SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
5-1-9 River-ish Cave
Spd_135 swung by the house Friday morning and scooped me up on the way East. We took Hwy 90 from De Funiak Springs into Ponce De Leon since neither of us had ever taken that little stretch of highway previously. It was good to see a bit of landscape aside from the same old same old interstate view. Once in the Ponce, we headed up to a chillidog/burger joint that Kevin Carlisle showed me on the previous trip. I hadn't eaten there yet and we figured it was a good time to try it out. It was closed, so we went to 3Cs BBQ instead. Damn! That place was great! They also had a stack of UWS magazines by the counter, so I grabbed one and noticed the NSS CDS Conference announcement used my photo as a background. Published!
Spd was meeting up with a buddy(instructor) from his LDS and planned to shadow their class dive. I chilled on the surface and talked to Shane and Andrea, and a few other people until the dives were finished up. Once he finished up at Vortex, we loaded back up and headed a bit north-east to a boat launch for our next little adventure. We'd be diving a little river cave that I had been to a few times over the last few months, this would be spd_135s first trip to this site. Its a great short little dive to tie onto a day of diving elsewhere in the area. There were a couple locals out launching their boats. They thought we were crazy once they saw we were gonna be diving.
Didn't take long to hit the spring, but it was slightly more difficult to spot the run since all the foliage is filling in. All the plantlife makes it a bit harder to spot such a small run, but the landscape sure is prettier! The spring basin was a bit milky from the slightly high water levels, but a copious boil let us know we'd be diving in clear water(100' vis) once we entered the chimney. Mosquito's were ferocious!
I led the dive, pulling against the flow into a chimney that drops fairly straight down to about 30' into a debri pile strewn with trash. The cave levels off and makes a very slowly descending trend through a minor restriction before opening up again enough to swim easily. Then the cave veers left, with a fissure type passage that pinches off opposite the earlier passage. Once you turn left, the cave restricts down then goes vertical where the best option for passage is to pull spidey-style across the walls. The walls here are tan, not stained, and are very stable. They do contain quite a few fossils to observe as well! Once at about 300'p and 90' of depth the cave drops down a very low bedding plane with a sand restriction and continues on. You'd have to spend some time trenching in and out to continue, so thats where we turned. By the time we made it back to the cavern, we decided that we had plenty of gas and an enormous amount of time left so we simply did the dive again - LOL. I had a max depth of 99' for a total dive time of 29 minutes.
On the way back we ran into some of the locals at the boatlaunch out on the water. They pulled along beside us and asked us about the dive. They continued that we were crazy but they seemed to really enjoy the talk otherwise. One of them gave us his number and offered to show us some other springs next time, and we could just ride along on his boat. Sweet! We hit up Sonny's before crashing out at the lavish accomodations at the Executive Inn. I watched a bit of King Kong on TV before crashing, I forgot how much of a babe Jessica Lange was a million years ago.
5-2-9 Jackson Blue Springs
Saturday came along early enough and we headed out without much dabbling. A quick stop at McDonalds and we launched Spd_135's boat and headed over to Edd's. I offloaded from the boat and up the drive and loaded in with GlenFWB and Shagman. Cave Adventurers was having a Customer Appreciation Day at Jackson Blue which allowed free entry, free food, and a chance to try out some Dive Rite gear(lights and Nomads). The place was packed, but we made it to JB in no time after filling some tanks.
Glen and Shag would be buddying up to try out some new lights and continue getting their cavern skills proficient before taking Intro later this summer. I buddied up with rox@ucf11 for a couple Intro level Cave Dives. Rox had done a few cavern dives here during his cavern class, but had since not dived Jackson Blue. So we decided that he would run a primary and once on the goldline, I would take the lead and point him in the right direction to stay out of the majority of the flow(which is sporty right now). Visibility was 40-50'. We held right and ducked out of the way of an exitting team before dropping down the chimney and making our way up the goldline. I pointed out a few jumps before pulling up the first breakdown and getting just past the chicken head formation around 600'p before turning the dive. The drift out was quick, but uneventfull. I had a max depth of 97' for a dive lasting 30 minutes. We left the primary in place for our next dive.
