Panhandle Spring Dive Reports for 6-13-10 pt 2

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SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
12,436
Reaction score
297
Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
6-13-10

I left out from Tallahassee for the hour, forty five minute drive to meet up with DogHouseDiver along one of my favorite waterways further West on the panhandle. The trip went by quickly, aided by some beef jerky and redbull. DHD was at our meeting place, gas station, when I pulled up(suprisingly on time) and we headed down the road, across the creek, and into a private boat launch that charges a whopping $2 for launching boats.

The Miss Jellyfish went up quickly. DogHouseDiver has put the boat together on his own before, so we were able to double up on her, making setup time negligable. We loaded the gear and got the motor started, then headed upstream. Todays trip was a prescouting, scouting trip. I've got a handfull of numbers within reach of this boat launch, so we figured we'd check a few of them out before coming back to one of the known spring caves for a cavern dive. Our first mark was nearly 3 miles upstream, so we headed there first in order for our exit to be downstream for the rest of the day. Took a few leads that ended off into un navigable floodplain, but eventually found the correct spring run. The motor hiccupped, but I quickly realized I hadn't opened the vent on the gas tank - D'Oh! The spring run meandered in several directions, its shallow, there are logs and sticks everywhere, trees down across the run are common, some you can hop over. Other trees, we had to hop out the boat into the water and portage the boat. In one instance, we actually had to drag the boat over some flood plain and back to the water. Eventually, we found a blue pool at the end of the run. There was a slight boil, water lettuce in the clear run gave it a nice contrast, and a few trees visible under the surface of the spring pool. We made it!

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We tied to a mostly submerged tree across the spring run, scaring some crawfish at the same time. Then started the gearing up process. Once ready, we descended into the spring run and swam up to the basin. The basin is made up of a steep depression with a few trees within. There's a float on the far side that makes it obvious that people use the spring for swimming on occassion. There's high ground on one side with a trail leading to the springhead, someone has land access. Most of the depression is made up for sand and silt, but one side has a limestone shelf with a bunch of woody debri and rock partly choking out a spring vent. There's enough flow to keep the small opening mostly clear, so I pulled my way to it and peaked inside. Its low, but I think its passable, so I start moving some of the woody debri, then DogHouseDiver and I double up on a big rock and move it to the side. The openings now big enough for me to enter the cavern after removing a single bottle off. I pull inside, the cavern is low and very wide, there are a few wine bottles just inside the cavern, that makes me giggle. Around 6-8' into the cavern, a cave line is tied off and zigzags through the cavern in areas that are a bit easier to swim. The ceiling is craggly and wants to snag on anything not streamlined. I zipped around to the back of the cavern and see a vent to one side that small, then a duckunder passage thats pushing most of the flow. The bottom looks to be a sand/clay mix and the passage dimensions seem easily swimmable in sidemount. Awesome! Seems as though all our work had payed off for this one, but it was time to head out as we had more to explore. Ken was at the entrance, shining the light from OW towards me, making sure I was OK. A bottle off for the exit and we exitted, and surfaced to talk about what we found with a dive time of nearly 30 minutes with a depth of 33'.

The exit out the spring run was alot easier, we knew where to go, the best way to portage each obstacle. It was a great day already, but we had a few more leads to check on so we headed downstream.

So our next spring was just shy of 2 miles back downstream, which was plenty of time for the boat to selfbail all the water it had leaked in during out trip thus far. We entered through some flood plain, obviously not picking the point of least resistance as we nearly instantly hit too-shallow water and jammed the prop with sticks. Poling ahead a bit, we found what we thought might be the spring run, stuck the motor down and headed upstream(?). Upstream is a difficult thing to recognize in the midst of wide floodplain... but we seemed to be in a slightly deeper channel, with seemingly cleaner water. No portages up this route, but a few logjams that need to be negotiated. Eventually we find an emerald blue gem smack dab in the middle of murky swamp. Lots of trees crossed the basin and DogHouseDiver cautioned for me to watch out for a large hornets nest in one of the trees directly above the water.

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Again, we geared up and swam up the shallow run to the spring basin. This one was much smaller, but steeper, with a silty depression leading to a vent nearly choked with woody debri. There was a little bit of flow coming out, not as much as our previous site, but enough to keep from getting completely clogged. I cleared a little bit away and peaked inside, there seemed to be a cavern on the otherside. This time, even taller than the last, but not as wide, nor as vast. I tied in and pulled through the entrance, which was a sidemount shaped passage into a small cavern that had just enough room to swim around in cleanly. There was a low area on the right, with silt on everything, outside of the flow. The flow itself was coming from the left and below, where the cavern stepped down. There was a passage with what was nearly a column in the middle, restricting further access in SM. Beyond the restriction, I could see borehole passage big enough to swim, atleast until the passage hangs left. The restriction was the conundrum though. I left the primary in place and DHD and I, after both looking around the cavern, surfaced to talk about conditions. The water flow kept everything relatively clean, there wasn't alot of silt, but there was alot of leaves, and woody detrius. The limestone is pure white, but also very soft and chaulky. We had been saving some gas for a quick cavern dive at one of the known sites, but this site had no line in it whatsoever, nor any signs of any other divers ever having been there. The lure of a virgin cave system was great! We ditched out on the known system. We decided to call the new cave Hornets Nest.

