of sr,rrveyed passages is 23 1 'i ilt' pi'ily rtu' b;;; i;i'ent' nruclt lit<e a strearn head cut or.I trre surface. Heia cut pirac-v has 'rigr-atecl upstrearn ;;r;;q;.e slicling slightly dov'ndip' The result is rnai'ly abandoried elripticai 'hreatiq.tub* una rri.akdow'-a1te'ecl rooms' Except tot breakclor,vn-altered passages that resemble vaclose .u',yon, ancl actir,e ladose stream channels today, nuch of the cave remar", i"-iil" Jliptical pt"i*" tutr" u''up". piracy appears to have occu'ecr rather quickly, leaving no ti're io, uo,tor. i,-,"irion. Goi'g fro'r phreatic to the abandonrlent stage results in sn.,oothiy scuiptureo ,"u'n,'roiutional domes, beilholes and large diarneterel l ipt ical tubes. nr^---1-^.rr Q-, . inoq carrerTrs oDenecl in1913. Today"

ThetrrstconrirrercialguidedtourinBlanchardSpringsCar,etns"Ti; :J ' i lJ '"" '" ' .n., there are trrree g.icled tours uuuitutri, io, ,r"," pru-blic pleasure ^t tn' cave oi)el'ater, anrJ t'aintaiue.

b), t'e usDA e?r=J s"r"i." i" tr* syiu*or"'Natio'a1 r"t"r,. r"aay's 'isitor can take adrrantage of two tours with r'vell-lighted concrete walkrvays ancl handrails, or gr-) on the wilcl Caye Tour.Altcient visitors r'vere alu,ays on the wilcl tour. Evidence of Native Anrerican inhabitaiits arefound throughout the cave. An incotuplete skeleton was founcl in the carre in t5e-..Bat passage,, inI 955' Accumulations of expirecl torclt nraterial suggest he or they entered through openings thatIia'e bee' sel,ered by'al l ey cror.vn cutting. coll apsJJnd backfi l li n g.

The uppenriost level ( l) of the cave is cal led the Dripstone Trai l Tour. The total Iength of this old uppennost sesnient is oi'er 2000 f'eet long. An elevator takes eager participants fi-om the visitor center above, dor,r,tt 216 tbet to cave leve'l to begin the one houi half-mile tor-rr. The elevator tunnel exits into the Cathedral Room. The first view of the Catheclral Room after exitin_e the elerrator tutrnel r,vill rlake anyone's pacenraker skip a beat. Not a lrrettier cave roo' in ttre country' The Cathedral Room is over 1000 feet lc,ng, O: feet high ancl exceecls 150 feei wicle in nany places' The rootn is an elongatecl breakout clorire that has assunrecl the classical arch sha'e.

Everv inch of the roonr appears to be coated ivith speleotherns. A large single column is locatecl in the rniddle of the room and appears to be support ing the roof which is in the Boone fbnnation.

J.ust about e\rel-y type of speleotltettr is representecl orr this tour along ri,ith ulique items such as the "battleship". The'uvalls are covered wjth flov,,stone, slrielcls, co.allrope colunrns, popcorn ancl others' The walls are weatltered fronr the Boone chert, Cason shale ancl Fernvale Iimestone. This lalge uppenuost seglnent has tivo large r,vell-clecorated roouls connected by a low section that was circumvented b)'a mantnade connection tunnel arid airshaft. The natural connection between the t'"r'o rooms is breakdou'n consh'ictecl, ancl the passageway is very wet. This 240-foot tulnel around the constriction niakes the Dripstone Traii Touiwheelchair accessible. The route circles the Cathedral Rootn so one can get a view of all the formations up close. Visitors go through the tunnel to the second rooln, ',vhich is 1020 feet long by 140 feet wide at one point, and averaging 30 feet high' The second roonr is cal lecl the Coral Room ancl is loadecl u, i th fonnations. One ofmy favorites is a sectiorl that reseritbles a forest of white calcite c,rlumns about a foclt in diar'eter spaced one to tr'vo feet apart. Seconclary drainage development is creating impressive fluted domes on the south side of the roonl. Above, the Boone cherl and i,isitor centir pavemeni creares diffbt'ential conductivity arrci cartalizes fiow resuiting in flutecl domes insicie. visirors exit er manmade tumel to an awaiting bus reacly to take one 6ack to the visitor center. All exits have air locks to restrict air flow to natural portali onlv.

