Little River 12-11-2013

Got to the parking lot yesterday at 8:30 - OOPS! Park is closed Tuesday mornings from sunrise to 11:00am. Guess we should have looked ito that.

Attempt #2 this morning. Had the park to ourselves. Geared up for full long dive with double 108s, 2 stages, and our ancient scooters (a Mako and a Tekna).

First off, when did the tree move into the cave? The cave is still readily accessible between the limbs, but it was a surprise for us. Dropped our O2 and we're off.

Flow was very strong. Turned left past the stop sign and hit a brick wall with the flow. My Mako couldn't overpower the current. Had to kick along with full throttle. Have never seen it this strong, but we're not regular visitors. Once in, progress was steady and uneventful. Dropped stage #1 in Florida room.

Plan was to look for some new jump to take, figuring we'd see something. Nope. Gave up and decided to swim the well casing tunnel. Spotted a jump and dropped stage #2 and scooters. Had a nice swim into what we later found was the deep tunnel as well as a small maze of lines - new for us. Headed out and had a long deco obligation. Viz was pretty good, but not unlimited.

So seriously, when/how did the tree get in the cave? Flood I presume?

-Tom

Yes. During the floods.

My log book says it was some time between 8/12/2012 and 10/6/2012.

Dove.... er... dived... whichever you prefer with TracyN and Kirk (from Minn) Tracy and I made our way through the shortcut tunnel back to the gold line and on to about half way through the Florida room. The water level is just a bit below the sidewalk. The flow is pretty strong I timed it on the way out just riding along and got somewhere around 50-70 feet per min. the Viz..... well you have to consider that I dive the Great Lakes quite a bit so our points of view may be a bit different but I'd give it credit for around 60 feet with no little to no milkiness but lots.... and lots (did I mention LOTS) of particulate. There was still a good silt layer on everything as far back as we got and the viz was pretty consistent front to back. I was outside the cavern for my 10 foot stop which seems to me is usually right at the thread rod that is used for a primary tie point. Let's see..... about the dive..... It was a really good dive with a run time of 78 Min. but after diving Peacock the previous day I had left the O2 turned off on my predator and about messed my drysuit undies looking at the deco obligation racking up.... until I realized what happened.... whew! Although I had enough back gas to complete deco it wasn't part of the plan..... note to self..... well you all know what I said to myself! Other than that minor hiccup I really like Little river and hope the viz comes back up to what we're used to but it is far from crackling at this point.

An apology and two corrections are in order. We took the mud tunnel and made it to the end of the Florida room. Without looking at the map I thought the Florida room was much longer. So my apologies if the silt is further back than you expect..... Everything else is correct and BTW we both maxed at 104'

The re-bar tie-off was 16' Sunday.