This happened on the 9th of July, 2006:
We swam up the resurgence from the beach and poked around there for a few minutes until I found what I thought was it. I found a little cave entrance with no line in it. Unfortunately it squeezed down to tight for my buddy to move his backmount though and I only went 10-20 feet further. Then it got a bit to tight and silty for my first Ontario cave dive so I turned and went back out. I suspect it would keep pinching down and wall out shortly. I only ran about 50 feet of line out in that one.
We backed out, surfaced and talked and dropped down and found the perm line. We did a nice conservative dive about 400 feet and turned it. Didn't want to go to far because we had no idea what to expect heading back. Dark tanic water and silt, but the HIDs did a good job and we saw lots of nice green and white limestone, cracks and tight bedding planes running off everywhere. Not much percolation and we managed to stay out of the mud for the most part. 11 foot max for 32 minutes. We were moving slow.. lots to see.
After a brief lunch interlude we went back in. We went about 500-600 feet and the cave slanted of to the side into a bedding plane that pinched down to tight for by buddy. I went on a bit further. 12 feet for 38 minutes.
At this point I knew I was in love and by the shit eating grin on my buddies face I knew he was done for. We started down a side passage from the resurgence as a syphon dive but it got too small for my buddy very quickly. He backed out and I went about 100 feet passed the sidemount restriction. That is some sexy cave in there. Vis opened right up to about 20 feet and due to the shape of the tunnel it was easy to keep the silt down to nothing after the sidemount squeeze.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Canadian Cave Diving at its Finest
My scheduling was erratic with family and kid commitments. BUT I did stick my my stuff in the car since I was going to be at my cottage Lake (~30 minutes from the cave) most of the weekend.
So at the crack of dawn I snuk off while everyone was in bed. I gear up using a 3mm wetsuit this time, as with river temperatures breaking 85F the water is just too warm to pass up the opportunity to dive in a nice light wetsuit.
First dive of the day, find out where side siphon comes out. So, in I head and notice right away my trim is a bit hosed in the 3mm. Nothing I can't deal with, but I'll have to shuffle some stuff around next time. I pop though the restriction passed the pile of branches and the line turns from 1/2inch poly to #24 cave line. The tunnel opens right up and pow, I'm in great vis and cruzing down the cave. 100 feet or so of an absolutely fantastic vertical crack the line dips down under a ledge heading right a bit. I drop down under the line and assume sidemount positioning for the coming bedding plane. This is where the line is run along the cave roof and you swim directly under it. The vis opens up and I wonder whats going on. I start to see some blue in the water as my HID slices down the passage. Then I feel it - there is a spring venting ice cold water into the cave. BRRRRR thats cold. I can see about 40 feet up the bedding plane angles upward into a black wall of tanic river water.
Up and down, plunging into the freezing spring and back into the warm tanic I continue a few hundred feet and the line suddenly goes straight to 8 feet up and doubles back on it self then back down. Crossing from one bedding plane to another. Shortly after it does this again, but going down this time. Crossing back into the original bedding plane and shifting directing north into the river. The cave then opens up into a backmountable passage for a few hundred feet in a vertical crack. The line dives down under a ledge and shifting sideways. Doing belly crawl in the mud with my helmet knocking against the roof every time I look up. Thats when it happened - flicker once.. blackness.
Yep, primary light gone. Nothing, nada, zero light in a bell crawl restriction. Hand on the line my first thought is that I'm probably going to have to replace a $150 bulb or ballast. Second thought is I should get some light. To bad I can't reach my backup lights. Ok, self now what? Well, Jim - lets get the fuck out of dodge. Behind you is 700-800 feet of cave, about 1/2 silted out. In fount of you is about 100-150 feet of unknown to the exit you've never proofed. Your have enough gas to crawl around down here for about 3 hours. But.. you still can't see, you can't turn around and you can't reach your backups.
Well, out come the touch eyeballs. Feels like it opens up a bit.. thats good. So I slither though the mushy bottom fully understanding just how fragile that 10 year old #24 cave line is. Then the dull, faint beem of my trusty - never let me down - Tec 40 slices a couple of inches though the silty tanic gloom. Descition time, lots of gas - lets go for it. 5 minutes later, most of it 24-18inch bedding plane the sweet red glow of the exit materializes in the darkness. I push a few twigs out of the road, grind my way out of the exit and the bright sun is beating down on my head.
So at the crack of dawn I snuk off while everyone was in bed. I gear up using a 3mm wetsuit this time, as with river temperatures breaking 85F the water is just too warm to pass up the opportunity to dive in a nice light wetsuit.
First dive of the day, find out where side siphon comes out. So, in I head and notice right away my trim is a bit hosed in the 3mm. Nothing I can't deal with, but I'll have to shuffle some stuff around next time. I pop though the restriction passed the pile of branches and the line turns from 1/2inch poly to #24 cave line. The tunnel opens right up and pow, I'm in great vis and cruzing down the cave. 100 feet or so of an absolutely fantastic vertical crack the line dips down under a ledge heading right a bit. I drop down under the line and assume sidemount positioning for the coming bedding plane. This is where the line is run along the cave roof and you swim directly under it. The vis opens up and I wonder whats going on. I start to see some blue in the water as my HID slices down the passage. Then I feel it - there is a spring venting ice cold water into the cave. BRRRRR thats cold. I can see about 40 feet up the bedding plane angles upward into a black wall of tanic river water.
Up and down, plunging into the freezing spring and back into the warm tanic I continue a few hundred feet and the line suddenly goes straight to 8 feet up and doubles back on it self then back down. Crossing from one bedding plane to another. Shortly after it does this again, but going down this time. Crossing back into the original bedding plane and shifting directing north into the river. The cave then opens up into a backmountable passage for a few hundred feet in a vertical crack. The line dives down under a ledge and shifting sideways. Doing belly crawl in the mud with my helmet knocking against the roof every time I look up. Thats when it happened - flicker once.. blackness.
Yep, primary light gone. Nothing, nada, zero light in a bell crawl restriction. Hand on the line my first thought is that I'm probably going to have to replace a $150 bulb or ballast. Second thought is I should get some light. To bad I can't reach my backup lights. Ok, self now what? Well, Jim - lets get the fuck out of dodge. Behind you is 700-800 feet of cave, about 1/2 silted out. In fount of you is about 100-150 feet of unknown to the exit you've never proofed. Your have enough gas to crawl around down here for about 3 hours. But.. you still can't see, you can't turn around and you can't reach your backups.
Well, out come the touch eyeballs. Feels like it opens up a bit.. thats good. So I slither though the mushy bottom fully understanding just how fragile that 10 year old #24 cave line is. Then the dull, faint beem of my trusty - never let me down - Tec 40 slices a couple of inches though the silty tanic gloom. Descition time, lots of gas - lets go for it. 5 minutes later, most of it 24-18inch bedding plane the sweet red glow of the exit materializes in the darkness. I push a few twigs out of the road, grind my way out of the exit and the bright sun is beating down on my head.
Clothespin Chronicals - The First
An apt and stern warning greets the unprepared as I pass out of the daylight zone, about 10 feet inside the cave. Having claimed the one and only cave diving death in Canada to date the sign is a good addition, despite the remoteness of the site. The sign should be amended beyond this simple warning, as even my C-Card collection in my wallet sitting in the glove box of the silver Ford Escort parked a few hundred feet away is not adequate preparation to dive here. Reflecting on the warning as I took the shot brought that one home. The only real way to prepare for this cave is to dive it, very conservatively with an open mind to new techniques and an ability to think your way out of problems. Hope I have those!
I leisurely swim up the first sump passed the concrete block demarking an almost 90 degree turn to the right I find my alterations to my sidemount 130's seem to be working. My frog kick is unrestricted and I am only a touch head heavy. Unfortunately my 'dillo is struggling to keep me neutral with the 3800 psi fill in the wetsuit. I'll have to ditch the jet fins *sob* next time and try some lighter fins. Oh well, on with the dive.
Right at the first T, I drop one of my 4 clothespins on the oversized line. I prefer cookies, but they will not fit on the line. Contemplating drilling some custom ones for the job the logistics of carrying 6 different sized cookies for a cave like seems overkill when a simple clothespin does the trick. a few minutes pass and I stop to marvel at some knobs of what I suspect is dolomite covered in freshwater sponge and geogerthite (sp?)
A few more minutes of nice cave and a red glow tells me I am nearing the first karst window. Woah, pay attention Jim, that is a T there you almost swam over. Dropping another clothespin to mark my exit I pop up in the window. Nice weed and stick choked pond of river water. Back down I go, locating my clothespin and I take the line around to the other side of the window, where it T's again. Fortunately a cookie fits on this line, so I drop that instead of yet another of my now seemingly short supply of pins.
Off I go into a bedding plane that has a very nice rock bottom. No silt! yay! This might be tight on backmount.. but it would be close. You'd definatly have to move carefully though here so you don't wreck the place. A few minutes later I run into... yet another T
Yes, its over exposed.. you try taking shots in here with just an internal flash which penetrates about 12 inches!
So, another clothespin later I am headed off to the right. The cave goes and stays big at about 4 feet high as a second bedding plane intersects this one. This is a neat feature as the form a table in the middle of the cave which you can go on, under or beside. Of course the line (put in by sidemounters) runs under the table of rock for about 30 feet which would form a massive line trap for anyone on backmounts. Sure enough right around the corner is yet another T. One end leads up into the red haze of a karst window and the other heads right toward the calling darkness. Dropping my last pin on the T I head into the darkness.
And bump right into an oversized metal line arrow pointing to the window. Neat. About 30 feet further I find a double arrow. Wow a jump. Thats a first. :) I tried to take a picture of this fascinating item but since they were more than 4 inches apart I couldn't get both into the picture and have my flash hit them with enough light to get more than a vague blur. Giving up on this I keep going. I didn't need a pin, which is good since I didn't have any left. Suddenly the floor disappears as a second tunnel comes up from the depths creating a very nice spot in which I spent a few minutes floating around. Something to check out later. Continuing on the cave gets big.
Like drive a bus down it big.
Like 60 feet wide big.
Like all I can see is a line and blackness in every direction big.
Then I hit another T. Well, time to turn it.. I need more clothespins!
Systems check at this time. 2700 in the left can, 2900 in the right can. Close enough to thirds for a nice leisurely run out with a few peeks down side passages. Run time 77 minutes, max depth 11 feet.
On the way out, I run a reel out in the drive-a-bus-down-it passage and try to find some walls to look at. Takes some time, but the whole thing is a lens shaped tunnel, pinching down on the sides and big in the middle. I also stuck a spool in at the jump to locate it. After a few minutes of searching its a silty little rat hole sidemount tunnel. I didn't even bother hooking into the line because just looking at it sideways turned the whole drive=-a-bus-down-it passage into a silty cloud. Yes, I blew out a 30 foot wide, 20 foot tall passage in under a 1/4 of a second by looking at this one. I spool up in zero vis, pull off my stuff and head out. I have a few inches of vis back when I hit the window and T.
The exit out is uneventful but fantastic.
128 minutes, 11 foot max depth.
3600 Feet
Thats how many linear feet away from my entrance to the cave I was last night. 3600 feet, give or take a hundred. Thats a long swim, even at 10 feet depth. Unfortunately my camera decided to go on the fritz so I got zero shots this time around.
The day started with a call to my buddy who complained about having to teach some numpty class. In one sentence he vindicated my complete abortion from "going pro". Humm cave diving or teaching a dry nitrox class? Poor guy. Oh well, not like I have never gone solo. I also made enquiries with my other cave buddies but had no success. Seems everyone is to busy to go cave diving... ether that or I am so far gone to the bad dark side that no one will dive with me anymore. :)
Anyway, stuff goes in car, car goes to cave with a quick stop at the Landowner's father in law's place just down the road to say "Hi". We chatted for a bit and then I tossed the bottles in the water, threw on my 3mm wetsuit and jumped in. A few couple of minutes of lazy kicking down the run and I am in my warm, dark happy place zipping into the darkness.
