SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I met up with spd135 at the Waffle House in Loxley yesterday. It was cool, but blue skies were peaking through and promised for a nice looking day, eventually. We loaded my stuff into spd's pickup and headed East, talking cave diving the entire trip.
Cypress Springs
spd135 had done some training at Cypress about a decade ago and had not been back since, so he wanted to check out its potential for easy sidemount cave diving. For a guy my size and skill level, I don't think Cypress is a viable cave diving option for me, but spd wanted to check it out since he's smaller and far more comfortable in his sidemount rig than I am. I'm not gonna turn down a trip to Cypress anyway, its still got one of the prettiest basins and a nice little cavern! spd even brought his boat, so I didn't even have to paddle! We made Culpepper Landing in no time and loaded up the boat.
It was still a bit overcast, but comfortable at that point and the foliage was turning, so the view on the way to Cypress was quite nice. Even if we weren't diving, it would have been just as enjoyable!
Cypress was as colorful as ever, with only one other person onsite, with her dog, just trying to relax. The water was clear and flowing! I couldn't wait to poke my head underneath with a mask.
We geared up and hit the main cavern area first, working our way down to the restriction where the cave starts. Too tight for me, and it turned out to be too tight to do in sidemount, even for a smaller person, without removing gear and diving no-mount. So we poked around a bit then left the main cavern and went to the crack on the side of the deeper OW depression. Too low there too. We checked out the other two smaller vents and then just explored the basin a bit before exitting after a max depth of 64' for a dive lasting around 30 minutes. We headed back, loaded the boat back on the truck, and headed South for different waterways.
Another river cave report
At some point while we were at Cypress, the clouds moved out and the sun poked through, so we had a great dark blue skies throughout the rest of the trip. We launched the boat again and started heading upstream on more picturesque waterways.
Our destination was found within short order.
spd135 geared up while I took a few pictures. At one point, I lost footing and fell into the water - LOL. I think spd was worried about the camera, but I was more worried about my only dry T-shirt(D'Oh). The camera is weathersealed and I showed him I could dunk it without worry. I took a few more pictures and laid my T-shirt out to dry(ha! yeah right), then I geared up as well.
We dropped down the basin and underneath the large ledge concealing a small cave entrance below. We swam through and followed the line down through a series of "T"s, cookie'n our exit line at every navigational decision. We enjoyed the bright white limestone and the dark fossilized bones protruding through the walls. Our exit didn't quite have the view as fine silt dropped off the ceiling and swept up from the floors of the low sidemount passages we were in. We were on the line throughout the majority of the exit. An awesome cave, and I'm still looking forward to get back in and see more. We dived it to a depth of 63' for another dive around 30 minutes. On surfacing, my T-shirt was now damp and uber cold... LOL We threw the gear back in the boat and headed back to the launch to put everything away.
By this time, we were starved, so we hit up Dee's on the way back North and ate some great food, and I picked up one of there $5 T-Shirts
Dry atlast! The way home went just as quickly as we spoke more on cave diving and future trips. Looking forward to doing it again spd135!
Cypress Springs
spd135 had done some training at Cypress about a decade ago and had not been back since, so he wanted to check out its potential for easy sidemount cave diving. For a guy my size and skill level, I don't think Cypress is a viable cave diving option for me, but spd wanted to check it out since he's smaller and far more comfortable in his sidemount rig than I am. I'm not gonna turn down a trip to Cypress anyway, its still got one of the prettiest basins and a nice little cavern! spd even brought his boat, so I didn't even have to paddle! We made Culpepper Landing in no time and loaded up the boat.
It was still a bit overcast, but comfortable at that point and the foliage was turning, so the view on the way to Cypress was quite nice. Even if we weren't diving, it would have been just as enjoyable!
Cypress was as colorful as ever, with only one other person onsite, with her dog, just trying to relax. The water was clear and flowing! I couldn't wait to poke my head underneath with a mask.
We geared up and hit the main cavern area first, working our way down to the restriction where the cave starts. Too tight for me, and it turned out to be too tight to do in sidemount, even for a smaller person, without removing gear and diving no-mount. So we poked around a bit then left the main cavern and went to the crack on the side of the deeper OW depression. Too low there too. We checked out the other two smaller vents and then just explored the basin a bit before exitting after a max depth of 64' for a dive lasting around 30 minutes. We headed back, loaded the boat back on the truck, and headed South for different waterways.
Another river cave report
At some point while we were at Cypress, the clouds moved out and the sun poked through, so we had a great dark blue skies throughout the rest of the trip. We launched the boat again and started heading upstream on more picturesque waterways.
Our destination was found within short order.
spd135 geared up while I took a few pictures. At one point, I lost footing and fell into the water - LOL. I think spd was worried about the camera, but I was more worried about my only dry T-shirt(D'Oh). The camera is weathersealed and I showed him I could dunk it without worry. I took a few more pictures and laid my T-shirt out to dry(ha! yeah right), then I geared up as well.
We dropped down the basin and underneath the large ledge concealing a small cave entrance below. We swam through and followed the line down through a series of "T"s, cookie'n our exit line at every navigational decision. We enjoyed the bright white limestone and the dark fossilized bones protruding through the walls. Our exit didn't quite have the view as fine silt dropped off the ceiling and swept up from the floors of the low sidemount passages we were in. We were on the line throughout the majority of the exit. An awesome cave, and I'm still looking forward to get back in and see more. We dived it to a depth of 63' for another dive around 30 minutes. On surfacing, my T-shirt was now damp and uber cold... LOL We threw the gear back in the boat and headed back to the launch to put everything away.
By this time, we were starved, so we hit up Dee's on the way back North and ate some great food, and I picked up one of there $5 T-Shirts
Dry atlast! The way home went just as quickly as we spoke more on cave diving and future trips. Looking forward to doing it again spd135! 
About a mile from the boat launch, bear left at a fork(the right side continues as Holmes Creek). The water should also be noticably clearer on the left, unless the waterlevels are up.
