Telford Info

[cmint]

I've never done Telford. Could you guys give me some hints about what to expect? Back-mountable? tight? silty? current conditions? Is it bigger or smaller than say... something like martz to the main line at Madison? parallel lines at Ginnie?

[ARY]

Backmountable in no stage range. If you can see a beauty of changing landscape, inline sinkholes and ignore questionable safety of your vehicle, PIA swim up river, broken glass, high flow, green water with avg. 15 ft viz, slimy muddy line, occasional silt you will like it. It is just a classic river cave if you enter it from the river. It is one step further from Disneyland of Ginnie into real life.

[Diverlee]

Swimming up the river from the boat ramp to the spring, Dsix grabbed hold of an alligator thinking it was a log. Beware.


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[bamafan]

I would recommend a scooter or a boat. If you put in up by the blue bridge between Mayo and Luraville there is another cave on the right bank as you are headed downstream about 1/2 way between the bridge and Telford. You can see both the bridge and Telford. You can rent a canoe at Suwanee River Rendezvous and they will drop you off at the park by the bridge and you just paddle down to their place. It is a fun little trip and there are 2 more caves you can dive past Telford that I know of and I am not a local.

[floridabob]

Telford, while no Ginnie or Madison, is quite nice in it's own right. Relatively shallow. Decent flow. Usually a bit dusty, but seldom less than 30 of viz and increases as you continue. Many different landscapes in one.

Oddly enough, one of my favorites and tons of cave to swim. We swam in over 2 hours and never cracked 80 feet in depth and had no deco.

Enjoy.

Bob

[Brent]

Floridabob talks about vis, in and around, 30 feet in Telford but "back in the day" ( 25 years or so ago ) we had vis that "sparkled" Yes, it was dusty so just get there early or very late and never on a weekend with the "element" that was always present on the surface. Lots worse than the Little River crowds. Made many a dive there at 2AM on a weekday night just to avoid the locals. Around 15 years or so ago, Lamar and I talked about going in and trying to clean up the huge number of T's and false leads in the system. A lot of that mess was the result of trying for years to make the connection over to Laureville Sink ( or whatever the name was ) We'll probably never know the number of attempts that were made before Lamar and his crew were successful in doing the traverse but judging by the number of T's I passed thru, I would have to say that a LOT of dives were done in both systems trying to make the connection. Rennaker used to joke and say you were half thru the connection when you passed thru the 25th T. Haven't been back in that part of the cave in well over a decade. Maybe it is somewhat cleaned up now. Anybody got updates??

[FW]

.. Maybe it is somewhat cleaned up now. Anybody got updates??

There are still a LOT of Ts in there. FWIW, it is Luraville

[kensuf]

Floridabob talks about vis, in and around, 30 feet in Telford but "back in the day" ( 25 years or so ago ) we had vis that "sparkled" Yes, it was dusty so just get there early or very late and never on a weekend with the "element" that was always present on the surface. Lots worse than the Little River crowds. Made many a dive there at 2AM on a weekday night just to avoid the locals. Around 15 years or so ago, Lamar and I talked about going in and trying to clean up the huge number of T's and false leads in the system. A lot of that mess was the result of trying for years to make the connection over to Laureville Sink ( or whatever the name was ) We'll probably never know the number of attempts that were made before Lamar and his crew were successful in doing the traverse but judging by the number of T's I passed thru, I would have to say that a LOT of dives were done in both systems trying to make the connection. Rennaker used to joke and say you were half thru the connection when you passed thru the 25th T. Haven't been back in that part of the cave in well over a decade. Maybe it is somewhat cleaned up now. Anybody got updates??

"vis that sparkled" -- Brent, that was because everyone was using 35w halogen bulbs to extend the battery burn time up to 3 hours. :P

One of my most memorable nights in Telford involved a tropical storm making landfall. This was back in September of '98, a friend of mine was getting ready to move to the UK and he wanted to do one last dive in Telford. We did a double stage and swam well past the Aardvark room. It rained at least 6" while we were in the water, and my van got stuck in the mud. Not having cell phones, or not having cell service (I don't remember which), we hiked to the payphone in Luraville to call for a wrecker to pull my van out.

It took me 15 years before I went back there to do another dive.


Oh, the last few times I've been there I just parked at the boat ramp and swam up.

[jlillest]

Swimming up the river from the boat ramp to the spring, Dsix grabbed hold of an alligator thinking it was a log. Beware.

What's the risk involved in being in the river with alligators? Any incidents where divers have gotten bit or hassled? I've heard plenty of stories where close calls like this have spooked divers, but don't know of anything worse than soiled britches.

-Jon

[FW]

What's the risk involved in being in the river with alligators? Any incidents where divers have gotten bit or hassled? I've heard plenty of stories where close calls like this have spooked divers, but don't know of anything worse than soiled britches.

-Jon

I only know of one actual bite. That was Pete Butt. He was on a dock, collecting water samples, and stuck his head down near the water. He has a few scars, but other than that he is OK.

I have scootered to Telford several times, and never saw any gators. I swam a couple times, and that was scarier, since you have to pull yourself by grabbing logs, etc. Still never saw any gators.