A quick stop at the warning sign to brush off the small amount of newly accumulated dirt, crud and debris I notice a rather large stick drifting passed. In fact, attached to that stick is a rather small tree. Yes, a tree, small.. but a tree. I guess I never mentioned the tree at sink #2 bypass. Well, I will.. since I am going by it. Well, about 300 feet down stream from Sink #2 is a tree. And I am not talking no small tree, I am talking about one big mofo tree. This thing would be worth over a grand on the black market since I believe its oak. But lets be honest, who has ever heard of a TREE cave diving! It sure as shit didn't grow there, or get put there. I don't know how it negotiated the tight spots, but there it is. Wedged into the cave a few hundred feet from where it went in.
I bet it tried to do a syphon dive from Sink #2 and got stuck.
Which brings me to Zip. Zip is a small mouth bass. Zip used to live in Sink #2. Zip was a happy fish. Zip decided he wanted to explore the world and went cave diving with me. I first notices zip a few feet passed Sink #2 when he shot out from beside me, brushed my hand, attacked and ate some innocent transparent/white troglodyte. He darted off again out of view and I thought nothing more of him. Then a minute or three later while I am in Sink #3 bypass there he is again. This time I accidentally hit him with my hand. See, Zip the Smallmouth was my new buddy.
He followed be all the way to Sink #7. Darting in and out of my light to eat some tasty morsel. Mostly he hung out under, beside, above.. you get the picture. Basically he had no awareness and a complete disregard for good team diving skills and was just about the worst, yet most interesting buddy I have ever dove with.
So, back to the dive. I throw a pin down on the line and head into the drive-a-buss-down-=it cave after Sink #3 bypass T's into the mainline. Now I am more comfortable in the cave I am off the line more and see some more of the cave. Various crevices and crannies I missed earlier. A short swim later I take a left at the T where I ran out of clothespins during the Clothespin Chronicles. The cave quickly goes cool, pinching down into a nice bed of silt then opening up into a diagonal bedding plane turned room. It does this again and again, then diving right and crossing to a new set of slanting connected bedding planes. Hundreds of feet of this, opening up and ducking down makes for some spectacular cave as you pass under the tinny hole that is Sink #6 and head toward Sink #7 where I turn after a long 70 minute swim. Still well above thirds on double 100's after 3600 feet of penetration. This cave is BIG.
Let me repeat that.. This cave is HUGE.
Edit: I forgot the stats: 107 minutes, 13 foot max depth.
Ok, so I got one picture in.. its an awful self portrait, but here it is. It should give the DIRites a nice conniption... but at least I have my helmet on for when the bus rides over me.
The day started with a call to my buddy who complained about having to teach some numpty class. In one sentence he vindicated my complete abortion from "going pro". Humm cave diving or teaching a dry nitrox class? Poor guy. Oh well, not like I have never gone solo. I also made enquiries with my other cave buddies but had no success. Seems everyone is to busy to go cave diving... ether that or I am so far gone to the bad dark side that no one will dive with me anymore. :)
Anyway, stuff goes in car, car goes to cave with a quick stop at the Landowner's father in law's place just down the road to say "Hi". We chatted for a bit and then I tossed the bottles in the water, threw on my 3mm wetsuit and jumped in. A few couple of minutes of lazy kicking down the run and I am in my warm, dark happy place zipping into the darkness.
A quick stop at the warning sign to brush off the small amount of newly accumulated dirt, crud and debris I notice a rather large stick drifting passed. In fact, attached to that stick is a rather small tree. Yes, a tree, small.. but a tree. I guess I never mentioned the tree at sink #2 bypass. Well, I will.. since I am going by it. Well, about 300 feet down stream from Sink #2 is a tree. And I am not talking no small tree, I am talking about one big mofo tree. This thing would be worth over a grand on the black market since I believe its oak. But lets be honest, who has ever heard of a TREE cave diving! It sure as shit didn't grow there, or get put there. I don't know how it negotiated the tight spots, but there it is. Wedged into the cave a few hundred feet from where it went in.
I bet it tried to do a syphon dive from Sink #2 and got stuck.
Which brings me to Zip. Zip is a small mouth bass. Zip used to live in Sink #2. Zip was a happy fish. Zip decided he wanted to explore the world and went cave diving with me. I first notices zip a few feet passed Sink #2 when he shot out from beside me, brushed my hand, attacked and ate some innocent transparent/white troglodyte. He darted off again out of view and I thought nothing more of him. Then a minute or three later while I am in Sink #3 bypass there he is again. This time I accidentally hit him with my hand. See, Zip the Smallmouth was my new buddy.
He followed be all the way to Sink #7. Darting in and out of my light to eat some tasty morsel. Mostly he hung out under, beside, above.. you get the picture. Basically he had no awareness and a complete disregard for good team diving skills and was just about the worst, yet most interesting buddy I have ever dove with.
So, back to the dive. I throw a pin down on the line and head into the drive-a-buss-down-=it cave after Sink #3 bypass T's into the mainline. Now I am more comfortable in the cave I am off the line more and see some more of the cave. Various crevices and crannies I missed earlier. A short swim later I take a left at the T where I ran out of clothespins during the Clothespin Chronicles. The cave quickly goes cool, pinching down into a nice bed of silt then opening up into a diagonal bedding plane turned room. It does this again and again, then diving right and crossing to a new set of slanting connected bedding planes. Hundreds of feet of this, opening up and ducking down makes for some spectacular cave as you pass under the tinny hole that is Sink #6 and head toward Sink #7 where I turn after a long 70 minute swim. Still well above thirds on double 100's after 3600 feet of penetration. This cave is BIG.
Let me repeat that.. This cave is HUGE.
Edit: I forgot the stats: 107 minutes, 13 foot max depth.
Ok, so I got one picture in.. its an awful self portrait, but here it is. It should give the DIRites a nice conniption... but at least I have my helmet on for when the bus rides over me.
Break in the Line
I woke up today dancing.
I was gone cave diving today.. and it had been far to long. But today was extra special because not only was I cave diving, but I was going to share the cave with some friends and cave divers. Punctual ones at that, as the door bell rang as almost precisely 9am.
Gear loaded in the truck, wife and child kissed and we were off. Excitement was thick in the cab of the truck as we buzzed down the highway listening to oldies on the satalite radio. I'm going to have to do something about the music selection next time, but honestly it was just nice to have some company for a change. We chattered about the cave over the muzzzaaacc anyway, so my ears didn't suffer to much torture.
So we arrive and I give the site briefing twice. Yes, twice, apparently one of the soon to be cave diving people decided making water was more important! The nerve - but I'll let it slide this time. We gear up and I warn them a few more times about potential line traps. I gloat a bit more about sidemounting and ask them to dive with a constant awareness for conservation. The cave is full of decoration and backmount gets tight in places. They do there buddy checks, I do a head to toe and were are off swimming down the resurgence.
Latest modifications to "the rig" are working perfectly. Trim is bang on, swimming is easy.. love'n it. Just in time to notice that the water temperature has dropped off 10 degrees. Needless to say, my 3mm isn't quite adequate for a 2+hour run time in 71F water. But I am hear, and my 7mm and dry suit are in my garage at home.. so off we go.
I get my two newbs onto the line and start in trying not to get to far in fount of them. As good little team divers, they attempt to maintain contact while moving though the cave. I warned them that this will be difficult and they find it such, but make steady progress. Looken good for there first one in Canada. Onward we go!
I pause at Sink #2 for them. Our planned departure point as it gets tight and small and fragile passed #2. For there first dive, this should be far enough. We all trade OK's and give them a jaunty salute and head deeper. Planned route is same as last time, except further and with a "working" camera. Not wasting much time on the way in I fly though the big cave passed Sink #3 and take a left at the T into the stunning ups, downs, lefts and right and duck unders and duck overs.
Easy breath, hold it, press, hold, wait, wait, wait, fump, flash, exhale. Next. Click click click, I have 1gb card, I'm going to use it! I am still in complete awe of this cave. It changes topology a number of times and is pristine in some many ways. Stratified clay and silt banks which I am not going near. Sponge covered walls and chert. Fragile lime stone flakes all over the floor. Its untouched and I want to leave it that way.
Sponge covered knob of chert.
Sponge covered shelf along the wall.
Cave running down into a sidemount restriction.
Wall heading into a duck under.
Down into another sidemount restriction.
About 600 feet after my last dive the line turns into a big ball of spaghetti with a nice frayed end. 4000 feet in there is a break in the line. Oh well, I still have plenty of gas so next time around I'm just going to have to fix it!
There is this neat thing that happens occasionally when your diving in a system with other people. You see, you run into them. I was swimming back toward Sink #2 and I saw a red glow in the distance. Much to close to be the sink, then another red glow appears. Looks like someone went exploring! I slide off the line into the tighter side of the passage and wave to them as I slide passed, moving quickly now. Almost shivering from the stupid 3mm.
P.S. Both of the divers new to this system are now investigating sidemount and becoming able to independently handle failures.
I was gone cave diving today.. and it had been far to long. But today was extra special because not only was I cave diving, but I was going to share the cave with some friends and cave divers. Punctual ones at that, as the door bell rang as almost precisely 9am.
Gear loaded in the truck, wife and child kissed and we were off. Excitement was thick in the cab of the truck as we buzzed down the highway listening to oldies on the satalite radio. I'm going to have to do something about the music selection next time, but honestly it was just nice to have some company for a change. We chattered about the cave over the muzzzaaacc anyway, so my ears didn't suffer to much torture.
So we arrive and I give the site briefing twice. Yes, twice, apparently one of the soon to be cave diving people decided making water was more important! The nerve - but I'll let it slide this time. We gear up and I warn them a few more times about potential line traps. I gloat a bit more about sidemounting and ask them to dive with a constant awareness for conservation. The cave is full of decoration and backmount gets tight in places. They do there buddy checks, I do a head to toe and were are off swimming down the resurgence.
Latest modifications to "the rig" are working perfectly. Trim is bang on, swimming is easy.. love'n it. Just in time to notice that the water temperature has dropped off 10 degrees. Needless to say, my 3mm isn't quite adequate for a 2+hour run time in 71F water. But I am hear, and my 7mm and dry suit are in my garage at home.. so off we go.
I get my two newbs onto the line and start in trying not to get to far in fount of them. As good little team divers, they attempt to maintain contact while moving though the cave. I warned them that this will be difficult and they find it such, but make steady progress. Looken good for there first one in Canada. Onward we go!
I pause at Sink #2 for them. Our planned departure point as it gets tight and small and fragile passed #2. For there first dive, this should be far enough. We all trade OK's and give them a jaunty salute and head deeper. Planned route is same as last time, except further and with a "working" camera. Not wasting much time on the way in I fly though the big cave passed Sink #3 and take a left at the T into the stunning ups, downs, lefts and right and duck unders and duck overs.
Easy breath, hold it, press, hold, wait, wait, wait, fump, flash, exhale. Next. Click click click, I have 1gb card, I'm going to use it! I am still in complete awe of this cave. It changes topology a number of times and is pristine in some many ways. Stratified clay and silt banks which I am not going near. Sponge covered walls and chert. Fragile lime stone flakes all over the floor. Its untouched and I want to leave it that way.
Sponge covered knob of chert.
Sponge covered shelf along the wall.
Cave running down into a sidemount restriction.
Wall heading into a duck under.
Down into another sidemount restriction.
About 600 feet after my last dive the line turns into a big ball of spaghetti with a nice frayed end. 4000 feet in there is a break in the line. Oh well, I still have plenty of gas so next time around I'm just going to have to fix it!
There is this neat thing that happens occasionally when your diving in a system with other people. You see, you run into them. I was swimming back toward Sink #2 and I saw a red glow in the distance. Much to close to be the sink, then another red glow appears. Looks like someone went exploring! I slide off the line into the tighter side of the passage and wave to them as I slide passed, moving quickly now. Almost shivering from the stupid 3mm.
P.S. Both of the divers new to this system are now investigating sidemount and becoming able to independently handle failures.
Rent a Boat
Long story short, we ended up renting a boat and heading out to the island caves. I won't bore you with details, political intrigue and other nonsense, because if you're reading this - your hear to hear about cave diving.
So, onward we went. Please excuse the complete garbage quality of the pictures. My new camera will have a housing on Monday (evening) so my next weekend of cave diving will have significantly improved image quality.
Boat loaded. Note all the fuzzy sidemount tanks! Yes, I have corrupted all my cave buddies with talk of crappy vis cave. Lulled them into thinking its actually fun to dive in these things. Convinced them that DIR style backmount is not where its at for this stuff. Lo and behold, presto changeo there are 3 more sidemounters wearing helmets for out betters to mock.
