Missouri Cave Trip

[JDostal]

Just got into the hotel in Poplar Bluff from a day of diving Cannonball. Three of us are down here for fun and a few others are here for cave class. Conditions are great. Viz in the lake is about 5 feet and viz in the cave is phenomenal. Not sure on the distance but you can easily see the whole cave and a nice distance ahead of you. It is my first time actually seeing the whole cave - when I did my training here two years ago viz was only 5-10 feet.

Our first dive was a leisurely swim back to the pit, spotting the jumps on our way in putting lines in so that we could do little circuits on them. The last time we were here they were not marked so we wanted to make sure we found them this trip. Turns out they are now marked so it was super easy.

When we got back to the pit we jumped to the left and then jumped to the small offshoot tunnel that is up and to the left. Went to the back of that and then exited. Almost a 50 minute dive.

Our next dive, we went in and went to the far end of the first side passage. We jumped into it and then came around to the mainline back near the entrance. It was our first time in there, pretty cool. We then moved up to the second side passage and jumped into it up to the mainline again. Also another very nice passage and we exited on the mainline. This dive was about 40 minutes.

Gorgeous cave. The arches were very beautiful, especially being able to see them in all their glory. Went through and under them several times

Heading to Cannonball for another dive tomorrow and then over to Boiling Springs on the Big Piney. We'll be making our way to Roubidoux, Bennet Springs and Boiling Springs on the Gasconade yet. I'll keep posting conditions as we go!

[SLIM]

Awsome, we kind of were looking for you at RBD today. Had 30+ foot of vis with low flow and even with all the teams in there, it did not look all that bad. The jump to the right looked really cool with the clear water in there.

You could see the glow of the day light way back in there. When you get there, be ready for some more clear water. Well, what we call clear water up here.

SLIM

[JDostal]

Hey Slim!

Yeah, I thought we were heading there today but we won't end up getting there until Sunday so it looks like we might miss the usual crowd of misfits

Glad to hear it is looking good though. I've been really looking forward to getting back there again. I love it down here!

[WJH]

Hey Slim!

Yeah, I thought we were heading there today but we won't end up getting there until Sunday so it looks like we might miss the usual crowd of misfits

Glad to hear it is looking good though. I've been really looking forward to getting back there again. I love it down here!

Misfits?! Who you callin' misfits? We're usually referred to as ruffians I'll have you know. Glad you're getting to see our caves in their best conditions--low flow and great vis--we don't get that very often.

WJH

[JDostal]

Haha! Well I'll use the correct terminology from here on out. Today I also learned what "gigging" was. Had never heard of that before. We were hanging out at the park on the Big Piney river after a dive making dinner and some guys were coming through on a boat with some huge lights on the front and some poles. Cool talking to them. They knew someone by the name of Dee Burke (I think that was his name) that used to own the land that the spring comes out of and was apparently a really active cave diver around these parts until he passed away.

We dove Cannonball again this morning. Still great viz! We jumped into the second side passage again on our way to the pit. We did a tour around the edge of the pit and exited on the mainline. Seeing the 100 foot marker in such a great cave is always bittersweet. I'm always happy to have had a safe and wonderful dive but I'm sad that it is about to end.

We drove over to Licking and went to Boiling Springs on the Big Piney. George and I were the only ones that did a dive in this cave, the rest of the class was busy filling tanks and going over course material. Boiling Springs is a nice little sidemount cave. Wide and not too tall. It is a short run to the back of the cave where the pit is located. The pit will take you from about 20 feet or so down to at least 160-170. It's a very sloping tunnel with a lot of gravel. At about 120 or so the line disappeared so we tied a spare reel in and continued down to the lowest restriction. There we just felt the flow coming up from the cave and turned our dive.

One of the cool things about this cave is the fish. Thousands of bass and panfish... I guess they come in to the cave for the warmer water. They are all over, running into you, darting everywhere and stirring up silt (at least that was George's excuse...hehe). It was a nice dive! Run time was about 68 minutes due to deco.

We are at the Star Motel in Waynesville now, going to dive Roubdioux tomorrow.

[JDostal]

Did two dives in Roubidoux today. Viz is nice in the system right now - not as good as Cannonball but still pretty sweet. Flow is basically nonexistent. I could hover motionless in the entrance, which is just unbelievable. Because of the low flow we were really able to see a lot of the cave.

Our first dive was our long swim dive. When we were last here we did shorter training dives so we wanted to see more of the deep tunnel. We ended up swinging back to the big room which is pretty impressive looking. We got back to the top of the pit at about 45 minutes so we had a good amount of deco but it was worth it.

Our second dive was a lot more relaxed. Instead of going for a long swim we just wanted to play. We took a leisurely stroll back to the pit and took the little jump around the pit. We gathered up our reel and slowly floated down the dropoff, went up the deep tunnel a little and then cruised back.

Nice diving! Not sure where we are headed yet tomorrow...the class is going to Bennet Springs but George and I are probably going to head over to Boiling Springs on the Gasconade as we've never been there.

[SLIM]

Sounds like you had to much fun. Sorry it was not the other way around so that we could have made RBD look like a FL cave with all the could have been there.

No need to be a stranger to the area you know.

Hope you all have fun at the BS on the Gascanade. I have been in it and is is a nice one. I have not been in the one on the Big Piney. Been trying to find the time and ones that are willing to do it with me.

SLIM

[JDostal]

Alas, BS on the Gasconade was not to be. We swam across the river this morning and we each tried 4 or 5 times to get in. Upside down, rightside up...wow. That thing is an a$$ kicker at the entrance. I *almost* made it in on my 5th try but my sidemount BC got hung up behind my head and I just couldn't brute force my way through it....grrrrr.

By my fifth try my hood was blown back off my head my mask was sideways and my one tank was down to 2000 psi due to repeated free flows in the flow. And I use Poseidon Xstreams, those things are a sonofagun to get free flowing.

We took a 15 minute break and tried again. George finally got in after about five minutes of struggling but I was all out of go go juice. I tried once or twice more but just didn't have the strength. George checked out the first couple of hundred feet and said the viz was bad and the fish were making it worse.

Ah well. It was still a fun experience and I'm going to beat that entrance next time.

Back in frozen Wisconsin now...not all that different from frozen Missouri when we left. Unfortunately I think that 4 days of diving and standing outside all day in the cold got me as I'm coming down with a cold...tomorrow will be a sick day.