5-22 thru 5-25-9 Cave Reports and CDS Workshop

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I had all but given up on being able to make the NSS CDS Workshop this year. The workshop and social were being held in Tallahassee and the CDS had asked the Wakulla County Dive Club for help in running the event. We would also be given a booth to advertise our efforts. Since the workshop was being held in Tallahassee, there was an opportunity for people to come to us in order to find some diving locally. Alas, some of my dive buddies were out of country, some were working, others just weren't going in that direction. I even threw a message out online to try to fish up a ride without any bites. Sometimes things just fall in place though. I got an email inquiring about a Jackson Blue report I had made the previous weekend from some Texas divers looking to make the trip from Florida in order to get some cave dives in(Missouri is there regular digs, but apparently blown out from recent rainfall). After some conversation, it worked out that I could catch a ride with them into Florida and even to Tallahassee where I'd show them some of the local spots.

5-22-9

Thursday night I got a call around 7PM from David M saying he and Trey L were heading out from Austin in my direction. I was up for 4AM on Friday morning and got a call from them around 4:30AM that they were nearing our meeting spot along the interstate. We were probably back on I-10 by 5AM and heading to Marianna. I showed them some cheap/clean lodging(Executive baby!) and we hit up the Waffle Iron for some breakfast grub. After filling up, it was drizzling a bit and we headed over to Jackson Blue so they could see the headspring of Spring Creek(and the Merrits Mill Pond). I showed them the dirt launch we use to swim to Twin(they considered scootering there) and we headed over to Cave Adventurers so they could meet Edd Sorenson and check about renting a pontoon boat(they were all reserved since there was CDS workshop pretty local and it was Memorial Day weekend). After that bit of shinanigans, we headed East some more to Wakulla. We spoke cave diving the entire time, I relayed a bunch of information on sites in the area and got to hear about the great sites they've enjoyed in Missouri and Arkansas, even a sump in TX.

Finally, we were at a site we intended to dive. The water looked decently clear from the surface, so I was hoping for some good diving conditions at depth. We went over a bit of a dive plan and started out on getting a bunch of cave gear from the truck and down a little depression to the water. The mosquito's were out in serious force.

I led the dive and we found the descent rope with ease, then started our drop to our intended entry line(around 70' in depth - the descent line drops to 100'+ at the bottom of the sink). We dropped some o2 bottles around 20' deep. Once on our cave line, we swam forward into a seemingly open void. We eventually see a ceiling slope down over our heads to let us know we are, infact, cave diving. We hit a "T" almost immediately and take a left on some freshly laid goldline put in by BGillespie and Jeff S(line provided by the CDS). The water is tannic, but we have 15'+ visibility and make our way down whats called the Turtle Passage. Blind cave crawfish drop in all around us as well as other isopods and cave organisms. We eventually cross a small pocket of blue water with visibility exceeding 30' and come to a small jump. I tie in and start down a tunnel, but have a clearing issue that takes me a minute to right. We try again successfully and head down a much smaller windy tunnel that opens up shortly into a vast chamber called the Crystal Room. The top of the chamber contained tannic water, but the bottom was filled with blue spring water with excellent visibility(likely40-50'). We went about halfway around the circuit touring the room when the dive was turned and we headed out. I pulled the reel and we headed back to our first "T", recalculated, and started up the other side of the line, which still contained the original survey line. We only went a few hundred feet before we hit a 4-way and I turned the dive. My buddies were running a conservative deco plan and I stayed with them for their deeper stops and about 3 minutes past my final stop on o2 before I waved them goodbye(I was cold in my wetsuit). It was a great dive and everyone seemed to have alot of fun. I had a max depth of 112' for a dive lasting 92 minutes, including deco.

We stopped by several other sinks in the area and I showed them where Wakulla Diving Center was located. Then we hit up Wakulla Springs, the big one, to end out the day. By this time we were hungry, so we headed up to the NSS CDS social where cwick and jmaddox were slaving away at a huge BBQ pit feeding a bunch of cave divers. I think in the end, we had a good 60 people present.

