Lower OG, is deeper, has a restriction, and is unstable.
Peacock Springs - Upper Orange Grove Cave
- Thread starter Manatee Diver
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Lower OG, is deeper, has a restriction, and is unstable.
tmassey
Contributor
Don't worry--I would have asked for help at Dive Outpost.
Cathy is gone and I don’t think the new owners are cave divers. Certainly not experienced ones.
ETA: others report they are Cave divers.
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Doh! I guess I had that backwards. I visited one of them in Intro class--I obviously have not been back yet--but couldn't recall which.
Don't worry--I would have asked for help at Dive Outpost.
LoG is trimix depths, you'd know if you went in there....
Outpost is probably not the best place to ask for advice, unless you're asking the old timers that may or may not be there....
@tmassey you hit the nail on the head, not experienced ones.
victorzamora
Contributor
Only thing to be aware of is the entrance isn't the easiest thing to find. From the platform where you gear up, it's "out and to the left" and not entirely difficult to kinda find. What a lot of people do, though, is overshoot it and end up at >80ft and heading towards Lower Orange Grove. If you find yourself that deep, try again. There IS a branch that points almost straight to the sign that gold line is tied off to.
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CaveSloth
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Upper cave is at what depth? Can't wait to explore it after I have my cave certification.
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60-70 depending on pool depth. It's decidedly my least favorite part of that system though and I usually just look down and trek on. There are some interesting rooms in there, but mostly I'm just shaking my head at the damage that @karstdvr pointed out. Kelly was able to see it before it was trashed, but every year it gets worse and worse sadly.
OP
My first cave instructor did encourage getting local advice on caves before attempting them. The accident with the Chinese Divers at Manatee helped reinforce that.
The team behind us was trying to clean up some of the divots in the silt, not sure if it did any good for the eco system that @karstdvr mentioned. But when I saw the ton of silt stirred up my response was the Urkel "Did I do that?"
One thing I noticed is that there is a rope along the rocks that end right across from the (bedding plane?) ledge for the cave system.
tmassey
Contributor
You guys are all nearly perfectly describe how @Manatee Diver and my dive went. The only time I was in there, we somehow missed the gold line and ran what felt like 200 feet of line to tie in. So seeing as I was going to be running the line, the first thing we did was get local advice. The advice went something like: tie off on the trees at the right edge of the opening, stay towards that right wall as it curves. You’ll pass a memorial plaque on the left to know you’re going the right way. Then, when you see the Grim Reaper sign, look towards the left and up, and you will see the gold line. It worked out pretty well. — except for my poor line laying abilities. If you look at his video, try not to laugh. But if you have suggestions, I’m all for them…
The thing that I noticed on the dive the most was just how battered the cave was. Looked like 1000 tanks had been dragged through the bottom and along the sides. It was very sad. Actually, the thing I noticed the most was how relatively small it was. This was the first time I had done a cave dive where I was the more “experienced” buddy. I think that alone made everything a whole lot smaller… i’m not sure I would’ve agreed that it was a great dive for an inexperienced diver leading an even less experienced diver. But that might have been my uneasiness magnifying the issues. In retrospect, there wasn’t any true difficulty. And we certainly weren’t getting lost!
But I really enjoyed the dive. And diving with @Manatee Diver was great as well: I was impressed with his ability, let alone the fact that this was his first dive after apprentice class!
The thing that I noticed on the dive the most was just how battered the cave was. Looked like 1000 tanks had been dragged through the bottom and along the sides. It was very sad. Actually, the thing I noticed the most was how relatively small it was. This was the first time I had done a cave dive where I was the more “experienced” buddy. I think that alone made everything a whole lot smaller…
i’m not sure I would’ve agreed that it was a great dive for an inexperienced diver leading an even less experienced diver. But that might have been my uneasiness magnifying the issues. In retrospect, there wasn’t any true difficulty. And we certainly weren’t getting lost! But I really enjoyed the dive. And diving with @Manatee Diver was great as well: I was impressed with his ability, let alone the fact that this was his first dive after apprentice class!
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