Day 3:
After yesterday's checkout dive, Rich's confidence in me is high enough that we're ready to head off to the side mount systems I came down here to really see. Stop one - Cow Springs. We head up to the Dive Outpost to grab the key, and along the way we bump into some old friends of Rich's and have to chat for a bit. Nothing happens at high speed in High Springs
We get over to Cow and find one other team of guys going in - a set of three Russians from St. Petersburg wearing backmount and carrying stages. They're further along in kitting up than us, and we ask them politely if we can just cookie their primary, to which they agree. We get in the water just as they're about to descend, and we see their bubbles. And we see their bubbles. And more bubbles...
![531973_10152531897035725_1903662128_n.jpg (134.58 KiB) Viewed 1577 times Cow basin](./download/file.php?id=19799&t=1&sid=4e6f7b666a1ad75856c58d19f5525846)
- Cow basin
Turns out one of them had trouble finding the entrance, and then got stuck in it for about 20 minutes, burning a lot of his gas. The entrance for upstream Cow is a tight corkscrew before the cave opens up. It's doable in backmount, but it is tight. With the stages, they didn't bother to unclip and push them into the cave, which wedged them for a bit.
They get through eventually, so we drop about 10 minutes later and enter the cave. In sidemount, it's easy. Really easy. We had upstream and eventually encounter their dropped stages ahead of us. We get all the way, some of which required the "poor man's DPV" rope pull to pass, and make it back almost 900' to Not My Fault, a tight hole in the floor of the cave where it drops down to the deeper section. I'm about 400 psi from thirds, and it's a tight hole that goes a little further than I can see. I'm not sure how far it goes, and whether it gets to a good turnaround place fairly soon, as the depth drops off and the gas goes faster. So, I thumb the dive and we head back for the basin. We get out the corkscrew, do a quick underwater recalc of thirds, and enter the sidemount-only downstream Cow. I tie in the primary and run to the gold line. Flow is low and the cave is tight... and it's beautiful, if short. We hit the end of the gold line (and the cave), which is exciting for me, and I manage to turn around, pass Rich, and lead out.
We take off the kit topside, drop off the key, and head back towards Luraville... We make a detour to see the other cave I'd been looking forward to: Jug Hole (one of the Ichetucknee Springs). We pull in, pay our tab, and unload gear. Turns out that it's a 1/3 mile walk down a path to get there, but there's a great gear cart, and a friendly ranger who helps us out.
![427353_10152532789335725_1035067094_n.jpg (95.33 KiB) Viewed 1577 times Jug Parking Lot](./download/file.php?id=19800&t=1&sid=4e6f7b666a1ad75856c58d19f5525846)
- Jug Parking Lot
We get to the basin and spend time chatting with a group of elderly tourists who are from Nebraska (and looking for a retirement location.) They're touring a bunch of the springs in the area today with friends... They're amazed at the quantity of gear we have on, and that we're crazy enough to go diving in the holes in the rock. We try to use the experience to explain a little of how important the aquifer is to the area and how it needs to be protected.
We drop in and the cave is blowing. Serious flow - turning this into a first magnitude spring, and it's not a pretty entrance. We pull our way in, barely, and shimmy through the bedding plane restriction on entrance which runs quite a bit. Jug Hole is an amazing cave, but not very big. In short order, we hit the Diamond Sands (a cool, fairly tight restriction where the sand on the floor glitters like a million diamonds when you hit it with the lights), and hit the end of the line. The cave just peters out into a solid clay bank. We turn the dive, far from thirds, and head back out. Along the way, not far from the Diamond Sands, we see a line off to the side, so we take the jump. It's a fairly new line. The passage goes for 50 feet or so and then becomes a no-mount bedding plane, and the line disappears into the void. All the flow's coming out of this crack. I turn my head sideways, unclip a bottle and try to shimmy in. I can make it, but it's not going to be pretty on my gear. Rich...um...maybe not so much.
Pro tip for cave diving: always make the fat guy go first
![:rofl: :rofl:](./images/smilies/rofl.gif)
There are no stupid questions, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots...