Off to a hole in the woods…

Today Jeff and I had planned to hit up a spring near Wakulla, but the landowner is no longer allowing access, so we were able to take things slow and get a late start to our day.  This was a sinkhole which neither of us had dove before, but we knew it was gorgeous from photos. Ben has taken some excellent underwater shots, which can be found here.

This was one of those sinks that really makes you think about pollution.  It’s right by a major road in Tallahassee, and the land surrounding it is being used to dump all sorts of garbage.  If you recognize this site and decide to dive it, please be very careful, as homeless people are living here, littering the place with needles, beer bottles, liquor bottles, and various other trash.  Due to the pristine nature of this site, and how fragile it is, I’m going to limit my blog post to only surface photos.

Upon surfacing, we were greeted by four homeless people, three of which showed warning signs that they were on “meth”, and all 4 drunk. We were as nice as we could possibly be, but hurried back to the truck where we could take full advantage of our 2nd amendment right to protect ourselves.  They were very friendly, but I’m completely unfamiliar with drugs, so I didn’t know if they could become violent or turn on us.

Cave Diving on the Wacissa River

Jeff and I woke up early — 6am to head to the Wacissa River and do some cave diving.  We had been looking at the Geological Survey and found several potential leads.  We found a place that rents canoe’s (link here), although at $30/day it’s not cheap.  Wish my boat didn’t have a leak in it, we could have saved money AND not had to paddle, but I’ll deal with that once I move back to High Springs.  The Wacissa river is excellent for Kayaking and Canoeing, as you’ll see from the photos at the end of this post.

Our first stop was Little Blue Spring.  This spring is gorgeous from the surface, and we were very excited to see crystal clear water flowing out of the spring run.  Since this site was on tampadiving, we were almost positive that we would find cave here. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any cave here, so we had to continue on.

We found another spring run, this time Garner, a very long run with several shallow spots and logs that force you to get out and pull the boat. We saw that there was line in this one, so we geared up and took a look.  The line here is extremely fragile, so we ran our own line the first 600ft of the system.  About 400-500ft penetration, there’s a T, which we went to the right at.  On exit, we were faced with zero visibility practically the whole way, and when I mean zero, I mean it was so muddy that I couldn’t tell my light was on at times.  I would suggest staying out of this system unless you’re extremely comfortable in zero viz.

After heading out, Big Blue Spring was our next destination.  We were told that this one had cave, but hadn’t actually been there before.  Upon arriving, we saw several swimmers, this appears to be a popular spot to park the boat, drink beer, and swim.  We pulled the canoe over to the side and started to gear up again.  The bottom of the spring is about 40ft deep, with a circular opening that’s like swimming through a fire hydrant, worse than Devil’s Ear or Jackson Blue.  Once through the entrance, there’s a no mount restriction (you might can do it with just one tank off, but no mount is easier on the cave) just before the mainline of the cave starts.  The mainline goes about 200ft and then dead ends.  This system is very pretty, but short.

Starting to get hungry, we packed our gear and headed home.  On the way, we decided to check out one more spring, this time Minnow Springs.  At first, I started to not get in the water, as the basin looked extremely small, but decided to give it a look just in case.  After looking, I saw that there was potential, and grabbed the sidemount tanks and suited up.  Once inside the cave, I was thrilled to see that there was no line!  This system is the first one I’ve ever been in without line!  I laid about 80ft and then hit a no mount restriction too small for me….darn!

Hole In The Wall – 5/30/10

Another early morning to Cave Adventurers, as this morning we had rented a boat.  We got there around 8am, got our stuff loaded, and then our buddy Allen met us there shortly after.  We planned to hit up all 3 Mill Pond caves, but Hole in the Wall is my favorite, so it would have to be first!

