My trip report 2/25- 3/2
I loaded up my truck on Wednesday, February 22, in anticipation of a great week of cave diving in the wonderful North Florida Springs. I had all the tanks for me and my buddy Chris loaded, and what I thought was all my dive gear needed for the trip.
Early on the morning of Thursday February 23, I woke up about 3 AM with sever pain in my right side, towards the back. Yep, kidney stone was acting up again. I figured I would be in pain for a hour or so, and then it would clear. Well, 6 hours later, I found my self in the ER getting loaded down with Dilaudid to ease the pain. Before falling asleep, my last thought was how is this going to clear in time for me to go on my trip t he next day.
After a good afternoon, evening and nights sleep, I was back at work on Friday, counting down the hours until I was southward bound. 2 PM finally showed up, and after gathering a few more things (obviously, not enough things, as I will point out later), i was on my way. First stop was at Cracker Barrel in Collinsville Illinois to pick up Chris. After loading the rest of his gear into my truck in a blowing wind, getting pelted with ice and snow, we was finally on our way.
I drove the first shift, getting us somewhere between Atlanta and Macon, before turning the keys over to Chris and taking a little nap. I had called earlier in the day, and spoke to Linda at CE about being able to get into our rented trailer when we got down there, very early in the morning. The arrangements were made, and around 5:30, we arrived in beautiful down town Luraville. Our two other dive buddies for the week Bill and Peggy wouldnt be down until later that night, so we decided to rest up, and then go hit the springs. After catching a little shut eye for a few hours, we was up and at 'em and getting our gear together for our trip to Peacock. As we was putting out gear together, I noticed the battery for my Halcyon Primary light was no where to be found. I searched through all my gear bags, and through my truck...no battery. Luckily, I brought 2 other primary lights with me, and batteries for them. So after assembling my DiveRite primary, we was on our way.
I always like to hit Peacock on day 1, because as far as cave diving goes, its easy diving. By easy, I mean you dont have to run the primary, you can do nice dives without having to run jumps, etc. This was Chris's first Florida cave diving trip, so he was probably even more excited about than I was, if thats even possible. Dive one I led us into the Peanut tunnel. We climbed down the latter to the water pool, did our buddy checks, and was on our way. Upon entering the cavern, I showed him the two different main lines, heading to different tunnels. After picking up the peanut line, we made our way into the system. After making it through the Peanut tunnel and through the breakdown, we dropped down to the tunnel that leads up to the jumps for cross over and water hole. Just short of 800 feet, Chris flashed me, and signaled he wanted to head back. No worries, so I gave him the okay, and turn around signal, and we exited the cave. He said there was nothing wrong, he didnt hit thirds, but he had gone far enough for that dive. No worries, good introductory dive to the caves down there. Max depth was 53 feet, run time of 35 minutes.
We decided after the long drive, and early start, we probably should go get something to eat, and talk about dive 2. So we went over to the Luraville Minimart, and had our lunch while checking out the map on the table. We decided our next dive would be down the Olsen line, and we would go to where we could see day light, and turn the dive there, or on thirds, which ever came first. I briefed the dive my explaining the emergency exit at PotHole, and cool features on this dive such as the Key Hole and the Window. This dive went as expected, and we made it to Olsen in plenty of time, turned and exited the cave to complete dive number 2. Max depth 64 feet, run time of 61 minutes.
Neither of us had hit thirds, and while sitting on the surface, I told him about a dive I did on the previous trip down there, going down into the well. We agreed we would check it out real quick, and then call it a day. So after a short surface interval, we descended back down into Olsen line, where at the bottom of the drop off, I tied my reel into the main line, placed my cookie on the line and made the sharp right turn to go looking for the line to take us to the well. This is an unmarked jump, but by looking at the map, I saw there was another tunnel there. After tying into the line to take us to P2, we followed the line to the well drop off, and descended again. After reaching the bottom, I noticed there was another unmarked jump at the bottom of the well, but it looked really silty, so we stayed on the line and headed towards what I presume to be P2. I knew this was going to be a short dive, and about 15 minutes into it, the dive was turned, and we exited the cave. Max depth was 78 feet, run time 33 minutes. As we exited the basin, we saw Bill and Peggy was there waiting for us, and assisted us in taking our fins and Chris's camera as we climbed the stairs.
We went into town that night to have our dinner. We decided to go to Big Daddys BBQ, because the Brown lantern was closed on Saturdays. We had a good meal, and then headed to Wal-Mart to stock on on stuff for the week.
Day 2 had the two dive teams going to different directions. Bill and Peggy was going to play at Peacock, and me and Chris headed up to Little River. It was raining a little bit, but not too bad. When we arrived at Little River, I was delighted to see no other cars in the parking lot. We decided to try and make a push for the well on this dive, or call it at thirds, which ever came first. We planned to stage this dive as well. So after hauling our stage and deco gas down to the water, we geared up and entered the water. Chris wanted to run the primary, so I explained to him that there was a stake in the ground for him to use on his tie off, and I would show him where to tie into the gold line when we got there. When we got to the bottom of the chimney, chris signaled to me to what looked like he was having ear problems. The reel running was a little off as well. Here in Missouri, we have 2 major cave systems, Roubidoux and Cannonball. Cannonball, the line is ran all the way to open water, and Roubidoux is blown out have the year, so we can always use more line running practice. So after seeing the reel issues, and the ear issues, I decided lets just drop our stages here, and have a uncomplicated dive, and just dive back gas to thirds. We went down the serpentine tunnel, and made our way towards the Florida room. The dive was turned at roughly 1800 feet, and we exited the same path as we entered, completed our deco and called it a day. Max depth was 104 feet, run time 84 minutes.