Here's a shot after our dive in the sink on Friday afternoon.

The Texans headed back over to Marianna after filling up on food and drink, they ended up having quite a busy weekend with alot of traveling back and forth across the entirety of cave country. I packed in with BGillespie so I could crash at his place for the weekend.

5-23-9 NSS CDS Workshop

BGillespie and I made it to TCC, where the workshop was taking place at 7:30 to find cwick already onsite. We grabbed a table and then brought in drinks, snacks, and the few props we had packed away for the booth. Jmaddox got held up a bit, but made it out shortly afterwards with the rest of the booth. He and his wife framed up a bunch of my photos and made some informative texts to go under them, really made a nice presentation. Speaking of presentations, BGillespie's presentation went very well. The crowds seemed informed and even entertained. I didn't catch any of the other presentations, instead just watched the WCDC booth and answered any questions I could. We got alot of new people on the email list and sold several Tshirts over the course of the day. I think the WCDC got alot of positive visibility through this event! Some of my favorite other booths onsite included the Advanced Diver Magazine booth, the sidemount rebreather conversions, and the NSS CDS shwag booth.

You can find more pictures from the Workshop and the Social at Workshops & Socials - Cave Diver's Forum Photo Gallery @ http://www.cavediver.net/forum/gallery

After the event wound down, we headed out and checked on one of the other sinks in Wakulla county. The duckweed usually present was dying away and the little bit left, wasn't looking so great.

After a few pictures, we headed to Gregg Stanton's place to fill some tanks and hit up PoBoys in Tallahassee for some dinner. I crashed pretty hard and enjoyed sleeping in late(relatively, 8AM) Sunday morning.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

5-24-9 Leon Cave System

After a relatively late start, we headed down south again. BGillespie was hitting a different divesite with Ken S and I'd be diving with Forrest Wilson and Barbara. We'd all be meeting over by Emerald though. cwick came out as surface support and jmaddox would be diving with Slappy and Bill W at the same site we'd be diving. The site BGillespie was diving is made a bit safer by using a rope, so we had to stop at Walmart first. In retrospect, two white dudes with shaved heads buying thick rope probably wasn't making too many people comfortable. By the time we made it to Emerald, Jmaddox and Slappy had beat us onsite. Forrest, Barbara, and Ken followed shortly and we all met at the sinkhole itself. cwick and Bill W met us at the road when we got back. BGillespie and Ken S headed south and we headed just across the highway.

Our group of seven headed over to the back of a local landowners property that the WCDC has an agreement with in order to access some of the other sinks on this cave system(Leon Cave System), easier. It makes a mile(+) hike closer to 300 yards or so. Even then, the coming heat and the mosquito's make it a bit of a grind. Add on top of that a great potential for getting poison ivy or ticks, and things look even better. The good news is that the sinks in this area are clear! We enjoyed 40-50' of visibility easily. We'd be entering at the most downstream of the shallow sinks in this stretch of this portion of the system, which also contained an aging ladder. After multiple trips, we had all the gear we needed in place and the six of us hit the water. Cwick even got in some trunks and went for a swim, to escape the heat as well as the swarms of teradactyl's swarming around looking for blood.

I led one group with Barbara taking the middle and Forrest pulling up the last spot. We headed downstream for just a bit, to where a small jump is required to go further(actually, the line that continues on just drops down a pit from here). The downstream section of this cave has white scalloped limestone passage, which is a stark contrast from the very dark, stained with lots of goethite, upstream passages. The upstream passages are also very shallow, with a max depth of around 50'. We hit 100' and levelled off, then turned the dive and headed back to OW. Barbara adjusted her setup a bit, and I jammed an Oring back into my first stage DIN connection. I had never seen a trapped DIN oring extrude, but it sures hell happened. I popped it back in and it held pressure. We continued our dive upstream in the same order. Visibility was actually pretty good despite the recent rainfall, I was happy our visitors would be able to get a glimse of some of the diving available while conditions were favorable. We crossed through five different sinkholes and were in the cavern zone of the sixth when the dive was called. There was quite a bit of life out, glass shrimp, blind crawfish, eels, and quite a few catfish were around. It was a great dive! My max depth downstream was 100' and only 52' upstream. Our total dive time in the system was 91 minutes without any deco.

