jasonb751
Contributor
Bear with me, because this is the first report I have posted.
I took a trip to Cypress Springs on February 4th, 2012 with two dive buddies that happen to be husband and wife.
We called the Holmes Creek Canoe Livery on Friday the 3rd to reserve some canoes, because we were told by a friend that they are usually closed during the winter. We told the proprietor that we would arrive at approx 8am and would need two canoes for the trip. We were told that the two canoes would be $60, and he would drive us to the drop off site and pick us up for an extra $10 bucks. We were also told that the employee would be there by 8am.
We arrive at the Canoe Livery at approximately 7:45am and the employee was waiting there for us. We made the decision that we would just have the employee take the canoes to the drop site, and we would follow in our vehicle, and afterwords he would just pick up the canoes and we would be on our merry way. We didn't want to take the hour and a half trip down river to return the canoes. The $10 dollar fee changed to $20, but we drove for 2 hours and didn't want to haggle over a measly $10.
We get to the drop site called Cotton Landing, and proceed to load all our gear into the canoes. We decided that us three would paddle in the first canoe and would tie off the second canoe with all the gear and tow it behind us. What we thought was a good idea, turned out to be a pain in the rear. Three people's gear, 4 AL80's and my 2 LP95's, made the second canoe quite heavy and it proceeded to make the trip rather long because if it wanted to go right, we went right, and vice versa. The trip ended up being one long zig zag.
The first part of the trip was nice at first, floating downriver and no paddling really involved except to keep us on track. There were quite a few down trees that were just below the surface, which caused a few hang ups. We travel about an 8th of a mile down river and spot the sign that says "spring" and pointed to the right. As soon as we make the turn the visibility of the water completely opens up. Once around the turn, you are now paddling up stream, but it was a light current so it wasn't bad except for all the zig zagging. We make it to the springs and we were the only ones there. The complete trip was nice, very beautiful scenery,
We beach the canoes and get all suited up and ready for the dive. We get into the water and it feels quite nice. Definitely warmer than Morrison or Vortex spring. We put our fins on, and stick our head under the surface, and revel at the clarity. Being there was nobody else there, made for a beautiful dive. There was a lot of beautiful plants to see, unfortunately it was an overcast day and I don't have a filter for my camera yet make the pictures seem less beautiful than it really is. I have been diving at many springs, but this one is tops on the list of natural beauty. It's amazing what happens when there are less people to mess things up. There are quite a few trees under water, plants, a few small fish, a beautiful yellow belly slider turtle, a very aggressive and territorial snapping turtle, a few small swim throughs, and my favorite, a Cypress tree root ball. The root ball for some reason was just an amazing site to see. The flow out of the cavern was just amazing, we didn't go into the cavern, but we did stick our head into the flow. My primary 2nd stage hose looked like a flag flapping in the wind, just an amazing amount of water. All in all, our dive was about an hour long. We had about an hour surface interval to have a few drinks of water and a little bit to eat. The other divers put on new AL80's, but I still had plenty of gas in the LP95, and jumped in again. Not too much more to see, so we did a few drills to keep up on the proficiency of our training, and I spent some time working on trim and buoyancy. I am new to the LP95's and still getting everything figured out. I used 6 pounds of lead on a belt, but was still a bit overweight because of the stainless backplate and STA even with the 5mm farmer john and jacket. All in all, it was about a 40 minute dive.
After the dive, we are sitting on shore admiring the beautiful scenery, when someone is walking down to the gate. He unlocks it and comes up to talk to us. I didn't catch his name, but he is the caretaker of the Nestle facility. He asks how the dive was, and if we were having a good time. We answer that it is beautiful, and never have a bad time diving. We ask him a few questions about the area, and he explained a lot about it. This was our first time there, and did a google search about the site. We read online that there was a housing development around the spring and that it was private property. We also read that Nestle was unable to get permits to bottle water from the spring. Turns out both were incorrect. Nestle has been bottling there since 2004, and there is only one house there, and that is where the caretaker lives. He explained that Nestle drilled about 300 yards from the mouth of the cave and pump the water into trucks to transport to another facility for bottling. He said that during the summer, it can get quite busy there. He wants to build picnic tables and put trash cans out to help prevent people from messing up the beautiful site with their trash. He was a very nice guy, and seemed to genuinely appreciate the divers and their respect for the environment.
We then load up the canoe for the trip back. Again, it was a beautiful trip back to the landing. We follow the current from the spring back to Holmes creek, and take a left to head up river. Again, the current was low, so paddling wasn't too much of a pain. We get back to Cotton Landing, and the canoe guy is there waiting for us. We load up the car, and help him load the canoes onto the trailer. Now for the 2 hour trip back to Pensacola.
It was a beautiful dive, and would suggest it to anyone if they are in the area. Well worth the work of paddling the canoe.
I will post some pics for everyone when I get home.
Hopefully my trip report is ok, being that it is my first attempt at one. I will be happy to take constructive criticism about my report.
