Well there's a place you really get your kicks
It's open every night about twelve to six
Now if you wanna hear some boogie you can get your fill
And shove and sting like an old steam drill
Come on along you can lose your lid
Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece
~Rolling Stones~
We will not speak of Saturday. The cow butts and cow heads were interspersed and it gave me a bad feeling inside…. one that would manifest itself it utter frustration.
The day was off to a late start, I was annoyed but not deterred and continued on my way. Madison Blue Springs was just “down the road a piece”. After stopping for gas, an act of complete terror for me as this Jersey Girl still does not have the hang of pumping gas, I pulled out into traffic and the back gate of my truck flew open and out fell my dive light into the oncoming traffic.
I was lucky enough to be able to retrieve it, and lucky enough that it was in a protective pelican case, but not lucky enough that it actually survived unscathed, but I didn’t know that…. Yet.
I continued on and arrived at Madison Blue State Park much later than anticipated, “down the road a piece” is farther than I thought. Divers were entering the water as I parked and I never actually made it over to the pavilion where a social and bar-b-q was just finishing up as I stopped to talk at the edge of the spring when the discussion turned to She-P’s and never moved from there.
I did actually try to move, I went to the car to kit up and opened my light case to find the brand new bulb and light head I had just had installed were cracked. No diving for me today.
I moved back to the group of gossiping divers and was offered a lawn chair and sat down to while away the afternoon meeting new people, putting faces to old names and greeting the few divers I already knew.
Soon the day was coming to an end and it was time to move on. I was diving the next morning with a new friend, Russell, and he had no clue what an adventure he would be in for.
Heading for the dive shop where I planned on replacing my backup lights which had “somehow” flooded, we hooked up with Polly and Bob who we would be sharing a trailer for the night. They were staying the week and came prepared stay in and relax at night, but Bob was soooo easily swayed….I know this may be hard for you to believe, but I have never had Bar-B-Q. I thought bar-b-q was sauce but was forthwith educated on the finer points and we headed out for the anointed place of my initiation to this southern treat.
Nothing is close here… nothing…. It’s all “down the road a piece”. You can read a book or rebuild a regulator in the time it takes to “run out” to a restaurant. But we arrived and settled in to make our dinner choices.Apparently there is no other choice for the bar-b-q part but pork, anything else just isn’t bar-b-q, but sides are a different story and things like mashed potatoes, slaw and fried corn are up for the choosing.
After filling ourselves with dinner, finding our way back to the trailer was almost like a Lewis and Clark expedition in the old west. We ended the night sitting around the fireplace in the trailer living room yapping away to the wee hours (gotta love dive trailers) and then we settled in for a wee bit of sleep before our leisurely late morning start. Gotta love caves, they don’t know time of day, always there and always dark.
It didn’t take much arm twisting to convince Bob he didn’t want to eat in but grab something out and head for the first dive site, Little River.
Little River is located on the Suwannee River and when river water is low, spring water will run through, forming a "little river" of clear water that you can see through the darker river water.
After entering the cave you descend a corkscrew shaped tunnel to reach the cave system which levels off around 100 ft.
The flow is generally high and you work your way in and drift your way out. The system is basically one tunnel, with only a few offshoots and bypasses, and with a split that meets later on in the Florida Room and the passage continues on.
There was only one backup light at the shop and the second is on order to hopefully arrive by Friday and Russell is good enough to fill out my light shortage with a spare backup light and his extra 10W primary. Much thanks to him for that.
May it also be noted that part of my early morning dilemma yesterday was picking up my doubles from being VIPed at the shop and discovering they had reassemble them backwards. We will be revisiting there and discussing this. But moving on…..
Polly and Bob hit the water first and we were dropping a cookie and using their tie in. Russell gave me a rundown on the system. Turn left right inside the entrance you and drop down to the gold line and then descend a corkscrew tunnel about 360 degrees to the cave floor and move on.I still haven’t mastered the special distance of “down the road a piece”, maybe I never will but I keep trying. We enter the cave with me leading, I turn left, see the line and a drop off, I unclip and stow my O2 bottle under the ledge and drop a cookie on the line and move to drop over when I notice Russell giving me strange looks. He grabs my cookie off the line and continues on.
There is apparently another 40 yards to go here “down the road a piece” before hitting the gold line and where we want to be. We hit the rebar spike starting the mainline and he drops my cookie on it and we head out.The walls are all lacey rock with the look of swiss cheese and holes everywhere. The passage narrows and widens and I look mostly at the floor trying to find my next hand hold. The flow is pumping here but no worse than Devils flow and I pull along but am constantly floating as if I am light and struggling to stay level in the water.