Here is one now! Note the fashionable white helmet. Camera blurred to protect his identity. Yeah right, camera blurred because its on closeup mode and this stupid housing won't let me change it.
And his buddy, in equal blur.
Note the franken rig. I'm happy with my dillo, but these abominations seem to work, even if they look quite odd. Made out of a backplate, wing and some other assorted ideas stolen from just about everywhere. But whatever floats your... ass in the case of sidemount.
My pseudo buddy managed to extricate himself from any surface shots with his fancy-boy red helmet on, but little did he know, at least until the flash went off, that he was being stalked though the cave. Lurking above him, pressed against the roof I dropped out of the black tea water and *click*
Take note boys and girls. This helmet is CE certified for your safety. Don't try this at home.
So enough mocking my peers, as fun as it is. As King Helmet it was my solemn duty to go have a good dive. A good dive in new-to-me cave. So off I went, swoosh. After about 300 feet of rather plain power cave I came to my first T. Power cave being big cave you could drive a buss down. Now power cave is great in Florida - its fantastic in Florida. But you see, in Florida you can actually SEE the walls. Here you can ether see the line and silt or you can see the rock walls/roof.. but no line.
Humm.. usually that little black/brown beaten up #24 cave line goes into some tinny little rat hole, zero vis, sidemount, silt out cave in this system. So obviously, I immediately put a clothespin down (despite the arrow - this line should be T'ed into the arrow) and went off following that little line.
Which then with almost equal disregard for my enjoyment dove right into a huge pile of silt. So I gently pulled it out, my vis started going and as I coiled it up on my hand I realized it was broken.
I finished coiling it up, then went into the cave, laying it back down. When I got to the end of it, I tied it off, pulled out a spool and went looking for the other end. While I never found it, I did get some very niec pictures of this sidemount passage.
So I turned and took the left (straight) at the T. More power cave, but its more interesting. There is some stuff to look at as the line heads along side one of the walls. 300 more feet pass and the line takes a about a 120 degree turn to the right and down. My max depth to this point was around 25 feet. The line dropped my down to 35 feet and the flow picked up big time. pushing under the ledge toward a collapsed exit from the cave. But wow, for the next 1000 feet, running at 35 or so depth there are some spectacular breakdown piles and delicate flakes worn into the lime stone. I'll let the pictures speak for me.
Some nice silt/clay stratification.
Some flakes sandwiched between layers of limestone sticking out of the walls.
And another T! And another broken line!
This time, when I went in search of the other end, I found it. A promising going tunnel. I will be back to explore this one. Took me about 10 minutes to find, run and repair it.
I was almost at thirds when I finished the repair job, so I only got to see the first 30 or so feet of this one. But it looks like the perfect size tunnel for this system. Just big enough to make it easy to sidemount without stirring up silt, just small enough to be able to see both walls and the ceiling in detail.
Do I know anyone with a zodiac who cave dives? :)
So, onward we went. Please excuse the complete garbage quality of the pictures. My new camera will have a housing on Monday (evening) so my next weekend of cave diving will have significantly improved image quality.
Boat loaded. Note all the fuzzy sidemount tanks! Yes, I have corrupted all my cave buddies with talk of crappy vis cave. Lulled them into thinking its actually fun to dive in these things. Convinced them that DIR style backmount is not where its at for this stuff. Lo and behold, presto changeo there are 3 more sidemounters wearing helmets for out betters to mock.
Here is one now! Note the fashionable white helmet. Camera blurred to protect his identity. Yeah right, camera blurred because its on closeup mode and this stupid housing won't let me change it.
And his buddy, in equal blur.
Note the franken rig. I'm happy with my dillo, but these abominations seem to work, even if they look quite odd. Made out of a backplate, wing and some other assorted ideas stolen from just about everywhere. But whatever floats your... ass in the case of sidemount.
My pseudo buddy managed to extricate himself from any surface shots with his fancy-boy red helmet on, but little did he know, at least until the flash went off, that he was being stalked though the cave. Lurking above him, pressed against the roof I dropped out of the black tea water and *click*
Take note boys and girls. This helmet is CE certified for your safety. Don't try this at home.
So enough mocking my peers, as fun as it is. As King Helmet it was my solemn duty to go have a good dive. A good dive in new-to-me cave. So off I went, swoosh. After about 300 feet of rather plain power cave I came to my first T. Power cave being big cave you could drive a buss down. Now power cave is great in Florida - its fantastic in Florida. But you see, in Florida you can actually SEE the walls. Here you can ether see the line and silt or you can see the rock walls/roof.. but no line.
Humm.. usually that little black/brown beaten up #24 cave line goes into some tinny little rat hole, zero vis, sidemount, silt out cave in this system. So obviously, I immediately put a clothespin down (despite the arrow - this line should be T'ed into the arrow) and went off following that little line.
Which then with almost equal disregard for my enjoyment dove right into a huge pile of silt. So I gently pulled it out, my vis started going and as I coiled it up on my hand I realized it was broken.
I finished coiling it up, then went into the cave, laying it back down. When I got to the end of it, I tied it off, pulled out a spool and went looking for the other end. While I never found it, I did get some very niec pictures of this sidemount passage.
So I turned and took the left (straight) at the T. More power cave, but its more interesting. There is some stuff to look at as the line heads along side one of the walls. 300 more feet pass and the line takes a about a 120 degree turn to the right and down. My max depth to this point was around 25 feet. The line dropped my down to 35 feet and the flow picked up big time. pushing under the ledge toward a collapsed exit from the cave. But wow, for the next 1000 feet, running at 35 or so depth there are some spectacular breakdown piles and delicate flakes worn into the lime stone. I'll let the pictures speak for me.
Some nice silt/clay stratification.
Some flakes sandwiched between layers of limestone sticking out of the walls.
And another T! And another broken line!
This time, when I went in search of the other end, I found it. A promising going tunnel. I will be back to explore this one. Took me about 10 minutes to find, run and repair it.
I was almost at thirds when I finished the repair job, so I only got to see the first 30 or so feet of this one. But it looks like the perfect size tunnel for this system. Just big enough to make it easy to sidemount without stirring up silt, just small enough to be able to see both walls and the ceiling in detail.
Do I know anyone with a zodiac who cave dives? :)
Journey of the Broken Line
Old dead picture links, sorry.
I ventured up to the caves again. Last day of my weekend splurge and I had to top the summer off with another cave dive. See, had to. There really isn't much of a choice. It's just to much fun. Besides, I think I look quite fetching in my helmet and Armadillo.
So today I was going to do a big push in Gervais. I wanted to get back into the deep recesses of the cave. I knew I needed to do some line work back there to get any further too. So I brought a few spools and my trusty reel. Knowing it was going to be a long dive, I elected to do my first stage into the cave. Already stupid shallow a simple AL80 would allow me at least another 1500 feet of penetration.
After chatting with the land owner for 15 minutes about cave politics.. well land ownership politics in general, cave diving, open water diving and everything else under the sun except the weather. I was ready to go. Tanks in the water, rig on, light fired (for now - more on this gem of brilliance later). I run over the dive plan quickly in my head once more, clip on all my bottles and run though a head to toe gear check. Yes, even my fantastic camera - which will never see this cave again, as I now have my new housing. I zoom passed the sign, taking a few more shots of it.
And right away, I stumble on this cute little guy.
A few gratuitous shots of the cave. These shots taken between sink #5
Just as I am getting close to sink #5 I come across this nugget. Even in a remote cave, you can't get away form ignorant people doing ignorant things.
I come up in pool #5. I have never been here, but it should link back up with where I want to go. One small problem. Pool number 5 is HUGE and... finding the way I want to go is not so easy. It took my primary reel and a jump spool to find it, but find it I did. About 5 minutes later I arrived at my first line repair of the day. It took at least 10 minutes to gap this one. Fighting the current in this large cave can be challenging. This bit of cave is about 50 feet across and has a ripping current that is hard to swim against. Pulling is difficult without damaging the cave so its fin, fin, fin. At least I get the two rope bits linked, clean up my lines and away.
I must have gone 15 whole feet and I hit this.
Another frayed end of the line. I repeat the above process and get about 60 feet. Another broken line. This is getting repetitive. Fortunately, this was the last break for a while. But I suspect another line has broken, because there is a missing T. Rather I was expecting to hit a T that never happened.
Instead I hit a T going left into a sexy little sidemount passage. As my luck would have it, this line was broken too. But I am getting much faster at fixing this stuff and I have the line sorted out in no time at all. Obviously I absolutely have to see whats in this new tunnel so I head in. Then my primary light flickers and goes purple. Just for a second, but in that second I remember that I did NOT charge it last night. A quick glance at my bottom timer tells me I have put 2 hours in the water and probably 10 minutes getting ready onto the thing. Now it SHOULD be OK. I figure I put an hour - an hour and a half on it in Lusk. So I SHOULD have somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour left on it. But see, these batteries are not new - they have a good 400 dives on them.
You shoulda seen my ass move.
I was out of that damn cave in under 40 minutes with the flow helping. Now I have 3 backup lights, no problem - I just didn't want to go there. I made it very familiar ground around sink #3. By this time my primary is flickering and going purple every few seconds and its quite dim so I shut it down and go to backup.
So, I'm brilliant. Big push, 1/2 charged light. Lesson earned, not that it was life threatening, just made things interesting.
A few parting shots of some stuff I found way back in there be fore my light decided to remind me who's boss.
I ventured up to the caves again. Last day of my weekend splurge and I had to top the summer off with another cave dive. See, had to. There really isn't much of a choice. It's just to much fun. Besides, I think I look quite fetching in my helmet and Armadillo.
So today I was going to do a big push in Gervais. I wanted to get back into the deep recesses of the cave. I knew I needed to do some line work back there to get any further too. So I brought a few spools and my trusty reel. Knowing it was going to be a long dive, I elected to do my first stage into the cave. Already stupid shallow a simple AL80 would allow me at least another 1500 feet of penetration.
After chatting with the land owner for 15 minutes about cave politics.. well land ownership politics in general, cave diving, open water diving and everything else under the sun except the weather. I was ready to go. Tanks in the water, rig on, light fired (for now - more on this gem of brilliance later). I run over the dive plan quickly in my head once more, clip on all my bottles and run though a head to toe gear check. Yes, even my fantastic camera - which will never see this cave again, as I now have my new housing. I zoom passed the sign, taking a few more shots of it.
And right away, I stumble on this cute little guy.
A few gratuitous shots of the cave. These shots taken between sink #5
Just as I am getting close to sink #5 I come across this nugget. Even in a remote cave, you can't get away form ignorant people doing ignorant things.
I come up in pool #5. I have never been here, but it should link back up with where I want to go. One small problem. Pool number 5 is HUGE and... finding the way I want to go is not so easy. It took my primary reel and a jump spool to find it, but find it I did. About 5 minutes later I arrived at my first line repair of the day. It took at least 10 minutes to gap this one. Fighting the current in this large cave can be challenging. This bit of cave is about 50 feet across and has a ripping current that is hard to swim against. Pulling is difficult without damaging the cave so its fin, fin, fin. At least I get the two rope bits linked, clean up my lines and away.
I must have gone 15 whole feet and I hit this.
Another frayed end of the line. I repeat the above process and get about 60 feet. Another broken line. This is getting repetitive. Fortunately, this was the last break for a while. But I suspect another line has broken, because there is a missing T. Rather I was expecting to hit a T that never happened.
Instead I hit a T going left into a sexy little sidemount passage. As my luck would have it, this line was broken too. But I am getting much faster at fixing this stuff and I have the line sorted out in no time at all. Obviously I absolutely have to see whats in this new tunnel so I head in. Then my primary light flickers and goes purple. Just for a second, but in that second I remember that I did NOT charge it last night. A quick glance at my bottom timer tells me I have put 2 hours in the water and probably 10 minutes getting ready onto the thing. Now it SHOULD be OK. I figure I put an hour - an hour and a half on it in Lusk. So I SHOULD have somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour left on it. But see, these batteries are not new - they have a good 400 dives on them.
You shoulda seen my ass move.
I was out of that damn cave in under 40 minutes with the flow helping. Now I have 3 backup lights, no problem - I just didn't want to go there. I made it very familiar ground around sink #3. By this time my primary is flickering and going purple every few seconds and its quite dim so I shut it down and go to backup.