Jason.
I took a trip to Cypress Springs on February 4th, 2012 with two dive buddies that happen to be husband and wife.
We called the Holmes Creek Canoe Livery on Friday the 3rd to reserve some canoes, because we were told by a friend that they are usually closed during the winter. We told the proprietor that we would arrive at approx 8am and would need two canoes for the trip. We were told that the two canoes would be $60, and he would drive us to the drop off site and pick us up for an extra $10 bucks. We were also told that the employee would be there by 8am.
We arrive at the Canoe Livery at approximately 7:45am and the employee was waiting there for us. We made the decision that we would just have the employee take the canoes to the drop site, and we would follow in our vehicle, and afterwords he would just pick up the canoes and we would be on our merry way. We didn't want to take the hour and a half trip down river to return the canoes. The $10 dollar fee changed to $20, but we drove for 2 hours and didn't want to haggle over a measly $10.
We get to the drop site called Cotton Landing, and proceed to load all our gear into the canoes. We decided that us three would paddle in the first canoe and would tie off the second canoe with all the gear and tow it behind us. What we thought was a good idea, turned out to be a pain in the rear. Three people's gear, 4 AL80's and my 2 LP95's, made the second canoe quite heavy and it proceeded to make the trip rather long because if it wanted to go right, we went right, and vice versa. The trip ended up being one long zig zag.
The first part of the trip was nice at first, floating downriver and no paddling really involved except to keep us on track. There were quite a few down trees that were just below the surface, which caused a few hang ups. We travel about an 8th of a mile down river and spot the sign that says "spring" and pointed to the right. As soon as we make the turn the visibility of the water completely opens up. Once around the turn, you are now paddling up stream, but it was a light current so it wasn't bad except for all the zig zagging. We make it to the springs and we were the only ones there. The complete trip was nice, very beautiful scenery,
We beach the canoes and get all suited up and ready for the dive. We get into the water and it feels quite nice. Definitely warmer than Morrison or Vortex spring. We put our fins on, and stick our head under the surface, and revel at the clarity. Being there was nobody else there, made for a beautiful dive. There was a lot of beautiful plants to see, unfortunately it was an overcast day and I don't have a filter for my camera yet make the pictures seem less beautiful than it really is. I have been diving at many springs, but this one is tops on the list of natural beauty. It's amazing what happens when there are less people to mess things up. There are quite a few trees under water, plants, a few small fish, a beautiful yellow belly slider turtle, a very aggressive and territorial snapping turtle, a few small swim throughs, and my favorite, a Cypress tree root ball. The root ball for some reason was just an amazing site to see. The flow out of the cavern was just amazing, we didn't go into the cavern, but we did stick our head into the flow. My primary 2nd stage hose looked like a flag flapping in the wind, just an amazing amount of water. All in all, our dive was about an hour long. We had about an hour surface interval to have a few drinks of water and a little bit to eat. The other divers put on new AL80's, but I still had plenty of gas in the LP95, and jumped in again. Not too much more to see, so we did a few drills to keep up on the proficiency of our training, and I spent some time working on trim and buoyancy. I am new to the LP95's and still getting everything figured out. I used 6 pounds of lead on a belt, but was still a bit overweight because of the stainless backplate and STA even with the 5mm farmer john and jacket. All in all, it was about a 40 minute dive.
After the dive, we are sitting on shore admiring the beautiful scenery, when someone is walking down to the gate. He unlocks it and comes up to talk to us. I didn't catch his name, but he is the caretaker of the Nestle facility. He asks how the dive was, and if we were having a good time. We answer that it is beautiful, and never have a bad time diving. We ask him a few questions about the area, and he explained a lot about it. This was our first time there, and did a google search about the site. We read online that there was a housing development around the spring and that it was private property. We also read that Nestle was unable to get permits to bottle water from the spring. Turns out both were incorrect. Nestle has been bottling there since 2004, and there is only one house there, and that is where the caretaker lives. He explained that Nestle drilled about 300 yards from the mouth of the cave and pump the water into trucks to transport to another facility for bottling. He said that during the summer, it can get quite busy there. He wants to build picnic tables and put trash cans out to help prevent people from messing up the beautiful site with their trash. He was a very nice guy, and seemed to genuinely appreciate the divers and their respect for the environment.
We then load up the canoe for the trip back. Again, it was a beautiful trip back to the landing. We follow the current from the spring back to Holmes creek, and take a left to head up river. Again, the current was low, so paddling wasn't too much of a pain. We get back to Cotton Landing, and the canoe guy is there waiting for us. We load up the car, and help him load the canoes onto the trailer. Now for the 2 hour trip back to Pensacola.
It was a beautiful dive, and would suggest it to anyone if they are in the area. Well worth the work of paddling the canoe.
I will post some pics for everyone when I get home.
Hopefully my trip report is ok, being that it is my first attempt at one. I will be happy to take constructive criticism about my report.
Jason.
