Cave Diving Adventures – December 2004
By Heather Knowles
© Copyright 2005 Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
After a long hiatus since our last visit, we decided it was time to pay Northern Florida a visit and get our fill of salt, fat and cave diving for the year. As we contemplated the trip, images of deep fried corn with dollops of butter on top, cheesy fries and good old southern fried chicken flashed across my mind. We had been successful in finding a couple of places with decent food on our last trip, but it had been almost two years and a lot could have changed. Instead of driving down we elected to fly this time because we were limited on vacation time and couldn’t justify the 20-hour drive unless we were planning to stay a week or so. We teamed up with our pal Lee Livingston and decided on a 3-day diving trip beginning with our departure from Boston on December 26.
Part 1: “Just Get On!”
Logan Airport was quite simply pandemonium at 8:30 am on December 26. The airlines were all understaffed and mobs of people were clamoring to get where they were supposed to be – and on top of it all, Boston was in the midst of a snowstorm. But we were cool and patient because freaking out gets you nowhere. And one “airport rager” was about to discover that. It was busy and things were going slow at the baggage check, so some guy looking to be in his mid to late twenties decided this was a good time for a meltdown. But he wasn’t a 6-foot tall, mean, scary, strong looking guy; he was a skinny wah-wah looking type who a girl could probably beat up. He starts yelling and screaming at the ticket agent, with language to the effect of “I am being ignored, this is ridiculous (wah).” Of course, that reaction prompted the one he was hoping to avoid – being ignored. He kept screaming about waiting too long, when was someone going to take his bags, why was he waiting when others were being helped, etc. After stomping his feet a few times, he set himself up for the ultimate self-imposed insult, “Are you just going to keep ignoring me?” Yup, pretty much. “Fine, puh puh, fine! Ignore me.” On the verge of tears (seriously), he screamed, “Fine I just won’t check my bags,” and tore off with two huge suitcases, which you knew were destined to be hurled from the jetway down to the tarmac where they’d be hurled into the plane’s hold later on… Funny too because we were next in line and we had 6 big bags checked, our seats assigned and a smile on our faces in about 5 minutes flat.
Traveling life in the post September 11 world can best be described as pretty much same as before minus your shoes. Thanks to the brilliant “shoe bomber,” a trip through security usually requires removal of shoes, rings, keys, pocket change and any other item that may set off the finely tuned metal detector. Now, add in some dive gear and you’ve got the potential to turn a 20-minute wait at the checkpoint into a 40-minute delay in a heartbeat. I used to get irritated when my dive gear got held up on the conveyor belt, but now I enjoy it. I enjoy watching the perplexed, confused, concerned, troubled, “what do we do?” look on the TSA “do you want fries with that?” security guard’s face as a Sartek light, complete with a scary battery containing a long strand of colorful wire comes cruising through the scanner. Once the supervisor comes out, usually things get serious. “We need to look in your bag, ma’am.” Okay. Then I explain what it is once it’s out on the table, since they still haven’t figured it out, and we’re on our merry way. Given that this was an “elevated” terror threat status, I figured on some serious convolutions getting through security. Of course, my bag did set off the all the bells and whistles but instead of pulling the bag out and looking inside, they decided to keep putting it through the machine – first upright, then on it’s side, then on the other side – three times. I was like, “hey just open the friggin’ bag already!”
Usually I am pretty savvy with the check-in kiosks since I occasionally travel for work and since I like avoiding people whenever possible, so I use the self check-in electronic do-dads regularly. Something got screwed up though, as there were probably several entries being made at the same time and Lee ended up sitting next to a 28-year-old unemployed democrat who believes it’s the Bush Administration’s fault she was a poly-sci major at U-Mass and now can’t get a job (duh). Lee tortured her for the would-be 50-minute flight to Philadelphia during which time we were considerably delayed due to the US Scairways sick-out, resulting in thousands of lost bags and ridiculous delays. Anyway, ten minutes into the flight Lee was “acting like an 8-year-old” and by the time we landed, he was 5.
