Bonne Terre Trip Report

[Wkndbum]

Terry, Patrick, John & Brian (Pierre Long Hair) made the trip. Got there about 8:30pm Fri, stayed @ the Super 8 in Bonne Terre $50 dbl for divers (nice place for a Super 8, but continental breakfast means toast & coffee)

Was @ the mine @ 7:30 for sign in, film, briefing, weight rental, etc. Got halfway suited up before the trip down (they say it's 1/4mi down & 1/2mi back up) the shaft. Several flights of stairs, then a trail & you're @ the diving platform. Quite a sight when you first see the big support pillars carved out of rock.

12 divers in our group & 1 lead guide & 2 follow up divers. They put green glow sticks on us tourists & blue on the guides. Had to show them clear mask, share air & bouyancy before we started.

Trail #1 was kind of boring but we got an idea of what we would see. Vis was more like 30' to 60' than "100 plus". Saw some mining tools, ore carts, rails, drill. All the lights were above water & it wasn't as lit up as I expected. Water was 58 & just right for a water tight dry suit, Patrick said it was cold in a leaky dry suit & Brian was cold in a dry, dry suit. John had a 5mil farmer john on & he was fine. Dive lasted about 45 min, 60' max. I had my tank down to 675, Brian added about 500psi to his.

Hiked back to the ground level & had about an hour & a half for lunch.

Trail #2 not a lot more to see, quartz formation, air formation on ceiling & air purculating thru the rocks, more ore carts, a couple swim thrus.
45 min dive again.

Was topside by 2pm, & was told to be back @ 8am on Sun for another briefing. We were able to leave our equipment on the dock overnight.

Ate @ the "Warehouse BBQ", little town about 10 mi South. GREAT meal for the $

Back @ the mine semi-suited @ 8am & the dive guide didn't show until 9:15.

Trail #3, more of the same, about 45 min dive.

Was on the road home about 11:30am. It's about a 7 1/2 hr drive with one gas/pee stop & one fast food stop.

The people running the operation were very friendly/helpful. Gift shop prices (t-shirts) were outragious (glad they were out of my size)

I enjoyed the dives & would dive it again if I were in the area, but it's too long of a drive to go on a weekend just to do 3, $195 dives.

Anybody have any ? about the trip, give me a shout.

Terry

 

[theskull]

Terry,

That was about the best description of the mine dive that I've read. Very factual, and your experience was a very common one--especially regarding the guide showing up late on Sun morn.

I would add:
1. My opinion--it is definitely worth doing one time. Whether it is worth return trips is an individual perception.
2. Nice to have a midwest dive site that has water warmer than 45 F in the winter!

Happy and safe diving to you,
theskull

 

[modiver71]

I've always wanted to do this trip, live about 2 hours away. Now I've got a good idea of what to expect. May put that $195 toward salt water trip though.

 

[crpntr133]

What trail is the train on? Can't be too far since the guy that told me about it had never been before last year.

 

[Hoosier]

[font=바탕]Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is a very informative description for everyone to plan to dive at Boone Terre. I think you guys are so generous about their service. I can[/font]’[font=바탕]t accept 1:15 minutes late. And, it is a very common one? After getting into the diving world, what I really don[/font]’[font=바탕]t understand is that the usual order between service providers and customers are so often opposite in this world. [/font]

[font=바탕] [/font]

[font=바탕] [/font]

 

[Wkndbum]

What trail is the train on? Can't be too far since the guy that told me about it had never been before last year.

Not sure what Trail # the train engine is on but I guess we were right next to it on one of our dives but it is a 90' dive.

I agree with Skull about having some place to dive in the winter time. If I was a bit closer to the mine I would dive it again (still don't like the $65 per tank) just to see more of the place. Next time I will take the walking tour also, looks like that would be pretty neat.

We were PO'd that they were late on Sun but they did explain about a couple people being sick & did apologize. From the reports I heard prior to going, the staff was rude, bossy & very unfriendly, we did not find this to be the case, they treated us as guests/customers/friends.

Terry

 

[theskull]

. . . Next time I will take the walking tour also, looks like that would be pretty neat. . .
Terry

Yes, do. It is very good and informative, and puts some perspective on what you saw during the dive. Also a great idea for anyone who goes along but doesn't dive.

theskull

 

[murrr77]

I wanted to see the train too and the structure, but as Terry said it didnt' happen.
The structure sounded cool, it is on trail 4. Just an FYI, you have to do trail 1 before anythign else and I'm not sure if they make you take other trails before the train trail.

All in all, a good been there done that trip. They were friendly, but slow and wasted a lot of time for people who had a 7 hour drive ahead of them.

 

[crpntr133]

I was told that they don't do the walking tours during the winter months. LDS set up a trip in January and my GF wanted to go to do the walk. The LDS said that Bonne Terre told them they don't do them during the winter months. The LDS wanted to set up a package with the walk and dive.

 

[murrr77]

I would call and ask, I don't see why they wouldn't. They have plenty of staff sitting around doing nothing.