The Suwannee
The family and I went for a little overnight camping trip to Suwannee River State Park This past weekend... arrived Saturday noon, departed late Sunday. If you have never visited this park, even if you don't intend to dive, it is totally worth the trip. I give it a solid 10... great bathrooms/showers, campsites well equipped, trails clear... everything just maintained perfectly... and best of all... there was nobody there! I had just got my inflatable boat back from repair and wanted to to test it out, so after setting up camp we hit the water... here was the break down for the springs: (I didn't have dive gear with me, just an AL30 I used to top off the boat... leaving me about 1500 psi and some snorkel gear, so I didn't go much more than a body length in the cavern zones)
Lineater Spring:
Strong outflow, basin was clear and discharge into the Suwannee was clear and fast... having never been there before I stepped in to peer down with a mask and ended up pinned against the side of the basin facing the river and only after a minute or so of struggling (having jets fins on didn't help) I got back up out of the water... back to the boat to grab the tank and reg. I dropped down into the basin and about a half body length into the cavern with a small LED backup light and would guestimate approx. 20' of viz... kinda dark, but a clear dark, if that makes sense. I ascended back to the surface to report the news to my girlfriend and dive buddy who was anxiously waiting. A minute later I dropped back in and slid in a body length into the cavern and saw the start of the gold line... looking a little ragged and droopy, but it was still there. After a few minutes snorkeling around in the pool we jumped back in the boat and headed up stream.
We hit the rope swing about 1/2 mile up the river and not far after that turned back towards the state park. The area being new to us it was like each spring we ran onto was a new discovery... and plans of diving them began to buzz in our heads.
Suwanacoochie (spelling?) Spring
Cruising past the boat ramp and turning up the Withalacoochie River we headed north noticing an immediate water clarity change... the wake/turbulance behind the 9.8hp motor turned from a coffee brown to a much clearer white stream and just a few hundred feet up the river we saw the remnants of the old mill or whatnot that was built over the spring. Only the foundation remaining, it was beautiful to see the abundant flow of clear spring water charging over the concrete remains into the river. The river water was clear enough between the spring and the Suwannee that you could see down to the bottom just several feet below the boat.
the spring itself had a strong flow as much if not more so than Lineater. Mask, tank/reg, fins and light in hand I jumped in to "power" snorkel around. The flow was kicking but subsided a bit just inside the cavern, again I lie just a body length from the entrance with my fin tips peering out at the light behind me. The visability here seemed just slightly darker than lineater, however being that the floor dropped out right into the overhead and I didn't continue downward, the small light was sucked up by the blackness in each direction I pointed. I found the mainline tied off to the wall, again just a body length inside. Back on the surface we grew more excited about the future dives we will make at these locations... small dark and silty... just the place for us!
We headded a little ways up the Withalacoochie before headding back to camp for the night. I sat around the fire pulling GPS coordinates from tampadiving.com and plugging them into my GPS for the following day.
Edwards Spring (Ellaville)
After doing a little reading we realized we were just a stone's throw away from Edwards spring... just past the first train bridge on the east side of the river... again the burbling sound of freshwater tearing its way into the suwannee was a welcoming sound. Tying the boat off to a perfect limestone cleat we crawled our way over the boulders and over into the spring... similar heavy flow as we saw in the Suwannacoochie spring, I plopped in with my gear (minus the tank... had to use the last 1000 psi to top off the boat before departing) I free dove down into a very dark looking cavern, only to find out a few minutes later that my girlfriend's 11 year old had continued to climb and found that I was merely in a basin pool and there was another pool just up the bank. I peered into this cavern opening with my light and found the viz to be about 20' and a decent bit of flow. I climbed out and up the rocks to join my crew and found the next pool about 10' below the edge of the limestone boulders we were standing on. As I was peering down over the edge my foot stepped on a pile of twigs and brush and before I knew it my foot had been swallowed by the spring and I took a painful fall, hip deep into a hidden hole. After a choice word or two I pulled my leg out and found a great looking goose egg forming on my shin and a good bit of skin removed. I remember thinking, "limestone is much softer in a dry suit". I had read on springsfever.com about people swimming between the two pools, so I was determined to get in the water and peek around. I managed to get down into the spring, took a few breaths and submerged. I didn't see much with my small light and as I noticed the flow starting to take me towards the next pool I began to see the surface light and went for it... 5 seconds later I was in open water.... wheew! Unfortunatly I didn't venture back into the second pool to peer into the cave... the water looked scummy on the surface and my crew was beckoning me to get back to the boat to go to our next adventure.
Anderson Spring
After heading out from Edwards we proceeded down river and although we knew it was accessible from land, we continued on to Anderson spring. For those of you who may venture by boat from SRSP, we were at first hesitant about the two series of mild rapids we encountered, so we pulled the motor up and used the oars to guide us through them... however we stayed to the right, or west side, heading down stream and the same side on the return with motor and had no issues hitting anything with the prop. Anderson was very tannicky and at first we were not sure of the spring location (again never having been here). After snorkleing around for a minute and noticing the much cooler water source I found the enterance, but didn't proceed too far because it was extremely dark and although I would at times feel like I was in the overhead, I'd look up and realize it was just the dark river water flowing overhead. I would again project the viz to be 15-20', however I didn't get inside the cavern due to limited viz. Back on the surface and now knowing the location of the spring you could detect a very very slight surface boil, but not much flow at all.
From there we headded back to the park, packed up camp, ate lunch and then headded back to the rope swing for an hour of fun in the sun. Before departing we hiked up to Lime sink but didn't swim... water looked a bit stagnant for my swimming pleasure, but it sure would be fun to lug some tanks back there and give it a whirl.
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Originally Posted by Terry D
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