Jug Hole, Champion Cave, TAG 2004(VERY LONG) - Mike Hawkins
Myself and TJ headed north this past weekend to go to the TAG Annual Fall Cave-In event. We left Orlando on Wed morning, and returned on Sunday evening. We had an interesting start....which began with me being late arriving at TJ's place to load the gear he couldn't carry into my truck...and then after leaving his place and getting about 20 mins away, he had to return to deal with a business phone line issue...so we got a much later start than anticipated.
We arrived at Jug Hole at about 1330 for a quick dive. Due to the long hike down to the water, and the relatively short cave, I decided to use my steel 50's. TJ used his 85's. Luckily, we both had hand trucks to get our tanks down to the water. The first thing we noticed was that there were no mosquitoes in the parking lot...what luck! We must've picked a fine day since there weren't any of the bloodsuckers around....well, we found out that there were plenty of them once we got about 100ft down the 2,000ft (my estimate) trail to the spring. When we got close to the spring, it was obvious the water was way up...it was about a foot deep on the dirt trail leading to the dock. The water was covering 4 of the 6 steps above the platform. There is a water level gauge on the side of the platform (closest to the spring), and it read 5.50ft....I'm assuming that refers to level above flood stage.
Dive 1: Wed, Oct 6, 2004, Jug Hole, 40 minutes, max depth 87ft, Air, no deco
We finally got geared up and headed into the cavern, with TJ in the lead (I had not been there before). We clawed our way through the opening against the strong flow, and finally reached the sign. The bedding plane restriction begins just beyond the sign, and is the end of backmount territory (about p100'). As I started through the bedding plane, I started to head to the right of the line...then remembered a comment that Gary made about having to cross it if you started on the right, so I went to the left of the beginning of the line. There was no pull and glide going on....it was pull and pull and pull... After exiting the restriction, the cave opens up quite a bit, and has some really cool areas. There is lots of character - it seems to change every few feet. After the bedding plane, it opens up into a fairly large room with lots of places to poke around. We didn't spend much time there though...we continued in, and saved the real poking around for the trip out. All too soon we reached the Diamond Sands restriction. It's pretty obvious why it's called diamond sands as soon as you see the slope leading down to it. It wasn't much of a restriction for sidemount...though, nearly (if not completely) impossible for a backmount diver (without removing tanks). At and after Diamond Sands, I noticed the flow was not nearly as obvious as before. I'm still not sure if the flow actually dropped or if I was just less aware of it. The further we got in, the less I was ready for the EOL which I knew was coming up. This is a beautiful cave. I noticed a jump off to my right, and decided it was something I need to check out on the way out. We continued on, and after a couple minutes TJ comes to a stop. I wasn't quite sure why....until I moved up beside him and saw 4 or 5 line arrows, and the end of the line. He pointed to the end of the cave (About another 20-30ft), telling me to take a look. I headed back there, and was surprised to find a nice sized passage just end.....in a wall of rock...no low section where the flow comes out, just rock.. Apparently the flow doesn't come from right there. We have not yet figured out exactly where the flow comes from...but we will, eventually. On the way out, I poked my head into the passage that jump goes to. TJ signaled to go ahead and check it out and he'd wait there, so without giving him a chance to change his mind, I was gone. I swam about 30ft into the jump...and saw the line go through an area WAY too small for me to get through. It was about that time I remember TJ mentioning an area where it looked like somebody shot a spear with a line attached through it. I don't think many people would make it through there - and probably not any with their tanks attached. Who laid that line anyways? The rest of our trip out was a nice, leisurely swim ( with lots of push from the flow). We ended up in the cavern zone doing short stops from 30-10'...then surfaced, only to be met by the mosquitoes. Hauling the gear back we never slowed down, nor did we take off our hoods for fear of being eaten alive.
We arrived at TAG about 1500 on Thurs, and searched for our group ( the Tennessee Central Basin Grotto - TCBG ). We ran into Forrest
Wilson and Bill and Karen Oigarden along the way, and BS'ed for a few minutes...then found the site and set up camp. Myself, TJ, and Forrest went to grab some dinner...and then we cracked open the beer (TJ brought 6 "mini kegs")! We drank hard that night...and even did a little experiment. You see, Forrest doesn't drink...but he loves his Sprite. When he asked if somebody had a sprite, we instead gave him a Red Bull and Vodka....and this was the result 20 minutes later...
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0005b.jpg
He was wired all night....don't try this at home! Just kidding... Forrest doesn't drink, but his eyes were wide open for some reason, and the picture was not doctored.
On Friday, Forrest made all of us (myself, TJ, Bill, and Karen) get up early and meet at 0700 to go dive a spring about an hour away. TJ and I were in rough shape after being up half the night drinking. We had a hard time staying awake on the drive to Champion...luckily TJ was driving (so I could doze off for a few mins at a time). After traveling nice 2 lane roads for about 40 mins, we turned off onto an unmarked, narrow road that wound back through the mountains amongst many houses (most of the portable variety) and open fields filled with cows. Halfway back or so, TJ slowed down and showed me a cave he refers to as Church...but it looked more like a sewer pipe to me! Nobody has been very far in it... and TJ says he saw a submersible pump in there and was worried about getting shocked so didn't go any further. Soon enough, the paved road ended and turned to dirt...and we had to stop to transfer Bill's gear (along with Bill and Karen) to Forrests' truck since their van wouldn't make it the rest of the trek due to the roads. It turned out to be not as bad as I had expected based on the description, but a 4x4 is definitely recommended. We arrived at the spring ( which, at first glance, appears to be a hole in the side of about a 100' tall rock face). We climbed up to it and entered a small dry cave, which ended after about 25ft in a sump. Forrest showed us where the line is tied to the ceiling in the dry portion. We hauled our gear in, suited up, and got ready to dive. The area to gear up in is fairly small...only large enough for 2 divers...Myself and TJ were to go in first and explore an unexplored passage, and Forrest and Bill were going in second to replace some line. Bill was backmount, the rest of us sidemount. Me with 50's, TJ with 85's, Forrest with 72's.
