Buford 5-13

[Gibby]

Mission Accomplished!

We did our first time at Buford and I will say that it is one of the best dives I have ever been to.

First off we ended up with some extra walking due to the bad topo coordinates found on the web. I don’t know if that was on purpose or not but it worked well at throwing us for a loop. The next trail we took made it quite easy to find. The swamp portion is relatively dry for now. Stick near the tree roots and you can move without going knee deep.

This is truly a beautiful place. Vis was a good 100 feet aside from the slight mess we made at the entrance not knowing what side to enter from. From our max depth of 110 I could still see the trees. This is an awesome place.

We saw no gators snakes or skeeters but the horse flies were of biblical plague proportions. If you can still find an old barrel of DDT someplace, bring it with you and it may keep the younger flies off of you. You're on your own for the bigger older flies. We spotted them flying in tight formation making every attempt to break through our 5mil deet soaked defenses. On the way home pick up some hydrocortisone to spackle on any remaining exposed flesh you may have had.

[cavdiver2]

Looks like a great dive, nice photos

Michael McDonald

[Signal 20]

We saw no gators snakes or skeeters but the horse flies were of biblical plague proportions. If you can still find an old barrel of DDT someplace, bring it with you and it may keep the younger flies off of you. You're on your own for the bigger older flies. We spotted them flying in tight formation making every attempt to break through our 5mil deet soaked defenses. On the way home pick up some hydrocortisone to spackle on any remaining exposed flesh you may have had.

I was out there yesterday and the deer flies ate me ALIVE...
Without exagerating I have about 9 bites on my forehead and around 20 on my legs they are impossible to get away from. I also learned that it deffinetly depends on some human factor. My buddy and I stood in the same places, both wore the same kinds of clothes, used the same bug stray. But I got over 30 bites and he got 2.

[Gibby]

I beleive that.
2 out of 3 of us are shredded today.

I can't wait to go back!


But NOT without reenforcements.

[metaldector]

I've been fortunent to dive this 3 times this years and each dive was different and beautiful. The horse flys were bombing us in the water upon our surfacing but none of us were bitten that I know of. Your pictures were excellent.

[Gibby]

Thanks!
The light at the bottom looks quite dark because the pictures were taken from a digital camcorder. We didn’t even really need our lights down there at 2pm.

Anyway the cool part is that my buddy made a DV camcorder housing for about $25! Some 4inch pvc tube and couplings, 2 pieces of 1inch acrylic plate a few latches, an o-ring and he was done.

He slides the camera in, locks it down and activates it with the remote unit before getting in the water. The battery runs it for 2 hours. Longer than most dives we do. He calls his camcorder housing the L.I.H. for (Low Income Housing) His science behind this is "Why should I put my $200 digital camcorder into a $1000 housing. If that were to flood I would have no camera and a $1000 piece of plastic trash."


Good times!

[Walter Pickel]

If the coordinates were mine I am sorry. I corrected mine. However, it does talk about entering at the end of the run.

It is great to see everyone making the somewhat challenging trek out there. Just remember to tread lightly.

[Signal 20]

just some advice for people that have never been there.....
GPS is not really needed. Once at the end of the tram road just follow the path that starts right next to the 2 tall dead trees. So many people have been diving out there recently that if you cant find it by following the beated path and marks on the trees then you probably dont have any buisness in the swamp in the first place

[Gibby]

And it doesn't hurt to be on the correct tram road to start with.



.

[Shadowjack]

If the coordinates were mine I am sorry. I corrected mine. However, it does talk about entering at the end of the run.

It is great to see everyone making the somewhat challenging trek out there. Just remember to tread lightly.

Walter - "Challenging trek to Buford" ??? I think Eagle's Nest II is a challeng, Buford is a walk in the park compaired to it ( but EN2 is a MUCH better dive ) maybe next weekend we can hit it again..

Eric

BTW I did a report for Weeki Wachee...Happy now?!