5 replies to this topic

[BradfordNC]

did the drive down to Lake City on Thursday night.
tanks were empty so had to wait until until Friday morning when Dive Outpost opened up at 8 to get fills.

so the diving started Friday morning at 9:40 at Telford.
figured morning is the best time to dive there because the party crowd isn't there yet, or they are passed out in their tents and cars.

so parked right at Terrapin Sink, the water level was low, but the beer bottle and watermelon rind content was high. nothing like jumping into a cesspool. stepping down into the knee deep mud blows the viz in the sink, and in the past has made it hard to find the small entrance into the system. helpful tip: there is a dead tree submerged in the sink right below the big rock, following it leads right to the cave entrance.

dive 1 (friday 26 May)
Telford dive time 60 minutes, max depth 70 feet
first dive of the day, this was for max penetration. viz was great, and the flow wasn't too bad. was able to get most of the way through the Beulahland section of the cave, almost to the expressway. Telford is amazing in that the rock formations change so often.

dive 2 (friday 26 May)
Telford dive time 40 minutes, max depth 53 feet.
the intent of this dive was to check out one of the jumps in the Rifts section. the jump is through a narrow side fissure in the middle of an area where the mainline passes through a floor to ceiling fissure about halfway through the Rifts. i set my reel and started the jump, looking for the line. finaly came to a 90-degree turn and the line was down at the bottom of the fissure. apparently this was the upstream portion of this circuit, and the water was flowing in the direction i was going, and while connecting the jump spool, i shot the viz. i could see that this line was going to have a lot of tight squeezes and low areas, and didn't feel like moving into the silt so i pulled the reel and spent the rest of the dive exploring other parts of the Rifts section.

headed back to the Dive Outpost for fills and to see if anyone was diving Peacock. the NSS-CDS seminars were going on, so there were plenty of people looking to dive. i hooked up with Bob and Denise and headed over to Peacock.

dive 3 (friday 26 May)
Peacock Springs dive time 64 minutes, max depth 67 ft.
the intent on this dive was an easy going dive up the pothole line and attempt to reach Olsen Sink. Denise ran the reel and i brought up the tail. there were a few dive teams between the entrance and pothole, pretty sure they were students. after pothole we didn't see anyone else in the system. made it through the Window and were less than 200 ft from Olsen when Bob called the dive. nice, easy ride the flow back to Peacock. upon surfacing, Bob started beating himself up because he had miscalculated his air and had thumbed the dive when he was acutaly about 400 psi from his actual turn pressure.

so everyone goes back to the Dive Outpost for fills. its around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and Cathy, John and Jean are busy getting things ready for the evenings social/cookout. because of the conference, Peacock would be open until 10pm. oh yeah, night dive at Peacock. so as not to get to crazy for the rangers, all diving had to be limited to Peacock I. more and more people were showing up at the Outpost, but they clearly had food and beer on their minds. Bob, Denise and I were joined by TJ and we set off back to peacock to hit the system again.

dive 4 (friday 26 May)
Peacock Springs (peanut tunnel) dive time 76 minutes, max depth 55 ft
TJ intended to shoot a bunch of pics on this dive, but after we got i the water he discovered he had the wrong camera and didn't want to take the time to climb out and get it, so we went ahead with the dive plan minus pics. i was lead diver, followed by Denise and then Bob, with TJ bringing up the tail. because the original plan was to take a bunch of pics, Bob was carrying a 100watt video light in addition to his primary. he left it off until we had gotten past the breakdown room and then he turned it on. WOW. lit the place up like daylight, to bad TJ had the wrong camera. we made it to within 100 feet of the peanut restriction before the dive was called. it was well after sunset when we hit the cavern zone. almost seemed like a different cave when we came up over the boulders and there was no light zone. while doing the safety stop outside the entrance, i was floating around looking at the rocks and ledges opposite teh cave opening. something caught my eye and i moved in to investigate. i was thinking, hmmmmm, how did that stick get into that ledge at 15ffw??? and a scaly looking stick at that. ok, turned out to be a snake!!!! my time was up and i surfaced. hey, did you guys see that snake??? no, they hadn't. i told them were it was as i GOT OUT OF THE WATER, and what did they do? dive back down to check it out. lol. while we had been diving, the ranger had placed chem-lights all along the steps and deck back to the parking lot, pretty cool.

so back to the Outpost to rejoin the party. they had a live band playing, and even did a kind of "open mic" thing and let anyone who wanted to get up and sing. there were over 120 people having a good time, the parking lot was full, and cars were parked all up and down the road.

