Merrits Mill Pond and Morrison 9-17 & Cypress and Becton 9-18-5 Dive Reports

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SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
12,436
Reaction score
297
Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
9-17-5 Merrits Mill Pond

Merrits Mill Pond is a springfed pond in Marianna Florida. The springs that feed it are some the best caves for cave divers to explore. The entire pond is crystal clear and its a very natural looking setting. I left at 3:30AM to meet up with Hoss(Cewarbin), Tom(FSUgly), and Mr & Mrs T. Tom and I went to the public boat ramp while the rest of our group headed to Cave Adventures to rent a pontoon boat.

Dive 1 @ Jackson Blue - Merrits Mill Pond

Jackson Blue is the Mill Pond's main source of water, it pushes an ungodly amount of water daily and it creates quite a current out of its cavern opening despite the fact that the opening is the size of a garage door. JB is located underneath the diving board in a fenced in recreational area at the northernmost point of the pond. This rec area is fenced off at the water to prevent boats from entering. We parked outside the fence, geared up and swam underneath to gain entrance to the spring. We saw tons of bream and bass swimming around the gin clear basin and there were tons of very large crawfish underneath the Cypress trees and inside the cavern(or any other nook they could get into). I buddied up with Tom and we dove the cavern only to the first chamber of the cavern. We maxed out at 27' and dove for a little more than a half hour before surfacing. The cavern has a rocky bottom that doesn't kick up much so its relatively safe if you're comfortable UW and can handle a basic overhead environment with a bit of current.

Dive 2 @ Shangrila - Merrits Mill Pond

Shangrila is the closest spring to Jackson Blue. Its a small vent at the base of a limestone cliff that protrudes a couple stories out of the water. The vent opens up to a small cavern room the size of a small bedroom. Ed at Cave Adventures told Hoss that this site had a rocky bottom that didn't silt up making it more forgiving to a misplaced kick than alot of the places you can get into at the Mill Pond. We maxed out at 16' inside the cavern and played around the area around the vent for about 30 minutes before we hopped back in the boat. We saw more fish and crawfish scrurrying about through all the vegetation in the pond. We thought we found Indians Washtup next to Shangrila but it ended up being nothing but more vegetation and algae beds. Made for some nice pics though.

Dive 3 @ Twin Caves - Merrits Mill Pond

After Shangrila, we headed to Twin Caves and docked at the platform that some cave divers constructed onsite to make entry easier. The site was covered pretty densly in vegetation but you could navigate through the maze without too much problem and find the cave entrances. These cave entrances are very silty at the bottom and shouldn't be attempted without the proper training. Even silting out the 'cavern' area will make for a pretty messy looking entrance and OW dive for anyone else in the area at the same time. We left penetrating these caves to the cave divers and just poked around the outside of them looking at fish and more crawfish. I maxed my depth at 16' and we swam around for nearly a half an hour.

Once we left Twin Caves we headed over to Cave Adventures to grab some food and get a bit to drink since they were having a BBQ. The food was great and free! Hoss got some fills and we chatted a bit before heading out again. We got some basic directions to the Indian Washtub but still managed not to find it - D'Oh.

Dive 4 @ Hole in the Wall - Merrits Mill Pond

Once we failed to find Indian Washtub, we decided to goto Hole in the Wall, which we passed several times and knew the location. Its fairly well blocked in by vegetation but we managed to swim through it easily enough. Hole in the Wall is another cave entrance that shouldn't be messed with unless you have the proper training. We located it and goofed around the entrance looking at the fish as well as more crawfish. I maxed out at 12' and we dove for another 30 minutes at this site.

After the diving Hole in the Wall, we called it quits at the Mill Pond and headed out to our respective boat launches/docks. Tom and I looked for Gator Hole, but couldn't locate it on the way back to the public boat launch - maybe next time. We met up with everyone else at Cave Adventures and Tom filled my tanks - thanks dude :D Tom headed home but the rest of us headed to Ponce DeLeon for some more spring diving at Morrison.

Dive 5 @ Morrison Springs

There were a ton of locals at Morrison Spring when we got there, but we waited for them to leave and for Darcy and Nuttz(and another diver, but I can't remember his name) to arrive from Destin. By the time the rest of our divers had arrive the locals were heading out, giving us a nice clear spring to dive with a bit of sunlight to work with while in the cavern. Water levels at the river in Caryville were at 3.3' which makes for excellent diving conditions at Morrison once the duckweed had settled. We had 50-60' of visibility easily and dove our first 1/3rd of air inside the cavern before heading to the basin for the remainder of our ~45min dive. Midway through the dive we lost all daylight and continued through with our flashlights which were the only limiting factor to our visibility at this point. The bottom of Morrison comes alive at night with thousands of small fish schooling around. There were alot of bream out and a few bass as well. The cavern held lots of eels, rockbass, and catfish to look at. The watermelon kid was back on the cavern ledge with the goose and my gnome was still located at the ledge on the far east side of the cavern. I maxed my depth at 84'. We had a great night dive and it was a perfect way to end our diving day. Our entire group headed to Sally's for some grub and a few beers before calling it a night.