We did our surface interval without getting out of the water and dropped back under for another dive after 30 minutes of standing around the shallows. We made quicker work of the cavern this time around since the primary was already in place. Held up from dropping into the chimney for a scooter team to exit, then dropped down into the deep section for some more goldline fun. Rox led this dive. We made fairly quick work of the passage we explored on the first dive, then slowly progressed a bit further, pulling up the 2nd breakdown and back down afterwads. Just shy of the 800'p mark, the dive was turned and we started our drift back to our entry. I had a max depth of 100'(?? borrowed computer, I think it reads a couple feet deeper than mine) for a dive lasting 38 minutes.
I had tinkered with the idea of getting a third dive in, but after eating and listening to Lamar Hires talk about the history of sidemount diving, we ran short of time. It was time to head out, drop some tanks off, then head further East to meet up with the WCDC for the monthly meeting. It went really well and a couple of us hit up El Jalisco for some great Mexican Food and some awefully live music(awefull, but entertaining - LOL). We caught True Lies on TV before falling asleep, Jamie Lee Curtis was such a MILF in that movie.
5-2-9 Mill Pond Caves
So Shagman and I have ATT phones and apparently they were both picking up Tallahasse towers. We didn't realize it, but we were up and out the door an hour early and didn't know it until we were all in GlenFWB's van heading to grab some breakfast, way too early in the morning. We sat down at the Waffle Iron and killed as much time as possible before heading back over to Edds. Spd_135 met us over there and I loaded my gear into his boat. Glen and Shagman headed back to JB and eventually got four dives in before the day was done. Spd_135 hadn't been to Gator Hole and wanted to go check it out, so off we went!
I should have brought a camera, Gator Hole makes for some great photos. We tied up and geared up in the water. I took Spd's primary and ran into the cavern and into the mainline tucked away behind a rock outcropping. Visibility was a good 40-50' in the cave with a gentle flow heading out. We ducked under the low sand restriction up front then made slow progress up the line until we got to a series of low restrictions. We passed several small fossilized turtle shells and the sand/clay mixed floor was strewn with sand dollars. Once at the next group of restrictions, we made very slow progress pushing under each once, dumping gas from our wings and pulling through. Eventually we came to a very large up-turned turtleshell the size of a large punch bowl. Sweet! The cave opened up again and we could continue on swimming for several hundred feet. When we got to another low section, which looked mighty silty, spd signaled to turn the dive as he was having some gear issues. The exit went slowly as we had to contend with whatever particulate we kicked up on the entire exit. I hit a max depth of 41' for a dive lasting 52 minutes. Great dive and beautiful cave!
Just over an hour later, we were at the dock adjascent to Twin Caves. We were gearing up as brockbr, kelsey, bamamedic, and two or three other divers from there group exitted from a dive. Spd_135 led this dive and we zipped down the main entrance and down the larger of the two chimneys into the subway tunnel. We had 30-40' of visibility. It didn't take us long to get to our jump, where spd spooled into our sidepassage line and off we went. The passage trended down a neat little fissure and then veered off the the right and down a silty bore hole where it opened up to another very large fissure crack with a "T" in the line. The top line ended quickly and we dropped down the bottom line into a room that continues down a very very low muddy/silty restriction. We turned here and started our exit. I hit a max depth of 89' for a dive lasting 60 minutes.
I met back up with Shagman and GlenFWB as they exitted a dive at JB. The code at the gate has finally changed, for anyone going soon, don't assume its the same code that was being used the past few months. I made a sandwich and had a drink as they geared down. We headed back to Cave Adventurers and payed up and headed out. Shagman carpooled with GlenFWB, so we headed to Fort Walton Beach to pick up Shagman's vehicle with a little more gear exchanging, some Arby's, and heading out again. We caught a few showers on way home, blared some 70s and 80s music from Marianna to FWB. From FWB to AL, we listened to some Beastie Boys, Muse, and a few other more contemporary bands - LOL. I had another great weekend of diving, looking forward to our next trip out East!
