SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
1-31-9
Dale Wilson picked me up early Saturday morning and we loaded up the Miss Jellyfish in his new truck. We'd be riding a bit more comfortably than the past few trips in the farm truck. It was damned cold and my hands were pretty numb by the time we finished moving cold steel tanks, and lots of boat bits. We were out and on the road as the sun was coming up and headed East. Original plans were to dive a river cave, but after some talk, we changed plans and decided to dive Merrits Mill Pond. Hit up Cave Adventurers and BS'd with Gordon a bit while we got some tanks filled. Once finished up there, we headed to Day Loop.
Twin Cave
Day Loop is a decent place to launch small boats, its also just across the pond from Twin Caves, so its an ideal place for us to start. We setup, loaded the tanks, and headed across to Twin. Its been quite a while since I've dived here and its always a great, the circuit is a favorite. We hit the water and I led into the cavern where I was greeted by literally several hundreds of bream hanging out in the basin. We dropped down the first chimney and headed down the subway tunnel. There's actually enough flow to be apparent, but still not enough to impede travel in the slightest. Visibility was the typical 60'+ except for where the catfish were mucking about the bottom. I cookied the "t" and we dropped down the first fissure into the deep section and followed it around to the jump to the rightside(heading in) of the training room. I ran the spool off the gold and into the jumpline and we headed over towards the Terminal Room. Its a really neat room with a couple domes in the ceiling. We followed the line just a bit further until we hit another "t" in the line. Dale turned the dive at this point and we started our exit. I found a lost cookie on the way out, pulled the jump spool, and we ascended up the upstream fissure. The swim back down the subway tunnel was uneventfull and the cavern was a great place for a minute or three stop before the exit. We hadn't mucked it up, visibility was good, there was a huge concentration of fish to look at, and the light coming from both exits made for quite a sight! Had a max depth of 103' with a dive time of 71 minutes. Great dive and there's pretty much endless cave to explore in the deep section.
Hole in the Wall
Motored over to Cave Adventurers in the boat, docked, and loaded up the 4 wheeler with tanks to get filled. We hit up McNasty for lunch and the tanks were ready for us by the time we were back. It was around 3 or 4PM by then, and we knew we were gonna run short on daylight if we didn't get back in the water shortly. Loaded Miss Jellyfish back up and headed to Hole in the Wall. The dock was empty when we got there, earlier there were a couple boats docked, so we were pleasantly suprised. It had only been 3 hours since we surfaced from our previous dive before we hit the water again.
I ran a primary through the cavern and down the chimney, then into the downstream goldline. We headed through and visibility started at about 20-30' and a bit milky. We pasted the Big E, the Dragon, and continued on in. Flow was imperceptable(although there was a small boil at the surface of Hole). Dome room after dome room came and went and then the cave pinched down at the Sand Dollar Restriction, which opened up into a great big dome room that came up pretty shallow. The line then goes down over a limestone arch and under another duck under into comparitively small cave(still plenty big) for about a hundred feet before opening up at a "t" with very large passage going in two different direction. This was a hair past 1900'p and we had plenty of gas, but decided it was time to go as we'd already be getting back with the sun down. Visibility by this point had improved to 50-60'. The exit was uneventfull but we enjoyed the cave all the same, along with the crawfish, salamander, and other little cave critters... even the messy ass catfish. Had a max depth of 84' with a total dive time of 88 minutes including 15 minutes of deco on backgas. We surfaced just in time for me to snap off this quick picture. I was already quite cold, the surface temps were dropping and offered no relief.
This started off as a day trip, but we decided in route to make it a weekend trip. So we hit checked into the Executive, I showered the smell of urine off me, and we hit Old Mexico before crashing.
More to come, hold up.
Dale Wilson picked me up early Saturday morning and we loaded up the Miss Jellyfish in his new truck. We'd be riding a bit more comfortably than the past few trips in the farm truck. It was damned cold and my hands were pretty numb by the time we finished moving cold steel tanks, and lots of boat bits. We were out and on the road as the sun was coming up and headed East. Original plans were to dive a river cave, but after some talk, we changed plans and decided to dive Merrits Mill Pond. Hit up Cave Adventurers and BS'd with Gordon a bit while we got some tanks filled. Once finished up there, we headed to Day Loop.
Twin Cave
Day Loop is a decent place to launch small boats, its also just across the pond from Twin Caves, so its an ideal place for us to start. We setup, loaded the tanks, and headed across to Twin. Its been quite a while since I've dived here and its always a great, the circuit is a favorite. We hit the water and I led into the cavern where I was greeted by literally several hundreds of bream hanging out in the basin. We dropped down the first chimney and headed down the subway tunnel. There's actually enough flow to be apparent, but still not enough to impede travel in the slightest. Visibility was the typical 60'+ except for where the catfish were mucking about the bottom. I cookied the "t" and we dropped down the first fissure into the deep section and followed it around to the jump to the rightside(heading in) of the training room. I ran the spool off the gold and into the jumpline and we headed over towards the Terminal Room. Its a really neat room with a couple domes in the ceiling. We followed the line just a bit further until we hit another "t" in the line. Dale turned the dive at this point and we started our exit. I found a lost cookie on the way out, pulled the jump spool, and we ascended up the upstream fissure. The swim back down the subway tunnel was uneventfull and the cavern was a great place for a minute or three stop before the exit. We hadn't mucked it up, visibility was good, there was a huge concentration of fish to look at, and the light coming from both exits made for quite a sight! Had a max depth of 103' with a dive time of 71 minutes. Great dive and there's pretty much endless cave to explore in the deep section.
Hole in the Wall
Motored over to Cave Adventurers in the boat, docked, and loaded up the 4 wheeler with tanks to get filled. We hit up McNasty for lunch and the tanks were ready for us by the time we were back. It was around 3 or 4PM by then, and we knew we were gonna run short on daylight if we didn't get back in the water shortly. Loaded Miss Jellyfish back up and headed to Hole in the Wall. The dock was empty when we got there, earlier there were a couple boats docked, so we were pleasantly suprised. It had only been 3 hours since we surfaced from our previous dive before we hit the water again.
I ran a primary through the cavern and down the chimney, then into the downstream goldline. We headed through and visibility started at about 20-30' and a bit milky. We pasted the Big E, the Dragon, and continued on in. Flow was imperceptable(although there was a small boil at the surface of Hole). Dome room after dome room came and went and then the cave pinched down at the Sand Dollar Restriction, which opened up into a great big dome room that came up pretty shallow. The line then goes down over a limestone arch and under another duck under into comparitively small cave(still plenty big) for about a hundred feet before opening up at a "t" with very large passage going in two different direction. This was a hair past 1900'p and we had plenty of gas, but decided it was time to go as we'd already be getting back with the sun down. Visibility by this point had improved to 50-60'. The exit was uneventfull but we enjoyed the cave all the same, along with the crawfish, salamander, and other little cave critters... even the messy ass catfish. Had a max depth of 84' with a total dive time of 88 minutes including 15 minutes of deco on backgas. We surfaced just in time for me to snap off this quick picture. I was already quite cold, the surface temps were dropping and offered no relief.
This started off as a day trip, but we decided in route to make it a weekend trip. So we hit checked into the Executive, I showered the smell of urine off me, and we hit Old Mexico before crashing.
More to come, hold up.