After several more trips back to the vehicles to get all the gear packed back up, we headed out. By this time, BGillespie and Ken S had met back up with us at our site, and Gene M and Tex C and families were also with them to take a little tour and a swim in the sinkholes. Forrest, Barbara and Ken headed out to get on the road to High Springs and Bill W back to Georgia. Jmaddox and Slappy headed south to St Marks to get ready for a little cookout they invited us to. I hopped back in the car with BGillespie and we followed cwick over to El Jalisco for some great Mexican food. After the late lunch, cwick headed back home and BGillespie and I headed to Gregg's again for some more fills and to pay our tabs. I grabbed a quick shower and we headed back south to meet up with Jmaddox, his wife, and Slappy. They took us out on a quick little boat tour of the river and to a little spanish fort on point, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we ate like pigs after Jmaddox and Slappy through down in the kitchen. Food was delicious! It was another late night and I crashed hard again.

5-25-9 More Leon Cave System sinkholes, a bit downstream from Sunday's dives

BGillespie and I headed out early on Memorial Day morning, as I had to be in Marianna for Noon to catch my ride back to Alabama. We grabbed some Redbull and headed to a stretch of sinks that Ben had arranged access to for the WCDC. He hadn't dived the sites as they were flooded over when the arrangements were made, so this would be new cave for the both of us. I filled out some waivers and they were left on the door(land owner told us he'd still probably be sleeping when we called the previous day to inquire about diving - he said come on over though). We had a great floating dock to enter the water from and not much of a walk at all. The mosquito's apparently woke up early with us though. This land was adjascent to two sinks. We'd be entering the upstream sink of the two, which was void of duckweed. When we got down to the water, Ben asked, "You sure you want to do this?" This is what I saw.

Look closely and you can see two lines, tied off to a plastic gator head, keeping it in place. I said "Yeah!".

The other sink accessable from this private property.

We geared up and hit the water with relative ease. After a bit of a dive plan, including penetration times(I was on a schedule) we submerged with me in the lead. After a bit of looking around, we found line going through OW. The line went under silt and other debri on several occassions causing us to refind the line again. We pulled it ontop of the bottom where we could, but that was not always possible. Finally we found the line where it shoots into the cavern and cave and I lead the way. We penetrated a few hundred feet when BGillespie turned the dive. He had a bad feeling and as every cave diver knows, thats as good a reason as being completely OOA to turn a dive. So we headed back to OW and fished out a bunch of trash, including lighters, several unopened beers, some other glass containers, including Whiskey bottles, and a few bags. We explored the downstream cavern a bit to familiarize ourselves with the lines on that side of this large sink as well. They were a bit more complicated as there were two of them. We followed one that gets buried in debri a few times and shoots off to the side and under a pile of silt. It couldn't be pulled loose. We cookied the other line which seems to be the correct line to use in order to explore the cave. We'll have to verify this next time around as we limited our penetration to OW and the cavern area on this portion of the dive. Once we are sure the line is the correct line, we'll likely pull the adjascent line to avoid future confusion. The dive was very helpfull in orienting ourselves with this site and getting aquainted with the line situation. I imagine our next dive onsite will have been greatly helped by this familiarization dive. We ended up with a max depth of 48' for a dive lasting 54 minutes and even included some new cave!