So, I'm brilliant. Big push, 1/2 charged light. Lesson earned, not that it was life threatening, just made things interesting.
A few parting shots of some stuff I found way back in there be fore my light decided to remind me who's boss.
November trip to paradise
The maps include all of the dives I did except for the P3 dive. I don't happen to have a softcopy map of the system. I didn't take any pictures, as solo diving with a camera in a cave is not my idea of vacation cave diving. The camera is just to directing, and I don't enjoy the dive nearly as much.
Dive 1:
Well, we arived early afternoon, and after an exhausting 22 hour car ride I figured there was no better way to de-trip than to go do a cave dive. Everyone else with better sense took the afternoon off and rested. A breakdown dive. Lets see how my sidemount rig preforms in Florida. With my last cave dive being a few weeks ago, I knew I didn't need to do a goldline/easy/work out the kinks dive or 3 so I decided to see some new cave I am wanted to see for a long time, but never had a buddy willing to "go small". So, off to the wormhole and then see how much range I have down the hill400 line. I was sidemounting double 104's, and as you can see my range is quite good for my first dive in Floridian caves in 8 months. I turned at the bats just before thirds and very easily proofed the hill400 circute. Ahh, caves, I think to my self sitting on deco. This is defiantly easy cave diving, but its a vacation after all!
Dive 2:
Since I proofed it last dive, I mite as well do it. An easy dive around the hill400 circute with plenty of gas to spare. Which meant I stuck my head in every little hole down the mainline. Of course, this is a Sunday and of course by stick my head in, I mean deploy a line and go in until I'm crawling in mud and unable to go further. Now, on the way out, the whole cave was milky. I was wondering what the heck was wrong because the vis was perfect on the way in. Of course, as I am rubbing the mud of of my gear, out of my belt buckle, off my backup lights and what not it hits me.. -I- did that. On a Sunday morning. During high season. While there are about 20 teams in or preparing to go diving. I blew the first 400 feet of the system down to 20-30 feet of vis for 3 hours. My bad.
Dive 3:
Haven't been to double domes yet this trip, and I have never been down the some of the Hiller Tunnel, so off I go. Besides, I have spools to pick up from yesterday. Its a bit of a push, but I make it with enough gas to gaze around double domes for 5 minutes. Letting the flow push me out, enjoying the scenery. On deco, I find more mud that I missed from last dive. A great start to a great trip.
Dive 4:
Off to Little River. This time I grab a stage and just head down the main line. Moving well, I drop the stage just into the Florida Room and keep on trucking. I cruise passed a few teams exiting in the Flroida Room and go though a very nice, open catacomb section and passed a few jumps. The tunnel gets a bit smaller and the limestone bottom is replaced by a fine bed of silt. Swimming though the last room, up over the silt pile the tunnel pinches down even further. This is where the last death happened, the team keeped scootering passed here. Now, its biggish feeling for me, but I am on sidemount. I know backmounters would be tight, just fitting without killing the vis. I cannot imagine scootering in this tunnel. The cave opens up a touch as I pass the well casting and then pinches down even more, getting lower and siltier. Finally the line ends in a tangled mess of cookies, glory markers and an easter egg which will remain a surprise for you to find out. I chose not to leave a glory marker.. there were enough there without my adding one.
Dive 5 (no map):
Telford, down the main line. Though rocky horror, postripedic and such. Turned some time around 2200 feet. Not much to write home about, but I'd go back. There are lots of side tunnels to explore which look much more interesting than the last 1000 feet of mainline. This is a cave where a scooter would be very nice.
Dive 6:
A nice easy dive in and around the Bone Room. Blew out Harry's Crack and did some side tunnels where they ere. Generally just farted around known ground looking for small stuff I have never been in.
Dive 7:
Up to double lines to check out some new cave. Very beautiful cave. You can tell not many people go up here, but there is still evidence of fin marks and tank damage from backmounters. Especially in the low low spots. But it is cave I recommend anyone with the range go check out. Its your first real taste of "less damaged" cave. You can go 30-40 feet without seeing any damage at all in some sections. That alone is worth the trip, let alone all the nice whoopdydoos and doyamigigies. Since I had a shit load of gas left (droped a stage at the bottom of the hill in hill400) when I hit the hill400 line, I decided to check out Skid Row. When I was rounding the corner of the horseshooe it got low.. like REAL low. Like I was on sidemount and I was starting to get low and tight. Then the line took a right and down into the silt. Someone had left a jump reel over yonder and there was loose line all over the place. My thought was someone tried the jump and since its so low, they freaked, got entangled, broke the line and fled. I'm to low on gas to do anything about it, so I turned it here and had a fantastic exit.
Dive 8:
Another stage dive, this time I am going "deep". But not toward the mythical Hinkle. I don't see why everyone has a hardon to go "see the Hinkle". That aside, about all I can say about this dive is DO IT. Get damn good in low stuff, and DO IT. Just, don't touch a god damn thing. I don't care what you have to do, sitck your hands in your pockets, whatever. The jump off the double lines is low. And its a mess for about 40 feet as people try it out, and then get uncomfortable and turn. But once you get though there, while it stays low it becomes completely untouched. There are intact clay and silt banks, percolation, almost no tank marks, hand marks or anything. This is what it should look like and its fantastic. The further back you go in here the more untouched it gets. P.S. it's all T's, so bring enough markers. This is likely my favourite dive of the trip.
Dive 9:
Having never been down the Wonder Tunnel, I figure a nice easy dive would be cool, so I did a small circute and checked out some more stuff I haven't been down. A nice tunnel, but not worthy of the name. Its beat up a good bit. The side tunnels in here are worth the trip if your on sidemount. They get low, dirty.. just how I like it.
Dive 10+11:
After days of saying "Madison" every 10 minutes, I convinced the gang to head out here. Its a nice cave, for sure. Its just unfortunate that there is no solo diving, as this restricts my exploration tendencies significantly. See, I can't just jump off down the sidemount tunnel to see where it goes, because I have a dive plan, a buddy on backmounts and a buddies comfort level to deal with. Still, its a couple of nice dives. Godzila Room and the gold line. I always love being in a new-to-me system, as it feels sort of like exploration at times. I did manage to sneak down a few side tunnels, but I didn't want to abandon my buddy for long.
At this point, I had to take 2 days off to rest my ears and recover from a minor ear infection which I didn't want to progress any further and wreck the rest of the trip. Two days off, and I was ready for more.
Dive 12+13:
Back to Madison. This time my buddy was more comfortable going a bit further, so we both did a bit more exploration and made it further into the system. The second dive, we/I stuck my head into every little hole I could find in the fount bit of the cave.
Dive 14:
Back to Little River. As you can see, I never did make it very far into the system. See, the thing was I was have WAY to much fun in the sidemount stuff thats not even on the map. The fount half of this cave is riddled with holes, passages and lines. Bypasses, short cuts, long cuts and unlined tunnels. Everything I found that I fit in, I went in.
Dive 15:
Off to cow, what was once my favourite system. But honestly, while the first couple hundred feet are very nice, it gets kind of boring after not-my-fault. Its the same cave, over and over and just keeps going. I'll go back, sure, but I'll be spending more time checking out side passages and upstream.
Dive 16:
Harper Tunnel at Little River. Right to the end, which involved taking off both of my tanks, and crawling though a spot my helmet didn't fit. This tunnel is another example of untouched, fantastic cave. Once you get into it a ways, it just gets amazing. Lots of twists, turns and very technical. This isn't a place to go if your skills aren't top notch. Sidemount suggested, as it gets to small in places.
Dive 17 (no map):
P3 to Henlies Castle jump. Nice cave, dirty and dark. I'll be back, and hopefully make it further. I had a videotographer whit me on this dive, and he is a hoover when he is shooting vid.
Dive 18-21:
This is getting long, so I am going to only talk about one of the dives. The Siphon Tunnel dive. This is another one of those special places in Devils System where no one goes and the cave shows very little wear and tear except in a few low places where there is some tank damage from backmounters. About 100 feet from the end of the line it goes though a sidemount pinch and opens up into a small round chamber. Yet another simple incredible place in paradise.
Dive 1:
Well, we arived early afternoon, and after an exhausting 22 hour car ride I figured there was no better way to de-trip than to go do a cave dive. Everyone else with better sense took the afternoon off and rested. A breakdown dive. Lets see how my sidemount rig preforms in Florida. With my last cave dive being a few weeks ago, I knew I didn't need to do a goldline/easy/work out the kinks dive or 3 so I decided to see some new cave I am wanted to see for a long time, but never had a buddy willing to "go small". So, off to the wormhole and then see how much range I have down the hill400 line. I was sidemounting double 104's, and as you can see my range is quite good for my first dive in Floridian caves in 8 months. I turned at the bats just before thirds and very easily proofed the hill400 circute. Ahh, caves, I think to my self sitting on deco. This is defiantly easy cave diving, but its a vacation after all!
Dive 2:
Since I proofed it last dive, I mite as well do it. An easy dive around the hill400 circute with plenty of gas to spare. Which meant I stuck my head in every little hole down the mainline. Of course, this is a Sunday and of course by stick my head in, I mean deploy a line and go in until I'm crawling in mud and unable to go further. Now, on the way out, the whole cave was milky. I was wondering what the heck was wrong because the vis was perfect on the way in. Of course, as I am rubbing the mud of of my gear, out of my belt buckle, off my backup lights and what not it hits me.. -I- did that. On a Sunday morning. During high season. While there are about 20 teams in or preparing to go diving. I blew the first 400 feet of the system down to 20-30 feet of vis for 3 hours. My bad.
Dive 3:
Haven't been to double domes yet this trip, and I have never been down the some of the Hiller Tunnel, so off I go. Besides, I have spools to pick up from yesterday. Its a bit of a push, but I make it with enough gas to gaze around double domes for 5 minutes. Letting the flow push me out, enjoying the scenery. On deco, I find more mud that I missed from last dive. A great start to a great trip.
Dive 4:
Off to Little River. This time I grab a stage and just head down the main line. Moving well, I drop the stage just into the Florida Room and keep on trucking. I cruise passed a few teams exiting in the Flroida Room and go though a very nice, open catacomb section and passed a few jumps. The tunnel gets a bit smaller and the limestone bottom is replaced by a fine bed of silt. Swimming though the last room, up over the silt pile the tunnel pinches down even further. This is where the last death happened, the team keeped scootering passed here. Now, its biggish feeling for me, but I am on sidemount. I know backmounters would be tight, just fitting without killing the vis. I cannot imagine scootering in this tunnel. The cave opens up a touch as I pass the well casting and then pinches down even more, getting lower and siltier. Finally the line ends in a tangled mess of cookies, glory markers and an easter egg which will remain a surprise for you to find out. I chose not to leave a glory marker.. there were enough there without my adding one.
Dive 5 (no map):
Telford, down the main line. Though rocky horror, postripedic and such. Turned some time around 2200 feet. Not much to write home about, but I'd go back. There are lots of side tunnels to explore which look much more interesting than the last 1000 feet of mainline. This is a cave where a scooter would be very nice.
Dive 6:
A nice easy dive in and around the Bone Room. Blew out Harry's Crack and did some side tunnels where they ere. Generally just farted around known ground looking for small stuff I have never been in.
Dive 7:
Up to double lines to check out some new cave. Very beautiful cave. You can tell not many people go up here, but there is still evidence of fin marks and tank damage from backmounters. Especially in the low low spots. But it is cave I recommend anyone with the range go check out. Its your first real taste of "less damaged" cave. You can go 30-40 feet without seeing any damage at all in some sections. That alone is worth the trip, let alone all the nice whoopdydoos and doyamigigies. Since I had a shit load of gas left (droped a stage at the bottom of the hill in hill400) when I hit the hill400 line, I decided to check out Skid Row. When I was rounding the corner of the horseshooe it got low.. like REAL low. Like I was on sidemount and I was starting to get low and tight. Then the line took a right and down into the silt. Someone had left a jump reel over yonder and there was loose line all over the place. My thought was someone tried the jump and since its so low, they freaked, got entangled, broke the line and fled. I'm to low on gas to do anything about it, so I turned it here and had a fantastic exit.
