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.
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