SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Its kind of funny the things that will spark your interest. Caves can be difficult to come by when you are trekking off the beaten path, people don't easily give up there locations(or anything else about them). Alot of times, things can get rolling if only you have a name...
One of these caves, particularly fragile apparently, seemed to be rumored to hold bohemeths of the catfish world. Not only that, it was backmountable! I heard of this cave far before I was ready to dive it, possibly even before I was cavern certified. Over 100 post cert overhead dives later, I felt ready to take on this cave. After conversing with a couple divers who have been onsite, scouting a launch point, and closing in on a site location; I made plans with cmufieldhockey several months in advance to dive this site.
Sunday came windy and overcast, I met up with cmu at the Dairy Queen and we headed East. A quick stop at Cave Adventurer's for some fills and some tips on finding the entrance, and we were off to one of the area rivers. Waterlevels were low and I hoped I'd still have a prop left after the trip. We set up the boat along the river via a little picnic area and filled the boat to its hilt.
It was less than a mile to our destination once we headed out. We took it slow and didn't bottom out anywhere thankfully. Current was moving, but not terribly fast, so we just idled upstream. With the waterlevels as low as they were, our site was visible from the boat as a clear blue hole in the bottom of the river. We tied along the bank and started piling gear out. It didn't take us long to be geared up and dropping to the bottom of the river. I tied off in OW and headed in fighting flow, making a secondary on a rock a dozen feet inside. The cave went back and seemingly tapered off while another large section bent right where a heavy line started. I tied off the primary and cmufieldhockey led the dive from there. Visibility was 100' and we fought flow the entire time dropping down and raising above duck unders and breakdown piles. The cave did alot of weaving back and forth and up and down. The passage was all backmountable, but without alot of breathing room in quite a few areas. Apparently its a better sidemount cave, especially past 1500-1700'ish and along most of the jumps. The cave had some of my favorite physical features from several other caves I had been in, all rolled into one passage, not to mention the lack of crowds and signs of traffic. Awesome formations, some craggly, some paperthin, geothite, ect. Sand ripples the bottom and clay mounds are big and blue. I'd estimate we penetrated around 1200-1300'p before calling the dive at a very conservative turn pressure. Hit a max depth of 37'. Exitting went quickly just riding the flow all the way out. Back in the cavern, I spotted a small catfish, maybe 3" long eyeing a little crawfish. The entrance made for a picturesque exit with the light filtering through the semi-clear riverwater. Had a total divetime of 68 minutes. We left the primary in place.
I warmed up for about 48 minutes while cmu turtled in the river relaxing, before dropping back in for a second dive. At the entrance, was startled by some company. Sitting in the flow of the entrance was a fairly large 30-40lb flathead catfish. Apparently larger residents aren't at all uncommon. Big sucker wasn't wary of us in the slightest and we checked it out for a little bit before heading back into the cave. I lead this time around and we stuck to the mainline just enjoying the view one more time around. I'm guessing we penetrated nearly 1000' before the dive was turned conservatively again and we rode the flow back on out. Once being rocketted back into the cavern zone our new buddy was busy chewing on my primary line. I yanked it back and reeled it closer to the entrance before we observed the cat for awhile and heading back into OW. Another max depth of 37' with a divetime of 61 minutes. Easily one of my top 3 favorite caves and one of the most enjoyable cave dives I've had to date!
The trip back was quick and easy, just riding the current. We found a discarded dive float(sorta) and salvaged a weight and some goldline off it(lost the flag) before hitting our beach entry and packing everything back up. Headed back to Cave Adventurers for some fills and chatted for awhile about other systems and hit up Zaxby's for some much needed grub, I was friggin starving! Had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to getting back to this little river cave!
One of these caves, particularly fragile apparently, seemed to be rumored to hold bohemeths of the catfish world. Not only that, it was backmountable! I heard of this cave far before I was ready to dive it, possibly even before I was cavern certified. Over 100 post cert overhead dives later, I felt ready to take on this cave. After conversing with a couple divers who have been onsite, scouting a launch point, and closing in on a site location; I made plans with cmufieldhockey several months in advance to dive this site.
Sunday came windy and overcast, I met up with cmu at the Dairy Queen and we headed East. A quick stop at Cave Adventurer's for some fills and some tips on finding the entrance, and we were off to one of the area rivers. Waterlevels were low and I hoped I'd still have a prop left after the trip. We set up the boat along the river via a little picnic area and filled the boat to its hilt.
It was less than a mile to our destination once we headed out. We took it slow and didn't bottom out anywhere thankfully. Current was moving, but not terribly fast, so we just idled upstream. With the waterlevels as low as they were, our site was visible from the boat as a clear blue hole in the bottom of the river. We tied along the bank and started piling gear out. It didn't take us long to be geared up and dropping to the bottom of the river. I tied off in OW and headed in fighting flow, making a secondary on a rock a dozen feet inside. The cave went back and seemingly tapered off while another large section bent right where a heavy line started. I tied off the primary and cmufieldhockey led the dive from there. Visibility was 100' and we fought flow the entire time dropping down and raising above duck unders and breakdown piles. The cave did alot of weaving back and forth and up and down. The passage was all backmountable, but without alot of breathing room in quite a few areas. Apparently its a better sidemount cave, especially past 1500-1700'ish and along most of the jumps. The cave had some of my favorite physical features from several other caves I had been in, all rolled into one passage, not to mention the lack of crowds and signs of traffic. Awesome formations, some craggly, some paperthin, geothite, ect. Sand ripples the bottom and clay mounds are big and blue. I'd estimate we penetrated around 1200-1300'p before calling the dive at a very conservative turn pressure. Hit a max depth of 37'. Exitting went quickly just riding the flow all the way out. Back in the cavern, I spotted a small catfish, maybe 3" long eyeing a little crawfish. The entrance made for a picturesque exit with the light filtering through the semi-clear riverwater. Had a total divetime of 68 minutes. We left the primary in place.
I warmed up for about 48 minutes while cmu turtled in the river relaxing, before dropping back in for a second dive. At the entrance, was startled by some company. Sitting in the flow of the entrance was a fairly large 30-40lb flathead catfish. Apparently larger residents aren't at all uncommon. Big sucker wasn't wary of us in the slightest and we checked it out for a little bit before heading back into the cave. I lead this time around and we stuck to the mainline just enjoying the view one more time around. I'm guessing we penetrated nearly 1000' before the dive was turned conservatively again and we rode the flow back on out. Once being rocketted back into the cavern zone our new buddy was busy chewing on my primary line. I yanked it back and reeled it closer to the entrance before we observed the cat for awhile and heading back into OW. Another max depth of 37' with a divetime of 61 minutes. Easily one of my top 3 favorite caves and one of the most enjoyable cave dives I've had to date!
The trip back was quick and easy, just riding the current. We found a discarded dive float(sorta) and salvaged a weight and some goldline off it(lost the flag) before hitting our beach entry and packing everything back up. Headed back to Cave Adventurers for some fills and chatted for awhile about other systems and hit up Zaxby's for some much needed grub, I was friggin starving! Had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to getting back to this little river cave!