Dive 8:
Another stage dive, this time I am going "deep". But not toward the mythical Hinkle. I don't see why everyone has a hardon to go "see the Hinkle". That aside, about all I can say about this dive is DO IT. Get damn good in low stuff, and DO IT. Just, don't touch a god damn thing. I don't care what you have to do, sitck your hands in your pockets, whatever. The jump off the double lines is low. And its a mess for about 40 feet as people try it out, and then get uncomfortable and turn. But once you get though there, while it stays low it becomes completely untouched. There are intact clay and silt banks, percolation, almost no tank marks, hand marks or anything. This is what it should look like and its fantastic. The further back you go in here the more untouched it gets. P.S. it's all T's, so bring enough markers. This is likely my favourite dive of the trip.
Dive 9:
Having never been down the Wonder Tunnel, I figure a nice easy dive would be cool, so I did a small circute and checked out some more stuff I haven't been down. A nice tunnel, but not worthy of the name. Its beat up a good bit. The side tunnels in here are worth the trip if your on sidemount. They get low, dirty.. just how I like it.
Dive 10+11:
After days of saying "Madison" every 10 minutes, I convinced the gang to head out here. Its a nice cave, for sure. Its just unfortunate that there is no solo diving, as this restricts my exploration tendencies significantly. See, I can't just jump off down the sidemount tunnel to see where it goes, because I have a dive plan, a buddy on backmounts and a buddies comfort level to deal with. Still, its a couple of nice dives. Godzila Room and the gold line. I always love being in a new-to-me system, as it feels sort of like exploration at times. I did manage to sneak down a few side tunnels, but I didn't want to abandon my buddy for long.
At this point, I had to take 2 days off to rest my ears and recover from a minor ear infection which I didn't want to progress any further and wreck the rest of the trip. Two days off, and I was ready for more.
Dive 12+13:
Back to Madison. This time my buddy was more comfortable going a bit further, so we both did a bit more exploration and made it further into the system. The second dive, we/I stuck my head into every little hole I could find in the fount bit of the cave.
Dive 14:
Back to Little River. As you can see, I never did make it very far into the system. See, the thing was I was have WAY to much fun in the sidemount stuff thats not even on the map. The fount half of this cave is riddled with holes, passages and lines. Bypasses, short cuts, long cuts and unlined tunnels. Everything I found that I fit in, I went in.
Dive 15:
Off to cow, what was once my favourite system. But honestly, while the first couple hundred feet are very nice, it gets kind of boring after not-my-fault. Its the same cave, over and over and just keeps going. I'll go back, sure, but I'll be spending more time checking out side passages and upstream.
Dive 16:
Harper Tunnel at Little River. Right to the end, which involved taking off both of my tanks, and crawling though a spot my helmet didn't fit. This tunnel is another example of untouched, fantastic cave. Once you get into it a ways, it just gets amazing. Lots of twists, turns and very technical. This isn't a place to go if your skills aren't top notch. Sidemount suggested, as it gets to small in places.
Dive 17 (no map):
P3 to Henlies Castle jump. Nice cave, dirty and dark. I'll be back, and hopefully make it further. I had a videotographer whit me on this dive, and he is a hoover when he is shooting vid.
Dive 18-21:
This is getting long, so I am going to only talk about one of the dives. The Siphon Tunnel dive. This is another one of those special places in Devils System where no one goes and the cave shows very little wear and tear except in a few low places where there is some tank damage from backmounters. About 100 feet from the end of the line it goes though a sidemount pinch and opens up into a small round chamber. Yet another simple incredible place in paradise.
In the Beginning
Reaching way back to 2005, Fall. I am in the middle of a nice two week vacation in Florida diving assorted mainstream cave as befits my experience level at the time. Late into the second week, my back akeing from loading, unloading and diving double steel 130s for 8-10 days in a row. I carefully picked my way down the path to a fantastic cave called Cow Springs with my buddy following. The pool of crystal clear blue water looks so inviting nestled in a wooded depression. I cannot wait to jump in and do another fantastic cave dive.
Back then I was a firm believer in team diveing up to and including a GUE card I was very proud of in my wallet. I had like minded team mates and I refused to do "hard" dives with anyone who believed otherwise. In fact I went so far as to ridicule people who didn't dive in the manner I dove. That aside, my buddy at the time was also (and still is) a believer in team diving and all which it entails. His skills, in an honest evaluation, were not in the same place mine were but he has gone on to peruse GUE training and I believe has has come a long way in his diving and comfort. We splashed in, did the whole dance with 1/3rds and prep work to go diveing. I set the reel in around the corner then down to the gold line. Everything was flowing smoothly until we hit the first major restriction.
My backup reg started free flowing madly out of nowhere. I backed out of the restriction, turned to my buddy and we worked the problem. Problem was there were two brains going. One brain was right, one was wrong and they both acted. In short order I found my self with my left post off and my right post off - in a cave - with a minor restriction and a buddy between me and the exit. Fortunately, my buddy very quickly deployed his long hose and we sorted out the problem and exited the dive. I found out there was a rock jammed in the purge valve of my backup.
This incident shook my buddy enough that he didn't and as far as I know has no cave dove since. The next day I went solo diving for the first time in a cave. What I came to realize is that no mater what, when the rubber hits the road you are alone. No mater how much I thought I wasn't at the end of the day I was. Two brains didn't help, in fact we mostly got in each others way trying to sort out the problem. A man with two watches never knows what time it is and all that. I did my next solo dive the day after. A nice simple cave dive and in complete honesty I had never felt so free, so at peace with my self and my environment or in such a zen like sate of simply being and doing.
On the long drive home from Florida I underwent some very radical shifts in my thinking. How I approached diving and diving with other people. In short my paradigm shifted drastically. I could have gone any number of ways from here but the one I chose I am happy with and never really looked back or regret my choices. I stept way back from team diving and analyzed everything I had done to date with regards to cave diving. I analyzed my gear, my dives, my skills, my experience. By the time I got home I had made my choices and those choices were to become completely self sufficient in gear and skill and diving.
Shortly after that the stars aligned and I made some key contacts in the local cave diving sceen. A type of diving that does not lend it self well to teams. That of course was sidemount diving which by nature tends to be a solo activity. A few months later I found my self alone, in a squirrelly little cave. My gear looked nothing like it did previously. My buddy was a fish that decided to follow my around. My diveing took me places I didn't even know exited and eventually to place where I am the only human to have ever seen. Every time I dive, no mater how much crap I get my ass into I have that same feeling of calmness, bliss, relaxed confidence and oneness. I don't see my self ever giving that up.
Back then I was a firm believer in team diveing up to and including a GUE card I was very proud of in my wallet. I had like minded team mates and I refused to do "hard" dives with anyone who believed otherwise. In fact I went so far as to ridicule people who didn't dive in the manner I dove. That aside, my buddy at the time was also (and still is) a believer in team diving and all which it entails. His skills, in an honest evaluation, were not in the same place mine were but he has gone on to peruse GUE training and I believe has has come a long way in his diving and comfort. We splashed in, did the whole dance with 1/3rds and prep work to go diveing. I set the reel in around the corner then down to the gold line. Everything was flowing smoothly until we hit the first major restriction.
My backup reg started free flowing madly out of nowhere. I backed out of the restriction, turned to my buddy and we worked the problem. Problem was there were two brains going. One brain was right, one was wrong and they both acted. In short order I found my self with my left post off and my right post off - in a cave - with a minor restriction and a buddy between me and the exit. Fortunately, my buddy very quickly deployed his long hose and we sorted out the problem and exited the dive. I found out there was a rock jammed in the purge valve of my backup.
This incident shook my buddy enough that he didn't and as far as I know has no cave dove since. The next day I went solo diving for the first time in a cave. What I came to realize is that no mater what, when the rubber hits the road you are alone. No mater how much I thought I wasn't at the end of the day I was. Two brains didn't help, in fact we mostly got in each others way trying to sort out the problem. A man with two watches never knows what time it is and all that. I did my next solo dive the day after. A nice simple cave dive and in complete honesty I had never felt so free, so at peace with my self and my environment or in such a zen like sate of simply being and doing.
On the long drive home from Florida I underwent some very radical shifts in my thinking. How I approached diving and diving with other people. In short my paradigm shifted drastically. I could have gone any number of ways from here but the one I chose I am happy with and never really looked back or regret my choices. I stept way back from team diving and analyzed everything I had done to date with regards to cave diving. I analyzed my gear, my dives, my skills, my experience. By the time I got home I had made my choices and those choices were to become completely self sufficient in gear and skill and diving.
Shortly after that the stars aligned and I made some key contacts in the local cave diving sceen. A type of diving that does not lend it self well to teams. That of course was sidemount diving which by nature tends to be a solo activity. A few months later I found my self alone, in a squirrelly little cave. My gear looked nothing like it did previously. My buddy was a fish that decided to follow my around. My diveing took me places I didn't even know exited and eventually to place where I am the only human to have ever seen. Every time I dive, no mater how much crap I get my ass into I have that same feeling of calmness, bliss, relaxed confidence and oneness. I don't see my self ever giving that up.
In a Swamp
The time was early fall, 07. The place was central Florida and I was alone on a Cave Diving side trip for a couple of days while the family "did Mickey". It was here and then which I found my self standing in a puddle of standing swamp mush in the warm damp air.
The mud oozed over my sandals and made sucking noises as I slogged though with a steel tank on one shoulder. The sucking pops each threatened to dislodge my inappropriate footwear which each step toward the hole. Entering a slight depression I lowered my tank to the soft, wet muddy ground and see the crystal clear glow of the cave entrance. It is a small, round hole that drops straight down into a small shaft. At the bottom of the shaft are two tunnels going in different directions. Unfortunately there is a rotting tree lying across the opening.
We managed to get completely covered in mud, dirt and grime hulling our sidemount gear and assorted paraphernalia to the cave and then clearing the log from the opening. Sweat, dirt and mud crammed into a drysuit with me I longed for the picknick tables and stairs of the other more popular caves. Entering the sink was no easy splash ether since the actual hole is barely big enough to cram into. Then you have to hold your breath, pull down a rope 3-4 feet and jam a reg into your mouth as you struggle in a tinny shaft to get your tanks on.
Needless to say this cave isn't dove a lot. The cave it self shows little wear and little travel. The water it self is crystal clear and the cave is stunning with features, decoration and stuff I have never seen before in Florida. Like puddles of green-blue algae which settle into depressions on the floor. These algae puddles are filled with tinny albino crayfish.
I have also never seen such a complex web of cave passage. There are parallel lines which go under or over the "main" line. They criss-cross, intersect and otherwise turn into a confusing maze of tunnel. Most of which is small and silty. There are dead ends, loop-de-loops and all sorts of completely messed up ways to be completely and hopelessly lost. There are also no maps of any of it. T's everywhere and the cave is huge.. Thousands upon thousands of feet of line and going leads.
All in all this cave has turned into my absolute favorite dive sight in Florida and probably the world. Its shallow, challenging and extensive. There are catacomb like areas with drooping arched ceilings filled with silt that go on for ever. There are tube like tunnels filled with mud and clay in an intricate maze. There are parallel lines and tunnels and circuits. There are low rocky bedding planes and long vertical cracks. In short, it is breath taking. It is Luraville cave.
The mud oozed over my sandals and made sucking noises as I slogged though with a steel tank on one shoulder. The sucking pops each threatened to dislodge my inappropriate footwear which each step toward the hole. Entering a slight depression I lowered my tank to the soft, wet muddy ground and see the crystal clear glow of the cave entrance. It is a small, round hole that drops straight down into a small shaft. At the bottom of the shaft are two tunnels going in different directions. Unfortunately there is a rotting tree lying across the opening.
We managed to get completely covered in mud, dirt and grime hulling our sidemount gear and assorted paraphernalia to the cave and then clearing the log from the opening. Sweat, dirt and mud crammed into a drysuit with me I longed for the picknick tables and stairs of the other more popular caves. Entering the sink was no easy splash ether since the actual hole is barely big enough to cram into. Then you have to hold your breath, pull down a rope 3-4 feet and jam a reg into your mouth as you struggle in a tinny shaft to get your tanks on.
Needless to say this cave isn't dove a lot. The cave it self shows little wear and little travel. The water it self is crystal clear and the cave is stunning with features, decoration and stuff I have never seen before in Florida. Like puddles of green-blue algae which settle into depressions on the floor. These algae puddles are filled with tinny albino crayfish.
