Arkansas trip openings

[FIXXERVI6]

I have had some people cancel due to work getting in the way of things, there is plenty of room on the boat now, this is cross posted from txcavers.com, short notice but like i said room on the boat.

I am leaving Friday the 2nd at around noon to 1, so please DO NOT just show up make sure you contact me first if your interested in going.

When:
November 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, Diving is November 3rd other days are camp/travel days.

Arrive November 2nd, dive on the 3rd (a Saturday) head home on the 4th

Sign ups:

Me
Wife
Daughter
Divecopper
Trimix1050
LUCASJIMMY39
KevinAnderson
Hydro
bcheval

Spots are first come first served, maximum of 15 spots.

I am not a dive shop, this is not a secret hand shake club, anyone that wants to go can go, all I ask is at the end of the day we all split costs of the boat, no profit to be made.

Costs:

The cost of the boat is $300 + gas (to be divided evenly accross divers), camping is $12 per night per tent, bring your own food and drink, no alcohol please (park rule not my rule)

Where:

Lake Ouachita is the Largest Lake in Arkansas.

Spillway Resort & Marina

Camping:

I have reserved 5 camp sites, each camp site can hold more than one tent, camping is $12 per night per tent, campsites are #1, #2, #3, #4, and you guessed it camp site #5. Due to the time of year there may not be restrooms or showers as they close them down for winter - however - there will be porta johns available if the restrooms are closed down.

If you arrive friday night there will be a clip board hanging up on the office, enter your information on the board to settle up later. I have reserved all sites so if you do not sign up direct with the camp grounds the cost will hit my credit card I have reserving the site, so please make sure to take over ownership of your camp or be sure to remember to pay me for it, either way works.

The boat and campsites are located in the same site

No open fires at this site, I just asked.

The Boat:

I have reserved the 40 foot pontoon boat, I have been told there are changing stations on the boat.

Before ANYONE can board the boat they have to sign a waiver with the main office.

The office opens at 8 am, everyone needs to sign the boat waiver first thing in the morning, I would like the boat to leave at 8:30 am no later than 9:00 am at the extreme max, so don't miss the boat

We will want to get an early jump on the day Saturday so we can maximize our dive time as we have to have the boat back by dark.

The Diving:

Two dive sites are planned, Zebra and Crawdad islands.

Lake Ouachita AR page

Since considerable time is spent digging up quartz crystals I doubt we'll have time for any other dive sites. I have never been here but I have been told Crawdad has some nice walls, and it is possible to swim around the island. Most likely we will use the island for lunch as well.

I do not know lake conditions this time of year but I do know from other divers this lake tends to be a bit cooler, I recommend a minimum of a 5 mil suit, if you plan on diving deep a semi dry or dry suit will most likely be required due to low temps.

There will be people there conducting technical dives but not everyone will be, point is if you want to, you can bring doubles extra gas etc.

I am not a dive shop, there will be no dive masters, you are responsible for yourself - not to say you won't get help if you need it or a buddy if you lack one - your diving is on your own this buy in just gets you a spot on the boat and a camp site, if you are buddyless but want to attend you can do it onsite or post in this forum to pre arrange dive plans/buddies if you want to.

Getting there:

Directions

I am taking off from work Friday to show up early to make sure the boat and everying is 100% squared away and to make any last minute changes if there are any snafu's so we all don't show up and not have a boat or something (I have already confirmed reservation but you never know)


I have never camped here or rented a boat from this place so we'll see how it goes, if its not so hot then we can choose a different spot next time.

The boat is rented from 8am to 5pm on Saturday, the boat has to be off of the water at dark.

Food and Drink:

BYOF and D I will be bringing a portable grill and ice chest that anyone is welcome to use however its small so you'd have to get in line so I suggest someone else bring ice chests and grills too

Fills:

No fills onsite, bring what you need for all diving.

 

[hyperbaric_1]

Can't make this one, but I would love to know about future trips. It has been ~5yrs since I've been to Lake Ouachita.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Some of what the wife and I pulled up

 

[Debraw]

That's pretty cool, thanks for the picture. Nice crystals!