dive 5 (saturday 27 May)
Telford dive time 56 minutes, max depth 54 feet
this was another dive to explore the jump near the fissure in the Rifts section. i found the downstream jump. the arrows making the jump were black in color, and happened to be on a section of line under a rock formation. the jump was only about 5 feet, and the line was tied to a rock and easily seen. had the jump reel in place in no time, and was soon peering up the line. don't think anyone had been up there in awhile, the line had silt all over it. most of this section had a very low ceiling, with deep silt under it. in a couple of spots i was able to get up into a fissure, but they were about as narrow as the ceiling was low in the other areas. a few good twists and turns before coming to the end of the line, and the jump around the corner to mainline. still plenty of time to push further up the mainline before turning around and pulling the reels for the drift back to terrapin sink.

dive 6 (saturday 27 May)
Telford dive time 31 minutes, max depth 27 feet
instead of heading upstream deeper into telford, i went downstream and checked out telford sink and telford spring. it has been awhile since i'd been in the cavern zone at telford spring.

packing the gear into the car, the locals passed out around the area started waking up. most of them seemed to go right back to draining beer bottles. headed back to the Outpost for fills and to see who was diving PSSP. Denise and TJ were at the conference staffing a booth, but Bob was ready to dive.

dive 7 (saturday 27 May)
Peacock Springs dive time 31 minutes, max depth 67 feet
this dive was a "completion" dive going from peacock to olsen. Bob was upset about the miscalculation the day before, and wanted to make the simple traverse before moving on to any other dives. as expected we reached Olsen easily within 1/3s air. upon surfacing at olsen Bob was kicking himself again, he had paid attention to where he had called the dive, and how it was just around the corner from the Crossover tunnel, just out of sight of the cavern zone.

dive 8 (saturday 27 May)
Olsen Sink dive time 37 minutes, max depth 66 feet
easy drift back through the system to peacock. spent the dive making note of and pointing out the various side tunnels and jumps along the way.

with plenty of time left in the day we knew we could get at least another set of dives in at PSSP.

dive 9 (saturday 27 May)
Peacock Springs (peanut tunnel) dive time 31 minutes, max depth 55 feet
this dive was a complex traverse from peacock, through the peanut tunnel, jump to the crossover tunnel, jump to pothole line, then exit at Olsen. the overall distance is a few hundred feet more than the other route, but air consumption was better due to the shallow peanut tunnel.

dive 10 (saturday 27 May)
olsen sink dive time 35 minutes, max depth 55 feet.
returned through the crossover tunnel, pulling the reels as we went. again, spent the return trip pointing out the side tunnels (olsen bypass and darkwater tunnel).

dive 11 (saturday 27 May)
Cow Springs (upstream) dive time 45 minutes, max depth 104 feet.
was surprise to find i was the only one diving Cow. hmmmm. oh well, more for me. lol. enjoyed the tight squeezes and crawling down through the restrictions to get into the system, and then using the poor-man's scooter to fight my way upstream. was getting close to my turn pressure when i reached "not my fault" and decided since i'd gotten that far, might as well reach the bottom before turning.

dive 12 (saturday 27 May)
Cow Springs (downstream) dive time 26 minutes, max depth 36 feet.
short easy dive to the end of the line in one of the two downstream passages. got myself to a point where i hadn't been able to get by on a dive last month, and this time i was determined to get by. the line kept going, so i knew there had to be a way. eventualy i found the spot i could squeeze through, and continued on around a slight corner and another 10 feet to the end of the line. good effort. lol. so then had to work my way back out of that section. still had plenty of time, so after unhooking my reel from that line, went into the other downstream tunnel for a quick look. went about 100 feet before deciding i was getting hungry and didn't want the distraction, lol. plus i realy didn't want to climb out of Cow in the dark.

back at the Outpost everyone planned the next days diving. about 20 people were going up to Madison Blue. Bob had never been there, but a friend of his, Mike, had been there years ago and wanted to go again. we left the Outpost around 8am for the hour drive to Madison Blue. The park has been taken over by the Florida park system, and the state park passes are now accepted there. and you no longer have to register with the park rangers, just leave your park pass and c-card visible on your dash.

dive 13 (sunday 28 May)
Madison Blue dive time 63 minutes, max depth 69 feet
well, despite the fact Mike had been here before, we had trouble finding the mainline. eventualy we followed another divers line from the rabbit hole to the stop sign, to the mainline. gotta say, that first room is massive. could spend a whole dive just poking around in that one chamber. so we got down on the mainline and made it as far as the half-hitch restriction before turning around. we surfaced to find the number of people in the park had jumped from about 5 to over 100. and seemed like they were all lined up to jump off the deck into the spring pool.

i switched over to my other tanks while Mike recharged his rebreather. Bob was done and sat the next dive out.

