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Resto Director Brian will provide the official report, but I'd like to offer my account of what happened this past Saturday and Sunday at the 2023 May Mammoth Cave Restoration weekend.

Due to asbestos remediation taking place at Maple Springs, we gratefully accepted the kind accomodations of the Cave Research Foundation at their Hamilton Valley Facilities. --thanks, CRF!

After getting settled, a couple dozen of us (incl. Larry Matiz!) convened at 'El Tapatio,' the former Sahara Steakhouse which is now a Mexican cuisine restaurant located a short ways from our traditional Cave City eatery, El Mazatlan. Although Tapatio is a bit smaller, the atmosphere, service and quality of food were comparable.?

On Saturday morning, we met as usual for the 8:30 briefing at the MACA Visitor Center picnic area pavilion. In addition to Rick Toomey, we were joined by Chuck and Mary Schubert, Rick Olson and MACA official 'Ed' (--sorry, I forget his last name).

The group heard all about our work tasks for the weekend:? to scoop buckets of mud/water from the bottom of Crystal Lake, hoisting them up 70-feet to the Frozen Niagara path and transporting them out of the cave.

Another team pressed the mud through mesh screens and picked coins and other objects from the muck as it was washed with water from a tank on the back of a pickup truck.

While that operation got underway, a team including Brian, Chuck and your humble narrator took pump sprayers down the 'New Entrance' stairs and lightly applied a 4:1 ratio of bleach solution to any greenish algae-ified spots we came across.

Along the way, Brian pointed out the amazing work that had been done at Grand Central (new pavers and benches), the re-done stairway, another re-done area where original flagstones were uncovered and integrated into the path, and some incredible work done at Lover's Leap.

We ended up at Frozen Niagara, where Dave Boerma was expertly operating an industrial-strength drill being used to hoist the mud buckets.

The 'dirty work' down at the bottom of the hole was being done by several individuals, including supervisor Rick Toomey, but Teresa Boerma deserves special recognition for her efforts. Nice job, T!

Although several individuals helped transport the buckets of mud from the work site to the Frozen Niagara entrance, Roy Van Hooser (along with Deb Nelson and John Sides) did some tireless work for this stage of the operation.

After the mud buckets were brought over to the screening area, Dee Boerma, Linda Bundy and Pam Saberton got themselves plenty dirty and wet as they ran the water hose and filtered through the muck. Special mention also should be made of Missy Sides and Rick Olson, who helped identify artifacts worth saving and categorizing.

Saturday's dinner was a 'pot luck' back at Hamilton Valley, which featured burgers and brats expertly grilled by chef Dave Boerma (--who also makes a mean biscuits-and-gravy).

Sunday was more of the same, except we knocked-off by 12 noon due to some nasty-looking storm clouds that were rolling in. We got done just in time as the rain began falling.

All in all, I'd estimate 150-200 buckets of mud were hoisted out of Crystal Lake and sifted/screened. Great job, everyone.

See you in August!