The Discovery Trail Tour is unotli"r guidecl trip that goes tluough the enci of t6e Cathedral Room of the Dripstone Trail ancl then iraces tlie mid ancl lower le'els of the cave rvitha brief view of the stream level. Tlre tour follorvs atrout i.2 miles of micl ancl lorver le'el cavepassageways. This tour has signiticant elevation change with 686 steps. T6e tour altemates fi.ombreakdorvn rooms to thirty foot diarneter elliptical phrlatic tubes to ,olution dorles that approach 80 feet high near an olcl piracy. Large vorume ,oo,-,'r, occur wriere man)/ reveis ha.re colrapsecr.

The Discovery Roonl is the first one entered. The tor.rr route clrops aboirt 150 feet fi.our the floorof the Catheclral Rooln to the bottorn of the Discover,v Room. From here, the tour goes uphill(upstrearn) gladually to a ntanmacle exit tunnel. The Discovery Roor' is about 130 feet by 140f'eet in cliarneter ancl 100 ft deep. Here, levels tr,r,o and three collapsed down into level fbur andthe rnaterial vl'as removed by the strearn, rvhich is nou, at a lorver. elevation. From tire top .f theDiscovely Roorn, one call look across the roonr and see a cross section of levels 2,3. and 4. A1lthree are perf-ect ellipticar phreatic tubes ra,ith no vadose entrenclunent.

The upperrnost tube continues to the left (east) as the "Bat passage.'. This passageruttrbles on for 1800 f'eet with a 60 fbot ,oviclth, averaging ro ieet ^in" l"il,ng height. Thepassageway has decorated sections ancl one connection to the active streanr lerrel. One enters theBat Passage high, near the ceiling in the original phleatic tulre, about g feet high ancl 50 feetwide' Soon, the floor- begins to drop as a recently abanclonecl stream passage; lerzel 4 enters fi-omthe left and crosses the passag"t"uy to the right. on tlie right side ii a coitinuation of'the draindown to the active streant channel. The cirain l-regins as an interesting phreatic tube of'walkilgheight. But before long, you find yourself lyingfon 1,our belly on iresh mucl. spread_eaglecl,wondering rvhere to go fi'oln here. Up ancl io tt-t. right, the souncl of cascading urater can be { i ? o heard' At one tirne, tlre passagervvay exited to the stream here, but gravel bars have been pushed up to the wall and breakdoi.vn has fallen alrnost closing it off. Too small despite my detennilration, the crack only allows the souncl of cascacling water to echo in the small passageway. Unable to exit the crawl here, one is faced with a sn'rall phreatic tube to the left. To hear rusliing water above you wliile lying in a passageway a tbot high can be quite umerving.

You feel like you shor"rld be undei-i,r,ater, but sornehor.v you are breathing air. The bocly-sizeci phreatic tube ahead does not look inviting, but it is the only choice. About this tirle, you hear, "Are you sure this is the r.vay?" Well, it is better than staying here in this water-boarcling nightntare. So, yott enter the small tube. \ 'our head in the top, shoulders in the micldle, relayirrg your pack one move at a time with your feet ancl legs follorving in the bottorn of the tube; yor-r soon get into a rhythni. This is taking a lot of tinre to go just 40 feet in this drafty, constrictecl tube, but at least i t is not gett ing any srral ler ' . And then, you see it . A boulcler aheacl is rvedgecl in the middle of tlie tube. Many rvords come to rnind, but comnron sense says there is rio time to dwell oti it now. This is not the time to polish rny curse rvord phrases or try to anslver why "i just had to see this". You realize that if nrater came in 11s1v, lou rvould be a dead dLrck. hence its nallle. Actually, there is plenty of roorn to go over the boulder; it just doesn't look like it.

