did a brief dive in guy-james this morning. we've had rain on and off for months, but lately it's been the scattered thunderstorm type, which made me wonder if guy-james had been affected much. I went to look and yes, the local random rains have had an impact - viz was not good (10 feet and less). But at least the access road was dry enough not to get stuck.

I only went about 1,000 feet (it usually clears after 500, but not this time) on a quick just-to-check dive. The basin was quite clear, which prompted me to do the dive, but soon after the cave entrance things went to muck. It was not the usual milky color, but just poor viz. Crayfish and albino cave fish were present, the few in visual range, but there was a noticable lack of other cave-visitor fish. A fine brown silt covered everything and wisped up easily as I passed by.

Mudballs were present too! About the size of soccer balls, these mudballs sat in small depressions in the bedding plane of coarse sand and pebble. I'd never seen mudballs in there before. The line had come loose in a few places, broke loose in other places, so I redid what I could. On the exit, I was amazed at the debris that was raining down from the ceiling, but mostly suspended as if "raining" in slow motion. A few times, viz went to nearly zero and I ok'd the line.

It was nice to finally dive a cave again here in tennessee. Local weather has made it almost impossible to dive, but the line seemed to have been moved, as if on purpose, so I wonder if anyone else has been in Guy James since Febuary. Back in the basin, on the surface, I found three college students hanging out having a picnic. They said they were scuba divers and had wanted to check out the rumored cave in there. Makes me wonder if any of the local college-trained scuba divers have been in there over the summer, despite the very poor viz.

Rain is in the forecast for the entire week, beginning this afternoon, so it may be awhile before we can dive locally again. Put a smile on my face to be able to dive it and makes me look forward to the fall.

-skip