Little River

[FW]

anyone know what's causing this? has there been a lot of rain in the area lately? its been raining for 2 weeks straight up here in Tally.

There was a *lot* of nasty river water sucked into LR during the flood. The only rain that will flush it out is what falls in the recharge basin, which is in the immediate area of LR.

[skip]

I dove little river today (july 10) and it looked clear to me. some particles in the water and more silt than i've seen in the past in flat areas out of current - very thin and will surely wash away eventually. I didn't go far or do much, table rock. It was a nice short first dive after being away from florida too long. dang, i'd forgot what current was like, at first I thought I must be hung on something then the lightbulb went off - I was kicking just enough to match the outflow!

Running the line was a lesson too, all those memories flooding back on how to lay line in current. Our low-flow (real...low...flow) tennessee caves have spoiled me. And little river is a good place to remember buoyancy control (going in and coming out). But my favorite was still ducking behind outcroppings, staying high, to avoid the current on the way in, and the relax-and-ride on the way out.

Flow was still less than average (in my experiences), and viz was less too, but not nearly as bad as I thought from reading these posts. It must have been over 75 feet and most likely 100, but then again our tennessee caves with 5-10 make any viz look good!

No one else was there (just locals swimming), so maybe all that thin silt would be kicked up by more divers coming and going and thereby reducing the viz? when the weekend cave divers show up it might be telling. by sunday it could be down to 50 feet maybe, but I seriously doubt 30 feet or worse unless someone trys to get into some tight small silty passages and makes a mess of it.


-skip

[TommyB]

Also dove LR today. Arrived at approx 4:30ish -
In the water by 530 or so.. Had to wait for the cat-fight to end
Should have taken videos of it, but the 2 gals that were going at it weighed more then me by 150 lbs--

Called the LEO's set around and waited for the county to arrive and clear it out a bit.
Dive was not too bad. Lot of flow and sand in the water. Cut viz to approx 70 ft or so.

Line past the table-rock has about 10 ft of slack in it (hmm around 500 or so ft in).
We tired to tighten it but my recovery from the cold last week had my ears / head all screwed up (as in squeeze pains) so we did not get it as taught as it should be---

[flyczek]

Dove it this morning and I'll echo what Skip said. I would put the vis around 80ft and the flow at moderate for LR. There is definitely more silt and fuzz on the walls than I remember. I was surprised at how many swimmers were at the park considering it was just after nine when we started our dive. All in all a nice dive.