I'd take a short foray into Hornets Nest just to scope it out and put a little line in, which would require a double bottle off restriction. Even then, I had to grind and muscle my way through the restriction. DogHouseDiver would stay in the cavern and the restriction will be known as the Dog Collar Restriction from here on out. So after my grinder through the restriction, I was on the other side and started clipping my gear back off and getting it relatively back in order. It took me over 15 minutes to get through the restriction and get ready to start swimming again. So I start off and run line, trying to find tie-offs here and there. The biggest issue is the limestone is so soft, my line just cuts right through it, cleaving a piece of cave to the floor. Damn, I have to pick my tie offs carefully. This isn't our first dive of the day and my 72s are running a bit light, so their asses are a bit float. I cringe everytime I hear them clang on the ceiling. By the time I'm no more than 100'p into the cave, I decide that I need to tighten up the rig before coming further in order to keep from beating the cave down more than necessary. I tied off the line, cut the reel and stow it. The borehole passage I'm in past the restriction is 3-3.5' wide for the most part. Big enough to swim into, but not really big enough to turn around in cleanly. I back out a little bit to a slightly wider section and force a turn. Until then, visibility hadn't been an issue, but I got into the clay on this turn and visibility dropped substantially. I find the line, not hard, considering the dimensions of the cave, and start following it out - clanging the entire way(ouch). I can't see enough to keep clean. By the time I hit the restriction, visibility had improved quite a bit, 3-5' or so, and I can see DHD's light. He gives me an OK, I give an OK, then he heads out to give me room to work through the restriction. I toss one bottle through, then the other, while breathing off it, then start grinding my way into the cavern, past the Dog Collar. Once I'm through, I notice some excess lift, my inflator is jammed open - no biggy. I disconnect it. The reg on the same tank is freeflowing. I can breath off it, or just shut it down. The exit is 20' away, I can see it, so I shut the tank down and just breath off the other bottle until everything is clipped back onto me. The SM entrance is easy in comparison, but I managed to get snagged by some fishing line thats tugging on my working regulator. I break it away and DogHouseDiver and I do a safety stop before exitting. I hit 35' max depth for a total of 57 minutes of diving Hornets Hole. We didn't put in alot of line, but we know alot more about the cave itself, which hasn't seen divers in its entire existance! It was a surreal feeling seeing parts of our world, that nobody else, in history has ever laid eyes on. It took awhile for that fact to sink in...

We'll have alot of work to do still. I'm going to tighten up my SM rig some more, get it friendlier to bottle off restrictions and stowing everything back where it belongs. I've got to bring some survey data back, and the cave is still going, so I'm going to push it as far as I can, within my comfort zone! It'll be a long process, since I'm new at this, but it should be great fun.

Our trip back was quick, breaking the boat down took no time, we hit the road and decide to go south in search for a closer gas station, for my car. We strike out, and have to drive west for quite a ways before I can get gas, no idea how low I got, but I was surely almost stranded on the road - which would have been fine... Nothing could ruin my day at this point. After gassing up with hit up the Crestview Hooters on the way home, for a celebratory feast. The southwestern eggrolls were excellent and I enjoyed my 3 Mile Wings as always!

Had a great day of diving with a good buddy of mine. He's really itching to further his training at this point, there's more stuff out there to discover. Florida hasn't given up all its secrets yet. People are finding new passage in known systems every day, but there are still some completely new, unique cave systems to be discovered!
 
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Unjammed my inflator today :)

Also pulled out some nasty sticks that managed to lodge into my demand valve in a fashion that wouldn't let them be shaken out in the water. So no more free flow there either :D

Keeps me diving this weekend coming up, so thats good.
 
Great read Mat....sorry I couldn't make a day of exploring with you. You had my heart pumping reading that report. Glad to know that you can still silt a passage up now and then, kind of like I did with....or should I say TO Ben a few weeks ago. But, I think I had a lot more room to move around then you did! We will get a date set when I get back from my trip.

CONGRATS on the virgin cave!!! That is every cavers dream.
 
Great report Mat. Sounds like a great adventure.
 
Thanks guys, hopefully this is just the beginning :D
 

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