SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
1-24-9
I got to sleep late on Saturday. spd_135 was coming out of Slidell, LA so that gave me an extra 2 hours(or more) sleep over my normal cave diving startup time. I met up with him at the awefull waffle in Loxley, loaded up in his truck and we set out for Florida, his boat in tow.
Both of us needed tanks filled, so we headed over to Vortex Springs and went to topping my tanks off with air, and spd had four of his tanks filled with nitrox and an O2 bottle filled(they were all fresh out of hydro, bone dry, and in dire need of some pressure). We spoke with Shane and his wife, Johnny Mac, Eduardo, and some other staff for a couple hours and talked diving, hunting, guns, squirrel trapping, and whatever else. Always good conversation over there
We headed out from Vortex and headed south a bit, following the local waterways around. Found the boat launch quickly and dumped the boat in the water, the gear packed in nicely with way too much room left over. Terribly different from the Miss Jellyfish, a man can get spoiled.
The boat made quick work of the waters, snaking around the flood plains and carving south for the Gulf. 20 minutes or so from our launch, we were in the spring run, which was much clearer than I've seen in quite some time. The river levels were much lower than I've seen while diving this site, aside from my first dive there, which was quite a while back. The boil over the vent pushed up from the depths with enough force to raise the waters a few inches. Damned good thing there's a pull rope to aid our entry.
I led the dive in, pulling hand over hand into the restriction responsible for the torrent bubbling up from the earth in force, and we regrouped in the cavern before continuing forward. Visibility was a good 40-50' and the flow seemed a bit stronger than usual. Its such an awesome cave, stained white limestone walls, often adorned with sheets of goethite, and slight percolation from the ceiling. The bottom is mostly covered in coarse, stained sand, with patches of breakdown. Jumps can be found on the left, then the cave's main passage turns right and drops deeper. At this point and on, jumps can be found on either side and the cave meanders along. Fossils are everywhere and untouched formations can be viewed without any past tampering from man. We penetrate ~1200-1300' before the dive is turned, and we ride the flow out quickly. We've got O2 stashed out of site in OW(never know when someone will show up on the surface and fish the shiny thing off the bottom of the spring), but we don't really need it. Deco is all but avoided entirely, but we do a quick stop and surface. Hit a max depth of 80' for a dive lasting 61 minutes.
On the way out, I snorkel down at another lead that doesn't seem to have any potential, but no biggy. Its getting late and we've had an excellent dive. We hit Dee's up for some grub and head home. spd_135 soaks up the dive on the way home, and I think he's hooked. I had a great day, and I pack up the Miss Jellyfish after spd drops me off at the house.
1-25-8
cmufieldhockey's apparently been aching for a good cave dive, so she met me at the house early Sunday morning. I've already got the Miss Jellyfish loaded up in my car, so we transfer all her gear over and get on the road. The ride goes by quickly, usually does when you talk cave diving. We hit up Cave Adventurer's for some fills, and headed to Caverns State Park. We ate some bologna sandwiches for lunch. The boat was setup in no time and we headed up-river. No major log jams and any obstacles were easily manuevered around. It was overcast, but temps were favorable and we hadn't run across any rain since the morning drive over. The spring was as clear as ever from OW and we were even able to motor to the most upstream basin, without running over too many cypress knees.
Back at the first basin, cmu and I geared up, and headed into the first entrance which held the beginning of the line. cmufieldhockey led the way upstream, manuevering up and over a ledge and through a narrow bedding plane that would shortly bring us through a karst window which acts as another entrance(or exit) into this system(there's actually atleast one other vent that leads into the cave as well). We headed upstream still, which hangs left sharply, and through a vertical fissurecrack before opening back up into easily swimmable cave(albeit with increased flow). Then the cave trends down a ledge and opens up into a deeper section thats much much larger in size(and flow is dissappated). The deep section has several areas of dome rooms, some very large fissure cracks running up the ceiling, and some large bedding planes. You come across a 4-way line intersection pretty quickly, and a few hundred feet later a "T". We turned about 100' before hitting a second "T", probably around 1000'p in. After a deep stop just at the beginning of the deep section, we made our way past the restrictions and sidemount passage making up the beginning of the cave. We hit 118' and had a total dive time of 70 minutes, including 10 minutes of deco back at the first entrance before we surfaced.
After a great dive here, we headed upstream a bit and checked on another spring in the area. It was boiling, but tannic water intruded throughout the entire basin and we weren't feeling conditions, so left it for another day. We poked around a bit more, but didn't find anything interesting enough to warrant jumping back in the water. We headed back to Cave Adventurers for some more fills and ended up BS'ing alot over there with Gordon and whoever else showed up. By this time, I was quite hungry so we hit up Zaxby's before heading West back home. It was a great day and another awesome dive to tie off a friggin great weekend.
I wonder whats going on this week? Hrmmmm?