We went back to the trailer to get dive logs caught up, and just to relax a little bit, still a little tired from the long drive, and short rest the day before. As my laptop battery was getting down to 40%, I went to go get my charger when I realized it wasnt in my bag. Crap, must be laying next to my Can Light battery back home. So I did a little surfing off the web on my phone, checked email and such, and went to go charge my phone when I noticed my phone charger wasnt there either. At this point, I wasnt a happy camper at all. I did have a car charger, so I was able to charge my phone in my truck at least.
Day three had us back at Peacock Springs. Chris wanted to hang out in the cavern zone, and get some pictures. Peggy had her camera as well, and they decided they would both do that dive plan. With them having their dive plan at hand, me and Bill decided we would do the Grand Traverse. we had done it previously, so we knew it shouldnt be a problem this time either. Bill was in his sidemount rig, and he entered the water first. I had him survey the layout under the duck weed, and tell me where a good place for me to jump in would be. Once we was both in the water, we descended down to the entrance, where I ran the primary line. Before tying into the gold line, we met another team on the way out. I stopped, and let them exit. Once of the divers stopped at the stop sign, and motioned for us to come on in. I know the exiting team has the right of way, but they waved me on, and I wasnt going to have an underwater argument. I got us tied in, signaled okay and we was off. I guess I had it in the back of my mind that we was slowed up a lot longer than I had thought. At about 300 feet in, Bill signaled for me to slow down a bit. Once I got my pace established, we was good to go again. My bad. I never noticed how many fin tips, hand prints and other signs of impact are littered about the caves. I found that to be rather alarming. I always enjoy the cave formations though, especially past Challenge on the way to Olsen. As we was coming up the line to the Olsen sink, I noticed the gold line was down to white strands, and made a mental note of that. We proceeded through the Olsen sink, through the Window, the Key Hole and surfaced back up in P1. Another great dive, max depth 64 feet, run time of 84minutes.
As we got our gear off on one of the gear stands, Bill went back to check on Chris and Peggy, and I made the walk back over to Orange Grove to get my truck. When I returned, Bill and Peggy decided they was done for the day. I was hoping to get in another dive or two that day, so Chris and I decided to go back to OG to fine tune our skills, or develop some skills in my case, in the art of Sidemount.
Our plan on the first dive was to hang out in the open water for a little bit, since we had just made some changes to our rigs. Once we was squared away, we descended down, and explored some of the cavern zone in lower OG. After looking around there for a bit, we followed my line that was still in the cave from my traverse with Bill earlier in the day. We took it easy, and checked out the caves, peaking our heads in small openings just to see what was in there. Seems like too many people get in a cave, and just go to see how far they can get, without really looking around. We had a nice enjoyable dive, turned it well before thirds, and exited the cave. Max depth was 89 feet, run time 46 minutes.
I thought we was going to be done for the day, but Chris knew I wanted to get one more dive in, because that would put me at number 99, and had a big dive planned for the next day. So, we decided to drop back down ,and just explore a little bit more like we had just done in OG. So we dropped back down, I again ran the reel into the gold line, and we ventured about 300 or 400 feet back, again checking out all the little holes along the way, secretly hoping to find a passage way that someone everyone else had missed. Obviously, we didnt find one, turned the dive and safely exited the cave. Max depth was 64 feet, run time was 33 minutes.
That night, I made sure I logged into the CDF to report the line conditions I had noticed on the traverse. I hope it wasnt a false report, but the line looked like it needed to be repaired to me. Better to be safe than sorry.
Tuesday was the big day. I was sitting on 99 cave dives since full certification for me. We had been planning this dive for 2 months previous to the trip, and now the day was here. We loaded up the vehicles and headed south to dive Eagles Nest. TJ from Dayo Scuba was going to meet us, and be our guide since we had never been there. Chris and Peggy was going to be surface support for TJ, Bill and me. Our dive plan was to breathe a stage of 32% down to the bottom of pit, switch to back gas and head down the down stream tunnel. Our goal was to go to the top of the drop off, and turn the dive there. We figured that would be a good first dive there. As we was gearing up, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the local gator people have said is in there, but it was never seen. I tried to not have any expectations of this dive, and just enjoy it as it presented itself to me. As I drifted down the line towards the debris pile, the first thing I noticed was how dark it was, and how that cave just ate up my light. We dropped our stage bottles of 32, and switched to back gas as planned. As we passed the Lockwood tunnel, I was wishing we was staying in this area so we could dive this again the next day, and go down that tunnel, but we kept on going towards the drop off. Before I knew it, TJ was signaling we was at the pit, indicated going down would take us to 300 feet,and then turned the dive. As we exited, the cave, I made sure I went at a slow pace, to make sure I didnt miss any details of the cave. I stopped us at 150 feet depth to complete a deep stop, then proceeded to take us to pick up our stage bottles, and begin the decompression which had me at my first stop at 90 feet. After all deco was completed, we hung out on the surface and chatted for a bit before exiting the water. Max depth 223, run time of 74 minutes. Special thanks to TJ again, for the guide, and to Chris and Peggy taking our stages from us, and being great surface support.