I have also never seen such a complex web of cave passage. There are parallel lines which go under or over the "main" line. They criss-cross, intersect and otherwise turn into a confusing maze of tunnel. Most of which is small and silty. There are dead ends, loop-de-loops and all sorts of completely messed up ways to be completely and hopelessly lost. There are also no maps of any of it. T's everywhere and the cave is huge.. Thousands upon thousands of feet of line and going leads.
All in all this cave has turned into my absolute favorite dive sight in Florida and probably the world. Its shallow, challenging and extensive. There are catacomb like areas with drooping arched ceilings filled with silt that go on for ever. There are tube like tunnels filled with mud and clay in an intricate maze. There are parallel lines and tunnels and circuits. There are low rocky bedding planes and long vertical cracks. In short, it is breath taking. It is Luraville cave.
More Cherry
I found my self on a fine spring day, sun shining down on the musty pine needles carpeting the ground. My buddy's car rolled to a stop in the damp shade and we opened the car door.
MISTAKE.
Not sure how many people have had the pleasure of this sort of area after a bunch of rain in the spring. Well, lets just say I the bug spray was out and on in under a minute. During that minute no less than 20 mosquitoes dinned on my flesh covering exposed skin in a nice dotting of red welts. The price I pay for a cave dive!
So I show my buddy around the property while batting quarter sized mosquitoes out of the way and we geared up on the beach and swam toward the cave. Nice warm water, nice 5 foot vis typical to area. And there is the line, and welcome to Canadian Cave diving Mr Pinault.
I, of course, made him lead since that is just about the only way to keep tabs on the newbie. We start off quite slow as MP readjusts to the new, alien environment. The thick rope line, the dark tannic water, the white-green limestone sharp as razor blades and all the other nuances of this cave.
Being behind him meant I saw a lot of silt and occasionally a flash of black rubber just before I ran into his fins with my face. After 800 feet of this we hit our first T. By this point MP was showing lots of comfort in the cave and looked like he was having a blast. I distinctly recall saying "Go left at all the T's" so absolutely he went right. I decided to hang back, since it gets nasty tight in there and let him figure that out. After a minute or so a wall of silt envelops me. The silt cloud keeps going and going... and going. A couple minutes later MP manages to get himself out of there and we head left.
A nice, lengthy rather basic "gold line" dive for this cave later we turn it somewhere around 2400feet. Coasting out with the flow, now I am in front. We glide out of the cave checking out nooks and crannies. At the exit to the cave I took a little 600-800 foot detour side tunnel. Its nice and low and silty. Very nice tunnel if I say so my self. It comes out underneath a dock down river.. right under the landowners boat.
He was there, on his dock when I surfaced. We chatted for a bit, I retrieved some things he dropped off the dock. We debriefed the dive. Read that as I said "So..." and MP stared at me with a stupid shit eating grin. After battling the mosquitoes again, we loaded up and left my favorite dive site in Ontario.
MISTAKE.
Not sure how many people have had the pleasure of this sort of area after a bunch of rain in the spring. Well, lets just say I the bug spray was out and on in under a minute. During that minute no less than 20 mosquitoes dinned on my flesh covering exposed skin in a nice dotting of red welts. The price I pay for a cave dive!
So I show my buddy around the property while batting quarter sized mosquitoes out of the way and we geared up on the beach and swam toward the cave. Nice warm water, nice 5 foot vis typical to area. And there is the line, and welcome to Canadian Cave diving Mr Pinault.
I, of course, made him lead since that is just about the only way to keep tabs on the newbie. We start off quite slow as MP readjusts to the new, alien environment. The thick rope line, the dark tannic water, the white-green limestone sharp as razor blades and all the other nuances of this cave.
Being behind him meant I saw a lot of silt and occasionally a flash of black rubber just before I ran into his fins with my face. After 800 feet of this we hit our first T. By this point MP was showing lots of comfort in the cave and looked like he was having a blast. I distinctly recall saying "Go left at all the T's" so absolutely he went right. I decided to hang back, since it gets nasty tight in there and let him figure that out. After a minute or so a wall of silt envelops me. The silt cloud keeps going and going... and going. A couple minutes later MP manages to get himself out of there and we head left.
A nice, lengthy rather basic "gold line" dive for this cave later we turn it somewhere around 2400feet. Coasting out with the flow, now I am in front. We glide out of the cave checking out nooks and crannies. At the exit to the cave I took a little 600-800 foot detour side tunnel. Its nice and low and silty. Very nice tunnel if I say so my self. It comes out underneath a dock down river.. right under the landowners boat.
He was there, on his dock when I surfaced. We chatted for a bit, I retrieved some things he dropped off the dock. We debriefed the dive. Read that as I said "So..." and MP stared at me with a stupid shit eating grin. After battling the mosquitoes again, we loaded up and left my favorite dive site in Ontario.
10 Year Old Survey Line
The date was early August, 2007. The place was in the Ottawa River Caves under the Islands. There were four of us that day, crammed into the 13 foot aluminum fishing boat. The 15 horse power outboard thrummed to life while Marc and Tom cast off from the old wooden peer. My drysuited ass nestled into the worn section in the stern wooden seat between peeling red paint and dull aluminum. The boat caught into the current as I slipped the small craft around the pier and into the river pointing the nose upstream and gunning the engine throttle against the stop.
It's about a 15 minute ride, straddling a stack of tanks, fins and assorted dive gear. The day was nice and sunny. A great day to be out in a small boat, on the river, diving some good ol Ontario cave. We pull up to shore and disembark from the little boat electing to gear up in waist deep water. I remember not having to hand out all the tanks and that *surprise* I was first in the cave and I was solo diving. *sploosh*
Its dark, very dark. 10 feet of tea water vis. Its also deeper here than the other main cave section, averaging 25 feet deep. The main tunnel goes a long ways, 5000 feet or something from one end to the other. My dive objective this time was to head up to the crossover into a section of the biggest cave here. In this section, the cave is 100 feet wide and I have ever been there yet. I find the cross tunnel and find the big stuff, but I am getting short on time so I turn around poking into all the little nooks and crannies on the way back. Of which there are many but only one 'goes'.
Its that one that 'goes' that life got interesting. I hit the T on the way out at about 80 minutes run time. I'v been down here before and I know it only goes 100 or so feet with the 20 feet I added last time. It probably goes another 20 feet with some bottle removal. Its a small tunnel and quite silty but it is also a very nice tunnel with stratification in the limestone layers of different colours and forming some texture on the walls. It's also small enough that you can see the whole cave which is a nice treat for Ontario.
So there I am, tanks about 1/2 way done, 50 feet into a smallish, silty passage. Did I mention the line in here is 10 year old, #18 survey line? This is important because in the low vis on the way out you need to be in contact or near contact with the line at all times. Since I was on the way out at the time, I was loosely ok'ing the line when I guess I gave it a small tug as I rounded a bit of a corner. Vis was about 3 feet and silty at the time and the line parted. I can still see that line shooting off into the silt in both directions like its in slow motion. The line basically just shot off like an elastic and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
*zip* gone.
That was a bit heart thumping, let me tell you. Well, before I had a chance to think about anything I referenced the cave and got my self oriented and solidly referenced. Then my brain caught up to my instincts and holleeeeeee shit. I had my safety spool 1/2 out of my pocket already and I just paused mid movement. Holeeeeee shit. Brain started firing on about 10 more cylinders than I have to fire and about 50 irrational thoughts went flying around my pea sized brain. Most of them went like this.
"Line gone, your fucked, swim like hell and get out of here"
Which is basically exactly what not to do of course. So I hung there, solidly referenced and some part of my self control rooted me in the spot for a few moments. Only the cave will know how long I waited there for stupid thoughts to loose to reason. I can tell you it felt like an eternity. Eventually training, experience and logic came though and got me moving in the right way. I secured my safety spool and reasoned out the 'best' course of action to find the line. Since I am aware of the gave geometry I elected to follow the general trend of the left wall for about 70 feet (14 knots - your safety spool IS knotted right?) until the cave opened up then sweep right which should land me solidly on the 'gold' line out of here. Which it did. Things went exactly as planned and I was on the gold line kicking out of the cave in a couple of minutes and broke the surface by the boat with crap loads of time.
It kept me out of the water for a few weeks though circumstance mostly, but I did turn down a pair of diving opportunities before I get back in there for an 'easy' dive.
It's about a 15 minute ride, straddling a stack of tanks, fins and assorted dive gear. The day was nice and sunny. A great day to be out in a small boat, on the river, diving some good ol Ontario cave. We pull up to shore and disembark from the little boat electing to gear up in waist deep water. I remember not having to hand out all the tanks and that *surprise* I was first in the cave and I was solo diving. *sploosh*
Its dark, very dark. 10 feet of tea water vis. Its also deeper here than the other main cave section, averaging 25 feet deep. The main tunnel goes a long ways, 5000 feet or something from one end to the other. My dive objective this time was to head up to the crossover into a section of the biggest cave here. In this section, the cave is 100 feet wide and I have ever been there yet. I find the cross tunnel and find the big stuff, but I am getting short on time so I turn around poking into all the little nooks and crannies on the way back. Of which there are many but only one 'goes'.
Its that one that 'goes' that life got interesting. I hit the T on the way out at about 80 minutes run time. I'v been down here before and I know it only goes 100 or so feet with the 20 feet I added last time. It probably goes another 20 feet with some bottle removal. Its a small tunnel and quite silty but it is also a very nice tunnel with stratification in the limestone layers of different colours and forming some texture on the walls. It's also small enough that you can see the whole cave which is a nice treat for Ontario.
So there I am, tanks about 1/2 way done, 50 feet into a smallish, silty passage. Did I mention the line in here is 10 year old, #18 survey line? This is important because in the low vis on the way out you need to be in contact or near contact with the line at all times. Since I was on the way out at the time, I was loosely ok'ing the line when I guess I gave it a small tug as I rounded a bit of a corner. Vis was about 3 feet and silty at the time and the line parted. I can still see that line shooting off into the silt in both directions like its in slow motion. The line basically just shot off like an elastic and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
*zip* gone.
That was a bit heart thumping, let me tell you. Well, before I had a chance to think about anything I referenced the cave and got my self oriented and solidly referenced. Then my brain caught up to my instincts and holleeeeeee shit. I had my safety spool 1/2 out of my pocket already and I just paused mid movement. Holeeeeee shit. Brain started firing on about 10 more cylinders than I have to fire and about 50 irrational thoughts went flying around my pea sized brain. Most of them went like this.
"Line gone, your fucked, swim like hell and get out of here"
Which is basically exactly what not to do of course. So I hung there, solidly referenced and some part of my self control rooted me in the spot for a few moments. Only the cave will know how long I waited there for stupid thoughts to loose to reason. I can tell you it felt like an eternity. Eventually training, experience and logic came though and got me moving in the right way. I secured my safety spool and reasoned out the 'best' course of action to find the line. Since I am aware of the gave geometry I elected to follow the general trend of the left wall for about 70 feet (14 knots - your safety spool IS knotted right?) until the cave opened up then sweep right which should land me solidly on the 'gold' line out of here. Which it did. Things went exactly as planned and I was on the gold line kicking out of the cave in a couple of minutes and broke the surface by the boat with crap loads of time.
It kept me out of the water for a few weeks though circumstance mostly, but I did turn down a pair of diving opportunities before I get back in there for an 'easy' dive.
Pushing the Small Stuff
"Yet another boring night shift" while working as a Sympatico sys admin (no, I can't help you. No, -I- don't even USE Sympatico which should tell you something) brings you a mini chronicles.
Pushing the Small Stuff, Summer 07, Ottawa River
Last time in the main cave I had found a few little holes to check out. Being a safety conscious diver I didn't explore them right away. Instead I marked them for later. A later when I could go there and explore with loads and loads of gas. This is my standard mode of operation in this cave, and having loads of gas when your are stuck in an underwater coffin is a good thing.
But I digress. It was actually a couple of weeks between finding the leads and diving them. You see, the gang and I decided to rent a boat and hit some island caves the next week and I had a real incident and it took a couple weeks to get back here. That incident can wait, it is an interesting story and a great lesson on preparedness.
