Oregon High Desert Grotto

Hey this is Matt Skeels giving you an update on my book:

The Horse Lava Tube System book project is for the most part an effort entirely by myself. That said, I have recruited some fellow cavers to help survey some of the caves in the past. Special thanks goes to: Geoff MacNaughton, Jeremy Wendelin, Jonathan Skeels, Doug Marchant, Damon Marchant, and Russ Yoder.

Horse Lava Tube System book

As it stands today, the current iteration of the book is under its third draft! Thanks to a computer that liked to crash and burn. But I like the new build much better. It's slimmer than the previous versions with more of an emphasis on maps, whereas the previous version had more photographs and longer cave descriptions. This should save me a bundle in printing.

But, it's still going to be a while before it's all done. I am still waiting to get some caves surveyed in the system. There's not much left now, but that's not the way it used to be. Here's what needs surveying (in order of importance):

  1.  Johnson Farm Cave No. 1 (lengthy survey)
  2.  Stairstep Cave (easy survey)
  3.  Pronghorn Caves (revised, lengthy survey)
  4.  Dos Liebres Cave (medium survey)
  5.  Mushroom Cave (easy)
  6.  Barking Dog Cave (somewhat easy)
  7.  Pop & Son Cave (medium)
  8.  Spatter Cone Caves (numerous small caves, easy)
  9.  Tin Can Cave (somewhat easy)
  10.  Covet Caves (easy)(1 & 2)
  11.  I.D. Cave (easy)

Here are some caves that have been surveyed in the past few years:

As always, I'm eager to learn about possible leads for the Horse Lava Tube System, if you have info on new caves, or some history on existing caves, send me an email at: horselavatubesystem.@.gmail.com (remove the periods surrounding the @ symbol)