Little River

[Gary]

Dove Little River today for a visibility survey.

Main passage was about 40'. Cleared slightly at the 3 way split but in the dome room viz was 40' at most.

In the passage leading to the Last Room vis varied widely 20'-50' in spots suspect intrusion from the left side of the passage and lots of light powder on floor getting entrained in the flow that seemed to contribute to the low vis. By the last room flow was quite low.

Past the last room the light powder was thick on the floor - slightly packed but eroding at the edges like a light crust. Not quite clay like but so fine it may be a precursor - even light flow would entrain it and contribute to the low vis. Vis still in the 40' range. Light buildup of crap on the ceiling and walls - dark brown coating.

At the spring vents the flow was unnoticeable but it was enough to keep the areas free of the entrained powder circulating everywhere else.

Past the vents into the no-flow area beyond. Some haze and trapped tannic in the water. vis in the 20-30' range. Buildup getting much thicker on everything. Ceilings a heavier thick brown coating. On the floor a orange and white slurry of little snot-like balls. Thick orange buildup coating the line ranging from rare bare spots to literally 1 or 2 inch diameter sheaths of gunk. Vis continued to hover in the 20-30' range until a minor mistake zeroed viz in a small area. Once on the line contact the rest of the way out caused the gunk to shed the line and add to the peculation and already bad vis. Long way of near zero vis.

Strong flow coming out of the deep section. The Old Deep and the New Deep have vis in the 60-80' range and good flow. Unfortunately the Small Creek Tributary is also flowing heavily spewing cloudy and tannicy water out to mix with the two cleaner sources. Vis coming from Small Creek looks to be in the 10' range.

Most of the flow in the system seems to be coming from the deep sections especially Small Creek. The flow in the Last Room is almost zero and the source vents are so limited they barely have clear water at 5' from the vent. There is likely intrusion from the river downstream the Last Room as well.

Flow from Small Creek is heavy and sustained. This seems to me to be a change from years past. Also flow from the source vents area seems reduced - also sustainedly so as evidenced by the light powder persisting there.

Anyone have any info on the different water shed areas contributing to the Main Vents / Deeps / Small Creek?

[Yellow Odin]

Gary

Thanks for the update. It was good to see you again yesterday. Greg and I will have to plan a formal attack on the deep section next time. Guess we didn't get in there far enough for the vis to clear up for us, but we were getting short on gas and long on deco. The cave will be there another time.

Wayne

[Gary]

Thanks for the update. It was good to see you again yesterday. Greg and I will have to plan a formal attack on the deep section next time. Guess we didn't get in there far enough for the vis to clear up for us, but we were getting short on gas and long on deco. The cave will be there another time.

Always good to see you. I was going to E-mail you - but glad you got the report (like my graph? ) Missed doing the worm hole - but had to rush out before park close.

What was viz in The Harper like? I was wondering if it was maybe better then 40'? Flow? Seemed like there was some flow maybe. I can't remember if I would expect much flow in the Harper - I'm thinking low flow there would be the norm.