9-18-5 Holmes Creek Springs

Dive 6 @ Cypress Springsb


Hoss and I woke up around 8ish to pack up and get ready to meet Darcy at the boat launch in Vernon. After setting up the Miss Jellyfish again all three of us packed in and headed out slowly to Cypress. The water levels were low and there was 5-10' visibility in the creek, we could see bottom nearly the entire way. The spring run was entirely crystal clear and very shallow. Too shallow actually, we ended up walking the boat part of the way to the spring head. The three of us geared up and headed into the cavern, maxing depths at 48' at the first cavern restriction. We looked at the fossils sticking out of the wall and the rock bass, catfish, and eels as well. Once we hit our 1/3rd of air, we headed out to the basin to explore. There were lots of bream and bass swimming around as well as schools of minnows and fry. Some other divers made their way to the spring on kayaks and one of them started rolling his kayak over the spring so he could see what we were doing. This was the first time I've ever seen any other divers at Cypress. Some locals made there way to the spring to wade around the run and swim on the surface as well. We dove for 45min before surfacing to repack.

Dive 7 @ Becton Springs

Darcy had to go take her Nitrox test so we dropped her off at the boat launch and talked with Nuttz for a little bit before heading to Becton for a quick dive. I've never dived Becton when the water levels were this low and I was looking forward to seeing it semi-clearish. Its always been mostly tannic on previous dives there. The spring run was shallow and clear and we came up on the basin which was a blueish/green color and kind of clowdy. We started to tie off to the tree when the land owner came out to greet us and told us to just tie off to his boat launch so we didn't create a silt storm reducing our visibility. This is the same guy who used to own the land at Cypress. He seemed like a pretty decent old man and allowed us the use of his boat ramp. I hate that the county has given him such a hard time while trying to make these springs more accessible to divers. Becton was semi clear with visibilities pushing 30' but kinda milky. We dove for less than 30 min and I maxed out at 31' at the bottom of the main spring vent. There were lots of fish, bream, bass, carp, sand divers, and catfish in the basin. I still think this is a pretty little spring that makes for a nice way to kill the remainder of a tank off. I sures hell wouldn't mind having it in my backyard :D

Seven dives was plenty, so we packed the Zodiac up and Hoss and I headed our seperate ways. I think everyone had fun during the course of the weekend, I know I did, but I was wore out and ready for some real sleep in my own bed.

I uploaded a bunch of pics here Enjoy!
 
Great report as always Matt! Was it pretty crowded?
 
There wasn't too much boat traffic and we didn't come upon any other divers at any of the sites when we were diving them. There were some cavers in a pontoon boat already out of the water at Hole in the Wall, but that was it. I think we beat the crowds to Jackson Blue by getting there so early. We could see a bunch of them gearing up when we were leaving to goto Shangrila.
 
Looks like Becton was pretty nice this time I hated I didn't get to make it. When I went back to Morrison's on Sunday morning it looked as if the goose had lost his head from the time we got out Sat. night until around 9 am Sunday strange things happening in there. That night dusk/night dive was great the whole weekend was great I only got to dive Morrison but it was great. Nice pics by the way.
 
Freediving spearO's into the cavern shooting porcelain geese, crazy locals. I'm sure he bartered a six pack over the gooses head. I'll toast one to the goose next time I'm having a beer myself :D
 
Wow - there is a spring in that mud hole at Becton :D.

Nice report and pics.

The flow in the cavern and happy fish / eels could account for the damaged yard art. The last time I was there the bowling ball in the crack was floating like a helium balloon that has lost most of its lift. I've seen the ball sitting in the crack before but never bouncing around like that.
 
Matt
Harold wouldn't appreciate you calling him an old man and you can have the spring as your back yard as he has the property up for sale.
 
SuPrBuGmAn:
Freediving spearO's into the cavern shooting porcelain geese, crazy locals. I'm sure he bartered a six pack over the gooses head. I'll toast one to the goose next time I'm having a beer myself :D
Ugh, did I run into you at Cave Adventures? We were at the Mill Pond all day. Great pics.
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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