I digress - AGAIN!
For serious this time.
I mean it.
Ok, so I show up with my former instructor Marc. This is the guy who watched me take my first breath of air at a depth of 4 inches. A privilege to have him as a friend and peer these days. Well, we show up and decide we don't particularly want to do the same dive, so we brief each other and head our seperet ways. This has become almost SOP for this cave. We all find we just accomplish more and better diving this way here.
Well, my dive plan is straight forward. Swim up this far to this area. Tie off a line and see if this hole goes anywhere. So I get to the spot relatively quickly, about 15 minutes of hulling against the flow. Being such a shallow cave, I can barely register that I have used any gas yet. So I T my line into the 3/4 inch poly rope and spool off the line.
A couple of quick fin kicks and the wall of the cave comes into murky view and there is my silt dune and there is my hole. I make a solid wrap around a rock outcropping, knotting in the line for extra security. It's not going anywhere without a knife and I like it that way. I also know that vis will be zero, so that line has to be solid.
Over the sand/silt pile it gets low. With my back tugging along the roof I run out of vertical space and find my self brushing though the soft top layer of unsettled mung and silt. This layer of sediment is spongy and water filled. It feels like a silky soft mound of bubbles in a bath tub or perhaps an intricate spider web and when you press it has some elasticity. It gives a little before your hand plunges into it breaking the surface tension and releasing a small volcano of silt. This interesting stuff gets quickly plowed away as I slide my body though it.
Then the bottom drops away and I have some room again. A pause and glance back confirms that I'll be groping my way out of here. A glance forward and around confirms that I am likely the first sentient life form to see this in the history of the world. Virgin cave can give you a thrill like you wouldn't believe. I am no exception - hell I LIVE for this feeling.
My heart hits my throat thumping away much faster than it has any right to and adrenaline hits my body like a wave of good drugs. This demonstrates both a euphoric high that I can see going virgin cave but it also poses a massive self control and ego problem. It takes willful and determined self control to maintain composure, skills, awareness and safety when your hit with this torrent of emotion.
Stopping to breath a few times, I hang motionless. 20 or so seconds later, composure gained I look down at the little plastic spool in my hands. The sole life line and exit though the silt. Such a tiny thing to place so much trust on. Glancing around I find a nice chert knob on the roof a foot or so away and tie another wrap with a few knots onto it. Now, I am setting a permanent line. And off I swim.
Slowly.
The roof and cave dive downwards into another pinch. 50 feet of bumping my way though this, the cave branches. It turns right and up.. and my intuition says this dumps out on the main line as the cave has been trending right the whole time. But it also heads left. I mark the lead and continue right and sure enough I come up over another bank of silt, though a 10 foot crawl and run smack dab into the main line.
I give the silt 10 minutes to settle out and head back into the blowing silt coming from the new passage. On the other side of the crawl the vis clears up to a foot or two and I proceed to my lead. Jumping off this it pinches right down.
*clunk* *clunk*. Ugh, time to take off some gear. I pop one bottle off and squeeze into the hole groping around in the almost zero vis and it feels like it opens up. I push my free bottle ahead of me a few feet and start squirming forward. An inch followed by another inch. My attached bottle is squeezing into my ribs as I try to find the right angle to attack the restriction. I grab a solid hunk of rock with one and and cam my elbow in on the other side, spool in hand, and rock my body left and right trying to find the right spot. With a final pull I spit though into the opening. I push my free bottle forward a bit as I enter a small dome. It is big compared to what I just was in.
I feel out the place and figure I can turn around here. This is good because backing up though that restriction sounds not fun. I feel my way to a good tie in and secure my line though the restriction putting the line intentionally into a line trap so I don't get tied into a knot on the way out. I give the room a couple minutes to clear and I see another hole and another opening beyond. Same trick as last time. After grunting, camming and pushing I get though this restriction.
Except this room is a coffin that goes no where.
My coffin, I mean I take up almost the entirety of the place. It might be 7 feet long 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide at its biggest dimensions. Jamming a medium sized person in a drysuit and a full set of sidemount gear in there is interesting. But, I think I can contort my way to turn around. I am quite flexible when I need to be so I kick my fins off near the 'door', tie down and cut my line off and slide my spare tank out the door with my feet. Then comes me. I crunch up into a ball and spin around some how, helmet, leggs , arms, knees and elbows catching on every little rocky outcropping in the place.
All 100000 of them.
I push my removed gear out the door and then slide though into the spacious room I just left. Put my fins back on before I loose them and then squeeze my way out the next restriction. Slap my tank back on and belly crawl back out to the main line to finish off the tanks cruzing down the big stuff. looking for more leads.
Good times.
Pushing the Small Stuff, Summer 07, Ottawa River
Last time in the main cave I had found a few little holes to check out. Being a safety conscious diver I didn't explore them right away. Instead I marked them for later. A later when I could go there and explore with loads and loads of gas. This is my standard mode of operation in this cave, and having loads of gas when your are stuck in an underwater coffin is a good thing.
But I digress. It was actually a couple of weeks between finding the leads and diving them. You see, the gang and I decided to rent a boat and hit some island caves the next week and I had a real incident and it took a couple weeks to get back here. That incident can wait, it is an interesting story and a great lesson on preparedness.
I digress - AGAIN!
For serious this time.
I mean it.
Ok, so I show up with my former instructor Marc. This is the guy who watched me take my first breath of air at a depth of 4 inches. A privilege to have him as a friend and peer these days. Well, we show up and decide we don't particularly want to do the same dive, so we brief each other and head our seperet ways. This has become almost SOP for this cave. We all find we just accomplish more and better diving this way here.
Well, my dive plan is straight forward. Swim up this far to this area. Tie off a line and see if this hole goes anywhere. So I get to the spot relatively quickly, about 15 minutes of hulling against the flow. Being such a shallow cave, I can barely register that I have used any gas yet. So I T my line into the 3/4 inch poly rope and spool off the line.
A couple of quick fin kicks and the wall of the cave comes into murky view and there is my silt dune and there is my hole. I make a solid wrap around a rock outcropping, knotting in the line for extra security. It's not going anywhere without a knife and I like it that way. I also know that vis will be zero, so that line has to be solid.
Over the sand/silt pile it gets low. With my back tugging along the roof I run out of vertical space and find my self brushing though the soft top layer of unsettled mung and silt. This layer of sediment is spongy and water filled. It feels like a silky soft mound of bubbles in a bath tub or perhaps an intricate spider web and when you press it has some elasticity. It gives a little before your hand plunges into it breaking the surface tension and releasing a small volcano of silt. This interesting stuff gets quickly plowed away as I slide my body though it.
Then the bottom drops away and I have some room again. A pause and glance back confirms that I'll be groping my way out of here. A glance forward and around confirms that I am likely the first sentient life form to see this in the history of the world. Virgin cave can give you a thrill like you wouldn't believe. I am no exception - hell I LIVE for this feeling.
My heart hits my throat thumping away much faster than it has any right to and adrenaline hits my body like a wave of good drugs. This demonstrates both a euphoric high that I can see going virgin cave but it also poses a massive self control and ego problem. It takes willful and determined self control to maintain composure, skills, awareness and safety when your hit with this torrent of emotion.
Stopping to breath a few times, I hang motionless. 20 or so seconds later, composure gained I look down at the little plastic spool in my hands. The sole life line and exit though the silt. Such a tiny thing to place so much trust on. Glancing around I find a nice chert knob on the roof a foot or so away and tie another wrap with a few knots onto it. Now, I am setting a permanent line. And off I swim.
Slowly.
The roof and cave dive downwards into another pinch. 50 feet of bumping my way though this, the cave branches. It turns right and up.. and my intuition says this dumps out on the main line as the cave has been trending right the whole time. But it also heads left. I mark the lead and continue right and sure enough I come up over another bank of silt, though a 10 foot crawl and run smack dab into the main line.
I give the silt 10 minutes to settle out and head back into the blowing silt coming from the new passage. On the other side of the crawl the vis clears up to a foot or two and I proceed to my lead. Jumping off this it pinches right down.
*clunk* *clunk*. Ugh, time to take off some gear. I pop one bottle off and squeeze into the hole groping around in the almost zero vis and it feels like it opens up. I push my free bottle ahead of me a few feet and start squirming forward. An inch followed by another inch. My attached bottle is squeezing into my ribs as I try to find the right angle to attack the restriction. I grab a solid hunk of rock with one and and cam my elbow in on the other side, spool in hand, and rock my body left and right trying to find the right spot. With a final pull I spit though into the opening. I push my free bottle forward a bit as I enter a small dome. It is big compared to what I just was in.
I feel out the place and figure I can turn around here. This is good because backing up though that restriction sounds not fun. I feel my way to a good tie in and secure my line though the restriction putting the line intentionally into a line trap so I don't get tied into a knot on the way out. I give the room a couple minutes to clear and I see another hole and another opening beyond. Same trick as last time. After grunting, camming and pushing I get though this restriction.
Except this room is a coffin that goes no where.
My coffin, I mean I take up almost the entirety of the place. It might be 7 feet long 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide at its biggest dimensions. Jamming a medium sized person in a drysuit and a full set of sidemount gear in there is interesting. But, I think I can contort my way to turn around. I am quite flexible when I need to be so I kick my fins off near the 'door', tie down and cut my line off and slide my spare tank out the door with my feet. Then comes me. I crunch up into a ball and spin around some how, helmet, leggs , arms, knees and elbows catching on every little rocky outcropping in the place.
All 100000 of them.
I push my removed gear out the door and then slide though into the spacious room I just left. Put my fins back on before I loose them and then squeeze my way out the next restriction. Slap my tank back on and belly crawl back out to the main line to finish off the tanks cruzing down the big stuff. looking for more leads.
Good times.
Flooded in Florida
Apologies in advance for the beer snobbery in the second paragraph. Also this was written sleep deprived on night shift while waiting for OS Patches to finish and then not proof read.
Feb 08
Gear safely loaded in the truck the day before, I head to the airport with a backpack, lunch, directions to "Knightly Spirits" in Orlando and my MP3 Player. After texting with Mike and Finn a few times for giggles I settle in for a day of waiting in airports while my gear drives down without me. After zoning out to some mindless TV the wheels hit the tarmac and I secure my wheels for the week. The look on the agents face when I ask for the "oldest beater in the lot" was priceless.
So off I go, getting lost only once on the way to the most fantastic beer store I have ever graced with my shadow. Or rather gave my shadow the privilege to fall in. Those of you only familiar with the meagre offerings provided by Ontario's government choked atrocity called the LCBO or the megabrew controlled, licensed place called The Beer Store will likely be unable to grasp the notion that beer exists outside of the yellow fizz foisted off on us. Some, perhaps, know beer comes in colours other than pee. Well, when I walked into this haven of malted barley concoctions I was greeted with one 40 foot wall of beer. Not like the wall we have, where your selection is 150 assorted lagers that are for most intents identical. This wall started with a plethora of exotic beer. Lambic, sour, flemmish heaven. The kind of beer that you pull the cork out of, take a wif of the 10 year old brettanomyces and your entire gastro-intestinal tract squeezes together in a sour pinch. Moving down the line, as I am not looking for a vomit inducing Flemmish Brown Ale I hit the wall of Trappists. My jaw dropped to the ground and I after many agonizing minutes I was finally on my way to cave diving with a trunk full of some of the best beers in the world.
Enough about beer. Lets talk caves. Luraville is like a second home to me now and that’s where I am. Right smack dab in the middle of one of my favourite places on earth. I crash early, get up, get the gear together and head out. It's dive time and Finn and I head out for an easy cruise in P1. Finn has to screw with his gear a bunch, but that's cool. Sidemount is like that for a while. We splash in, do a couple of jumps up into the wish bone and head home. Nice and relaxing, Finn likes is slow. I of course too the opportunity to stick my head in a bunch of places I haven't been, looking for lines and leads and basically criss-crossing the cave like a gerbil on meth.
