Printable View
On Hwy 27 leaving High Springs towards Ft White one crosses a bridge over the Santa Fe River. Immediately on the right is a boat ramp and parking area. If one stands on the edge of the river next to the boat ramp a boil is seen at about 11 o'clock on the farside of the river looking left. Does anyone know what lies there? The river is low enough that one could possible walk to the boil. Is this a named cave? Is there a line in it? Any knowledge of this site would be appreciated. Thanks.
Does anyone know what lies there?Quote:
Originally Posted by metaldector
Yes. Maybe you should go check it out... That's what I did... ;)
Is this a named cave?
Yes. SantaFe Rise (If memory serves me right).
Is there line in it?
Maybe, but most likely it has broken. It is not a line friendly cave. Thus you will need to bring plenty of your own line, and be very good at running it.
Go check it out, it's pretty "dark", but may surprise you. There are quite a few caves in the rivers around there, if one is willing to load up a canoe and look for them... :)
fyi - this is a "river water" cave. Thus vis is very dependent on the quality of the river water...
River rise is actually farther down. The little side mount boil you are seeing it an OK river cave. Lots of silt. Woody and the gang mapped it at one point. Take your own line, expect poor vis and have a good time. Cindy Butler
The name of that cave is Gator Hole. There is a line in it but it is not in the best of shape. Me and a friend dove the cave a few months back. It goes about 500 ft and ends in a small sink. We are actually trying to find someone to help us re-line it. We will be there on Wednesday this week to dive it again and see if there is anything else in there worth looking at.
John
OH, that's right. Historical refernce on that cave as it was told to me. Wes and I think Lamar were diving it and found a small gator in the sink. They decided to save him by bringing it out of the sink through the cave. The gator took a small chunk out of Wes for his trouble. I thought Gator Hole was on the Suwannee but am often confused. Cindy :D
Thanks guys for the info. I would suspect one would need to put a dive flag over the hole while in it, seeing it is a navigatable waterway.
I did dive Gator Hole a few months ago (see post above) with a buddy as we too had seen the boil and asked about it. It was still winter when we went and there was little to no boat traffic. I had a dive flag but did not use it as we just made our way along the bottom. We are planning on going back this week and since it is warmer now I'm planning on using the flag.
The cave is fairly small, dark and silty but it was a fun adventure to dive and we were surprised to see that it opened up in a small sink in the woods nearby.
If you want a different cave to dive this is one to check out, just mind the silt and stay close to the line. The line appears to be quite old and is brown and not in good shape. At one point it becomes two lines as it is coming apart.
Hope this helps...
P.S. On the day we were there we saw no gators.
Just dove it today. For reference sake, the line starts just under the drop-off on the left hand side about 25 feet in from the entrance (there are two lines run in parallel with each other and seem quite old and loose). From the entrance to the sink, it's about 500'. There is a line that drops straight down again at the sink and continues on under a ledge (kind of like Cow Springs) until it hits a sidemount restriction.
I saw a number of shrimp, quite a few x-large fat catfish, and a cave eel (about 3 foot in length); a first for me (broiled up, he tasted like bald eagle with a hint of manatee :-D ).
Broiled Eel?? Now lissen here son, you don't go ruinnen good eel by broilen it! No wonder you thought it tasted like eagle and manatee!Quote:
Originally Posted by sdenney
You peel it, cut the meat into little round steaks and grill em with a wash of lemon and a bit of garlic. Some like a bit of Chachere's creole seasoning sprinkled around, but that's too spicy for me. Some like it fried, maybe a bit of fish breading too. Alas, the ole ticker rejects the frying pan these days (but it does make my mouth water just thinking of them chicken fried eel steaks of my youth)!
-skip
Gator Spring - http://www.tampadiving.com/sections/...=183®ion=FL
Just recently some new exploration was done in there...
Eel is nasty. Not worth the work. Just like rattlesnake. :smt118
The main line has now been replaced with some nice gold line. The line now starts on the right-hand side (as opposed to the left hand side as it was before). The old line has been pulled out as well (up to the tie-off back in the skylight). There is a temporary jump marker in place for the deep tunnel, but I have not replaced the line in there yet. Giving the gold line some time to slacken in the water, on a future dive, the line will be tightened for a final fit.
Safe Diving
--- Sean
Sean,
How is the viz.? Have you done any more exploration of the deeper part?
The vis in the main tunnel was the usual 10-15 ft. The last dive I made in the deep tunnel, I followed the line that was in there. I was running an explorer reel (about 1000' of line) from the entrance, and ran out of line. I hooked in a smaller reel, and ran about 25 ft until the tunnel started to shrink and it didn't look like there was anywhere to turn around easily past that point, so we called the dive.
I do plan to eventually do another dive, first to replace the first section of line in the tunnel (probably to a nice table rock back in the tunnel), and then to explore further. The deep tunnel is quite a bit clearer (20-25 ft. vis) and definitely has more flow than the main tunnel.
I still haven't figured out who put the line in that tunnel, as Wes doesn't remember it (and didn't/forgot to survey Gator Hole).
I started this thread and delighted in all of the responses, but have as yet, not dove this system. Now with a gold line in place and rising water I'm going to do this before Fall. I noted that the earlier post never mentioned a "deeper" part nor any penetration beyond 400' feet to the sink hole. Is the deeper part now marked with jump arrows? If not how far along the gold line should one be looking for the deeper tunnel? What is the maximum depth of the deeper tunnel.
For what its worth, if the deeper tunnel hasn't a name, and you laid the gold line, you might just name it!
For now, there is a single cave arrow marking the jump (it is a yellow arrow with my initials SOD and a letter B). It's not the easiest tunnel to find, but you'll find the deep tunnel if you follow the right wall. At the start of the line in that tunnel I have placed another arrow (white with my initials SOD and a letter C).
The max depth I have reached is 108 ffw. There is definitely more flow coming from this tunnel than coming from the main tunnel, so the vis is better (20-25 ft). I do recommend running a primary reel or explorer reel of your own as the line in there is old and buried in the silt for much of the way (popping out here and there, but I wouldn't rely on it in an exit strategy).
I have been throwing a few names around, but haven't narrowed it down yet. Once I put new line down there, I'll have it named. I'll also put the line out closer to the main line (as it is now, it's about a 50-75 foot gap and isn't easy to find).
You could hold a naming contest here on CDF for your tunnel. I'll offer a couple of suggestions:
1.)Murky Tunnel
2.)River Rat Tunnel
Perhaps some others could suggest more fitting names.
Sean...Have you been surveying? Are you looking at creating a map?