Icebox 7-31-9 Dive Report Myth-busted

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SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
A Long time ago, I heard about a spring fed swimming hole on Bon Secour River. I had taken the Miss Jellyfish for a journey up from the boat launch where all the shrimp boats leave out into Bon Secour bay, and into Mobile Bay or the intercoastal, and headed upstream. We were exploring during low tide and soon lost the tannic water for a pleasant looking blue, clear and cool spring-looking waters making up the river(at this point very small). We found a few areas that seemed interesting, but nothing interesting enough to coax us into the water. Eventually, the river was the size of a large ditch, with trees criss-crossing everywhere, and we turned around and headed back to our start. It was a fun little exploration.

Fast forward 4+ years, I've taken several cave courses and have done alot of reading on the geology relating to caves. I've never seen anything this far south-west in Alabama to lead to any backup to a cave here in south Baldwin County. The Florida Aquifer, a wide expanse of limestone, seems to end just east of Pensacola, so whats left to support going cave? At best, we'd find an artesian spring bubbling up from the bottom... theoritically. So fast forward to the present, and someone gives my buddy a lead to the Icebox and says they said there's a ledge that cuts back, with a tight cave that opens up beyond. Screw it, only one way to really find this out, so me and Jwhitlock pack up my cave gear and we head out to a crappy dirt road, leading out to the water. J manages not to get the car stuck, despite some nasty mud puddles, and we're onsite. We follow a little trail down to where there's a few roap swings used to jump into the hole and a ladder tied down on the side of the river, used to get back on dry land. A few locals were there and told us the lore... Sure 'nough, a ledge cuts back and it gets too dark to see, a hole leads to a large chamber that breaks out into an airpocket. ***? A sump? I call bull **** early on...

We're here, standing at a pretty nice looking trail in the woods(make a nice little hike if it weren't for all the garbage), Bon Secour River on one side and lush forrest on the other. There were some torrential rains the night before, so the river doesn't look all that great, but we can see 4 or 5 rungs down the ladder, so not too bad at all. There are no karst features, no limestone, no natural(or manmade for that matter) rocky areas, nothing to support a cave. Could it be an extensive clay overhang being held together by the vast root system? I guess its possible, but damn, that'd be unstable. We make one trip to get my LP95s onsite(LOL), then I gear up at the car and Jwhitlock will be an OW support diver. I'm not going to do a full cave dive, I just want to see if there are any leads whatsoever... but I go in fully geared regardless. By this time, we've got quite the audience.

AND.

I drop down to a 6' bottom, see that the tree roots and clay making up the side of the river cut back about 3' in(enough to create a shadow) and then wall out in mud, clay, and root system. We search back and forth on the ledge then search out in the middle for the absolute hell of it. I find a maximum depth of 10' and my computer only read a dive time of 10 minutes, likely longer - just not in deep enough water to be read by the computer. No hole, no real ledge, no cavern, no air pocket/sump, no nothing. Temperature of 75F was recorded for the dive, without any variation. Visibility was a suprisingly good 5-10'.

I'm guessing at low tide, when there hasn't been any rain, an artesian spring somewhere way the hell upstream creates a bluer run and cooler water, giving the site its name. All the runoff made for a warm, but refreshing dive. Not a cave dive, hell, not much of a dive at all, but an excellent swimming hole.

Headed to Magnolia Springs for the hell of it. Its opened back up now, but not for swimming. There is a boardwalk overlooking the spring basin now, but no access to the water at all. The spring was clear and you could see sand boils in the basin bubbling up. I wish I brought my camera.

Myth busted... now I still have to knock out the mythes of the "Blue Hole" and "Cold Hole". There also may be another "Hole" that needs to be knocked out as well... will have to confirm its existance.
 
Will do
 
How about the Devils holes sometime this week....They say it has no bottom....hahahaha
 
Thanks for the post SuperBug.
I appreciate you taking the time to type this up.
Bon Secour is a fun place to visit and catch a meal at the Tin Top nevertheless.
Chug
 
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