Before the dive, I took a brand new line cookie, and wrote 100 on it and brought it with me on the dive. After the dive, I asked for my buddies to sign it as a little souvenir from the experience. We all agreed to stop of for lunch before we headed back to Luraville. We stopped at a place I think it was called Luigis . It was probably some of the best Italian food I have had in a really long time. After lunch, we headed back to Luraville to enjoy the rest of the day, while Bill and Peggy stopped off to see if any manatees wanted to come out and play at Crystal River.
We had planned another easy day after the long drive and dive the day before, so that meant back to Peacock. I have quite a few dives in Peacock now, well, considering I only get down there once a year, I have quite a few. But one dive I had not made yet was the Water Hole jump. Today was going to be the day this happened. I again led the dive, into the Peanut tunnel, and to the jump to the left to hit water hole. 18 minutes into the dive, I was putting down my jump line. It was quite silty in there, especially on the line, so it looked like this hadnt been traveled by many people recently. The vis was pristine, and the cave formations was amazing. We was able to make it all the way back until I could see day light above at the 41 minute mark. I motioned to Chris that we had come to the end of the line, and to take a peak, and lets turn it. The dive out was just as amazing as the dive in. Made it back to my jump reel at the 61 minute mark, and we exited the cave. As we was coming up from the bottom of the breakdown room, I saw another unmarked jump that appeared to be going under the Peanut tunnel, that I had never noticed before. we will have to save that one for another day. We continued to exit the cave, and I came to the conclusion that the Water Hole is my favorite dive in Peacock. That was just amazing in there.
Max depth was 52 feet, run time was at 91 minutes.
Next dive we decided that we was going to go check out the Nicholson Tunnel. I wanted to show Chris as much different passage as possible before the week came to an end, and I knew this would be our last dive at Peacock for this trip. I had only been up this way once before, on a failed attempt to make it to the crypt. Going through the tunnel reminded me how much much the vis and water temp changed in this tunnel. Very delightful dive. I came to a three way split in the line I believe near Sisteen, and turned the dive at that point. Figured that would be a good place to use as a marker for my next trip there. We exited the cave, and as I always do on my last dive there, take a good look around, and remember all the good dives I have had in there the last week, and slowly ascend, complete my safety stop and exit the water. Max depth was 65 feet, run time was 68 minutes.
Our last full diving day in Florida, we decided to make another run out to Little River. Our plan was to again try and make it to the well on back gas. I had a little gas left in my stage I wanted to burn off, so I suggested we breath a stage down to where we tie into the main line, then switch to back gas. We took the same path as before, and was able to make it to the dome room this time before turning the dive on thirds, and began to make our way out of the cave. I never noticed how many clay banks was in Little River, and more sadly, how many of them have been destroyed by carelessly placed fins, fingers and hands. We completed our decompression, and exited the water. Bill and Peggy was already out of the cave, and in dry clothes by the time we exited, and they assisted with stage and O2 bottles back up to the car. Our plan was to go have lunch, then meet up at Dive Outpost and get the key for Cow. After another nice lunch at the Luraville Cafe, we went over to the DO to sign the paperwork, and headed to Cow. Once we got there, Chris took one look at the entry way and decided he didnt want to chance it. He has had numerous knee operations, and just didnt want to risk injury on this. I told him no problem, we can just hang our stuff up to dry a little more, and be surface support for Bill and Peggy. I had a nice time on shore snapping some pictures I plan on posting later on.
Our plan was to pack up, and hit Madison on the way out of town before heading home. As we was getting gas fills at CE, couple guys there was saying how they heard Madison was blown, and we might want to rethink our plan. We made a call to the rangers station, but there was no answer, and the call was never returned. We talked about it a little more, and decided we would go ahead and skip Madison, pack the truck and head home first thing the next morning. So as gear was drying, we went off to have dinner at the brown lantern before coming back and loading the truck for the trek back home the following day. Bill and Peggy had already gone to bed, and me and Chris was flipping through the TV looking for something to watch. After too many episodes of Storage Wars, Rocky III came on. About 30 minutes into that, we decided we wasnt tired, and lets just hit the road now.
All in all it was a great trip. Sorry if this was too long and boring for you. Special thanks to Chris, Bill and Peggy for making it a really fun week. Thank you to TJ for being a great guide at Eagles Nest, and another thank you to Linda, Bill and Karen at CE for being awesome at what they do.
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Semper Fi, Cameron David Smith, my son, my hero. 11/9/1989 - 11/13/2010 
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