Just to show people that we can still have fun in the midwest, I have some interesting experiences from this weekend's exciting edition of Winter Quarry Warriors....
Our saga begins on Friday afternoon (January 7) at 3:00 pm when I get a call that my new drysuit is in. Problem: I am at work as I work a 3-11 steady shift. I debate taking vacation as I have plans to dive Gilboa Quarry on the weekend. Gilboa is a three and half hour drive and opens at 10:00 am on winter weekends. The shop opens at 10:00 am. I decide to show some discipline and wait until Monday to pick up the new drysuit.
I get home on Friday night, pack my dive gear, get a couple hours of sleep and head out about 6:00 Saturday morning. It is a three hour drive to Findlay, where the guys are having breakfast and I will meet them there for breakfast. Halfway to Findlay (approximate) I run into a snowstorm that hit Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio. It is enough snowfall so that I-75 is down to 25-45 mph. Forget breakfast. It takes me about 5 hrs to get to the quarry.
When I get there about 11:00 in the morning I find that the place has not yet been plowed. I drive a Mustang, but it manages to find a parking spot. I find that there was about four inches of snow dropped on this area. Underneath this are about two inches of ice. This makes for downright dangerous footing on the dock areas. There is a shore entry area that is relatively "safe" (although we take bets on how many times each person will slip). As you will see from the photos this is on a downhill slope. My Mustang stays in the parking lot and I gamely plunk my double 100's on my back and baby step down the hill where my compatriots are setting up a tent and heaters. Four wheel drive is required to drive down to the actual entry area and get back out. In fact, we had to push a four wheel drive truck driven by someone in another group to better traction to allow it drive out later. Some ingenious people are using sleds to take their gear down to the set-up area ("Why don't I think of this?", my body asks me). Icicles are falling from utility lines and tree branches near the office area.
My dive buddies shovel the area and we clear off tables for for gear (including the scooters that we will all be using). Air temp: 41 degrees F in the morning, 45 degrees F in the afternoon. The water temp: 41 degrees F. At the end of our two dives, the instructor who brought the tarp decides to leave town. That is alright as we all only do the one dive on Sunday. All the dives are below 100 ft. and about 40 minutes in length. By the end of the second dive, my fingers are numb. I am wishing for that new drysuit as it includes dry gloves. Currently, I dive with wet gloves. When the air temps are getting down this bad, that becomes noticeable with wet hands. Oh, did I mention that I need a push to get my car out of the parking lot, LOL.
Anyways, Sunday rolls around and we check out of our hotel rooms.
My dive buddy and I get geared up and as my buddy is relatively new to doubles rigs it takes him a while to gear up. By the time he and I are headed out, the other three are heading in. All right, we go out and do our dive and come out. Our buddies left. Worse.... their big, huge, luxerious heaters left with them, LOL!
So we go up to the changing room and change back into street clothes before handling gear. We load my gear up into my buddy's 4WD and run it up to my car. I hike my tanks as that I way I only have to lift them once. We all agreed that we had a good time that we would do it again.
Gee, and people think Canadians are out there for putting up with the cold.
Photo links:
Ice on utility lines of front office
Gear waiting for hardy owners
Overview of dive site
Mush! Mush!
Getting the site prepped
And Supervising!
What it took to get down there!
