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!

After 4 years of waiting….GRADUATION! :-)

James Garrett

Some of you may have noticed that my blog has recently been rather…inactive?  Well, finals at the end of the semester were a bit rough, so I had very little time to get out and do things.  Today I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BS degree in Information Technology. I’m not really sure what I can write about this, it’s seemed like a long 4 years at some points, and then others I wonder where the time has gone.  I got to attend the opening of our arena, football stadium, watch our football team work it’s way to our 2nd ever bowl game & first CUSA title, as well as see great academic marks as well, such as US News ranking UCF in the top 150 schools nationwide and placing them on the top 5 up and coming colleges.

Here’s a few photos from the ceremony and afterward.  Unfortunately they had to all be taken inside due to a heavy rainstorm that we couldn’t wait out due to having to return the gown within 2 hours of the ceremony being over.

Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley

James Garrett

After researching weekend getaways from Washington DC, Weekend trips from Washington DC, and just about every other keyword meaning “I want to get out of Washington DC for the weekend”, we eventually stumbled across information on Davis, WV.  Whitney and I both love getting outdoors and seeing the mountains, and while Hertz is running their $25/day weekend rentals, we thought that now would be a great time.  We used hotels.com and got a $74/night (after tax) room at the Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center.  The resort was aging, which was obvious, but the scenery was amazing, and the price was right.  Don’t expect the equivalent of a 5 star hotel, but expect great service, abundant wildlife, and fantastic scenery.

Our first place to visit was Blackwater Falls State Park, but first we decided to grab lunch at Blackwater Brewing Company, which appeared to have a decent biker turnout, so we assumed it would be good.  There was a group of 20+ bikers, and with this being a small place, they clearly weren’t staffed for the surge of people, so service time was almost 2 hours for lunch.  Not entirely their fault however, it’s a small town, and we realize that.  We each had the BBQ burger, which was decent, but nothing spectacular.

After lunch, we headed back to Blackwater Falls State Park.  The main attraction was the falls, however the entire park was a scenic drive.  We went to the falls first, which are off a very well maintained trail with new steps.  After that, we headed to Lindy Point overlook, which is about a 1/4 mile hike through the woods.  The view was amazing!

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.

Twin Caves – 5/30/10

James Garrett

After an interesting dive at Hole in the Wall, we had all of our back gas left, so we decided to do a swim dive over at Twin Caves.  Unfortunately a few people on scooters had blitzed the viz in the subway tunnel, so we’d have to deal with <15ft of viz in some places until we could drop down to the right side of the T, where we had been told there was clear viz until the double arrows.  This is my least favorite dive on the Mill Pond due to how little the first 900ft of the cave change, but it’s still a neat little dive to do if you want to kill time.