Phillip ran the reel ahead of time, as it would be a pain to deal with when we each had scooters.  Since Hole in the Wall is a no flow cave, the plan was to use 2 stages as travel gas, reserve back gas, and tow a scooter “just in case”.  Once I get more DPV experience, I’m sure I’ll not be that conservative, but for now more gas and more scooters are never a bad thing.  Scootering this cave is an experience that just cannot be described, you’re cruising through crystal clear water with huge dome ceilings that are as white as can be, with the exception of a few iron colored ceiling formations.  If you can’t make it to the Mill Pond, you owe it to yourself to at least purchase Liquid Productions Mill Pond Experience DVD.

Little River…Wakulla award at last…

Well, those of you that know me, know that I absolutely hate Little River.  About once a year, someone fools me into thinking maybe another dive will make it better…It never does.  Today was no exception.  The Orlando Magic played at 5pm, so we were in a hurry to get back to watch the game, and our cave scouting earlier in the day fell through.  We swam just beyond the FL room to about p1200ft.  My drysuit had a huge flood, so it’s going to Steve Gambles place on the way out of town tomorrow.  The one really cool thing about this dive is that it marks my 100th hour underwater since full cave, so I’m up to receive my Wakulla award!

Breathing Gas– 32% Backgas / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 108ft
Avg Depth– 100ft
Visibility– 20ft or so..
Water Temp– 72F
Dive Time: 63min

Devil’s – River Intrusion and Insulation Rooms

Met with Stacey after I got out of church to get a few photos for her graduate school presentation.  She has been doing research measuring pollutants in the Devil’s system for over 3 years, and is finally getting ready to present it!  The dive plan was to scooter to the insulation rooms, grab a few photos, then scooter back to the river intrusion rooms, take photos, and then exit.

Peacock Springs – Watersource Tunnel

Today Stacey and I went to the Watersource tunnel in Peacock Springs since it was just recently reopened due to flooding.  I had assumed that this would provide clear water, however I didn’t think about the fact that this tunnel is almost always nasty, and was even worse after the flooding!

Breathing Gas– 32% Backgas
Max Depth
Avg Depth
Visibility– 20ft Peanut Tunnel, 40ft Watersource tunnel
Water Temp– 68F
Dive Time: 71min

Devils – Sweet Surprise

Breathing Gas– 32% Backgas / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 104ft
Avg Depth– 85ft
Visibility– 75ft
Water Temp– 72F
Dive Time: 72min

Notes:
Met up with Stacey at Cave Excursions East to get fills and then headed off to Ginnie to do a quick dive before the super bowl.  Our original plan was to hit mainland, but another team was already in there, so we cut it back a bit and just went to Sweet Surprise.  According to Forrest Wilson here, Sweet Surprise got it’s name because Dale Sweet discovered it, even after it had been missed by other explorers.

To get there, simply scooter in on a stage until about p2100 and then look for a tunnel that looks like it “goes”.  The jump line is cut pretty far back here.  We made it back to the first T, which is the turtle tunnel and takes you to Mainland.  Due to recent rains and flooding, viability was poor for the Devils system.

Jug Hole at Ichetucknee Springs- Short but beautiful cave

Met with Michael Gibby and Jeff Marchand to drive out to Ichetucknee Springs State Park and drive the Jug Hole Cave.  This cave system requires a side mount entry, but is fairly large once you’re in, with two rooms that really stand out.  I dove side mount since this cave requires it, but I certainly don’t like it.

Ginnie Springs – Scooter to the White Room & Wonder Tunnel (yes, I’m that lazy)

Met with Jeff around 9pm after I got off work and had to fight Orlando traffic.  Once we got signed in it was off to the Devil’s pavilion to get geared up.  As soon as we got in the water Jeff’s UV26 had the prop spin off because the clutch had cracked.  Since we knew this dive was easy to do within overall 1/3rds, I just towed him to the Wonder Tunnel/White Room to save time and energy.  Took some video on this dive since I haven’t been doing that for the blog recently.

Swimming from the Bone Line to the White Room

Heading towards the White Room in Ginnie Springs from James Garrett on Vimeo.

Barrel Roll Practice-

Scootering fun near the park bench from James Garrett on Vimeo.