Oronogo Conditons 7/28/07

[DivingCRNA]

Well, I met up with Dark Wolf, Kunk35 (and wife yellowtailkunkfish), WaltnShar and their friend Phillip out at Oronogo today. Emaxwell and his friend Max were out there too.

There were MANY open water students out there. Vis was good shallow until the check out dives started. Which is to be expected. We were all there once....

Dark Wolf and I did 2 100 foot dives. The first was to the cabin cruiser and then we followed the road up (peeking in the 4 doors) to the plane and then found the air cave. Vis at 100 feet opened up to 15 feet. Temp at 100 feet was 49 degrees F.

Second dive was into the 4 doors cavern on a line to look for the permenent line. We did not find it and the vis is still not good in the 4 doors. We then went up one of the chimneys out of the cavern, to the plane (allong the cliff edge) to take some pics and then too pics in the air cave.

A great day to meet some great people. Good dives too. Maybe we can get some better cavern vis some day and check out the lincoln divers sign at the back of the cavern!

Oh yeah! The Kunk's tarp smells a lot more like John's dogs pee than it did before today! LOL

Anyone got anything to add?

 

[nagel]

Nice Dive Report. I had planned on making it down to Oronogo this year (never been there), but man it's almost August where has the summer went!! Maybe I can squeeze it in yet, but it's been a busy year.

I guess I've been sleeping...I didn't realize Oronogo had such sites to see. Tell me a little more about the cavern or cave. I'm not cave certified and not interested at all in going into a cave (this still kinda freaks me out).

S. Nagel

 

[DivingCRNA]

Nice Dive Report. I had planned on making it down to Oronogo this year (never been there), but man it's almost August where has the summer went!! Maybe I can squeeze it in yet, but it's been a busy year.

I guess I've been sleeping...I didn't realize Oronogo had such sites to see. Tell me a little more about the cavern or cave. I'm not cave certified and not interested at all in going into a cave (this still kinda freaks me out).

S. Nagel

Thanks.

They are usually open until November (vis is great in the winter time), so you have plenty of time to get there.

The 2 caverns I have been in are the air cave and the four doors.

The Air Cave: It is located east of the training platform on the wall of the mine. It only goes maybe 15-20 feet back, but when the water is up there is an air pocket at the top of the cavern. The air is kinda stale, but we took some pics in there. There is enough ambient light to see without lights.

The Four Doors: They are right below the entry point to the lake. The tops of the doors are at about 70-80 feet and the bottoms are at about 90-100 feet. There is a permenent line in there, but it is out of sight if you are outside the cavern now because of low vis due to rain. These caverns go back quite a ways. I have been to the back, to the Lincoln Divers sign. It is a nice dive. The walls are rock, but there is muck on the bottom.

There are at least 3 other caverns/caves I know of out there, but they are mostly deeper that 110 feet and more of a challenge than I am safely up for right now.

There are, also some care piles out there, a mega rock, a computer and a couple of platforms.

There are restroom, gear rentals, and air fills available on site as well.

What else do you want to know?

 

[nagel]

I think you covered it all. Thanks for the detailed description.

S. Nagel

 

[cummings66]

Ahh, the computer, I remember it well. The very first time I got narc'd was there. I'm not sure I remember accurately what happened though, it was strange.

 

[Kunk35]

Hey Guys! Just wondering if anyone has the pictures we took of the group that day? I want to keep track of my dive locations in my digital log, and pictures are great!

 

[Dark Wolf]

Hey Kunk,
I have the pics, and am planning on getting them to you guys today or tomorrow. Somehow, the sheet that had everyones names on it got separated from the camera while we were at Oronogo. If anyone has this, it would be a big help. Regardless, I will get the pics out soon. If you want to send me a PM with your e-mail, I can send them to you. Or is there another way you guys would like me to do this?
By the way, it was great meeting all of you. We will have to do it again sometime!!

 

[texdiveguy]

Next time you guys hit the site drop me a PM....might hook-up if able to swing the trip up.....need to feel some chilly water again!

 

[Dark Wolf]

Hey tex,
Were you thinking of anytime in particular? I will be out of town the last weekend of this month, but other than that I should be available. Let me know when you might be in town, and we will try to get together.

 

[Kunk35]

Dark Wolf, I've got a list of the names. Post the pic on here and I can fill in the names.