Spring Lake,
Temp, varied between 72 and 66 degrees.
Vis, varied from 2' to 60'
Spring Flow, 169cfs
Interesting dive this morning.
For those who don't keep up with the weather in San Marcos, there was a heavy rain last Thursday in excess of 8" over a broad area. Spring Lake had about a 3' rise and was closed till today. Pete, Gary and I were the first divers allowed in the lake after the flood.
USGS Real-Time Water Data for USGS 08170500 San Marcos Rv at San Marcos, TX
The three of us were assigned to survey the lake from Cream of Wheat down to Cypress Point and back to Deep Hole. The short version is that a lot of shallow springs (very cold) were activated by the rainfall. The runoff from the hill above the west bank seems to have cleared it of most of the plants/algae. Lots of coontail got moved around and in some areas present significant problems for divers.
First, the Training Area looked pretty good and the platforms were clear. There is a literal wall of coontail between Diversion and Cream of Wheat. You have to get too shallow to go over it safely.
Cream of Wheat has a lot of coontail hung up on the tree branches. The springs are flowing very nicely.
The hump into Ossified Forrest from COW is open but very narrow. The top of OF is very narrow (less than 6'). You can touch both sides as you go past. Lot of dead algae on the bottom and the west bank is fairly clear.
The hump into Riverbed from OF is completely clear and wide. I have never seen it look better. There is a lot of dead algae all along Riverbed. My guess is that it was washed down from the west bank. The entire length of the west bank is in incredible shape. Very little plant/algae on the bank. For example, at the cypress log (top of RB, west bank) it is clear of all vegetation. You can see the shoreline at the surface from the log.
Catfish Hotel has all the big boulders clear of any plants/algae. Most of it seems to have washed out but there is still a dive's worth of work to clean it up.
The shallow run from Catfish Hotel to the dock is fairly congested. Kettleman's was clear. The run from Kettleman's to Cypress Point is congested. Cypress Point is extremely cloudy (2-3' vis) and very cold (the entire hole is cold, not just the bottom). The flow right now must be incredible for that spring.
Arch Site is so fowled up that it wouldn't pay to go into all the details. Large heads of coontail are hung up on the t-posts. The hump between Arch Site and Deep Hole is a bit shallow but passable. One interesting thing is that there were large schools of juvenile fish at Arch Site. I have never seen them there (or in such large numbers) swimming in fairly open water.
Deep Hole was unexpectedly cloudy. First, at Fault Line, you can watch the spring flow slowly roll back the black decayed matter on the bottom. Very cool to see. Second, to the north of the Deep Hole spring, you get hit with a wall of very cold water. There must be some additional shallow low pressure springs that were activated by the rainfall. This is the only time I have felt that type of cold water in Deep Hole. There is a lot more coontail between Deep Hole and the boat ramp than usual. Following the deepest path, I ended up north of the ramp by about 40'.
