Florida Springs

Convict Springs – Doin’ it once to say you’ve done it…

James Garrett

Convict Springs is located at the River Rendezvous campground.  The people who own this are very friendly, and allow diving here free as long as you can prove side mount experience and full cave and sign their liability waiver during business hours.  Since it is free, if you choose to dive here, please at least eat something from their store, or tip them so that they continue to see some benefit in allowing cave diving.

The dive was tough to shoot video.  We decided to let Jeff Marchand be the lead diver, so that he could do all the gaps where the line has gone under the sand, as well as mark all the T’s for us.  This wasn’t the best decision, as the site is way too silty to have 3 divers in the cave at once.  I’ll at least post the video that I was able to gather, Michael Gibby is the diver in front of the camera.

Another Florida Spring from James Garrett on Vimeo.

“Trapped” in History….

“Trapped” in History….

James Garrett

After a long weekend of moving (I live on the 3rd floor, it wasn’t fun), it was time to goof off a bit.  North Florida is currently having some of the best conditions I’ve ever seen since I started cave diving.  Sadly these conditions are still terrible compared to the clear water I remember when I was much younger and going to these same sites to swim.  Jeff arrived at my place around 10am, so we packed up and headed to Stacey’s place to carpool over to Cave Excursions to get fills.  After that, we went to talk to the landowner, who is extremely cave diver friendly.  He said we could dive the sink, and to be careful.

After a short drive, we were on a dirt road with no signs, but did manage to quickly find the sink hole.  There were concrete steps built and the land was cleared so that you could back right up and throw your gear in the water.  No picnic tables, but who am I to complain?  You can really tell the water level is low here, below all of the steps, so site entry here is difficult at best.  After gearing up and doing a bubble check, we were ready to head off!

We had mucked up the bottom a bit while getting our fins on and floating at the surface, but the water source was nice and cool, so we followed that into the cave, finding the primary line just before the overhead.  Once in the cave we were greeted with at least 30-40′ visibility, better than most people who have been around longer than me have seen.  Once in the cave, I was a bit perplexed that the size wasn’t quite what I had expected, as someone had told me that “Leon Sinks and Peacock had sex and this is what came of it”, but after swimming a few 100ft upstream, I was greeted by gigantic rooms, where my view was limited by the visibility, at times I could only see one wall.  Because of the visibility, it’s a great cave to have a team of 3 helping light the whole place.  Jeff was leading, Stacey was next, and I was in 3rd place, so I got to enjoy the view as those two lit up the whole place for me.  Around 1000-2000ft upstream, cave life heavily picked up, something I hadn’t expected.  Blind Crayfish were everywhere, big ones too!  There were also worms in the silt, I really have no idea what those things are.

I hate to write about the man made parts of the cave, but this one is special.  The 100ft markers are written on duct tape, which was wrapped around #18 twisted/knotted line.  Some of this belonged to Sheck Exley I believe, although I’m going to have to research things a bit more and figure out where exactly the markers and line came from.

After about 35 minutes of swimming upstream, we returned and exited.  Since we were in back mount, getting out was a nightmare.  We decided to take our tanks and harness off in the water and come back for the gear after we got out of our dry suits.

Cave Diving on the Wacissa River

James Garrett

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!

Convict Springs

James Garrett

After boating up river looking for potential leads, Jeff and I ran across the Suwannee River Rendezvous Resort & Campground, where there was a spring run.  We didn’t make the connection that this was Convict Springs, so we went to the office and asked the manager if we could dive here, only realizing what cave it was when we saw the map on the wall.  This is a nice place to camp, it has hot showers and a place to eat all on site.  Upstream from here is a great canoe spot as well!

We got in the water at about 10pm, and had to be out by 11pm.  Because of this, we limited dive time to 45 minutes.  Convict is a beautiful system, with rocks that look like egg shells, formed around something (possibly clay) that has been washed away.   There’s also a tree root growing dead center of one of the cave’s large rooms.  The system is incredibly fragile, and very silty.  If you’ve not been in many silt outs, wait to go here until you gain experience in them.

Out on the Suwannee….

James Garrett

Today Jeff Marchand and I decided to take the boat out from the Royal Springs boat ramp and go see one of my favorite caves.  We went about 1/4 mile down river and geared up.  We added arrows every 100ft into the system, and easy task since the line was all knotted.  We only got to p900ft before a nice size rock fell on Jeff’s head and he wanted to get out….fast.  On the way out, we saw a side passage at about 200ft from the first sink.  I grabbed a spool and headed down to explore.  Having to take a tank off, I knew it was tight, and I could see the viz degrade quickly, but about 50ft in the cave clearly opened up.  Once I got to the more open section, my hose o-ring extruded and gas went everywhere, causing my startled self to stir up silt, and the exit took FOREVER.  Lesson learned, keep a better eye on line quality!

