Trip report - January 4-11 2009

[outofayr]

It was a great way to start out the new year - first dives of the year at Little River! My buddy Ron and I drove down, leaving Nebraska on the 4th with Marty Schneider in tow. Marty was coming down to do a cavern class along with Jim and Jen Grendell, who flew down and met us there. We overnighted an hour north of Chattanooga and finished driving in on the 5th. We stayed at Hydro Lodge www.hydrolodge.com in High Springs. Richard has fixed this house up nicely and we enjoyed our stay there.

January 6th - Ron and I headed to Little River early. We were the first team in the system. Michael O'Leary was also there with some students, entering after us. We did a simple dive up the mainline through the serpentine tunnel until we hit thirds. Conditions were great - flow was down and the basin was clear. After filling, we did a second dive through the Merry Go Round tunnel until we hit thirds. We both noted that flow seemed a little higher on the second dive. Marty, Jim and Jen had classroom, gear config and land drills for the cavern course. We met up at Amigos after our dive for fills. While there, we met WEPIV - nice to put a face with a screen name! He told us about the ongoing work at Cow restoring the clay bank - kudos to the folks doing all that hard work; it's appreciated!

January 7th - Ron and I headed back to LR. This time, we took the Mud Tunnel jump and checked that passage out. Much less flow through there, and we penetrated further on thirds that dive than previously. Our second dive after fills was through the Mud Tunnel again, this time though we took the Short Cut tunnel jump off the Merry Go Round tunnel, then up through the Harper tunnel. This was a neat little passage, and the first time either of us had taken it. Jim, Jen and Marty did five dives at Ginnie, and were pretty worn out. All three earned their cavern certs, and realized that there is a whole other level of diving than what they had seen before. Although beat, they all seemed to really enjoy their training, and each had a laundry list of things to work on...Richard and Stacey hosted a bonfire for the new grads at their place after supper - it actually got chilly enough we had to break out the coats

January 8th - We all headed over to Peacock Springs State Park to go dive Orange Grove. We had a pretty late start, so it was almost noon when we got it. While the new cavern divers did their thing, Ron and I swam up to Challenge sink. This has got to be one of my favorite dives, and one of the most relaxing for me. After lunch at the Luraville store and quick fills at Cathy's, it was back in the water. This time, we took the Distance Tunnel jump and followed it to where the line splits into three lines. We turned that dive on time, since we needed to be out of the water by 5:00 pm. Conditions were great - excellent vis throughout, although the Distance Tunnel got a little dusty from our bubbles knocking stuff off the ceiling. That night, we watched OU get beat by the Gators down at Kazbor's...

January 9th - The cavern divers had really enjoyed Orange Grove, and decided to work on reels, line awareness, team awareness, and trim for another day there. Ron and I headed down to P1 for a couple dives. For the first time I can remember, we were the first ones there. We took the Peanut tunnel to the end of that line, checking out jumps along the way for future reference. We turned the dive way before thirds, having only used about 700 psi to get to that point. Unfortunately for me, I had neglected to attach my plumbing, so my bladder turned that dive! (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!!). One thing about it, though, is that I discovered I could unzip my back zip drysuit all by myself - Ron wanted to do another 5 minute safety stop on top of the 5 we had already done, so I signalled my intentions and ended my dive a little early. After lunch and fills, the cavern divers decided they were done for the day as Jim and Jen had an early flight out on the 10th. They headed back to the house, and Ron and I went back to P1. This dive, we took the Pothole line up through Olsen sink and went to the jump for the peanut line before calling the dive.

January 10th - We packed the van and were on the road by 7:30. We swung by Madison Blue and did a cavern dive with Marty using a stage bottle. Afterwards, we left the stages for Marty to haul up to the van for us and headed out on backgas up the mainline. The spring had just opened up on Tuesday afternoon, and the basin was still a little cloudy. There was quite a bit of flow at the entrance, and the front of the cave was smoky up to the jump to Martz sink. After that, it was a little better and cleared considerably after the half-hitch. At about P1500', Ron called the dive on thirds and we rode the flow out. At the stop sign, we encountered another team also exiting. After a short deco, we climbed up and out. We broke down our gear and had a quick picnic lunch. Two miles down the road, we hit a deer at noon. Really crunched up the van. Thanks to the two divers from Virginia who stopped and checked up on us! We waited an hour or so for the FHP to come by, then back on the road. We overnighted at Marion, IL and were back in Nebraska on Sunday evening.

Overall, a really enjoyable trip. We really missed Floyd's, but tried out the new eating places in High Springs and in Mayo. All three cavern divers said they'd be back, and we're all counting the days until our next trip...


Brian

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thanks for the report

[WEPIV]

It was great meeting and visiting with you at Amigos. Sounds like you guys had a nice time, (with the exception of the venison meat).
Hope to see you the next time you're down this way!

[outofayr]

Gene:

Same here; always nice to "know" the people behind the posts. BTW, Kudos on the restoration!

Brian