Rick's Springs is open for the season
Hello my name is Kirk Thompson and I am a newly minted Cave Diver. I live in Utah but traveled down to Florida to take my Full Cave Diver Course from Josh Thornton of Dive Addicts in Utah, which is my local shop. I have been interested in Cave Diving since 2009 and found out about a local cave here in Utah some time ago named Rick Springs. It has long been my goal to be able to dive in this cave and other caves around the world.
This past Saturday I was finally able to dive Rick's, and this is my trip report.
After full cave certification, my instructor introduced me to the local cave diving population. I let everyone know that I really wanted to dive Ricks as soon as the 12" boil receded. Rick Springs is a river resurgence spring from the Logan river. This cave is fed by snow melt run off and is diveable for only a few short months a year. I have been watching the flow for some time and it finally became diveable about 1 week ago.
I met up with Richard Lamb (local cave diver) with low expectations of being able to dive. This cave has a very tight entrance and has required moving large amounts of rocks in the past to be able to gain access. Some years this has required as much as three days. The next hurdle is the line. Usually the line is so mangled at the beginning of the year that the old line must be removed as a rats nest, and replaced.
I was very excited that it only required 29 minute to remove the rocks necessary to gain access to the cave. Especially since I was only wearing 3mm gloves, and the water temp was a balmy 42 F. Yikes! I forgot to mention that the cold fresh water caused both of my 2nd stages to dribble air. I was hoping that breathing on my regs, while clearing rocks in the open water would solve the bubbling problem, but it didn't.
Thank fully my dive buddy had another set of 2nd stages that we decided to swap onto my first stages. I went to the truck and got a fresh set of tanks and swapped the regs. As I put my tanks in the water I carefully looked for bubbles. Thank fully the new second stages were holding. We geared up and went over the dive plan for the day.
Richard would lead and set the primary. I would bring in the deco bottle and take the 2nd position. We would check the line condition and be prepared to make repairs.
We made it through the entrance with out any trouble at all thanks to our side mount gear. We verified the primary tie off and that it was securely tied to the gold line and proceeded.
The vis appeared to be 50' plus on the way in which was a nice contrast to the usual Utah 15' in our lakes. We made our way past the eye socket tunnel and weaved our way to the top of the Honey Hole. At this point the depth is 30' and drops straight down to 69'.
We then made our way to the slippery slide. This tunnel gets its name because the hand holds go to nil and the flow becomes very apparent. The geology of this cave is very different than anything that I had experienced in Florida. The rocks were gray and very jagged. The walls looked like a rocky cliff The tunnels were at least 7' wide by 10' tall. This cave has only been dived by 15 people. Definitely not your typical tourist cave.
At the end of the slippery slide my hands had become numb enough that I was having trouble operating my clips. Although it was only 13 minutes and about 250'p into the dive, I was at my newby limit.
I was diving with a new buddy, in a new cave, with borrowed regs, in a significantly different environment and it was time to go. Psychologically I was still in good shape, I just didn't want anymore factors to complicate my exit (like free flowing regs).
I gave the turn around signal and then the thumbs up. I then slowly started to exit the cave. Even though I had been looking back and monitoring the line position on the way in, I was still surprised by how vastly different the exiting cave looked. Thank fully 250' goes very quickly when being pushed by flow. I finned only enough to avoid the walls, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride out.
I enjoyed stopping occasionally and shielding my light and waiting in the blackness for my buddy to come around the tight corners. My longest wait was 15 seconds, but the blackness and calmness was blissful. We finally arrived at the cavern zone at a total dive time of 22 minutes. Richard decided to do a 3 minute safety stop. I paused for 3 seconds to consider my options.
In the three seconds to make my decision, these are the thoughts that went through my head:
-I have been at 15' for the last 4 minutes.
-I have been at a max depth of 69' for a total of 7 minutes.
-I am no where near deco.
-I have been at 15' for the last 4 minutes.
-IT'S 42 degrees F!!!!!
-I'm out of here.
-Are you ok Richard? (Richard circled ok) I signaled "I'm leaving :)"
As I exited i looked to make sure that I could see Richards light. I circled an ok underneath the restriction. Richard circled back. I stood up out of the entrance, started to warm my hands and watched Richards light until he surfaced 3 minutes later.
Next came the most unusual experience to me. There were about 10 people on the surface admiring the springs. Not one of them even had a toe in the water despite it being 102 degrees outside. Everyone had the most surprised look on their faces. Then the questions started coming.
-Where did you come from?
-There is a cave down there?
-How far does it go back?
-How deep is it?
-What did you see?
-Are there any fish down there?
-How do you become a cave diver?
I felt like a Rock Star! I though to myself, alright, give them enough information, but reinforce the fact that this takes special training. I answered all of their questions and they were all very excited. One person mentioned that he was a recently certified scuba diver. I reinforced the fact that training is readily available and that cave diving was definitely a commitment, but worth it if he was interested. Maybe it sparked something in him to look into the sport.
After a post dive de-briefing Richard and I made plans to dive again in the coming week. Next time I will have changed the set points on my regs,(These regs were just serviced. I am hoping that the intermediate pressure may have drifted a bit high, and that the cracking pressure can be adjusted to be a bit heavier to avoid the bubbling.) I will also have thicker gloves. I see dry gloves in my future.
All in all, a wonderful dive!! I couldn't have hoped for more. Thank you Richard for introducing me to a new cave. I can't wait for our next adventure. Maybe I will make it to 600' penetration next time :) They always told me that baby steps were the key to cave awareness and safe cave diving.
Till next time :)
