fluffy bunny tunnel

[jsteedley]

Haven't done any cave diving in awhile but would love to hear some stories about the infamous fluffy bunny tunnel.

[Gary]

OK


A few years ago I had the urge to find out all I could about the fluffy bunny tunnel. I had already seen what I considered to be "both ends" of the passage - off the main line at the one end and exiting off a side passage in the lips bypass tunnel at the other.

So I conducted a number of dives connecting and verifying the route between those two points. In particular the exit end consisted of a hairy looking crack that it defied logic that a pair of normally sized sidemount tanks would physically pass. However, experimentation showed that sidemount tanks do defy logic and that without even having to remove individual tanks the tanks would (delicately) rattle themselves through this irregular crack without becoming lodged. I was constantly aware of the tanks in this situation. I was just waiting to have one re-conform to the logic of a metal cylinder and either ratchet or lodge itself permanently somewhere in this crack with me attached to it. So once proving to myself the passibility of the zone I removed myself and did the rest of my exploration entering from the far side.

The decision to do the everything else from the far side in preference to that crack can only be truly appreciated in light that the Fuzzy Bunny Tunnel was originally described to me as "no-mount in a siphon". It got its name supposedly because while everything was named "Devil's this" or "Devil's that" the Fuzzy Bunny Tunnel got its name for being so small that "only a fluffy white bunny could fit it's ass down the hole".

It turned out that there were a couple of different entrances from the far side that joined up to the same area. Despite the siphon I found it much preferable to the scary crack in the bypass. One of the easiest accesses was unlined and passed thru a vertical sidemount crack and to a room. To the left a passage where the line started and led into the lined section of the FBT but passed thru some 2" low crack that clearly no one had ever attempted much less actually gone thru. There was also a hole in the floor (kind of a well) that led to fairly large passage and exited over on the July Spring line. This well tunnel turned out to be one of my favorite passages and shorted the trip to July springs by three or four hundred feet (in sidemount) and I would seldom pass the July Springs end of it without being tempted to go play and at least stick my head up out of the well into that small room and look around.

Exploration also revealed a couple different ways to get to the lined section without going thru an impossible 2" crack and the main line passage of the fuzzy bunny tunnel turned out to be interesting, dynamic and easily passable in sidemount. Farther along the line a single right hand tee departed from the main fuzzy line and passed into a tiny passage that could only be the heart of the section - the "no-mount in a siphon" that "only a fluffy white bunny could fit its ass down".

I have to admit that "no mount" has never attracted me. Having a regulator free flow, go wet, or explode has never bothered me because I always have a completely independent backup (even in backmount) and the problems are usually easily fixed when one has more then 30 seconds to work it out. But I'm kind of attached to the idea of that independent backup and don't really like the idea of pushing a single 80 ahead of me thru a hole as my sole source of air. Instead I decided to bring a pair of AL40 tanks sidemount that I wouldn't even breathe until I was in position.

Despite the fact I was loaded down with 4 bottles and a scooter I remember everything was crystal clear and the gallery looked enormous for some reason. I used a pair of LP85's (the tanks I used for most of my sidemounting) out to a staging point on the main line and after setting everything up I left the scooter and 85's clipped off on the main line and switched to the 40's.

AL40's sidemount is pretty close to feeling like wearing nothing and is always fun to feel so free and unencumbered. They will never be all that popular though because they hold so little air. They hold as much a the no-mount AL80 though and are redundant with 2 working regulators so they were my choice for the tiny passage off the tee.

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that this trip was going to be done with at least one of the AL40's removed and pushed ahead of me. The passage is sitting right about 90' depth and my 85's are not waiting for me on the far side. In fact at this point I'm not sure where the far side is and it is potentially possible after I crawl no-mount down this crack there will be no place to turn around and I'll be inching my way out again, no-mount, backwards, in a siphon (which sounds immensely unpleasant to me). The passage is completely black goethite coated rock seemingly untouched except for the fact some brave soul has gone thru the trouble of running a line in here which assumably means it goes somewhere. I'm hoping and guessing that "somewhere" is over near the July Line area because the flow must be going somewhere.

