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.