SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Dodging lightning bolts Friday morning, Jwhitlock and I were able to load his Jeep up with some light dive gear and get on the road without any unwanted jolts. I managed to get pretty wet regardless, but I'll take that over a lightning strike anyday. The ride East was slower than normal due to the rains. We spotted several trees downed along the interstate. Not sure if they were knocked over by high winds(or even tornadoes as warnings were in place overnight and in the morning) or by lightning. By the time we reached Vortex for some fills, it was drizzling, a bit chilly, but we were getting wet anyway. The plan was to check out Morrison, which we knew would be flooded, but decided to go take a look anyway. It was tannic, slightly muddy around the outskirts, and the basin had 2-3' visibility(could be worse).
Anyway, back at Vortex, Jwhitlock and Dive_Aholic hit up one of the classrooms Vortex has setup to begin paperwork and bookwork involved with the classes Jwhitlock was taking. I had talked to Eduardo and he decided to buddy up with him for a cave dive to take a look at a few of the sand restrictions in the cave.
The basin was milky due to runoff, but the retaining walls and pumps situated in the spring run kept river water from backing up into the basin itself, so the water was still blue. We hit the water before anyone else and zipped through 5' of visibility in the basin, which began clearing at the cavern entrance. Once in the cave, visibility topped 100' and we headed in with me following Eduardo. Once through the gate, I led, zipping past the duckunder and through the following room. Then banking over sideways through the fissure passage and dropping down to the low passage. I've dived this site many times, but up to this point, had turned in this low passage or before. I dived some small LP72s and they ended up being plenty of gas for me to get to the room past the low passage(which is where we had planned to turn). This room ended up being larger than I anticipated, which was a nice suprise. A nice sized room for this system(not for others though). The line "T"s and the main passage drops down and continues on. Eduardo went about 20' into this passage, past the room, to check on the restriction, and I stayed at the bottom of the room and held position. Once Eduardo was back, we checked out the line that stayed high. This line just follows the room to the back, where the cave gets low and eventually pinches out. Despite having remaining gas, I turned the dive and we made uneventfull exit. I hit a max depth of 145' with a total dive time of 77 minutes, 25 minutes of the total time was spent decompressing in the basin after the dive. I kept myself occupied turning over rocks and trying to lure bream to bite my little finger(seems this only happens when you aren't expecting it).
Spent most of the rest of the day talking with Eduardo, Shane, Andrea, Johnny Mac, etc. Shane even gave me a little tour of the pumphouse which keeps the spring divable when the majority of the area is blown out(such as now). Jwhitlock had fun with his first portion of classes and he seemed to have learned alot. Despite the weather sucking on the surface, everyone diving seemed to be having a great time. Looking forward to getting wet again soon.
Anyway, back at Vortex, Jwhitlock and Dive_Aholic hit up one of the classrooms Vortex has setup to begin paperwork and bookwork involved with the classes Jwhitlock was taking. I had talked to Eduardo and he decided to buddy up with him for a cave dive to take a look at a few of the sand restrictions in the cave.
The basin was milky due to runoff, but the retaining walls and pumps situated in the spring run kept river water from backing up into the basin itself, so the water was still blue. We hit the water before anyone else and zipped through 5' of visibility in the basin, which began clearing at the cavern entrance. Once in the cave, visibility topped 100' and we headed in with me following Eduardo. Once through the gate, I led, zipping past the duckunder and through the following room. Then banking over sideways through the fissure passage and dropping down to the low passage. I've dived this site many times, but up to this point, had turned in this low passage or before. I dived some small LP72s and they ended up being plenty of gas for me to get to the room past the low passage(which is where we had planned to turn). This room ended up being larger than I anticipated, which was a nice suprise. A nice sized room for this system(not for others though). The line "T"s and the main passage drops down and continues on. Eduardo went about 20' into this passage, past the room, to check on the restriction, and I stayed at the bottom of the room and held position. Once Eduardo was back, we checked out the line that stayed high. This line just follows the room to the back, where the cave gets low and eventually pinches out. Despite having remaining gas, I turned the dive and we made uneventfull exit. I hit a max depth of 145' with a total dive time of 77 minutes, 25 minutes of the total time was spent decompressing in the basin after the dive. I kept myself occupied turning over rocks and trying to lure bream to bite my little finger(seems this only happens when you aren't expecting it).
Spent most of the rest of the day talking with Eduardo, Shane, Andrea, Johnny Mac, etc. Shane even gave me a little tour of the pumphouse which keeps the spring divable when the majority of the area is blown out(such as now). Jwhitlock had fun with his first portion of classes and he seemed to have learned alot. Despite the weather sucking on the surface, everyone diving seemed to be having a great time. Looking forward to getting wet again soon.