Dive 2: Fri, Oct 8, 2004, Champion Cave in Alabama, roughly 60 minutes, max depth 7ft (not a typo), Air
TJ led the way in since he was familiar with the cave. The plan was to go to the T about 500' in, take a left, then go down to a big line arrow and check out a side passage to the left of that. We headed in, and I was surprised at the visibility....20-30ft - great for a sump. The first section of the cave (about 150-200ft I would estimate) reminded me of the Peanut tunnel...not as narrow, but the rocks looked very similar. The main difference is the gravel floor in Champion, as opposed to silt. After that section, it turns into an area more like the lower section of Cow....craggly, grabby rocks and a somewhat low but wide passage. Very cool cave - the scenery changes quite often, so it keeps you occupied and not bored. There were no side leads to poke around in during the first 500', and soon we were at the T. To the left, the line goes to wide open cave...straight ahead, it goes up a gravel mound into a fairly tight, choked off area. This was probably much more open before the floods caused the gravel to all shift around, causing the near blockage. We were going left anyways, so no big deal. After the left turn, the cave gets a bit lower (average passage to this point was 5' high by 10-15' wide - now a bit over half that), but the bottom was still gravel, so nearly impossible to silt out. The line runs along the left wall, and the area 5' or so to the right was significantly larger...so I stayed over there, but where I could still see the line. The gravel bottom changed to a white rock bottom, and off to my right I could see there was an area where the wall was not visible. Could it be a tunnel? No time to find out right now. We proceeded toward the "big line arrow"...but stopped short when we reached an area where the cave had collapsed on the line. Hmmm....that's no good. TJ squirmed around to the right looking for a way around, but only found a dry room with noplace to go. We turned around, and headed back. I signaled to check out the area I had seen on the way in (now on our left), and it looked like it went somewhere...so I tied a primary reel to the line, and we headed off...me laying line, TJ surveying. This tunnel was about 5' high by 25' wide, with most of it having a gravel bottom and craggly ceiling. After about 100ft, I noticed there were some pretty large air pockets on the ceiling. Another 50ft or so, and I popped my head up into a dry area about 2ft high (above the surface of the water), and saw that the cave came to another passage, that formed a T...with a fair amount of dry space above the water (with mosquitoes in it) as far as I could see. We discussed which way to go, chose right, I made a line placement, and off we went. I didn't make it 10ft before I found the remnants of an old line (about 25-30 years old by Forrests' account, who laid it back then). A bit disappointed, we decided to go back the other way looking for more virgin tunnel. I cut the line, tied it off, moved back to the original placement, tied off a new line to it, and set off the opposite direction. This time, I made it about 20ft before finding the old line. It turns out it had broken for about a 30ft stretch. I continued on to see where it went, but the water got too shallow (less than a foot deep, with 2ft of air above it) to continue swimming, and I didn't want to tear up my drysuit seals on the gravel and rock bottom. TJ went on another 30-40ft, and said it just got worse. We need to come back when the water is higher and that passage is completely submerged.
Memory Map: http://www.cavediver.net/pictures/alabama/alabama.jpg
We had a nice, slow exit poking around here and there. Surprisingly, neither of us got cold in that 56-58 degree water. We're not sure how long we were in the water since both our computers showed several surface intervals due to the extremely shallow depth. On the drive out of the site, TJ decided to test his 4x4 through a "small" mud hole...and...well, you've probably already seen the pics Forrest posted of that. :>
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/oops1b.jpg
The rest of the weekend was spent dry...most of each day was spent recovering from the previous night. We were supposed to go do a dive in a sinkhole known as Craigs Mill on Sat morning, but Forrest wanted to leave too early...so it ended up only being Forrest and Bill.
The TAG event will be an annual event for me, and I would assume for TJ as well. We had a great time, and have some pics to show you guys just what you missed.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0007b.jpg
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0010b.jpg
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0019b.jpg
Part of the TCBG group hanging out by the campfire. (sorry, don't remember most of the names)
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0026b.jpg
We're not quite sure WHAT this guy was doing to this poor tree.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0028b.jpg
Myself, Forrst, and Marbry with the fog rolling into the background.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0029b.jpg
Joe Dabbs, Huntsville, AL - the first TAG sump diver.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0033b.jpg
The vendor area....way too much cool gear to spend money on.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0041b.jpg
TCBG
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0042b.jpg
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0045b.jpg
This was the result after we let Marbry play with a flare gun...
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0047b.jpg
Some jackass steps in front of the camera while TJ is trying to get a picture of the chick in the background.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0050b.jpg
Not sure why these 2 guys are dressed up like women...I'm sure they use the party excuse so that they can cross dress in public without being shunned.
http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/IMAG0053b.jpg
We ran into one of the local cave divers from Daytona, Craig...but he was only there to dry cave, not cave dive.
TAG 2004 Movie ( .wmv 1.2 Meg )
A few short video clips compiled into one.
Raw pics/vids ( and many more than posted here) can be found at http://cavediver.net/pictures/tag2004/ .
Enjoy!
Mike
