Little River 8.12.2012

[Greenwood_60]

Water is still up. 6 inches on the walkway. Makes gearing up in SM beyond easy. The flow is kickin'. Just past the bend at the sign is the worst. You'll get blasted from the left side just before the duck under. No large rocks here. Pulling is almost useless, but you can stick to the left wall and crawl it just above the flow. Backs off quite a bit at the duck under. Picks back up at the top of the shaft. If you jump straight over the shaft to the back wall, the passage to the left of the visible jump is a kickin' siphon. I assume it matches the outflow before the duck under. Swimming anywhere you can't pull is tough. Took the mud tunnel jump. The floor of the mud tunnel is covered in rippled sand, and the flow is still up. Pull and glide. Back on to the main line and in to the full force of the flow. Was very happy to see the hard cracked limestone floor after a bit of hard swimming. Turned at the first T, still short of thirds. The exit was unbelievably quick. Had to fight a bit to not ascend the shaft too quickly. Pulling the reel was fun. If you keep you line far to the left on the way in, you will avoid most of the flow pulling it out... but keep you fin tips down

Vis was fine. Good enough that it was only limited in the cavern and shaft... I'm sure the Florida Room as well. 30+.

One of the most fun dives I've had in a while. It's a different beast than I've seen it, but still a fantastic dive.

[kotik]

Thanks for the report-- I'm coming out in about a month for full cave, so I keep trying to get a feel for how conditions should be by that time. The wimpy side of me is hoping that the hard flow will last long enough to clear out sediment and tannic water but then die down before the trip, while the shallow side of me hopes I'll be able to brag about the story of how I finished in harsh adverse conditions.

I really don't have any other sides than those two--

[Shocky]

Sounds like conditions that existed in the late 90s!

[gasdiver]

Sounds like conditions that existed in the late 90s!

Or the late 80's. This dive was my motivation for buying a scooter in 88.

[Greenwood_60]

Or the late 80's. This dive was my motivation for buying a scooter in 88.

I can see why. We took the mud tunnel thinking there wouldn't be much flow. It was less... but still work. I can't wait for the river to start dropping

Does anyone know where those two passage go? On the hand drawn Gunter map (on CaveAtlas) it seems to only show one (a little hard to read). It shows a line in one that leads over to the outflow on the left just past the sign. But what about the other? The one that actually had line in it, wasn't siphoning very hard (slow enough for fine silt to settle). I followed it to the end of my comfort, up an incline, around a left hand bend, and down a slope. Didn't hit the bottom of the slope before calling it. Backed up a few feet and had room to turn around. Anyone know where that was headed?

[CaveMD]

Friday was the first time I have ever seen the water at Little River both that high AND flowing clear rather than reversed.

[Trey R]

We dove Little River on Saturday and our dive was very similar to yours. Pulling the reel while trying to maintain a slow accent was tricky. It was the first time I've seen Little River flowing.

[MORGAN]

My first dive in Little River was in March of 2006. There was tannic river water halfway up the stairs, and the top of the retaining wall was at least four feet under. There was goldline with a "Do Not Remove" slate on it run from the stairs to the re-bar. Even with the high water in the river to push against, there was strong flow. The last time we were in there, in February 2012, there was hardly any flow at all. Sounds like the aquifer got at least a little recharge this year.