So it was a great day at the lake !!
TexDiveGuy & Richerso ( aka Alan & John) got to my place in Paris and after we took a look around the house to check out some of our fossil collection we heading North to Oklahoma. Along the way we stopped across the hiway from
Sealskin98’s place. We got out and waved our dive flag and honked our horns and yelled for at least a minute. :mooner:
We scared off all of the wildlife but managed to raise not a single person at the ranch. My guess is they sleep real soundly.
We made a heck of a racket !!:lol:
We got to the lake and set up at the Scenic Overlook between the spillway and the dam above the Wall on the South side of the lake. We had a short ceremony to
Consult with the Bones. The ritual required an initial scraping of the earth, then a sacrificial offering was made that had been prepared ~“
a head” ~ of time. We then purified the offering before the bones were scattered to the rhythmic sounds of a shaking rain stick. The bones promised a fantastic dive and a surprise as well !!
The Bones are never wrong ~~~~~
The walk down the trail to the lake is not too hard . The walk back up after the second dive always is thought. I’ve made 8 dives at this site and it never seems to get any easier. We keep going back though because the dives are good.
We hit the water and cooled and it felt great. We kicked out a way and left our dive flag at the edge of the cove and dropped down through the upper water column. The Vis. Was murky and got down right bad at 15 feet for awhile. At 31 feet that all changed. We punched through the cloud layer at the thermo cline and everything cleared up instantly . The temperature dropped down drastically too. You could just about bounce off the thermo. like a trampoline. We each flipped on our lights 1-2-3 as we slid quietly into the dark towards the cliff we knew was there at 65 feet. As expected there is was… “The Elevator Shaft”. A crisp sharp rock ledge and jet black below that straight down to the old river botom at around 140 feet. Did I mention the trees ?? Yep they are all over the place. Big ones, Really big ones, small ones too. Soon your surrounded by them. I like being in the trees they remind me of my childhood. All you need to do is look up to see the canopy of trees and over hanging cliffs they cling to. It’s fantastic. The water is black when you look down… really black. The vis. is super. Point your light towards the bottom and the beam just goes to a pin point off into nothing and is swallowed up. We sink slow and easy through the branches and along the cliff. At times there is no backing up and it feels like being in a rabbit hole. Alan said it was cool to watch us swim under the branches as he drifted a few feet above . This is one of those place where it is exciting to lead but is just as awesome to follow someone. Rolling over onto my back and looking up always made me wish I had brought my camera. My computer said the water was 48 degrees down there. We’ll call it 50 most of the time. We had planned to turn the dive at 120 feet and that’s about where we leveled off for a bit before heading back towards the sky. Now the trees were more visible as was the fishing line. We hung at 60 feet for a couple of minutes to off gas in a clump of trees and logs on a ledge. I could imagine an Eagle’s nest being here on the cliff before there was ever a lake. We zig-zagged through a spider web of fishing line and trees and got absorbed by the warm gel like cloud of the thermo cline again. It felt pretty good too !!
Dive #2 was along the same route although just a bit differently. We went down slower and smoother and then followed Alan through the trees at about 110 feet along the cliff.
Our Surprise !!!
I found some Bikini Bottoms hanging on a branch at 110 feet. Victoria’s Secret Leopard print.
Classy stuff ! I left them where I found them. We had not seen or heard the Sirens all day long but now I had proof that they actually lived there. Maybe they were just out shopping for the afternoon.
Shucks…We missed them. Maybe next time.
Slow slow slow and quiet. What a nice ascent as we crused along and made a nice transition from dark to light over the next 15 minutes. Following someone wearing doubles in the dark is cool . It looks like you are flying behind a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier.
John found a nice piece of burled wood to take home.
The evil up hill trail was still there when we got out . John and I hoofed it straight up to the truck and dumped our gear and went back down to help out Alan with the doubles. I had brought a 2-wheel dolly to haul gear down and back and it seemed to help some. Even with two guys pulling there are a couple of steep spots on the rocky trail that will really torture your arms. We looked like Gumby afterwards.
A big plate a Enchiladas seemed like a fitting way to cap off the adventure. Yummy !!
Like I said , “The Bones Are Never Wrong !”
