What do you use to mark your stations?

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What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby WVCaver2011 » Dec 13, 2011 2:30 pm

I thought this would be a great topic to discuss because caves are different and not everyone can use flagging tape to mark their stations due to rats, etc wanting it for their nests, and rising water table removing them. :mad2: I would like to get some ideas from you guys for various cave types both wet and dry. Please identify the cave type (wet or dry) for your station markers. Thanks!
There's nothing that makes me more excited than finding a place underground that no one has ever seen or been in!

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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby Chads93GT » Dec 13, 2011 2:46 pm

hog paint, ie that hog marker you get at farm stores. Its like a paint stick. We have some stations that are 3 years old in our river cave that are still visible. WE also zip tie permanent stations where there are leads and wrap them in flagging with the station name in permanent marker on the flagging. As leads are mapped, zip ties are removed as is flagging. the cave floods a lot so we have to mark everything permanent very well. carbide is useless in the river caves we found out, as the water wipes out the markings. The walls are black with magnese oxide anyway so its a bit hard to use carbide to mark them.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby NZcaver » Dec 13, 2011 3:43 pm

Blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Also flagging tape and occasionally small rock cairns.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby tncaver » Dec 13, 2011 4:53 pm

WHITE OUT. I learned this trick from Nancy Aulenbach and it works great on wet or dry rocks. You can put a tiny dot for the station and it can
be used to label the station if necessary. White shows up good on most any cave surface and can be seen from a considerable distance to spot
a Disto on. I carry it in my cave suit pocket although a string could be tied around the neck of the bottle to hang down your shirt if necessary.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby Scott McCrea » Dec 13, 2011 7:36 pm

Yup. White Out here, too.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby baa43003 » Dec 13, 2011 8:30 pm

a string could be tied around the neck of the bottle to hang down your shirt if necessary.


We did this with bottles of nail polish in China. The polish is durable but depending on the color, could be difficult to locate and the fumes were pretty obnoxious. I like the White Out idea.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby paul » Dec 14, 2011 7:21 am

We also use nail varnish
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby Spike » Dec 14, 2011 11:05 am

In no particulare order

Flagging
Sharpie
Whiteout
pencil
Lumber Crayon
Synthetic String and Pokerchips or Dog tags
Carbide soot
scratches with steel end of tape
rocks
mud nipples
carbide fired mud
boot laces
photograpic memories
a good sketch of the location

It all depends on the cave, the conditions, the project, and what was available.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby UnderGroundEarth » Dec 14, 2011 12:44 pm

We use white out as well and we use flagging on the last station of each trip and use a sharpie to write on the flagging. It makes it easy to come back to your previous stopping point.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby tncaver » Dec 14, 2011 1:32 pm

rowland7840 wrote:We use white out as well and we use flagging on the last station of each trip and use a sharpie to write on the flagging. It makes it easy to come back to your previous stopping point.


This is exactly the method that was used by Julie Schenck Brown, and crew on our last survey trips. The stations are highly visible and easy to
remove if necessary. This method can also be used along with rock cairns, rock projections, etc.
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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby WVCaver2011 » Dec 14, 2011 11:22 pm

To all of you that use white-out, do you have problems with it drying due to the humidity and do you have problems with the stations getting covered with mud in crawlways?
There's nothing that makes me more excited than finding a place underground that no one has ever seen or been in!

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Re: What do you use to mark your stations?

Postby Scott McCrea » Dec 15, 2011 5:53 am

It has been my experience that White Out dries quickly, even in wet, stream passages. Of course, they can be covered by mud in crawlways. Careful placement is key.

Regarding the flagging tape, we put tape (with station # and date written in Sharpie) at stations that are close to leads and the last station of the day.
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