We zipped out and headed West for Marianna. Turns out my ride from Texas has since bumped into some of my regular buddies, cmufieldhockey and denisegg. David and Trey ended up bumming a ride on their pontoon boat to make a much easier transit to Hole in the Wall where they say they had a great dive. Course, it was storming when they exitted the water and we met back up with them at Cave Adventurers in the middle of a deluge. After much gearing down and packing up, and a few sandwiches thanks to cmu and denisegg(!!), I was heading back to Alabama. I think everyone was exhausted from a great weekend of cave diving and we still managed to laugh and talk about our recent adventures. I had a great time throughout the entire extended weekend and can't wait to get more dives in with everyone.

 

[GLENFWB]

Good read Mat! Looks like you found some more good sinks. Pick some good ones for us to hit in two weeks when we head to the WCDC meeting. Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

P&G were excellent! These new sinks will hopefully hold out as well, we should have SOMETHING to dive when we get up there for sure. GR is even supposed to be clear once you'r down 30' according to a report from a dive yesterday.

 

[GLENFWB]

GR is even supposed to be clear once you'r down 30' according to a report from a dive yesterday.

Is GR still covered with duckweed? I would like to go back there sometime...would be nice to actually see some of that cavern/cave!

 

[sskasser]

Great report and pics! Thanks! You guys rock!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Is GR still covered with duckweed? I would like to go back there sometime...would be nice to actually see some of that cavern/cave!

All the duckweed is dying off, there isn't much left and I suspect it will all be gone soon. The majority of what was left was brown and not doing so well. I have pictures of it on my report. We visited GR on 5-23-9. Didn't dive, just wanted to check it out after the workshop on the way to get fills for the next day.

 

[denisegg]

It was great seeing Mat and Ben again! Stasia and I got to Marianna and Edd's shop on Sunday around 10 am and did two dives in JB. This was my second time diving doubles and Stasia was mentoring me. We had to wait between thunder and lightning storms to get in our dives but they were awesome! In between dives we gathered under the pavilions and we met people from as far away as California cave diving in Marianna over the Memorial Day Weekend.
On Monday morning Stasia and I were packing up to leave the Executive Inn and parked right next to us was a pickup truck loaded with tanks. We were intrigued by a certain configuration that we were trying to identify when the owners of the truck came out and we struck up a conversation. It turns out they were David and Trey who had given Mat a ride. They told us their plan to ride their scooter to Hole in the Wall. Edd had a cancellation on a pontoon boat Sunday afternoon and Stasia and I had snagged it for Monday so we invited them to come along. We had another two great dives there and made it back to Cave Adventurers for them to pick up Mat, load up and head back to Texas. It was a pleasure to meet them and share a boat with them. Stasia and I went back out after fills and this time went to Twin Caves. She and I did two dives there and met some other cave divers in another pontoon boat and talked more cave diving with them. We left Marianna around 5 pm Monday afternoon with 6 dives in all. Since I am diving 1/6's on doubles each dive had an approximate length of 30 to 40 minutes. I did my deepest penetration Monday afternoon at Twin (600ft). We had a great weekend of diving and met a lot of interesting people which made for an awesome time!

 

[GLENFWB]

I totally missed what that picture was...the no duckweed and new steps totally threw me.

All the duckweed is dying off, there isn't much left and I suspect it will all be gone soon. The majority of what was left was brown and not doing so well. I have pictures of it on my report. We visited GR on 5-23-9. Didn't dive, just wanted to check it out after the workshop on the way to get fills for the next day.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Great report Denise, congrats on the 600'p dive!

I totally missed what that picture was...the no duckweed and new steps totally threw me.

It looks like a totally different site now doesn't it? All that brown duckweed is bound to die off soon and I'm thinking it will be completely void of duckweed for atleast a littlewhile. The badside of this is that the algae blume will likely be particularly bad this year due to the extra sunlight making its way into the water(not blocked by duckweed). Still, GR proves to be an interesting site, I've still yet to get a proper dive in there - might be time to drop back in with the proper mix!