Eagle's Nest and nearby Swamp Caves

Visibility in the basin at Eagle's Nest was about 20' and much worse in the cave, 10' to 15'. Lots of tannic water, especially in the cave. Clears up only a bit upstream. Give it a week+ to clear.

BTW, the old cross at 35' is missing. Probably stolen by the Al Qaeda (or someone of that statue...). It was there Thursday, gone by Sunday afternoon.

The surrounding water is up a foot+ at the swamp caves nearby. Didn't enter Buford to check it out, but it was awesome on Thursday.


Below is the deco log in the EN basin and below that is an example of vis in the upstream cave with my 500watt HID

[OutlawCaver]

Keep the forum posted. I will watch for your updates

Thanks

[DoublesOrNothing]

BTW, the old cross at 35' is missing. It was there Thursday, gone by Sunday afternoon.

Good pics. TJ. Sucks about the cross. I wonder if it was stolen, or some bozo knocked it over and its down in the algae.

[cbm]

Hi All,

Does anyone have a very recent update on the conditions at Eagle's Nest? We have last Tuesday, 2 May (mediocre) and the previous Monday, 24 April (great). With all the rain over the last 2 days we are not sure if it is worthwhile to go.

Thanks!

CBM

[Gibby]

We were planning our first trip out to buford on Sat.

Anybody know the condition?

We got a inch or so of rain on Tuesday.
I sure it's a mess.

[brianstclair]

Actually just walked in the door from Buford - it's great right now. Saw a river otter while we were deco'ing. I was also there last Sat and didn't really notice a difference with the recent rainfall. Great dive, bring a wagon and some serious, Vietnam-style bug spray.

Brian

[Walter Pickel]

We were planning our first trip out to buford on Sat.

Anybody know the condition?

We got a inch or so of rain on Tuesday.
I sure it's a mess.

There are some recent reports here - Buford Spring System Page. We dove it a couple of weeks ago and everything was great.

I saw the otter back in Jan. Funny thing is at the Florida Aquarium, those guys are responsbile for more people getting hurt than all the other animals combined. They are very cool to watch though.

[cbm]

Hi again,

We are contemplating diving downstream tomorrow if the visibiltiy is reasonably good. Did anyone dive Eagle's this week and is willing to share info? 5 hours round trip, crappy conditions and a potentially cranky buddy is not cool

Thanks,

C

We are contemplating diving downstream tomorrow if the visibiltiy is reasonably good. C

What do you consider reasonably good visibility? The cave varies from Ginny clear to about 10' (upstream and downstream, unless someone silted it out, whenever I have been there). I have always been able to make a dive when the roads are open and in good condition. I think the road conditions are more of a problem than the visibility in the cave.

We were thinking about going to Eagles Nest last weekend, but the road condition report we got was a 4X4 got stuck trying to make it to the Nest. We had 5 people who were going to go, but only one 4X4, so we made other plans.

I don't know if you have checked the weather lately, but we have a tropical storm on the way and were currently experiencing thunderstorms in Orlando. Expect more water on the roads to the Nest in the next couple of days.

[cbm]

What do you consider reasonably good visibility?

At least 40 feet for all practical purposes.

The last report I found online (06/12/2006) talked about 40-50 feet visibility.

The road has improved so much, I am surprised to hear about folks getting stuck again.

C