For our second performance we head out to Cow and I show Mr Finn what sidemount is about. Well, I show him the start of some real nice stuff and we pass though a couple of nasties in what is a good entry level sidemount tunnel. This is the hellbender bypass and it isn't on 'the map'. Its a nice cave and it starts of deceptively easy. You cruise though some stuff that would be backmountable and it start pinching down. The cave topografy is hard and jagged limestone solution tube with sharp and point things sticking out. Well it gets smaller until you are moderately tight. Moving forward is difficult as the cave grabs as you in fits and starts. Vis deteriorates significantly as I pass though a bell crawl and Finn's first true major restriction and hit the first T. Ascending into clear water with a smirk on my face I wait for him to figure out that mess with vis measured in inches. Of course as soon as he gets though, we turn it. Continuing passed the T and you hit a vertical restriction that makes Hell Bender look like the 417. But that dumps you into some absolutely untouched clay beds. Stunning cave this.
Back at the trailer Mike thinks his cold is breaking. He mentions diving tomorrow. Ok, cool. Next thing you know we are splashing in for a nice circuit. P1 though Olsen to the P-Nut and out. Lovely dive. I see lots more holes I want to hit. So next dive is hits vill. We head back toward Luravile at Cathies using the 2 wheel swamp mobile rental I got. We get within about 1000 meters of Manhole before I stop driving for fear of never getting out. After a bit of swamp walking, Manhole is a mess. By mess, I mean a tannic filled sess pool. We check Escape Hatch and Luraville Spring for kicks, and they both look about as promising as diving in the pools at the Ottawa Sewage Plant. So back to P1 it is.
Start off the same, as in drop down the crack at P1 to the main line. About 30 feet up the main line, we jump onto shortcut. Not many people know its there. Probably shaves 50 feet off the swim to Pothole and it's just as big. Nice to be swimming over places without hand prints again. Back onto the main line for a couple hundred feet, then into another unmarked shortcut that spits you our near the Cistein jump. Shortly after that at another unmarked jump it's time to do some darkwater fun. The jump is setup low, then almost straight up a silt bank and then back on your self into a tube. Then it goes over a cavern, around a rock post, straight down and zig-zags back on itself again into the cavern. Then it gets low and silty. Arched domes connected with duck unders. Domes are filled with a nice silt cone and the buoyancy work is demanding. That spits you out on crossover which we head right on toward Olsen. We pop out and chat then head back. We jump off onto the short survey line right at the start of Olsen and that dumps out passed the Crossover jump heading back. A little detour down the pothole-breakdown line latter and a nice easy swim out and a bit of playing down some little holes and we get back to the sign at the bottom of the entrance shaft.
But wait, dive isn't over its only been 90 minutes! Recalculating thirds we head off into the Well. A great way to add some deco to a long dive, since it drops you quite deep (for P1). Lots of side tunnels in there demanding return trips and the Well it self is quite spectacular in its own, foreboding, silty way.
On the way back to the trailer that night I swing by Cow. What was a beautiful clear blue sink hole yesterday is now a tannic filled mess. Water has almost bridged to the river, and you can see the flow reversing into Cow drawing river water with it. Good stuff.
Next day we have a repeat dive with Mike and Finn in Darkwater/Olsen/Well. Good stuff, but this time I was #3 and got to see.. well.. silt. Dive after that Mike and I head over to P3. This has got to be the best conditions I have dove P3 in. The water was crystal clear and there was no noticeable siphon. We head out and after a few misses we complete the 'easy circuit' with a brief peek at the castle and a look-see at the hole and the outflow tunnel passed the T.
Next day we are gearing up for a repeat dive with Mike and Finn at P3. In the course of ~12 hours the pool at P3 has turned a murky brown. But I think we should be good to go, it'll clear up. Everyone else is in agreement - its not that bad. We go get into drysuits and come back to strap on tanks. In the space of 20 minutes the river crested over the slough and started trickling into the P3 basin. Still undaunted, we grope around for a few minutes in 3 foot tannic vis getting a reel into the gold line and swim into blue water at ~300 foot mark. Complete a fantastic dive. Of course, the tannic was 600-700 feet in on the way out. It was like watching a wall of brown mush crash over. Quite impressive to see. Getting up near the roof in that tannic was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever enjoyed in a cave. Much like a halocline the tannic and the spring water layered it self. The spring water layer was about 2 feet deep on top of the dense tannic. The sculpted roof dipped down into the tannic like so many cobwebs in a multifaceted arched glory. By the time we got out, there was a small waterfall poring into P3 basin. By the time the day was over P3 was a swirling vortex and sucking small logs into the system.
For our next feet we decided to head out to Waterhole - the hard way. That almost worked, except we weren’t prepared for a certain T and turned around in there. We finished the dive with a swim up P-Nut taking all the little side tunnels along the way and a little trip toward the spiral hole.
The last dive I'll mention was in Orange Grove. Tannic into about 600 feet, it still turned out fantastic, as Mike and I swam out to the end of the distance tunnel with a number of side trips. Getting to the first T is nice. But after that T it's just crazy nice. And Crazy too. I can't even describe how messed up the lines are back there other than to say at one point there are two lines running parallel down the passage 1 foot apart, but they both go completely different places. Low and fun. I'll be back.
Great trip, great diving. Luraville has some part of my soul that I'll never get back. Even if all my caves are flooded and I am 'stuck' diving P1.
Feb 08
Gear safely loaded in the truck the day before, I head to the airport with a backpack, lunch, directions to "Knightly Spirits" in Orlando and my MP3 Player. After texting with Mike and Finn a few times for giggles I settle in for a day of waiting in airports while my gear drives down without me. After zoning out to some mindless TV the wheels hit the tarmac and I secure my wheels for the week. The look on the agents face when I ask for the "oldest beater in the lot" was priceless.
So off I go, getting lost only once on the way to the most fantastic beer store I have ever graced with my shadow. Or rather gave my shadow the privilege to fall in. Those of you only familiar with the meagre offerings provided by Ontario's government choked atrocity called the LCBO or the megabrew controlled, licensed place called The Beer Store will likely be unable to grasp the notion that beer exists outside of the yellow fizz foisted off on us. Some, perhaps, know beer comes in colours other than pee. Well, when I walked into this haven of malted barley concoctions I was greeted with one 40 foot wall of beer. Not like the wall we have, where your selection is 150 assorted lagers that are for most intents identical. This wall started with a plethora of exotic beer. Lambic, sour, flemmish heaven. The kind of beer that you pull the cork out of, take a wif of the 10 year old brettanomyces and your entire gastro-intestinal tract squeezes together in a sour pinch. Moving down the line, as I am not looking for a vomit inducing Flemmish Brown Ale I hit the wall of Trappists. My jaw dropped to the ground and I after many agonizing minutes I was finally on my way to cave diving with a trunk full of some of the best beers in the world.
Enough about beer. Lets talk caves. Luraville is like a second home to me now and that’s where I am. Right smack dab in the middle of one of my favourite places on earth. I crash early, get up, get the gear together and head out. It's dive time and Finn and I head out for an easy cruise in P1. Finn has to screw with his gear a bunch, but that's cool. Sidemount is like that for a while. We splash in, do a couple of jumps up into the wish bone and head home. Nice and relaxing, Finn likes is slow. I of course too the opportunity to stick my head in a bunch of places I haven't been, looking for lines and leads and basically criss-crossing the cave like a gerbil on meth.
For our second performance we head out to Cow and I show Mr Finn what sidemount is about. Well, I show him the start of some real nice stuff and we pass though a couple of nasties in what is a good entry level sidemount tunnel. This is the hellbender bypass and it isn't on 'the map'. Its a nice cave and it starts of deceptively easy. You cruise though some stuff that would be backmountable and it start pinching down. The cave topografy is hard and jagged limestone solution tube with sharp and point things sticking out. Well it gets smaller until you are moderately tight. Moving forward is difficult as the cave grabs as you in fits and starts. Vis deteriorates significantly as I pass though a bell crawl and Finn's first true major restriction and hit the first T. Ascending into clear water with a smirk on my face I wait for him to figure out that mess with vis measured in inches. Of course as soon as he gets though, we turn it. Continuing passed the T and you hit a vertical restriction that makes Hell Bender look like the 417. But that dumps you into some absolutely untouched clay beds. Stunning cave this.
Back at the trailer Mike thinks his cold is breaking. He mentions diving tomorrow. Ok, cool. Next thing you know we are splashing in for a nice circuit. P1 though Olsen to the P-Nut and out. Lovely dive. I see lots more holes I want to hit. So next dive is hits vill. We head back toward Luravile at Cathies using the 2 wheel swamp mobile rental I got. We get within about 1000 meters of Manhole before I stop driving for fear of never getting out. After a bit of swamp walking, Manhole is a mess. By mess, I mean a tannic filled sess pool. We check Escape Hatch and Luraville Spring for kicks, and they both look about as promising as diving in the pools at the Ottawa Sewage Plant. So back to P1 it is.
Start off the same, as in drop down the crack at P1 to the main line. About 30 feet up the main line, we jump onto shortcut. Not many people know its there. Probably shaves 50 feet off the swim to Pothole and it's just as big. Nice to be swimming over places without hand prints again. Back onto the main line for a couple hundred feet, then into another unmarked shortcut that spits you our near the Cistein jump. Shortly after that at another unmarked jump it's time to do some darkwater fun. The jump is setup low, then almost straight up a silt bank and then back on your self into a tube. Then it goes over a cavern, around a rock post, straight down and zig-zags back on itself again into the cavern. Then it gets low and silty. Arched domes connected with duck unders. Domes are filled with a nice silt cone and the buoyancy work is demanding. That spits you out on crossover which we head right on toward Olsen. We pop out and chat then head back. We jump off onto the short survey line right at the start of Olsen and that dumps out passed the Crossover jump heading back. A little detour down the pothole-breakdown line latter and a nice easy swim out and a bit of playing down some little holes and we get back to the sign at the bottom of the entrance shaft.
But wait, dive isn't over its only been 90 minutes! Recalculating thirds we head off into the Well. A great way to add some deco to a long dive, since it drops you quite deep (for P1). Lots of side tunnels in there demanding return trips and the Well it self is quite spectacular in its own, foreboding, silty way.
On the way back to the trailer that night I swing by Cow. What was a beautiful clear blue sink hole yesterday is now a tannic filled mess. Water has almost bridged to the river, and you can see the flow reversing into Cow drawing river water with it. Good stuff.
Next day we have a repeat dive with Mike and Finn in Darkwater/Olsen/Well. Good stuff, but this time I was #3 and got to see.. well.. silt. Dive after that Mike and I head over to P3. This has got to be the best conditions I have dove P3 in. The water was crystal clear and there was no noticeable siphon. We head out and after a few misses we complete the 'easy circuit' with a brief peek at the castle and a look-see at the hole and the outflow tunnel passed the T.
Next day we are gearing up for a repeat dive with Mike and Finn at P3. In the course of ~12 hours the pool at P3 has turned a murky brown. But I think we should be good to go, it'll clear up. Everyone else is in agreement - its not that bad. We go get into drysuits and come back to strap on tanks. In the space of 20 minutes the river crested over the slough and started trickling into the P3 basin. Still undaunted, we grope around for a few minutes in 3 foot tannic vis getting a reel into the gold line and swim into blue water at ~300 foot mark. Complete a fantastic dive. Of course, the tannic was 600-700 feet in on the way out. It was like watching a wall of brown mush crash over. Quite impressive to see. Getting up near the roof in that tannic was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever enjoyed in a cave. Much like a halocline the tannic and the spring water layered it self. The spring water layer was about 2 feet deep on top of the dense tannic. The sculpted roof dipped down into the tannic like so many cobwebs in a multifaceted arched glory. By the time we got out, there was a small waterfall poring into P3 basin. By the time the day was over P3 was a swirling vortex and sucking small logs into the system.
For our next feet we decided to head out to Waterhole - the hard way. That almost worked, except we weren’t prepared for a certain T and turned around in there. We finished the dive with a swim up P-Nut taking all the little side tunnels along the way and a little trip toward the spiral hole.
The last dive I'll mention was in Orange Grove. Tannic into about 600 feet, it still turned out fantastic, as Mike and I swam out to the end of the distance tunnel with a number of side trips. Getting to the first T is nice. But after that T it's just crazy nice. And Crazy too. I can't even describe how messed up the lines are back there other than to say at one point there are two lines running parallel down the passage 1 foot apart, but they both go completely different places. Low and fun. I'll be back.
Great trip, great diving. Luraville has some part of my soul that I'll never get back. Even if all my caves are flooded and I am 'stuck' diving P1.
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