dive 14 (sunday 28 May)
Madison Blue dive time 62 minutes, max depth 84 feet.
made the jump to the Godzilla room circuit. at first we were behind another team, which sucked. they took the same jump off the main line, and took their time about it, blocked the way, and kicked up a lot of silt. nothing like courtesy. luckily they then took the next jump off the line. of course they had to completely block the way and silt it up first. but then we went through pretty much the rest of the dive without seeing anyone. really enjoyed how the line goes through tunnels, and then drops through a small hole into a big chamber. Mike pointed out the Century tunnel as we moved past. after turning the dive were were making our way back out and Mike got stuck in one of the restrictions. hmmmm, he got in, so must be a way to get out. i took a look, and his gear had moved into a slot in the ceiling which then stopped. i backed him up, moved him to the left, and he was free to move forward again. plenty of jumps off this line for future exploration

before leaving i went and checked out Martz Sink. now that looks like a lot of fun. i took a pic and will post it later. its basicaly a narrow staircase down about 30 feet to a sink the size of a washing machine. will have to try it sometime. not sure how you get 2 people in at the same time.

back to the Outpost for more fills. checked out Telford, but somekind of redneck ceremony was going on, and i decided that since the natives were restless, i'd stay clear. thought about doing Cow again, but then decided to make it an early day and go get a good dinner. oh yeah, realy realy good mexican place in Lake City along 90, just go past the wal-mart and walgreens. its on the left, i think its called "Costa Del Sol"
it was mucho yummy. they had a habanero salsa, mmmm good bite to it, and a great flan for dessert.

Monday morning would be the last day of diving so had to make the most of it and get on the road for home. woke up early and was waiting at the gates of Little River by 6:55 am. the ranger was 10 mintues later. grrrrrr, cutting into my dive time. so into the park at 7:10 and diving by 7:37.

dive 15 (monday 29 May)
Little River dive time 32 minutes, max depth 95 feet
set a jump reel at the mud tunnel, then continued up the mainline to the "T" and took the Merry-Go-Round tunnel, then made the jump up the Shortcut tunnel to the Florida room. quick look around then back out the way i'd come in.

dive 16 (monday 29 May)
Little River dive time 31 minutes, max depth 96 feet
took the mud tunnel jump i'd set up earlier. this was my first time in the tunnel. jumped back to the mainline at the other end, made my way to the first "T" and then returned through the mud tunnel. back at the start of the mainline i drifted up to spend a little bit of time checking out the first dozen or so feet of the catfish hotel, then up and out to the cavern zone to check out the small side tunnels before surfacing.

by this time the number of people in the park had grown from 5 to around 100, and several other divers were starting to show up. i moved back to my truck to switch tanks. while setting up the fresh tanks some of the divers i'd met over the weekend asked if i was getting ready to start diving for the day. uhhhhh, yeah, i already did two, and have two more to go.

dive 17 (monday 29 May)
Little River dive time 35 minutes, max depth 100 feet
went straight for the first "T" and took the serpentine tunnel, then Harper tunnel jump. made it to the clay banks before turning the dive. on the way back out i ran into 3 or 4 of the other teams working there way towards the first "T" and waved as the flow zipped me by them.

surfaced to find the spring pool completely clogged with swimmers. turns out the parking lot was completely packed as well, and cars were parked along the road all the way out past the front gate. glad i got there at 7am to claim my front row parking.

dive 18 (monday 29 May)
Little River dive time 30 minutes, max depth 96 feet.
this was going to be the clean up dive to pull my reels from the mud tunnel jumps. Bob was going to join me, but had his primary light fail in the cavern zone and he backed out. i went down and did a circuit of the mud tunnel, to the first "T" and then back via the mainline, pulling reels as necessary. short dive, but great end to a weekend of diving.

packed the truck and was soon ready for the looooong drive home.

alread planning my dives for the next trip down in mid-June.

[ScubaDadMiami]

Sounds like a lot of fun and a lot of diving.

[PerroneFord]

That story SUCKED!!

... <cursing> Why can't *I* dive caves... no good stupid diving restrictions!

LOL!

[BlckShadow]

Ahhhh, that sound like my favorite wet dream. I wish my weekend could have been that good. I got stuck having to work Sat. and Mon.

[Dive_Girl]

EXCELLENT trip report!! Thanks as always for sharing and making those of us nowhere near caves ultra jealous!!

[intotheblue]

I dont' think I can remember ever exiting cow in daylight... It's great slipping and sliding down the wet embankment with doubles on, in the dark... with Pterydactyl sized mosquitos buzzing you as you climb out of your gear! I used to always think of "Deliverance" out there as it was seemingly so remote back in the trees. Always kept a lookout for some inbred goobers running around back there, but luckily never ran across any!

Great report. Glad to hear Madison is open again. It closed shortly after I last dove there. The previous "owner" was supposed to have been deported... and we thought that it would never re-open.

Too bad the best time for me to go cavediving in Florida is the same time everyone comes out of the woodwork at those springs. I haven't been over there in quite awhile!

Good post..., sounds like you had fun!

ITB...