You guys and your coordinates!
Okay, while I won't turn away coordinates, sometimes it's fun just to get on the river or in the woods and look for those holes without the help of GPS.
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You guys and your coordinates!
Okay, while I won't turn away coordinates, sometimes it's fun just to get on the river or in the woods and look for those holes without the help of GPS.
Very true...and if I LIVED up there...like SOME lucky people who obviously have their priorities in order... :yawinkle:Quote:
Originally Posted by RN
If you are fortunate enough to be able to live in the Alachua & surrounding counties, then one of the perks is to be able to drive around looking for funny looking formations & ridges in the area. You can't just drive by & not get out of your car. You need to do some footwork too. TC's notorious rope climbing partys preceded many midnight ridgewalking sorries into the unknown. Don't blatenly just burst onto some property owners land without asking first though. That is not only dumb but also downright dangerous. Do you book work first & then seek permissions prior to looking. Have fun & enjoy it, cause ridgewalking will reap many likely places to explore.
later buds-!
Gak
I used to scour the woods and lake bottoms. Driving on muddy logging tracks in search of the rumor of a place to dive. Got my car stuck more times then I want to count. Dove some nasty holes I wish I'd never tried. Even as an OW diver I had the urge to put on tanks and dive into a lake thinking every lake is worth diving.
Most times these days I need a better reason than "there might be something there". There's lots of cave I haven't seen yet in places that are already known. The things I love about cave diving don't require for me to have been there first. There are some passages I like to dive that I know quite well. Some are challenging - some are so beautiful I just want to stop and hang out to enjoy it.
It's kind of funny that before Kathleen stated cave diving I guess she thought I was into cave diving as some sort of "macho" thing. I suppose the gear and the tanks and the underground exploration could be thought of as a macho thing but I'm there to enjoy the caves - not to show how much gear I can lug through the woods looking for new unexplored caves in the deepest jungle around. :)
We talk sometimes about the threads where people talk about "hearing the dragon roaring". Some people are pushing ahead, stressed, up against their limits, and then when something goes wrong it becomes a big deal. Those ideas are just amazing to us since we are in the caves totally for our own enjoyment. Thre is no stress and if something goes wrong we modifiy our plan and make a peaceful exit without any significant worry.
I've had my fair share of chasing rumors of "new caves" that go nowhere and "bottomless" lakes and holes that are only 6 feet deep and I'll probably chase a few more before I grow old and die. Crawling through the woods and every silt, crap and branch plugged water hole offers a relativley low dive to effort ratio. I find it's a lot less fun than it sounds.
YMMV
Different strokes, Gary. For me it's not even about finding that undiscovered hole (although I would love that). It's about the adventure. I did a lot of hiking in Arizona to see the beautiful scenery. Now I do it for the scenery underground. And it's not a macho thing. If it was I'd be talking/posting about it. It's only macho if someone else knows about it. ;)
Shirley, sell your place and move!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RN
Rob, I'm TRYING! Something about buying during the height of the real estate bubble and selling at its low point is hard to swallow....:smt100
I don't know, I still like to check out anything that has no line in it. Yea, I have done many that didn't "go", but when you do find something that does "go" it is well worth the trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary
Actually, if everyone had the attitude of "it's too much trouble", we wouldn't have any place to dive. Every one of the popular cave dive sites was once just a unknown hole in the ground :-)
Being very new to cave diving and having the chance of only going to cave country about twice a year, I really do not have that much time to explore. I very much admire the hard work, time and sometimes lives that others have given to making maps. They also really help out in gas planning as well as other hazards within the cave system. Still enjoy checking out the small offshoots from the main line from time to time.