Starting the day out on the river

James Garrett

After Phillip arrived at my parents house around 9am, we headed over to Amigo’s Dive Center and got our LP85’s filled.  With a heat index of over 100 degrees, gearing up wasn’t going to be any fun at all.  Makes me wish I lived up north this time of year!  After arriving at the Royal Springs boat ramp, I started inflating the boat and put it in the water.  After getting all our gear loaded, we headed approximately 1/4 mile downstream and found clear water off to our left, what we were looking for!

We pulled the boat over and were greeted by two brand new “No Trespassing” signs nailed to a log.  We geared up on the river side of those, and swam under the land bridge, then up the stream into the cave.  The cave is a series of 3 inline sinks, all with “Ginnie Clear” water.  This cave really is a gem, so close to everything, yet undamaged.  We swam about 1000ft with an average depth less than 15ft, and crossed 3 sinks along the way.

Little Hart Springs – Mainline Cave Dive

James Garrett

Today I met up with Jerry Murphy at Cave Excursions East and headed to Hart Springs. The cost is currently $2 for a guide, and $20 for the diver being guided.  You can find more information on the guide system and current access policies here.

The descent reminds you a lot of Devil’s Ear, except smaller and higher flow, but a water house style fissure crack all the same. Once at the bottom, the cave levels out just past 20ft deep and cuts towards the bridge in my photo I’ll post below. The tunnel is reasonably large, but not humongous. You can’t stretch your feet just yet, and it’s still ferocious flow that made me miss the comparatively weak flow experienced at Ginnie and JB. For about 400ft, it’s a challenge to find handholds that are solid enough that you won’t break the cave, so be careful. Fortunately having a guide who’s been there often, I could just follow his lead.

I’m starting a new paragraph because after 400ft the cave changes. You get beyond “Big Hart” and the flow tremendously decreases while the cave opens up. From here on out, you’re going to run a 70ft profile and the cave “squirrel tracks” become substantially less noticeable. One interesting aspect of Hart is that there’s several side tunnels that appear almost as big as the main line part of the tunnel. Most caves in the area have one large tunnel and smaller offshoots. Also, if you carefully watch the floor, you’ll notice lots and lots of extremely interesting formations just sitting on the ground in the clay.

Around 1000ft of penetration, you’ll encounter double arrows, which means you’re half way to “Black Lagoon”, which will remain a guided system. From here until you pass under the lagoon, you’ll notice the sides of the cave have lots of shelves and cracks in the ceiling that make you wonder how many small offshoots can one cave have?

About 200ft short of Black Lagoon, I hit my turn pressure, and we let the flow carry us some 1800ft back to the entrance, with a rare fin kick thrown in to steer our bodies. Opon grabbing our deco bottles, we were greeted with that annoying entrance again, but unlike Devil’s Ear, mother nature forgot to install a deco log at 20ft!

Wilson Springs – Almost a river cave…

James Garrett

After getting to bed late and then having to get up early, I drag myself out of bed, throw the gear in the car, and head to subway for a breakfast sandwich.  Kevin meets me there, and then we head over to the spring.  Kevin had rented a house near this place, and knew several land owners, so gaining access wasn’t as difficult as one would imagine.

A few weeks back, the surface visibility wasn’t stellar, and to be honest, it really hasn’t improved much since then, even with other low flow systems that are near the river (like Peacock Springs) now clearing.  Even with poor viz, we decided to get into the system and at least do a familiarization dive.

The line was still run out into open water, so no primary was needed, although we did bring a primary just in case any lines were in need of repair.  The first 400ft of this cave doesn’t have knotted line in it, however the lines after that are knotted.  Fortunately we didn’t come across any broken line, however the line was buried and had gone limp in several places, so we tied a knot to take up the slack, or tied off again when we could.

Our total dive time was under 1hr, with the majority of it spent at 100ft.  We got about 800-1000ft into the system I would guess, taking the right side of each T.  At the first T, the left side is smaller and shorter than the right, but they both meet up again at the second T, where we continued on into the cave.

Here’s a few videos, and then a gallery-
(we both have 21w HID’s in this one, for perspective)

Kevin Leading The Way from James Garrett on Vimeo.

Neat formation in some random spring in FL. from James Garrett on Vimeo.

**B***** Slough – 5/31/10

James Garrett

Went with Allen and Dr Craiger around Wakulla Springs Road and found this Gem on the roadside (ok, I didn’t find it, but I would get my throat cut if I posted the exact location heh).  This is a site where you have to park on the public right of way, and walk up the slough to the spring vent.  I would advise that you attach a weight to a string and throw it into the cave when you first get there, as the basin will get mucky and quickly turn to zero viz, which will cause you to spend 10-15 minutes just finding the cave entry.  This cave has to be the most beautiful system I’ve ever seen, as it’s protected by an alligator 90% of the time.