 

[k-valve]

Some of what the wife and I pulled up

Wow, that's cool! How 'bout a trip report? I'm sorry I missed this one...how was it?

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Cross posted from txcavers Arkansas trip - Texas Caving and Cavers forum

On my way home from work Thursday my water pump went out on my truck, so instead of spending Thursday night packing and Friday driving to get there early I spend Thursday trying to get my truck towed and fixed and friday playing catch up, rolled in and got camp settled at around midnight.

6 showed the rest canceled, and we all arrived around the same time.

We got a bit of a late start in the morning (up late due to arriving late) and since it was our frist time we didn't really know where we needed to be so that took us about an hour and a half to figure out The people that run the place pulled the boat up to the ramp, we backed the trucks right down to the boat and loaded it, then we were off.

Capt. Divecopper with GPS and map in hand did a pretty good job of getting us to the destinations we only had to turn around once but hey we didn't ram anything so it was all good.

Arrived at Zebra rock and got ready to dive, realized that I forgot half of the daughters farmer john at home... hmmm, I offered to pick up her tab to make up for it and not charger her for her fill but somehow that still didn't smooth things over, she did manage to do about a 15 minute dive before she threw in the towel.

Mom and I finished digging for the next hour and a half for crystals, trimix1050 and ed did a trimix dive and the rest of the crew chilled on the boat. I truely don't know what the vis was as I had my face burried in silt clouds from me digging but I know the vis was really good otherwise (so long as you didn't drop below someone digging)

Pulled anchor and headed for crawdad, I didn't want to interupt diving by eating so on the way to the next dive site I filled up on snacks.

Stopped at crawdad, I changed to my heavier undergarment, mom and kid were done for the day they got chilled out, mom wouldn't surface to warm up at zebra rock because she wanted more crystals and got too chilled.

trimix1050 and Ed did another trimix dive, I suited up and decided I would do a short dive. Headed out, dropped down and down to 110, freakin cold down there, vis was pretty good, I'd say 12 feet or so at that depth, turned and started back up, found a wall at 90 feet and hung out for a while checking it out, there was stuff all over it, insect like critters all over it, all different kinds, little like "sea anemonie" thingies I can't spell that were about a centemeter long with the little tenticals and all, and fresh water sponges! I didn't know what they were until later on, I burned all of my time at 90 feet up just looking at these things, my stay was short so I had to head up (air sux) on my way back up I spotted 3 fish, dunno what kind but they were darting around together so I hung out and watched them for a bit then continued on up. Came up into some trees and looked around, wow, I could actually SEE, vis was GREAT, 20 feet at least, I came up of the lake bottom for a change (cause I could be away from it and see it) and just hovered in the green glow in the trees for a bit just taking it in, then slowly made my way back up, dive over.

Pulled back into camp, cooked a massive feast that we couldn't all eat, Ed even brought cookies that he and Courtney cooked for us! Exchanged war stories and hit the sack.

I gotta do this lake again!!!

For full size pictures and all pictures (just a few)right click here and choose save as

 

[k-valve]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the picts too! What a beautiful place and sounds like the diving was incredible too. It also sounds like dry suits are in order for anyone who wants to dive the lake for any period of time. Brrrrrrrr!

Thanks for the report! Lake Ouachita is definitely on my "To Dive" list!

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Wife was diving a semi dry and was down for 90 minutes so that probably had a lot to do with her getting really cold for the rest of the day (core temp drop) that and women tend to get colder easier or at least she does.

For the first dive I was wearing my cave diving undergarment no gloves and a 3 mil hood and I was fine to stay down an hour and a half at crystal digging depths.

At depth however I had heavy undergarment and 7mil gloves and when I passed through a thermocline my face started stinging, its probably that temp down there year round.

I believe if we would have went a couple months ago the water would have been quite a bit warmer as one member on the trip heard that the water temps in the lake had hit as high as 90 on the surface this summer.