Spd_135 swung by the house Friday morning and scooped me up on the way East. We took Hwy 90 from De Funiak Springs into Ponce De Leon since neither of us had ever taken that little stretch of highway previously. It was good to see a bit of landscape aside from the same old same old interstate view. Once in the Ponce, we headed up to a chillidog/burger joint that Kevin Carlisle showed me on the previous trip. I hadn't eaten there yet and we figured it was a good time to try it out. It was closed, so we went to 3Cs BBQ instead. Damn! That place was great! They also had a stack of UWS magazines by the counter, so I grabbed one and noticed the NSS CDS Conference announcement used my photo as a background. Published!
Spd was meeting up with a buddy(instructor) from his LDS and planned to shadow their class dive. I chilled on the surface and talked to Shane and Andrea, and a few other people until the dives were finished up. Once he finished up at Vortex, we loaded back up and headed a bit north-east to a boat launch for our next little adventure. We'd be diving a little river cave that I had been to a few times over the last few months, this would be spd_135s first trip to this site. Its a great short little dive to tie onto a day of diving elsewhere in the area. There were a couple locals out launching their boats. They thought we were crazy once they saw we were gonna be diving.
Didn't take long to hit the spring, but it was slightly more difficult to spot the run since all the foliage is filling in. All the plantlife makes it a bit harder to spot such a small run, but the landscape sure is prettier! The spring basin was a bit milky from the slightly high water levels, but a copious boil let us know we'd be diving in clear water(100' vis) once we entered the chimney. Mosquito's were ferocious!
I led the dive, pulling against the flow into a chimney that drops fairly straight down to about 30' into a debri pile strewn with trash. The cave levels off and makes a very slowly descending trend through a minor restriction before opening up again enough to swim easily. Then the cave veers left, with a fissure type passage that pinches off opposite the earlier passage. Once you turn left, the cave restricts down then goes vertical where the best option for passage is to pull spidey-style across the walls. The walls here are tan, not stained, and are very stable. They do contain quite a few fossils to observe as well! Once at about 300'p and 90' of depth the cave drops down a very low bedding plane with a sand restriction and continues on. You'd have to spend some time trenching in and out to continue, so thats where we turned. By the time we made it back to the cavern, we decided that we had plenty of gas and an enormous amount of time left so we simply did the dive again - LOL. I had a max depth of 99' for a total dive time of 29 minutes.
On the way back we ran into some of the locals at the boatlaunch out on the water. They pulled along beside us and asked us about the dive. They continued that we were crazy but they seemed to really enjoy the talk otherwise. One of them gave us his number and offered to show us some other springs next time, and we could just ride along on his boat. Sweet! We hit up Sonny's before crashing out at the lavish accomodations at the Executive Inn. I watched a bit of King Kong on TV before crashing, I forgot how much of a babe Jessica Lange was a million years ago.
5-2-9 Jackson Blue Springs
Saturday came along early enough and we headed out without much dabbling. A quick stop at McDonalds and we launched Spd_135's boat and headed over to Edd's. I offloaded from the boat and up the drive and loaded in with GlenFWB and Shagman. Cave Adventurers was having a Customer Appreciation Day at Jackson Blue which allowed free entry, free food, and a chance to try out some Dive Rite gear(lights and Nomads). The place was packed, but we made it to JB in no time after filling some tanks.
Glen and Shag would be buddying up to try out some new lights and continue getting their cavern skills proficient before taking Intro later this summer. I buddied up with rox@ucf11 for a couple Intro level Cave Dives. Rox had done a few cavern dives here during his cavern class, but had since not dived Jackson Blue. So we decided that he would run a primary and once on the goldline, I would take the lead and point him in the right direction to stay out of the majority of the flow(which is sporty right now). Visibility was 40-50'. We held right and ducked out of the way of an exitting team before dropping down the chimney and making our way up the goldline. I pointed out a few jumps before pulling up the first breakdown and getting just past the chicken head formation around 600'p before turning the dive. The drift out was quick, but uneventfull. I had a max depth of 97' for a dive lasting 30 minutes. We left the primary in place for our next dive.