The passage is small and I assume a sort of "superman in flight" position: right arm extended forward holding out an AL40 in front and the other curled back sheltering the AL40 attached beneath my left armpit. Contact with the cave was unavoidable but I wanted to keep it minimized and limited to my relatively soft, wetsuit covered elbow and outer side of my knees (and only as necessary). The passage is narrow in all directions but not excessively tight (at least not tankless in a wetsuit for a skinny, agoraphobic person). The passage resembled breakdown with large sections of fracture cave and frequent head sized and larger rocks making up portions of the ceiling, floor and walls. No real silt to worry about and a decent flow. No scuffs or marks of passage over the pure black rock so I wanted to keep it that way. I carefully wormed my way forward using the flow for propulsion and careful buoyancy and light contact for steering (I might as well have not brought my fins for all the use they were in this place). Progress wasn't rapid averaging only about 10 or 15 feet a minute and then for a long (perhaps 50') the floor went up on a solid shelf and the passage got tighter.

Somewhere along this tight shelf passage a rock from this ceiling bothered by changes in the current or my bubbles decided it was time to fall. I couldn't see it back behind me but the head sized rock landed with moderate force in the middle of the back of my right calf and rolled off. Though slightly painful I was just glad it wasn't a bigger rock pinning my leg to the floor so I was trapped here - so I continued out hoping I wouldn't have to return this way.

The shelf opened up again to less tight, but still no-mount, passage and then after another hundred or so feet opened up further and exited into the July Springs passage near the area where it starts sloping up towards the "exit". Glad at having done it I was also glad I had several other options then to return via that passage. I didn't remember to log my turn pressures at that point but I took an easier, though longer, trip back (thru the well) and returned with 900 and 1400 in my AL40s when I got back to my 85's (so I must have made it to the far side within thirds but didn't have so much air left I spent much time looking around of the far side).


Oddly since acquiring the information on how the passages run there I haven't felt compelled to spend a lot of time in that area. I've had a couple people interested in diving there offer to go with me but the idea of being in some of those passages with a buddy I'm not completely sure of scares me. There's easier and prettier passage to visit and I've seen it all at least once. Even though I logged it as a "GREAT DIVE" unless you have a driving urge to see it for yourself I don't especially recommend it over some of the more accessible passages.

[Serota]

That is a great description of somewhere I have no intention of going. However, I have never quite understood the geography of the Lips and Keyhole Bypass areas. Could you describe these passages?

[Gary]

I avoided giving too much description on the Fuzzy Bunny access but the lips and Keyhole bypass is well mapped already.

In the Gallery just before The Lips restriction off to the far left and past the end of the gallery the Lips Bypass starts. It make a little loop Clockwise and enters the room beyond the lips way off to the left side. From the line when approaching the Key Hole the passage is easily noted down the hill to the left.

Before completely exiting into that room from the Lips Bypass another line splits off going back to the left again in another CW loop entering the main line passage on the left hand wall at about p300'. It's the Keyhole Bypass.

The Lips and Keyhole bypasses are probably most often done as a single bypass because they both offer a slower, longer, more difficult way to get to p300' on the main passage so someone there is basically there to see those passages. Someone seeking places farther in the cave would most likely take the main line route through the Lips and Keyhole and be well along their way already.

[contender]

Gary,
You are a brave man, not no but HELL no on the fluffy bunny tunnel!

[Walter Pickel]

Wonderful description Gary. Thank you for sharing that with everyone!

[aainslie]

Here's my logbook entry from my dive in that passage. I've edited it to make the location less obvious. basically I came in what Gary describes as the "right hand T" and exited near July Springs.