Passing this restriction and ernelging fi'orn the tube. you clirnb up olt the top of a gravel bar and see the stream which puts a smile on everyone's face. Yor.r cannot lielp but look at the rvater' level in the sh'eanr and then look back at the elevation of the bottom of the tube you just came out.

The two elevations cannot be more than inclies apart. Everyone's head in going back and forlh like watching a temis match, trying to cornpare the height of the trvo passageways. Once that concern fades, one is arnazed at this short section of passageway lloiv in the vadose stage of developrnent. The passageway is 420 feet long, 75 feet rvide rvith a ceiling height varying fi'oin 10 to 25 feet and is truncated at both ends by a siphon which creates a unique environment. The stream splits near tlte upstream end going around both sides of an island. Communicating your thoughts to others verbally is really difficult. Everyone scatters to explore on their own. The assault on the senses - the chill of tlie dar-np space, lvet boots, the rvhite noise of the underground rill arnplified by the arch of tlie cave walls. unfarrrilial views, and prepossessing subten'anean architecture - all at once is exhilarating. The stream is roaring over breakdown cascades throwing up clouds of mist. My headlarnp is linritecl in the fog, communication impossible, the cold watei-numbs rny legs, my boots strain to cling to the wet rocks. Stray stleaks of dancing light illuminate the nioisture in the room. The air looks too thick to breathe. The liarsh environment limits ottr stay, but i.r'e leave knowing rve have seen, hearcl and felt sornething that enriched us.

Exiting the stream segment and continuing on into the Bat Passage, one soon enters a well decorated area, i,rrith rradous fonnations. The passage\rra.rr temrinates in breakdown at the Hanrtnerhead Room. It is a large room averagin-e 210 feet long and 40 u'ic1e u,ith a ceiling height going rrp 70 feet on the left side. This temrinus is imrlediately east of the vi.sitor center in a sinkhole. Like most of the sinkholes in the area, they take on a srnooth borvl shipe resernbling a solutional sinkhole. There are usually no vert ical rval ls visible in the sinks to testi fy to their origin frorr collapse. One reason for this is tlie ri,eathering nature of tlie Boone chert, creating rourrded boulders arrd cobbles that rol l dorvn t l- ie steep slopres f i l l ing in sinkholes. Extensive r idge rvalks have yielcled f'evv results irr tenrs of virgin traversable cave se.qrnents.

Bacl< in the Discovery Room, the midclle tube is called the Stick Room. Tl-ie toul goes to the bottom of the Discovery Room and through tlre Stick Room. The roorn is a phreatic tLrbe rvith riffles on the ceiling with some breakclowri alteratious. Charcoal and partially bumecl torch nraterials fioln Native Atrrerican visits n,ere lbuncl here. Belorv tlre Stick Roorl is level foLrr.

another elliptical tulre that drains across the f']oor of the Discovery Roorn. Feu, fomrations are found along tlie beginning of this tour. The ceiling of the Discovery Roorn is the I(imnrsrvick litnestone. With ferv joints and little percolation, there are ferv formations here an<J this section is referrecl to as the Ban'ens. The passagewa-y lorv on the left is a recently atrandoiiecl trunk. lerrel 4.

ln extretre higlt i.r,ater conditions. it can still take on rvater lvhich goes tlirough the bottonr of the Discovery Roont, the Bat Passage ancl on to the active stream. N4ost of the Discover,r.; T.utt to.,t