Once we got to Philly we found our gate where chaos was reigning supreme. There were no ticket agents – instead there were non-uniformed management staff running the check-in process, which meant there was no process. It got so bad that finally the staff agent got on the microphone and called out, “Rip your own ticket, give us half and just get on!” Yikes.
Part II: Welcome to the Dixie Grill!
When we got to the Jacksonville Airport we were just plain stunned to discover all our stuff had made it! So we collected our gear and made our way over to the car rental place where we had reserved a minivan. It turned out that all the minivans were gone so they gave us a free upgrade to an SUV and waived the additional driver fee for “the trouble.” The Chevy Trailblazer SUV they gave us was literally brand new – it had 4 miles on it and the new car smell was as new as it gets. They were going to regret that one, especially when about 10 pounds of sand needed to be shoveled out of the thing. We were laughing as we loaded dive gear in the back – this thing was a nice vehicle and it was about to be full of wet, sandy dive gear. Oh well.
We cranked up the tunes and hit the highway destined for Luraville. Quickly, familiar things disappeared, beginning with a farewell to a Starbucks near the airport and the emergence of one Waffle House after another. We started thinking about food and remembered a place called the Brown Tavern somewhere down in Live Oak that was pretty decent. We decided to aim for the Lantern and hope it was still there. We made good time getting to Live Oak and found ourselves able to recall quite a bit, as the area looked much as we remembered it. A shudder ran through me as we drove past the “Golden Corral Buffet”, my first dining experience in Northern Florida a few years ago. When you walked in, they asked you how many plates you wanted. I was like, “One,” but most took 3 or 4. The bathroom looked like a scene out of “Silence of the Lambs,” as there seemed to be a steady rotation between the bathroom and the buffet table.
We drove on, laughing and turned down the road towards the Brown Lantern. We arrived at the spot and it was there just as we remembered. But it was closed. I felt like it was some scene out of “Vacation” with Wallyworld. The whole trip up until now had been about getting to the Brown Lantern – only to discover that it was closed! We had no back-up plan and were turned loose to wandering the streets of Live Oak. We recalled a sign we saw while driving in – something about a Dixie Grill. The sign was pretty decorated and in my mind I had visualized something like the Hilltop Steakhouse back at home – a big, loud steakhouse with every steak cut imaginable and a big-ass plastic cow out front to boot. We started driving down the road looking for the huge flashing arrows pointing the way in to the Dixie Grill. Suddenly Dave screeched on the brakes and turned into a random looking parking lot next to a small plain building with a sign that said, “Welc_me to the Dixie Grill, Happy Birthday Meryl.”
We paused for a moment to absorb reality. It was getting on 7 pm so we decided to make a go of it, the only other obvious option being the Chinese food restaurant on the corner and that seemed a little on the edge for me. So in we went. We seated ourselves and our waitress brought us over some menus. The place didn’t have much in the way of atmosphere or people with full sets of teeth, and the salad bar looked precarious at best, but overall it wasn’t too bad in there and the menu looked ok.
Dave being the adventuresome type he is ordered the unlimited salad bar, while Lee and I confined ourselves to one single exposure. We ordered up some chicken and steak and sat tight waiting for the food. Soon enough it came out and it looked a-okay actually. It wasn’t a bad meal so we felt confident about proceeding to desert and we topped off dinner with a couple of totally not-needed pieces of apple pie. After settling up the tab we headed off to the Dive Outpost where our cabin and tanks were waiting patiently for us.
Part III: What Fins?
In the morning we began the process of assembling our gear – digging lights, reels, regulators, etc out of various tubs and bags in preparation for our morning dive. Cathy fixed us up with a couple of sets of 104s and a set of 98s for me, all with nice cold-packed nitrox fills. We headed off to Orange Grove since Dave and I were pretty familiar with this cave, as we did several dives there during my training. It had been almost two years since we had last been down to cave country when I did my class, and nearly 4 years for Lee – and none of us have made any cave dives outside of training on our own. So, our plan was to take it easy, be conservative and focus on our technique rather than distance while we re-aquatinted ourselves with cave diving. We pulled up to Orange Grove and looked over the site. Things looked good – there was a little duckweed on the surface but not much. The water looked dark and we had already been given the report back at the Dive Outpost that conditions were running at about 50-60% of normal.