The passage is low and I don’t have the height to rise up and get out of the flow of water pumping against me. I know there is no way I need more weight but am fighting to dump air and not bounce off the ceiling and loose my grip as I pull and glide along. I stop to breathe, slow myself down, regroup and catch my buoyancy, and move forward once more. I am just not feeling the love. Do I continue on and fight past it or turn and head out to try again later.
I pull ahead a little longer and give the signal to turn. How on this dive I managed to lead on the way in AND on the way out is beyond me…. It was just one of those dives. Riding the flow out I am still struggling to not bounce off the ceiling but I can now shine my light along the walls and see what I might have missed on my way in. In the struggle of this dive I had dropped my cookies and pick them up on the way out and grab the lone cookie from the line. I pick up my stage bottle and hang for my mandatory stops before heading on up to the surface and the steps. What the freak is it about cave diving and steps! There are ALWAYS freaking steps… and they are always going UP! ARRRGGG!
Well, apparently my education in cave country is quite lacking. I have never been to the Luraville Country Store and I have never had a slaw dog. Again Bobs arm is twisted and we head on over to lunch. Slaw dogs and dill pickle chips. Another cave country staple and interesting to say the least.We relax at the picnic table eating and talking and soon we need to move if we are going to get in a second dive today. We head on over to Peacock Springs and Orange Grove, another new cave for me.
The Peacock Springs State Park is the only Florida State Park dedicated almost exclusively to cave diving. The cave diving community supports this status providing continued support for improvement of park facilities.
Orange Grove and Peacock are two cave systems accessible at this site with interlocking passageways that meander on for thousands of feet in distance while generally quite shallow in depth.
Orange Grove Sink is the most upstream portion of these systems and consists of Orange Grove Sink, Orange Grove and Lower Orange Grove.The cavern is actually located below the cave entrance and from the cavern which goes to about 100 ft, you access the Lower Orange Grove system which is a silty advanced cave system reaching depths of about 180ft.
Again Russell explains the lay of the system and mentions that I can kick up a hellacious amount of silt in here if I bounce around. Who? Me? After that last shining example of my abilities. I wonder myself.
We hit the stairs…surprise huh? And survey the bright green carpet of duckweed. Just shoot me now. Duckweed, one more little ditty to deal with and Russell makes quick work of shoving it all my way as it appears he is not a fan of it either. As I sink down into the dark green water I am slurping wet air. There is undoubtedly some duckweed jammed somewhere in my reg and I am hoping to dislodge it before reaching the cave entrance and having to turn back. I purge. blow and shake the whole way down and finally am breathing dry as we enter the cave. Sludge with an Umlaut, don’t ask, ties in while I get myself neutral and we pass by Larry and Marcy as they exit and we head on in.
We make our way down the passages and I am much more comfortable this time and better trimmed. I keep looking behind to see if I am kicking up a trail of silt and am happy to report, if it was there…. It wasn’t me. Again we travel among limestone rock walls. Not as lacey and crumbly looking as the walls at Little River but the look is there. The rock floor gives way to a carpet of silt and while the ceilings are not looming high above me they seem to be a bit higher this dive. I have not seen any fish or the white crayfish that nestle deep inside these caves, never seeing the light of day, and it bothers me that I am not having anything to poke. That’s just not right. We soon turn to make our way out, the reel is pulled and we head down to the cavern to look around. Just lying in among the rocks I see a loose stone with the fossil of a scallop shell emblazoned on its side. I pick it up and marvel at it a moment before laying it down again among the jumble of rocks and moving on father in to the cavern and the nooks and crannies it has to explore.
In among the rocks is the entrance to Lower Orange, a deep dark silty hole that seems to go on forever. Maybe a peek farther down, maybe not, maybe. Not. So much more here I haven’t seen and I move along looking about and enjoying the sights around me.
We soon head on up and emerge through the blanket of duckweed, I poke it left and right but to no avail. It must be alive, it keeps coming back at me like curious cunner when you open a mussel. I am still removing it from my gear, car, clothes, rugs….. Help! I think it is multiplying!!!!
I say my goodbyes, to Russell, Marcy and Larry, Polly and Bob, Rueben and others I have met this weekend…. I have a long ways to go to get home…. It’s “down the road a piece".