PfcAJ
Contributor
Morgan Spring. One of the most beautiful dive sites Ive been to, both on the surface and under the water. Litehedded and I had been diving there about a year ago, but rains and high river levels had pushed dark water into the cave, which prevented us from diving it since.
Our day started with loading gear into my truck at 530am, then the haul from Orlando to High Springs. We stopped at Extreme Exposure to fill our stages, backgas, argon, and deco bottles. The staff at EE, as always, made short work of filling our tanks and we were back on the road.
Access to Morgan costs 10 bucks (paid at Cave Excursions West) which covers the landowners insurance. Fine by me, Id pay more to dive this place. Plus, the landowner is a really nice guy. Getting there, however, is not so simple and easy. The 45min path (from CE) takes you down obscure roads through the middle of Florida farm land. Cell phone signal is lost, and gradually you find yourself farther and farther away from civilization. A few twists and turns down dirt roads, under the powerlines, and a right at the fence with a big rock and youre there.
Morgan is a deeper cave with depths approaching 200. It has a little bit outflow, but this turns into a slight siphon just a little ways in. The entrance is a straight shot from about 40 to 180 down a twisty fissure crack in the corner of the surface pool. The main passage looks a little like the Pothole tunnel at peacock, but siltier, a little smaller, and with pristine white walls. Visibility isnt great at 25 (give or take), but it was good enough to get the green light.
Heres where the fun starts: 95 degrees, 95% humidity, noon-ish, 9 tanks, and 3 scooters down many flights of stairs. Nuff said? Grab a snickers and a bottle of water, its gunna be a while.
After gearing up into our drysuits and doubles, we made one last trip down the stairs to cool off in the 72 degree spring water. Looking up at the impressive deck around the spring and taking in the picturesque scenery, we cliped off our two stages each, 70 and 20ft deco bottles, and I had the tow scooter. We clipped off our primary scooters, fired up the lights, and we were divin!
Dives like this have slightly different gas planning than we usually use on cave dives. Thirds is out the window, it simply isnt conservative enough. We use stages only and keep the backgas entirely in reserve. This gives us 280 cubic feet of gas to deal with any issue we may encounter and its in a flexible format that can be shared, plus each reg can be shut down, leaving access to the rest of the gas. This is a technique we borrow from the WKPP.
We planned to descend on backgas dropping 20 and 70 bottles, and then switch to our stages. This allowed us to chill out for a second and give a good once over before entering the cave, ensured we were on the right bottle and nothing had been overlooked. A quick exchange of OKs, and we descended through the shaft. After an OK of the lights once we hit 180, we hit the trigger.
The first thousand feet is a pretty straight shot, but still requires the utmost attentiveness. The line is a thick goldbraid, but its often hard to see, regardless. I led, setting the pace and trying my hardest to find the best path for us both to pass through. The ceiling is pretty low in places, but the cave is fairly wide (sometimes I couldnt even see the far right wall). There are a few jumps off to the left, but those will have to wait for another day.
At around 2300 (ish, its hard to tell. We were 20mins in, but certainly not running wide open the whole time), the cave narrows into a restriction. It sneaks up on you, a bit, given the low vis and speed of the scooters. I shot through, but my prop kicked up enough silt to cause Litehedded to slow down. This is where DIR diving really pays off. I was on one side of the restriction, laden with two stages and a tow scooter, and my bud was on the otherside of a siltout. I stayed put and waited for a minute or two (which felt like a lot longer, let me tell you) as my stage approached drop pressure.
There is something special about 200 in zero vis. Litehedded knew that two divers in a zero vis restriction with a ton of gear was not a good idea. I came back through, on the line using the Ray Charles method and found him switching stages, lightening his load to come through. This is the sign of a real pro who thinks the situation through completely. We looked at each other, and you could see the wheels turning upstairs. Farther in was a dive wed have to do in the future, today wasnt the day. We popped the thumb, I switched my stage, and we started the cruise out, checking out those side passages and alcoves. Already planning the next one.
The hour of deco was pretty uneventful. We shot some silly video at 20 (cuz why not?), drank from our Camelbaks, and played hangman. 40mins at 180ft, run time 117mins. We surfaced to the sun starting to go down, and after 10mins of surface deco, we lugged our backgas up the stairs and started the oh-so-fun process of pulling all that stuff back out of the water (wait didnt we just put it IN the water? Wat do?!). Following that, we hit the road for the long, 3 and a half hr drive back home to Orlando. It was a great day, a great dive, and we learned a lot. On top of all that, we got to see some really beautiful cave! It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.