We returned to the car and started suiting up. Once we were in our drysuits, it was then Lee realized that he left his fins back at the Dive Outpost. This was the first of many “senior moments” Lee was going to have on this trip. To be fair though we had gear stuffed in every bag – computers in this bag, regs in that one, so it’s easy to miss something. At least they were in the state of Florida…
Dave enjoys the brand new rental SUV.
Dave and I pulled our gear out of the car and waited while Lee cruised back to the Outpost to retrieve his fins. Once he was back and everything squared away we hit the water. We spent a few minutes floating around getting comfortable and then proceeded to do our pre-dive checks – bubble check, light check, s-drills, gas calculations, discuss the dive plan and go. Dave ran the primary reel into the cavern up to the main line. The cavern in Orange Grove is pretty sizable so it’s a good place to practice with the reel. We reached the main line, swam up a way and then turned the dive, leaving the reel in. We surfaced, de-briefed and discussed the next dive. It was just our plan to go slow and warm up. Lee’s tank bands weren’t adjusted right for him and he was having some discomfort with them – 104s are big tanks to push through the water and if they aren’t adjusted properly, they can be a menace. We did one more dive a little further into the system and then pulled the reel on the way out. We felt even better about this little excursion so we planned the next dive to be more of a “dive.”
I ran the reel in this time and lead us through the tunnels. The visibility was way down from what we’d seen before, but it wasn’t horrible. The visibility was about 25’ and the walls had become very dark. Cathy mentioned that some fungus worked its way into the caves and settled out on the walls, turning them dark. I remembered Peacock caves (except Peacock III) having white walls that reflected light nicely. Dive shop folks were saying Orange Grove was the best and the Peanut and Pothole likes were more like 20 ft. Anyway, seeing we’re from the Northeast where good visibility is a pipe dream most of the time, we were not too disappointed and things were going great – and we were really starting to feel like it was coming back, but my bladder was getting fuller and fuller by the minute. I had to turn the dive eventually because it hurt too much to swim. Even though we weren’t way into a long dive I had been in my suit for well over an hour now, and with no pee valve contraption or diaper (I just can’t do it), I was hurting. We headed out, pulled the reel and discussed what to do next. Lee wanted to adjust his bands, I had to pee and Dave was just kind of there, so we got out and headed back to the Dive Outpost.
Lee made some adjustments to his tanks and we headed back this time to Peacock I figuring we’d give the Pothole line a shot. We arrived, suited up and hit the water - visibility wasn’t as bad as folks were saying, though it was like Times Square in there. The main line got extended all the way to open water so you don’t need a primary reel anymore. You can still run one if you want for practice, but you don’t need to. I was a little disappointed because I thought getting down that little rock sliver at the Pothole line entrance in the cavern was a good place to practice placements with the reel. Anyway, who are we to fight the man?, so we clipped off the primary reel on a d-ring and followed the gold line in.
Even though it had been a long time since we’d been there things looked familiar, which was good. It seems they also extended the main line through Pothole, so there’s no need to gap the lines if you’re continuing up to Olsen, etc. I thought it was better the other way, but oh well. There was a lot of traffic coming out so several times we had to pull aside and wait for a herd (mostly classes) to work their way out. It was good practice pulling up along the side of the cave and hovering motionless without disturbing the visibility. Lee messed with students by covering up his light so he was hidden in the darkness, waiting for them to happen upon him with their light for a little “surprise”. Yeah, he’s sick.
Lee and Heather after a dive.
Anyway, we made a good dive, relatively conservative and headed out. We had some gas left over since we were enjoying cold-packed fills to 4000 psi in these LP babies so we made a short excursion up the peanut tunnel and turned at the end. The visibility was most definitely worst here – end of the day, lots of classes and less than pristine visibility to start – maybe a murky 20 ft. Anyway, it was a fantastic first day and it felt great to be on our own, gaining experience and feeling very good about our technique, trim and overall skills.