\,f

I fbllows the rnid le.rel, three. Anastamosis is visible upstreatn frotn an ancient near-si1lhon. The tour goes past tlie bottom of the r.iatural entrauce; a 90 foot shaft that plumnlets into the stream level. The upper 20 feet of the shaft is a remnant of a solutional donte ancl the lower 70 t-eet is er flutecl slraft. The opening is the natulal clooruval, for Blanchard's large bat population. The tour folloli,s the streani pariug. for abor-rt 400 feet. Piracy evidence is everywhefe. Clay bank recession lines prark it.,. t*ttr ancl clay bank residuals cling to tlie ledges atrot'e each olcl piracy a1d siplop. Off tle tour ancl upstrearn lrom the second bliclge is an ancient siphon of trurrk-sized propoit ions. Upstrearn and to the Ieft a passageway starts off 30 feet high and 60 feet rvide. The floor gently r ises up to the ceil ing by the t irne yor: reach the enci of the 5tl0-11 segll lelrt . Here, gravel.s ancl rnucl have entered and createcl a graclual strooth slope fbr the floor. At one tilne-rrrost of the currerrt stream flou, on tire Discovery Tour q,as divertecl dorvu this passagerva,v and on to a different splipg than rvhat lve sei t,:Cay. It ivas dtiring this tin-re that rirlstone dams tlourishecl in between the ttvo bridges on the Discovery Tour and near ivhat is called the Purlp

Room. Eventually, the creek valley (that the natural shaft is in) cut thlough tlie top of the piracy passage ancl began to fi11 it r,vith rock and cletritus. This returnecl the streatn to its cun'ent course'

Today, tliese rilrstones are being slowly erodecl by tlre introcluction of aggressive i'vater' The tor"rr proceecls frorn the seconcl briclgi thru clean elliptical phreatic tubes 20 to 30 feet in clianleter as you a5-ive at the Salanancler Pool. This fonnation atea is in a solutional dorne that bells uir'"vard, iptersecting beclcling planes that are the nucleus fbr precipitation of calciuln carbonate' Through a flowstope cut and tire well decorated Christnras Tree Roorn, you arrit'e at the Giant Flowstolte'

The Giant Flowstone is one of tlie largest in the country at 160 feet long,35 feet rvide and 30 feet deep. The florvstone descends into a reflection pool accentuating the colot's of mineralizattan'

The Giant Flowstole was depositecl lcng after ebanclontnetrt by a secondary drain. This tributary d e v e l o p e d t o 2 3 0 0 f e e t l c , n g . T l r e p i s s a g e w a } / i s p r i r r r a r i l y a v a d o s e c a n y o n r , v i t h s o l l l e backflo6ding. The canyon developed with good gradient and in one place is three feet rvide and

50 feet high. The prrrug"*uy udll.r"s to the same joirit conttols as the rest of the carre' The porrug"ruuy ends in 3tl i'eet o1'cascailing ivliite dogtooth, fi'c,zen in tirne. A bvpass to the right ends it the beginning of the crystalline cascacle. Retr-rrning to the tour, exit is rnade through the highly clecorated Ghost Roour rvhich is a short rernnant cf an upperlevel. Visitors exit through a rnanrnade tunnel, to be bused back to the rrisitor center' The third guicled tour is the Wilcl Carre Tour, cotnposecl of a 3-4l-rour trip that allows the cave explorer to get off the concrete walku,ays and r,vell-lit paths. The beginning of the tour traces in reverse the elciilg of tlie Discovery Trail Tour'. One goes through the beautiftll Ghost

Room ald by the Gialt Flou,stone and then departs frour the concrete u'alkways. The first rooll one encounters is referrecl to as the Grand Canyon Roorn. One's light struggles to illurninate the far sicle of the rool1. Hard to see, the stream huggirig the south r,i,all i$ mostlv heard. In this roonl, levels 2, 3- and 4 have collapsed into tlie streaur level creatinq tretnetrdous t'olutne' This large segment is 420 f'eet long, 120 feet rvicle arrd B0 feet high - artd that's just the part you can see' A poition of this roonr is l',ir:t,l.n around a gentle curve to the ri-sht. The true voiutne of tlie room is