Our day started with loading gear into my truck at 530am, then the haul from Orlando to High Springs. We stopped at Extreme Exposure to fill our stages, backgas, argon, and deco bottles. The staff at EE, as always, made short work of filling our tanks and we were back on the road.
Access to Morgan costs 10 bucks (paid at Cave Excursions West) which covers the landowners insurance. Fine by me, Id pay more to dive this place. Plus, the landowner is a really nice guy. Getting there, however, is not so simple and easy. The 45min path (from CE) takes you down obscure roads through the middle of Florida farm land. Cell phone signal is lost, and gradually you find yourself farther and farther away from civilization. A few twists and turns down dirt roads, under the powerlines, and a right at the fence with a big rock and youre there.
Morgan is a deeper cave with depths approaching 200. It has a little bit outflow, but this turns into a slight siphon just a little ways in. The entrance is a straight shot from about 40 to 180 down a twisty fissure crack in the corner of the surface pool. The main passage looks a little like the Pothole tunnel at peacock, but siltier, a little smaller, and with pristine white walls. Visibility isnt great at 25 (give or take), but it was good enough to get the green light.
Heres where the fun starts: 95 degrees, 95% humidity, noon-ish, 9 tanks, and 3 scooters down many flights of stairs. Nuff said? Grab a snickers and a bottle of water, its gunna be a while.
After gearing up into our drysuits and doubles, we made one last trip down the stairs to cool off in the 72 degree spring water. Looking up at the impressive deck around the spring and taking in the picturesque scenery, we cliped off our two stages each, 70 and 20ft deco bottles, and I had the tow scooter. We clipped off our primary scooters, fired up the lights, and we were divin!
Dives like this have slightly different gas planning than we usually use on cave dives. Thirds is out the window, it simply isnt conservative enough. We use stages only and keep the backgas entirely in reserve. This gives us 280 cubic feet of gas to deal with any issue we may encounter and its in a flexible format that can be shared, plus each reg can be shut down, leaving access to the rest of the gas. This is a technique we borrow from the WKPP.
We planned to descend on backgas dropping 20 and 70 bottles, and then switch to our stages. This allowed us to chill out for a second and give a good once over before entering the cave, ensured we were on the right bottle and nothing had been overlooked. A quick exchange of OKs, and we descended through the shaft. After an OK of the lights once we hit 180, we hit the trigger.
The first thousand feet is a pretty straight shot, but still requires the utmost attentiveness. The line is a thick goldbraid, but its often hard to see, regardless. I led, setting the pace and trying my hardest to find the best path for us both to pass through. The ceiling is pretty low in places, but the cave is fairly wide (sometimes I couldnt even see the far right wall). There are a few jumps off to the left, but those will have to wait for another day.
At around 2300 (ish, its hard to tell. We were 20mins in, but certainly not running wide open the whole time), the cave narrows into a restriction. It sneaks up on you, a bit, given the low vis and speed of the scooters. I shot through, but my prop kicked up enough silt to cause Litehedded to slow down. This is where DIR diving really pays off. I was on one side of the restriction, laden with two stages and a tow scooter, and my bud was on the otherside of a siltout. I stayed put and waited for a minute or two (which felt like a lot longer, let me tell you) as my stage approached drop pressure.
There is something special about 200 in zero vis. Litehedded knew that two divers in a zero vis restriction with a ton of gear was not a good idea. I came back through, on the line using the Ray Charles method and found him switching stages, lightening his load to come through. This is the sign of a real pro who thinks the situation through completely. We looked at each other, and you could see the wheels turning upstairs. Farther in was a dive wed have to do in the future, today wasnt the day. We popped the thumb, I switched my stage, and we started the cruise out, checking out those side passages and alcoves. Already planning the next one.
The hour of deco was pretty uneventful. We shot some silly video at 20 (cuz why not?), drank from our Camelbaks, and played hangman. 40mins at 180ft, run time 117mins. We surfaced to the sun starting to go down, and after 10mins of surface deco, we lugged our backgas up the stairs and started the oh-so-fun process of pulling all that stuff back out of the water (wait didnt we just put it IN the water? Wat do?!). Following that, we hit the road for the long, 3 and a half hr drive back home to Orlando. It was a great day, a great dive, and we learned a lot. On top of all that, we got to see some really beautiful cave! It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.
