Had a great time at Bonne Terre this year for the annual Treasure Hunt, and a couple of days of running the trails.
I Flew into St Luis with the intention of wandering around and sight seeing. Being from Az, it was nice to see how green everything is, and leaving the 110 degree heat for the 70's was wonderful ( I was told its usually quite a bit warmer, but I guess I got lucky). An hour and a few minutes worth of driving later, I was in the town of Bonne Terre.
The first day, there were a few people milling around in the parking lot some diving some taking the tours. I recommend a tour sometime during your trip, you can learn a lot about the history and methods of operation, if you include the boat tour, you can get a nice idea how some of the areas you are going to dive are laid out. Thanks to Amanda, our guide, for putting up with all our questions and being a good sport, she was a fun guide.
Back to the dives. After gathering all the gear, we headed down the stairs and into the mine. Several steps later,and a couple hundred yards of smooth trail, we arrived at the underground dock. We geared up and got ready for the first dive of the day. Jumping in, I remembered exactly what 58 degree water felt like (my computer swears its 59.4) either way, for a guy who rarely wears more than a shorty it got my attention. Once everyone had entered the water our guide gathered us up for a short surface swim to the area that began our dive for that day. Bonne Terre does a great job of looking after their divers. We had a guide and a few safety divers with us on every dive.
Our first trail of the day was trail 10. We headed down into the mine to an ultimate depth of 84 feet. Its not often you get to see a train under water and we spent a few minutes exploring it. There was a little shack on this dive too. Its amazing what kind of shape this stuff is in after being under water for so long. The second dive of our day was trail 4, we had a couple of swim throughs and ended up at 'the structure'. What a way to start our trip, two great dives with good friends, and no hypothermia!
The treasure hunt was the next day. We were assigned group numbers when we registered from group 1-6 and posted around the facility were schedules for each group. Arrival was about two hours prior to actual dive time. When we arrived we checked in, and received a swag bag that included a t-shirt and some great discount coupons. 20 minutes later we got a dive briefing and were told the rules of the treasure hunt. About 40 minutes after that we entered the mine to begin our hunt.
The treasure hunt started with a short surface swim to the area we would search first. The way this all works is pretty easy, there are 4 searching areas and each group is divided into 'A' and 'B'. You search one area for about 15 minutes then move on to another. You grab all the chips you can and stuff them in a bag that is provided by the mine. Chips have a value ranging from 25 to 500 points. When you finish with your search, your bag is sealed shut to prevent chip pooling, then you head to 'the bank' to record (deposit) your winnings. After your surface interval (during which, more chips are hidden) you return to the mine for a second round of searching.
After all the searching is done its time for dinner. Bonne Terre had a great BBQ lunch catered in. Pulled Pork,hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, sheet cake, iced tea and more. The food was good, and there was plenty. Its always disappointing when you go to these things and the food runs out. Not a problem here.
Time for the auction! About 14 vendors had been on site all day showing off their latest products and taking the time to show all the participants all they had to offer. Now that dinner was done, it was time to give some of it away! 60+ items were available for bidding and we were told the retail was over 30000 dollars! This stuff wasn't junk either. There were about 10 trips including a couple live aboards and some wonderful dive locations. The vendors offered some of their finest products, wetsuits, regulators, BC's, computers,cameras and housings. Bidding was fast and crazy. All of us divers had the value of our chips sitting in 'the bank' and burning a hole in our wetsuits. Out of the group I was with, we were able to bring home a seahorse brand hard case, a 100 dollar gift certificate to Dive Right In, a 200 dollar WetWear credit and I was able to bring home a 6 day 2 tank dive package for 2 people from Stuart Cove's in the Bahamas! Hopefully I have another prize coming my way soon..... wink wink!
The next day we were back to the trails! Our first dive of the day was the longest of the trip, just over an hour. We dove trail 8 to the 'Redwood Forest' then after our surface interval dove trail 4 for the second time of this trip. What a great day of diving!
The Treasure Hunt was a great event, and I cannot say enough about the staff at the mine. The dive guides and safety divers did a great job of showing us where to go. The people working the store and the dive shop must have walked 1000 miles back and forth showing us where we needed to be and hooking us up with all the people we needed to see.
There were a few things I thought could have been a little better, but for a event of this size, i was amazed how well organized and smoothly it ran. I'm sure every year they iron out the 'little things' for the next year.
Looking forward to next year,
Jeff
