Little Devils

[flyczek]

I was looking at Little Devils today. Clearly appears to be a no-mount entry. I couldn't make out any way of getting in there without serious digging. I moved some debris that was clogged in the entrance and the whole place silted out. I've got no problems with small stuff and am curious about this cave. However, I don't want to silt out the whole spring run and/or get anyone upset.

If anyone on the board has been in here and would be willing to share their experience/advice, I'd like to hear it.

Thanks

[FW]

It was pushed by Wes Skiles about 20 years ago, but has filled with debris since then. GSO may not take kindly to someone digging it out, and silting up the run, especially if there are a lot of tubers (or divers) in there.

[Jay]

I think in 01 or 02 after a decent flood season I was poking around down there and it looked like it was opening up just a bit. It was a weekday with almost no one in the park and I happened to have my scooter with me....
I jammed it and myself in the entrance and tried to move some debris. Works fine on sand and silt, not so much on the gravelly stuff in there. I have used the technique in lakes and oceans successfully.
I got pelted pretty hard on any exposed skin. Didn't silt up the run at all, just beat me up a bit. I stopped after 20-30 seconds.

[EEL]

flyczek,

I dove in Little Devils a lot between 1994 and 1996. Some solo, but also with several different friends. It is an awesome little cave. The entrance is the tightest spot, but with the sand/rock floor it is not too troublesome. Once in the entrance the cave opens up quite a bit and continues on for a few hundred feet. The floor is mostly sand with some clay pockets. The water is clearer than the Devils cave (same water source as Ginnie Spring I believe). Several hundred feet in one will encounter the “T”. Go Left and the line will end in a pretty and quite large room. Go right and there are two other serious restrictions. The first I called basketball hoop; it is tight and has a nasty clay floor. Shortly after this is a diagonal rock crack that while 6-8 feet across it is only 6-12 inches deep. It took me three attempts to squeeze my scardy cat self through this. Once through the crack the cave angles up and twists back on its self. The flow is pouring out a hole in the roof that has had some major excavation attempts, but so far as I know this was the end of the line. I dove at Little Devils with a no-mount configuration either a single 80 with Y valve or two 40s clamped together as independents. I see no reason why side mounting the 40s wouldn’t work except for the entrance and Basketball hoop. These would most likely require a tank or two to be removed.

Dive Safe,

Mark

[J_glenn06]

Does wes have any pictures inside? maybe even video? I would like to see that

[SuPrBuGmAn]

He had video that he showed at a conference back in the way-back; from what I hear...

[fixxervi6]

I stuck my head down in there once to look at the entrance, the "hole" itself looked big enough I could have gotten in by pushing tanks ahead of me, the main issue I saw was the fact the hole was located at almost 90 degree angle to the small crack.

[farmerted]

It is definitely a pretty little cave. I did quite a bit of diving in there in the mid-late 90's usually in nomount. You will definitely smoke things up, so try and do it in the evening during the week when it is not busy. As has been already stated, the entrance is nomount but it gets bigger once in. Have a fun and safe dive.

[flyczek]

Thanks to all for the input. I may give it another try with the proper gear, late at night so as not to offend GSO or any other divers by milking vis in the run.

fixxervi6, you are right about that hard angle, without that angle, entry wouldn't be a problem. Looks like a more shallow approach through where all the sticks and debris are would be the solution, but would make a mess.

While looking around yesterday I removed a length of loose twine (not cave line) a few sticks and a condom wrapper. There is more garbage where that came from.

[tomhauburn]

He had video that he showed at a conference back in the way-back; from what I hear...

Pete told me about when Wes showed it, that the then safety director had to leave the room when the hoop opening as shown. Figuring if there was an accident no one could recover you. It would be nice to see if Wes could have someone make a copy to post.

[phreaticus]

Believe it or not, it was accesible vis backmount back in the late 80's (right after Wes and others excavated it)...I did it with Randy Bohrer, it was really pretty back then. You could also go in the other side a bit (sidemount), but it was tight!

[Jay]

Believe it or not, it was accesible vis backmount back in the late 80's (right after Wes and others excavated it)...I did it with Randy Bohrer, it was really pretty back then. You could also go in the other side a bit (sidemount), but it was tight!

Was the other side under the current steps? When did that closeup?

[sandy]

silting up the run, especially if there are a lot of tubers in there.

The sarcastic side of me is wondering what the problem with this would be? :)

[fixxervi6]

The sarcastic side of me is wondering what the problem with this would be? :)

Hard to watch the tubers from under water if its all silted up.

[FW]

Hard to watch the tubers from under water if its all silted up.
:rollguy

[caverkevin]

Was the other side under the current steps? When did that closeup?

In 1999 you could see into the downstream side. That was about it. Was too small for me to no-mount.

[sandy]

Hard to watch the tubers from under water if its all silted up.

LOL, that was good.

But all I can think about is a November trip to Ginnie when I watched a tuber throw the "mother" of all floats in to the water from the top of the Little Devil steps. It landed on top of Ant (atedeschi?) who was about 6 inches under water with a rebreather at the time.

[atedeschi]

yeah the tractor trailer of tubes, I couldnt figure out why it got so dark so quick.