Jug Hole (Blue Hole)

Jug Hole (Blue Hole)

Gary

garyashburn at bellsouth.net

Kathleen and I got to the park about noon. We pulled up to the check-in at the North Entrance, parked, went in, signed waivers and paid (passes accepted). The ranger was very nice collected our cards and then went out with us to our car to inspect our gear to ensure there was no imported water plants on them.

Out to the parking lot to load up our carts with everything. Lovebugs were rampant in the parking area. Even with no wetsuits on and a cart to wheel the gear out to the spring it is quite a walk. Conveniently there is a wooden bench a little past halfway to sit on. Mosquitoes were moderate - bring bug spray, don't stand still too long. The water was quite high and actually covered the path for about 30' just before the wooden platform.

Nice benches at the platform plenty of room to gear up. Water was up over the lower platform and up 3 of 5 steps to the top platform. This provided a very nice, spring fed, sheltered area about 2' deep to rinse gear and put wetsuits on in the water.

We also ran into number of swimmers and several rebreather divers coming out of the water. (Don't worry they made the walk just to get wet in the cavern and didn't go past the bedding plane restriction.)

It's a short swim over to the hole. Smaller opening then I remembered - about 15' across and drops into a much bigger room. There's a room opposite the flow (actually part of the cavern) and then towards the flow, a sheltered room on left where the flow isn't too bad and then bedding plane restriction to right. In general the rock here is colorful, eaten, rough. Lots of deep red in the rock.

The main line starts at the bedding plane restriction tied off on a rock. If you go in on the right side of the rock as seems natural you'll just end up crossing left over the line shortly.

Past the bedding plane restriction there 2 big rooms almost joined - separated by a thin wall of rock. Good high ceilings and some room to explore. The first room has some clay layer formations edging a mild sand /clay mound the second is mostly a fall-away to the Sand hill and Diamond Sands Restriction.

The Diamond Sands Restriction is well named. A hill of course brown sand is formed by the high flow coming through this hour glass shaped, sharply angular restriction. In sidemount configuration this is fairly easily passed however by turning sideways without having to remove any tanks or perform any special aerobics.

The Diamond Sands Restriction is a mere p250' in and is the deepest point on the main line at about 85'. Up to here the flow is high and the vis. is generally good to great (we had about 80 vis.).

Past the Diamond Sands Restriction the flow of the cave comes from a few holes to the right and the main line mounts a good sized clay mound. The flow goes down to near zero and the vis is generally a little foggy (today it was very foggy). Catfish smeared in white clay are prevalent and our exhaust bubbles run up the angled wall/ceiling to disturb years of deposits and gather up there as a brownish fog.

Near the top of the clay mound a marker is labeled 450'. Top of the mound is about 45' depth and the highest point in the ceiling probably about 30'. White fog obscures the far left wall from the line. The line continues another 100' or so to end abruptly in a mass of line arrows about p550' in.

The exit was easier then the swim in. Entering I used most of my first tank allowance just getting past the bedding plane restriction but the further in the easier the going was. Don't beat yourself up bringing big tanks for this dive there isn't that much to see and smaller tanks are easier to carry from the parking lot and fit through the tight spots of the cave.

Max depth on the main line was 87' at the Diamond Sands Restriction. Max depth 92', average depth 48'. Bottom Time of 65 minutes on 32% with no deco.

The hike back to the car seemed easier then the hike to the spring - which was a relief.

We picked up our cards at the main gate at about 3:50 making it about a 4 hour stay in the park. (Have to be out of the park by 5 at the latest.)