We did our surface interval without getting out of the water and dropped back under for another dive after 30 minutes of standing around the shallows. We made quicker work of the cavern this time around since the primary was already in place. Held up from dropping into the chimney for a scooter team to exit, then dropped down into the deep section for some more goldline fun. Rox led this dive. We made fairly quick work of the passage we explored on the first dive, then slowly progressed a bit further, pulling up the 2nd breakdown and back down afterwads. Just shy of the 800'p mark, the dive was turned and we started our drift back to our entry. I had a max depth of 100'(?? borrowed computer, I think it reads a couple feet deeper than mine) for a dive lasting 38 minutes.
I had tinkered with the idea of getting a third dive in, but after eating and listening to Lamar Hires talk about the history of sidemount diving, we ran short of time. It was time to head out, drop some tanks off, then head further East to meet up with the WCDC for the monthly meeting. It went really well and a couple of us hit up El Jalisco for some great Mexican Food and some awefully live music(awefull, but entertaining - LOL). We caught True Lies on TV before falling asleep, Jamie Lee Curtis was such a MILF in that movie.
5-2-9 Mill Pond Caves
So Shagman and I have ATT phones and apparently they were both picking up Tallahasse towers. We didn't realize it, but we were up and out the door an hour early and didn't know it until we were all in GlenFWB's van heading to grab some breakfast, way too early in the morning. We sat down at the Waffle Iron and killed as much time as possible before heading back over to Edds. Spd_135 met us over there and I loaded my gear into his boat. Glen and Shagman headed back to JB and eventually got four dives in before the day was done. Spd_135 hadn't been to Gator Hole and wanted to go check it out, so off we went!
I should have brought a camera, Gator Hole makes for some great photos. We tied up and geared up in the water. I took Spd's primary and ran into the cavern and into the mainline tucked away behind a rock outcropping. Visibility was a good 40-50' in the cave with a gentle flow heading out. We ducked under the low sand restriction up front then made slow progress up the line until we got to a series of low restrictions. We passed several small fossilized turtle shells and the sand/clay mixed floor was strewn with sand dollars. Once at the next group of restrictions, we made very slow progress pushing under each once, dumping gas from our wings and pulling through. Eventually we came to a very large up-turned turtleshell the size of a large punch bowl. Sweet! The cave opened up again and we could continue on swimming for several hundred feet. When we got to another low section, which looked mighty silty, spd signaled to turn the dive as he was having some gear issues. The exit went slowly as we had to contend with whatever particulate we kicked up on the entire exit. I hit a max depth of 41' for a dive lasting 52 minutes. Great dive and beautiful cave!
Just over an hour later, we were at the dock adjascent to Twin Caves. We were gearing up as brockbr, kelsey, bamamedic, and two or three other divers from there group exitted from a dive. Spd_135 led this dive and we zipped down the main entrance and down the larger of the two chimneys into the subway tunnel. We had 30-40' of visibility. It didn't take us long to get to our jump, where spd spooled into our sidepassage line and off we went. The passage trended down a neat little fissure and then veered off the the right and down a silty bore hole where it opened up to another very large fissure crack with a "T" in the line. The top line ended quickly and we dropped down the bottom line into a room that continues down a very very low muddy/silty restriction. We turned here and started our exit. I hit a max depth of 89' for a dive lasting 60 minutes.
I met back up with Shagman and GlenFWB as they exitted a dive at JB. The code at the gate has finally changed, for anyone going soon, don't assume its the same code that was being used the past few months. I made a sandwich and had a drink as they geared down. We headed back to Cave Adventurers and payed up and headed out. Shagman carpooled with GlenFWB, so we headed to Fort Walton Beach to pick up Shagman's vehicle with a little more gear exchanging, some Arby's, and heading out again. We caught a few showers on way home, blared some 70s and 80s music from Marianna to FWB. From FWB to AL, we listened to some Beastie Boys, Muse, and a few other more contemporary bands - LOL. I had another great weekend of diving, looking forward to our next trip out East!
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Sorry bud, for some reason I thought you had met Glen and Josh already. Guess I was mistaken.