900 tbet lon-e averaging i 00 feet ivicle with lots of breakdoivtl o11 the floor. Atrout half rva)' dou'ti this passageway, ,p'un-,t to the right is the entrance to the Subrvay. This is an easier route through an A-flapre shapecl-passage\\,ay averaging 25 feet rvicle aird var)'tug fl'om 25 to about 60 feet high begilnipg with a shootlr clay floor. Tlie 1350 f'eet of passagervay adheres to the sanle joit.it controls as therest of the cave. r\long one suborclinate joint segrnent. a hole in the fltior takes up about 70 % of the path. One can "aiily see tlie wicle level route ou the left side- but adrenalin slrrges r.r,itli the thought of falling 70 t-eet onto casket-sized breakdown. Sotne guides referto this pit is ..,uye will rniss you". The llassageway continues tl-re A-fi'anie shape u'ith a high ceiling joint a1d sonre breakclorvn as orle geis to the Subway cra,uvl. The cra*'l is 180 feet long and is really a spicler or crab ri,alk passag.*'uy right trefore you join back up rvith the main cave' Haltivay into the crarvl, seconclary clrainage has erodecl the t'loor creating a sliallow clay pit. Old tirlers get a chance to stretch their legs *l.r;t" the young eagerly attack the remaining crawl ahead. Exiting the crawl^ vou are at the "rest stop": a Coiriiortable ciay liank gently sloping off into the uncliscernable darkness. Resting comfortatrly on the clay bank, enjoying a sttack, one ls ullaware of the I07-foot clrop a mere 20 feet au,ay. Some guicles may point out that yotl are restirtg on the roof of an eleven story builcling. followecl by, "Rest ttp, the deatli ledge is ne>:t-" A brief break and t6e Titans are riglt arouncl il',. .or,.r*r. Tire room has large white 'mites and columns rvith 60 feet visible i1 tlris piurug"ruuy and another 80 feet of flou,storie going clor','tt througlr tl-re hole in ' the f loor to t6e strearn level. Tlr is is as cleepr into Blancharcl as theWild Cave'l 'our'goes. but what an awesonre enclpoint and place to turn arourrcl. One is dwarfed by the size of the passagei'vay' the mass, the clevelopment ancl age of the speleothenrs. It n'iakes one feel st.nall, insigriificant and .Just so glad to be liere". Retunito tlie sutway is macle by an alteraate route through the Maze and the Cut-off Crack. The lr4aze u,as created in the Fernvale limestone mainly due to tracli floocli'g. alcl the multitucle of passageways is representative of its ttame. The tritrny ciioices irr the lVlaze vary from pseuclo-vador..unyors lo feet high ancl 6 feet rvicle to keyiroles rvitlt walkable drop slots to trody sized incl irrr, i tub.r. Here, the huge volume of cave is gone and t ire caver is required to contort ancl adapt to the cave. The only sound is rvater as it drips to the floor below. Dark'ess dominates. The only light is the one you trrought that just 1i-ehts your path' Tlie walls are close. The ceiling is lo,,v. You-can srlell the cave clirt in your nostrils' You can feel the

I t n I I l n n R R s cold, wet rock. This is real cavin'.

lBeyonrJ the Titaps is Breakdorvn lr4ountain, the Upstrean Section, and TumblilS |ockst\ r J w Y v l l u l r l v

Getting bgyond the Titans and the florvstone pit, orre has to ciinrb about 40 f":l^:O^,tt^tn:j"::.1

;;ffi,;X;" no*rr""e squeezes and descend the slick downslope on the other side' An easy

;;k;;i;r\;;; t*o uouta.rs as large as beclroorns tliat have separated frotl tire lower Boone . - - l . t ^ - . + n t h a ' l c f t i'""""tt""", rirbo ."a landed with a large tlat surface up. skirting arouncl the boulclers to the left, |,]"Til #;?;-\. between the two boulders up to the right. aihort chiinney clirlb up ancl yon

;;^il;

;;;;\;;"ir. irrir is rhe perfeci place forlu'ch, anothe' break or j'st spreading all your stuff out to fi\that lost Snicke.u bur. Tlie vier.r' here looking back,ttO. f"":l?:PXj:::

;i;)(;t;b.tt., from here- Next, one goes.thtgugh, about '19 fY.:L]::*":

;-;;)kdow' lr4ountain. The valley is collapsing here on the…