This weekend I decided to test the new camera and housing out at Peacock Springs State Park.
Peacock Springs State Park
Peacock Springs – The Crypt
After a few weeks out of the water (drysuit zipper was being replaced), it was time to get some cave diving in! I had been talking with Heather about a NAUI Tech 1 course, and had both agreed to meet up for a familiarization dive with each other before class since we hadn’t dove together, and we could pick dive sites from there. One room I had heard a lot about was the “Crypt”, which is a known water source for the Peacock Springs Cave System. Since neither of us had been, we decided to attempt it. Celia and her husband Scott helped us out with directions.
Although it wasn’t necessarily required, we elected to use a stage. My first stage was dropped about 300ft shy of Olsen, and then I continued on with back gas. Because of the head start the stage gave us, we didn’t have to worry about running low on gas in the lower, more silty areas, and also had time to turn around and find a jump again if we happen to have missed it. Fortunately their directions were excellent, and we found the Crypt first attempt. Round trip was 117 minutes. The room was a disappointment for me, just a normal Peacock room with a bunch of snakes, bats, skulls, and various other man made items littering the room.
Here’s a video that someone recently posted of this dive on a diving forum.
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
Peacock Springs- Olsen Loop
Dive Time– 70 Minutes.
In Water– 3:49pm
Out Water– 4:59pm
Breathing Gas– 32% Travel / 100% Deco
Max Depth– 69ft
Visibility– 30-50ft
Water Temp– 70(F.)
Notes:
This dive was our graduation dive for apprentice…..nice and relaxing with no drills. I lead the dive, and since we didn’t have a primary (it was on the peanut side), I used a spool to tie into the gold line. We swam up pothole, stopping at pothole to show Ryan and Brian the bones and sink since they hadn’t been in this cave before. We then proceeded up stream, where we found our spool about 100ft from Olsen. Ryan was last, and pulled the spool (since he placed it on the previous dive), and we proceeded down the crossover tunnel, where the viz was still somewhat poor from the breather team earlier. Once we reached our spool leading to the peanut line, Brian pulled it, and we went back down the peanut line, with a somewhat fast pace so we could get out of the water by 5pm.
Peacock Springs – Pothole Line
Dive Time– 42 Minutes.
In Water– 4:13pm
Out Water– 4:55pm
Breathing Gas– 32%
Avg Depth– 48ft
Max Depth– 66ft
Visibility– 3-5ft Basin / 30-50ft in cave
Water Temp– 70(F.)
Notes:
Mainline to around p1000ft. Swam past double arrows marking the equal distance point between Olsen Sink and Peacock Springs, which are at 700ft. Viz has cleared up some, to the point that S drills are a LOT easier.
Peacock 1- Goldline to Olsen
Dive Time– 77 Minutes.
In Water– 11:13am
Out Water– 12:30pm
Breathing Gas– 32%
Avg Depth– 39ft
Max Depth– 67ft
Visibility– 50ft
Water Temp– 70(F.)
Notes:
First dive with Mike McAuliff. Mike had posted on CDF that he wanted to get some practice in on his rebreather, and I had nothing to do that Monday, so we agreed to meet up early at Dive Outpost and then head to Peacock Springs State Park. Used 700psi penetration gas to get all the way to Olsen, the way Peacock ha such low flow, it’s amazing how far you can get and how long you can stay down on just backgas. I really liked how the cave looks after pothole, it gets much larger, with dome’ed ceilings, and a few swim throughs. As usual, there was basically no flow, and most of the cave was very silty.