I got to sleep late on Saturday. spd_135 was coming out of Slidell, LA so that gave me an extra 2 hours(or more) sleep over my normal cave diving startup time. I met up with him at the awefull waffle in Loxley, loaded up in his truck and we set out for Florida, his boat in tow.
Both of us needed tanks filled, so we headed over to Vortex Springs and went to topping my tanks off with air, and spd had four of his tanks filled with nitrox and an O2 bottle filled(they were all fresh out of hydro, bone dry, and in dire need of some pressure). We spoke with Shane and his wife, Johnny Mac, Eduardo, and some other staff for a couple hours and talked diving, hunting, guns, squirrel trapping, and whatever else. Always good conversation over there
We headed out from Vortex and headed south a bit, following the local waterways around. Found the boat launch quickly and dumped the boat in the water, the gear packed in nicely with way too much room left over. Terribly different from the Miss Jellyfish, a man can get spoiled.
The boat made quick work of the waters, snaking around the flood plains and carving south for the Gulf. 20 minutes or so from our launch, we were in the spring run, which was much clearer than I've seen in quite some time. The river levels were much lower than I've seen while diving this site, aside from my first dive there, which was quite a while back. The boil over the vent pushed up from the depths with enough force to raise the waters a few inches. Damned good thing there's a pull rope to aid our entry.
I led the dive in, pulling hand over hand into the restriction responsible for the torrent bubbling up from the earth in force, and we regrouped in the cavern before continuing forward. Visibility was a good 40-50' and the flow seemed a bit stronger than usual. Its such an awesome cave, stained white limestone walls, often adorned with sheets of goethite, and slight percolation from the ceiling. The bottom is mostly covered in coarse, stained sand, with patches of breakdown. Jumps can be found on the left, then the cave's main passage turns right and drops deeper. At this point and on, jumps can be found on either side and the cave meanders along. Fossils are everywhere and untouched formations can be viewed without any past tampering from man. We penetrate ~1200-1300' before the dive is turned, and we ride the flow out quickly. We've got O2 stashed out of site in OW(never know when someone will show up on the surface and fish the shiny thing off the bottom of the spring), but we don't really need it. Deco is all but avoided entirely, but we do a quick stop and surface. Hit a max depth of 80' for a dive lasting 61 minutes.
On the way out, I snorkel down at another lead that doesn't seem to have any potential, but no biggy. Its getting late and we've had an excellent dive. We hit Dee's up for some grub and head home. spd_135 soaks up the dive on the way home, and I think he's hooked. I had a great day, and I pack up the Miss Jellyfish after spd drops me off at the house.
1-25-8
cmufieldhockey's apparently been aching for a good cave dive, so she met me at the house early Sunday morning. I've already got the Miss Jellyfish loaded up in my car, so we transfer all her gear over and get on the road. The ride goes by quickly, usually does when you talk cave diving. We hit up Cave Adventurer's for some fills, and headed to Caverns State Park. We ate some bologna sandwiches for lunch. The boat was setup in no time and we headed up-river. No major log jams and any obstacles were easily manuevered around. It was overcast, but temps were favorable and we hadn't run across any rain since the morning drive over. The spring was as clear as ever from OW and we were even able to motor to the most upstream basin, without running over too many cypress knees.
Back at the first basin, cmu and I geared up, and headed into the first entrance which held the beginning of the line. cmufieldhockey led the way upstream, manuevering up and over a ledge and through a narrow bedding plane that would shortly bring us through a karst window which acts as another entrance(or exit) into this system(there's actually atleast one other vent that leads into the cave as well). We headed upstream still, which hangs left sharply, and through a vertical fissurecrack before opening back up into easily swimmable cave(albeit with increased flow). Then the cave trends down a ledge and opens up into a deeper section thats much much larger in size(and flow is dissappated). The deep section has several areas of dome rooms, some very large fissure cracks running up the ceiling, and some large bedding planes. You come across a 4-way line intersection pretty quickly, and a few hundred feet later a "T". We turned about 100' before hitting a second "T", probably around 1000'p in. After a deep stop just at the beginning of the deep section, we made our way past the restrictions and sidemount passage making up the beginning of the cave. We hit 118' and had a total dive time of 70 minutes, including 10 minutes of deco back at the first entrance before we surfaced.
After a great dive here, we headed upstream a bit and checked on another spring in the area. It was boiling, but tannic water intruded throughout the entire basin and we weren't feeling conditions, so left it for another day. We poked around a bit more, but didn't find anything interesting enough to warrant jumping back in the water. We headed back to Cave Adventurers for some more fills and ended up BS'ing alot over there with Gordon and whoever else showed up. By this time, I was quite hungry so we hit up Zaxby's before heading West back home. It was a great day and another awesome dive to tie off a friggin great weekend.
I wonder whats going on this week? Hrmmmm?
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