We headed back to the Dive Outpost around 4 pm and unloaded to have our tanks re-filled in anticipation for the next day’s diving. We got cleaned up to head out for a Deco Stop social dinner that was happening over in High Springs that evening.
Part IV: Hi, My Name is PeeValve.
We headed out to High Springs following some directions provided to us. The directions were good but we were clearly not following them because though we had been driving for 40 minutes, somehow were looking at the sign for the “Golden Corral” restaurant in Live Oak, and we knew we turned wrong somewhere. Instead of going straight in Branford, we went left. Oops. We turned around and figured it out, this time using an actual map (wow, maps) so we figured it out at last and arrived at Floyd’s about 30 minutes later than planned. When we arrived there was a large group seated in the outdoor patio (um, it’s December) with heat lamps placed nearby. Given the size of the group this was the only way to get that “Last Supper” effect with a long table, as Floyd’s is more diner style inside. I had been here before and the food is actually pretty good, albeit not necessarily good for you depending on what you order, but you can’t go wrong with most of the choices on the menu at least from an edibility perspective.
We sat down next to a few guys who looked familiar – they were also staying at the Dive Outpost, but we hadn’t yet met each other. They were from Missouri where there are cold water, high flow caves that tend to be deeper (100-150’ depth range). Otherwise they mostly have small lakes and quarries but it sounded like an interesting place to do some diving if you’re ever out that way.
It was interesting to meet some actual people to go along with those aliases used on the Deco Stop and though we didn’t meet everyone, those we did meet seemed like nice people. I felt totally ridiculous asking, “So who are you on the Deco Stop?” and trying to keep a straight face while preparing for a response like “oh I’m Pee Valve.” We had an interesting discussion with a few people about chat lists and how easy it is to offend someone or get a load of BS from someone who really has no clue what they are talking about –and there’s plenty of the latter. Anyway, there were no food or fist fights and we behaved ourselves, yes even Lee was on his best behavior, so a good time was had by all.
We hung around for a while with a small group, some of whom were from our neck of the woods or were wreck divers wondering what the hell we’re doing looking at wet rocks. We hit the road around 10 pm as Lee needed to get his beauty rest. Dave managed to get pulled over doing 80 in a 55 on the way back, which translated to a $180 ticket payable to the Clerk of Mayo. I guess we paid that cop’s salary for the next month. Lee and I were actually amazed we didn’t have to pay it on the spot, as that’s not too uncommon in these parts. I was also surprised we didn’t end up having a car search and field sobriety test seeing that Dave was like “Duh” when the cop asked us where we had been and where we were going….”Luraville, Dave, Luraville!” Oh well.
Part V: One Neck Seal, Please
We got up bright and early the next morning with plans to hit Telford Spring. Last time we were in cave country, it was totally blown out and we weren’t able to dive there. So, we figured we’d give it a shot. I got the some info on getting in, where to go, what to do, etc at the dinner the night before. We arrived at Telford and nobody was there. That was surprising and we wondered if there was a reason for that. We had been told conditions weren’t great, but we wanted to give it a shot. We suited up after scouting out the site and I was first to get out my tanks. I turned the gas to analyze it only to discover that the tanks never got filled the day before – they just sat pretty on the fill whip and the fill valve never got opened by the shop employee. My fault for not checking the tanks before we left but still I was not happy, so we discussed what to do next. We were there and everyone was in their drysuits but I didn’t have enough gas to make much of a dive. We decided to just make a quick orientation dive – run the reel in and then turn the dive, leaving the reel there. We head back to the dive store and fill up, return for a full dive. I didn’t like the idea of getting in for no reason, but I it was either that or go back now.