This was the silliest, most exciting, scariest dive of the trip – possibly of my life. I was looking for something not too long or deep to decrease my deco obligation. ***** suggested the Fuzzy Bunny tunnel. This is a sort of mythical little passage. The part that I did is a sort of dumb shortcut around the first corner of the July Springs swim. I hopped in, swam to ******, and there the line was on the right. I went about 15 feet – and there was the most serious restriction I’ve ever tried to get through. Essentially it consists of slabs hanging down from the ceiling in sheets, and you have to wriggle between the sheets. My rough estimates are that the sheets are about 3 ft by 2 ft, about 18 inches apart, with a 2 inch clearance off the floor. I started by removing my cylinders. I’d brought the little 85’s which was good because there wasn’t much room. I pushed the one I wasn’t breathing through the slabs, then checked that I could get my hand on the reg. Then the second one went in ahead of me with a 7 ft hose as far as I could shove it. In I went – good!! But when I was halfway in I thought, what if I need to back out? So I backed out – and satisfied that I could do that, did it again. I was in the passage! It was TINY, but big enough to put the tanks back on. ***** had told me two things – 1) it opens up inside, and 2) there was one tee which I should take right. These were both of dubious value. I put the tanks on, went right at the tee, kicked about 3 strokes… and realized I had to take them off again. I pushed them ahead into the next restriction. There was a second tee! Nice going,*****! (he swears he told me about it, I think he wanted to test if I’d really been in there….) So I tried going left – the arrow was sort of twisted but looked vaguely as though it pointed that way. About 20 ft further on it got so narrow I could no longer squeeze in – and time was ticking. So I checked gas nervously (I was only at about 2900, lots of time) and started backing up pulling the tanks 1 or 2 feet at a time. Back at the arrow I wriggled around. I could see a restriction followed by an opening so I thought this looked a little more promising. There was a drop to the right, and it was pretty clear that I couldn’t just throw the tanks around; they could easily slip down a crevice into a space where you wouldn’t be able to take them out again. I carefully repeated the process – push tanks, wriggle after them, etc to the end. This whole passage was essentially done on the long hose on the right tank (when it was on me!) as it was easier to control that cylinder. Finally I could clearly see the July Springs passage ahead, nice and open with a beautiful line in the middle of it. I exited, resecured my tanks, and swam…. Well, less than 200 feet to my stage. I exited after abut 70 minutes – it had taken me about 45 minutes to go probably 100-200 feet through the Fuzzy Bunny tunnel. It was a rite of passage; I’m not sure I want to repeat it, but I’m very pleased that I did it as I feel that knowing how to proceed may one day prove incredibly useful when I get into some situation that requires a bit of no-mount expertise to get through - like a rock fall or something similar.

[mfascuba]

Did it once - kinda like a pile of rocks with a line run thru the middle. Did it no mount, just remembered that the inflator on my drysuit was disconnected to swing the bottle in front of me, and every time I moved the button got pushed and let in water. Came out soaked, won't do that again either for a long time or never...... Well, maybe in a wetsuit....

Mark

[Randy Thornton]

I've got just one thing to say: "You guys are absolutely nuts!" I'm sure I will never find myself in that particular tunnel, but it sure was fun reading about it!

[cavedivingwoman]

I avoided giving too much description on the Fuzzy Bunny access but the lips and Keyhole bypass is well mapped already.

In the Gallery just before The Lips restriction off to the far left and past the end of the gallery the Lips Bypass starts. It make a little loop Clockwise and enters the room beyond the lips way off to the left side. From the line when approaching the Key Hole the passage is easily noted down the hill to the left.

from Barbara/San Francisco:

I've been in there with b/mounted 85s--let's not get into the entire circumstances, but it was during training and was a brash, stupid thing for me to do. My instructor invited me to lead the dive (until I felt uncomfortable). That never happened. After taking a look into the sidemount area, seeing the line, and deciding it was big enough, I popped in easily. When I looked back for my instructor buddy---well, let's just say he was quite upset. I got the chewing out of my life in public at the dock---such as, "I was planning your body recovery." "That's a sidemount passage. No one goes there in back mounts." (The dockside boys/Greek chorus: "I do! Give her a break! Teach her to sidemount!" etc).

Whew. That instructor ripped me a new one...now I understand why. <<I didn't earn a card on that occasion....>

It's a wonderful tunnel, though, and I'll revisit it when I learn to sidemount.

Tincture of time, five years later--- At the time I couldn't understand the big deal (further comment on my judgment). Now it's very clear for all of the reasons mentioned below. ( Fluffy Bunny's no place for beginners. There's not room for two people in that little hole. If one has a problem requiring another persons's help, s/he's screwed. A freeflowing reg would turn the place to #### in a second. And a bunch of other reasons

Another lesson learned: Probably no one in the middle of a divorce should be learning to dive in caves.

Older, wiser, and still alive!
Barbara/San Francisco (aka hlthcom, cavedivingwoman@earthlink.net)