I was suited up first so I headed in. The spring is along the bank of the river so the water outside is cooler and the muddy bottom made your feet sink in. I got my fins and mask on and started scouting out entry points – but the visibility was real bad, like a few feet and I couldn’t see the bottom over the spring. There was a decent flow too, as evidenced by the “boil” on the surface. I looked around for a while and then Dave joined in to check it out. Enthusiasm was waning, I could tell. I wanted to drop in and look around to see if the visibility got better, but Lee came down to the water and said his high pressure seat on his 1st stage was bad and his regulator was leaking. So we called the dive and I dragged myself out of the water – I knew that was going happen. We headed back to the Dive Outpost. Wah. Sometimes, you have to know when to call it and there were enough signs that this dive wasn’t going to happen for one day. I was bummed about not getting to dive there, but that’s the way it goes. Cathy said it’s a nice site to have a guide your first time there.
Back at the Outpost I got my tanks filled for real this time and Lee changed out the first stage on his regulator. We decided to just head back to Peacock since everyone else wanted to go there. We started over at Peacock I – and ran into a few people we had met earlier in the year up on the St Lawrence. It’s a small diving world for sure. Anyway, we got in and dived the Pothole line. We had a nice dive and everyone was happy. We made two more dives in Peacock I, working in progressively farther each time that day before Lee went and tore his neck seal wide open while taking his suit off after the last dive of the day. Uh oh….
Fortunately, we travel with “stuff” and we had brought along a spare seal. We grabbed a couple of little vials of Aquaseal, Cotol and some weird type of neoprene cement off the shelf back at the Outpost and Dave got to work. I think all bets were on Lee being screwed, but Dave can definitely work some magic when it comes to drysuits. As my father says, “Anyone can do the job the right way with the right tools. It’s doing the job the right way with the wrong tools that makes you a professional.” Indeed – Dave had some pretty limited stuff – tiny brushes, no jigs, unusual neoprene glue, etc but he did a hell of a job and in a few hours, Lee was back in action with a brand new neck seal.
Everyone was in such a good mood that we decided to head back into Live Oak to check out the Brown Lantern again to see if it was open. It was. Lee treated us to dinner as a “thanks” for fixing up the seal. This restaurant also had better-looking waitresses according to Lee, such as ours, who had some strange tattoo starting on her lower back and ending up who knows where. Well, Lee wanted to know and was just dying to ask. I told him not to, as I didn’t feel like picking up his teeth in the parking lot later on. Anyway, Lee behaved and we had a good dinner. We headed back to the Dive Outpost and crashed – next day’s plan was Little River.
Part VI: It’s Been Reel Fun
Little River is a high flow cave, like Ginnie Springs and sometimes Telford. The reports back at the dive store were that LR had about 20 feet of visibility and was flowing hard. Water levels were still quite high all around – at Peacock-I the bottom five steps were totally underwater. Little River had been closed not too long ago for construction – ramps, stairs, gazebos, walls and all sorts of contraptions were constructed around the spring. Some people didn’t like it because it took away from that au-natural look (which would essentially be a puddle in the middle of the woods surrounded by heaps of trash a-la-locals). I can see where they are coming from in one sense – it seems too “amusement park” like, but on the other hand you have to recognize that cave diving is a sport and it’s grown over the past years. There’s probably far more of an impact on the area having divers with tanks and stages dragging the stuff over the ground, eroding the sinks and springs than having stairs leading down. Anyway, I thought LR looked nice despite the encroachment of man.
Little River Spring
I hadn’t been here before since it was under construction when I did my class, but Dave had done a lot of diving here when he did his cave class back in 1993. Lee couldn’t remember if he had been to LR without looking in his logbook so we decided Dave would lead since we was the most familiar with the cave. A couple of guys we met over at the Dive Outpost were also diving there today. Since we were there bright and early, we had the place to ourselves, but word was the herds were coming. We decided to share a reel to minimize the number of lines running through the cavern. The other guys were heading in first and would run the reel in – they would also leave a cookie marker on the line to indicate they were still in. We planned to leave a clothespin to mark our presence. The plan was that they would go in first, we’d follow and pull the reel at the end of our dive only if the cookie was gone. Likewise, they would not touch the reel if they saw our clothespin on it still.
The other two guys headed in and we followed shortly. Visibility in the basin was good but at the entrance to the spring it was pretty tannic. It looked like someone was dunking a teabag as this rust colored water blew out from various places. The flow was quite strong and we clawed our way down into the cavern. Probably the toughest part of the dive was the first little swim through shortly after the main line starts. It’s probably only 7-8’ long, but it’s a small little tunnel and because of it, the flow is screaming through. There aren’t any great handholds (at least that I saw) so it took a moment to struggle and pull through it. After that it was mostly pull and glide with a few bursts of fin strokes. High flow caves are such an experience, to someone who doesn’t do a lot of cave diving it feels like a whole different type of diving entirely. We worked our way down the elevator-like drop and then up through the winding tunnels. We were pulling along these winding tunnels, some with sharp turns here and there. In some areas it opened up or went off elsewhere – interesting place. There were a few jump off points to places like the Mud Tunnel. There are also some places where the line comes to a “T”, which is usually not something you see because of the potential for navigational/directional issues, but we kept it simple since we were making our first dive here and stayed on the mainline.
LR is a little bit deeper of a dive than some of other systems. It’s about 100 ft deep for most of the diving, so it’s easy to accumulate decompression with a dive of any length here, even with nitrox. Ginnie is like this too and Peacock III becomes very deep once you reach Henley’s Castle (about 1300’ from the entrance). The visibility in LR was definitely down, even having never been there, I could tell that much. Others told me that the system hasn’t been that brown in a long time. One thing about high flow caves is that whatever mess is made going in, you can be sure you’ll see it on the way out. We did a pretty good job at keeping ourselves neat and clean, being conscientious, especially on the way out, as any mistake in finning would be riding out of the cave with us.
Once we turned the dive, the fun part really begins. I always like the ride out of high flow caves. Just turn around and out you go – sometimes pretty quickly too. Once we reached the entrance, Dave retrieved the reel (the cookie marker was gone indicating it was ok to pull – we had also passed the other guys exiting so we knew they were at least on their way out). Lee was the third man in, so he was first out and he cleared out of the way while I pulled placements and took up slack for Dave. Of course it sounds easy until you add in the part about you being blown out of the cave like someone just flushed a toilet. But we worked together and Lee and I made sure that slack was kept under control – sometimes when you pull a placement the line will take you in another direction, especially if you have some twists and turns in the cavern. Anyway, we pulled the line and did our deco in comfort. There wasn’t much visibility at the entrance, but the flow was blowing you out, so we just let it carry us through the murk and out of the spring.
We floated around on the surface for a few minutes chit-chatting with an instructor and class we kept running into everywhere. We climbed out of the water and changed into our clothes – the other guys were hanging out still and we returned their reel to them. They laughed – being glad we were the ones pulling the reel, as it’s a lot harder to pull a reel there than run it in. We did pretty good – and my fingers were ok too. After a couple of dives at Ginnie in my class, I was bleeding all over the place from the pull (claw?) and glide. I knew what to expect this time. Since herds of people were rolling in, we decided to head back to the Dive Outpost to refill our tanks and end the trip with a dive back over at Peacock.
We contemplated a dive over at Peacock III since we had done some diving in there during our class, but given the overall poor conditions and typically lower visibility in PIII anyway, we decided to just keep it simple and do a dive up the Peanut line. We had done quite well for our first dives on our own. Dave had been coming down with a cold all week too, so he was pretty congested. We made one last dive and it was awesome – we all felt great and everyone was pleased with how good we felt. Dave found a pee-valve bolt in the peanut tunnel, yes he can find brass just about everywhere. Dave’s ears were plugged pretty good after that dive and so we opted to call it a day and a trip. It was about 4 pm when we got back to the Outpost, so we took a ride out to High Springs to enjoy the rest of the day and then went over to Ginnie. Lee bought the family some tee shirts and gizmos. The next morning we headed back to the Airport and insulted our bodies one last time with a Cinnabon before getting on the plane home.
All and all it was a great trip – we met some nice people and had a blast diving. It’s too bad we live so far away or we’d do a lot more cave diving. But we’ll be back a lot sooner next time – until then.
Links: