steve2281
November 22nd, 2006, 10:40 PM
The board’s a little slow; looks like it could use a dive report. Even though we’ve been diving most every week, I took a break from writing up reports. The reports were getting repetitive and my spare time has been very limited.
Anyway, following our Mine LaMotte dives on 6/30/06, we considered that any further penetration down the Hall Rd might serve no purpose, since the scenery wasn’t changing in the seemingly endless mineshaft looking tunnel. However, not long after that dive I was able to contact one of the divers responsible for much of the exploration and line-laying in the mine. I described our point of max penetration and inquired about what lay beyond. To my surprise, I found out that about 800’ further (3000’ total) the shaft would open up into an area the original explorers called the “Control Room.” Apparently, this was a large operational area for storage, handling, and loading with five different tunnels departing in every direction.
During our next few visits, we passed on making an attempt at the control room. By the time we thought we were ready, the water level in the OW entry area had dropped to the point that we could not access the Hall Rd line with a surface swim through the Bat Cave. Entering at the main entrance would add a 500’ swim to the Bat Cave or a deeper 1000’ swim to a point about 650’ down the Hall Rd line (adding about 350’). We decided to wait until the water came back up.
With the water rising slowly and winter coming on, we changed our plans and decided to make an attempt at the Control Room from the main entrance, choosing the 1000’ swim to the Hall Rd line. We did a work-up dive two weeks before this dive to see how far we could get on a stage bottle and to double check all the T’s along the route in the old section
The Dive: The work-up dive implied we could make it on a single stage and backgas. We both added a layer of undergarment and a DEW (Doing Everything Wrong) urine retention device (a little humor there). As usual, the vis near the entrance was poor but improved to 30’ just after the first T. We wasted no time in the old section marking the five T’s as we made the turns. We arrived at the Hall Rd line in 22 minutes, exchanged OK’s, rechecked our gas, and headed on. Midway to the next T (3rd T of the Hall Rd line) we dropped the stage bottles. We passed the 3rd T at 40 minutes and the 4th T at 44; we entered the horizontal shaft, and the pulling and gliding began.
At 56 minutes, we passed the line marker, still undisturbed, that we had placed on 6/30 at our point of maximum penetration. A couple hundred feet later with the dive going perfectly, I started getting the hibby-jibbys again; something about this shaft just works on my brain! I asked Dennis to take the lead and managed to settle down shortly thereafter. We stuck with the pull, kick, and glide along the ore-cart tracks; the pace was blistering (at least for us, we usually dive slow).
68 minutes into the dive, the shaft opened up; we had made it to the control room. The ore cart track continued into the center of the room. A layer of silt covered everything, even the line. I guessed that it had been quite a while since anyone had been back this far. With five tunnels departing this area, we had planned to swim a couple hundred feet down each tunnel to get bearings for our map. However, pushing the pace had taken its’ toll; we had burned up our gas and were only 200 psi short of thirds as we entered the control room. We stayed with the line we came in on; as it turned to the southeast, two side by side jumps leading to the other tunnels were right in front of us. No time to fool with them. We got a couple of bearings on those lines, swan the southeast line about a hundred more feet, and turned the dive at 72 minutes.
We still had more that a half mile to swim and nine line markers to pick up. We pushed the pace back thru the long tunnel and geared it back to sight-seeing mode when it opened back up into big rooms. At 111 minutes we picked up the bottles (sure good to see them babies waiting for us) and at 119 we had make it back to the T heading over to the main entrance.
Being back into familiar territory, plenty of gas, and great vis prompted us to slow it down even more and take in the sights on the last 1000’. The sunshine sure looked good as neared the entrance. The dive went well and the cold was never a factor. We added 1000’ and three more lines to our map. While entering at the Bat Cave might allow about 10 more minutes for exploration in the Control Room, the dive should be done with two stages; no use swimming an hour each way for five minutes of exploration.
Max Depth: 58’, Dive Time 151 min, Penetration 3500’ total to 3150’ of the Hall Rd line, Water Temp 49-52, Vis 5-35, no decompression required.
Guess most of us will be dry tomorrow, ya’ll have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Anyway, following our Mine LaMotte dives on 6/30/06, we considered that any further penetration down the Hall Rd might serve no purpose, since the scenery wasn’t changing in the seemingly endless mineshaft looking tunnel. However, not long after that dive I was able to contact one of the divers responsible for much of the exploration and line-laying in the mine. I described our point of max penetration and inquired about what lay beyond. To my surprise, I found out that about 800’ further (3000’ total) the shaft would open up into an area the original explorers called the “Control Room.” Apparently, this was a large operational area for storage, handling, and loading with five different tunnels departing in every direction.
During our next few visits, we passed on making an attempt at the control room. By the time we thought we were ready, the water level in the OW entry area had dropped to the point that we could not access the Hall Rd line with a surface swim through the Bat Cave. Entering at the main entrance would add a 500’ swim to the Bat Cave or a deeper 1000’ swim to a point about 650’ down the Hall Rd line (adding about 350’). We decided to wait until the water came back up.
With the water rising slowly and winter coming on, we changed our plans and decided to make an attempt at the Control Room from the main entrance, choosing the 1000’ swim to the Hall Rd line. We did a work-up dive two weeks before this dive to see how far we could get on a stage bottle and to double check all the T’s along the route in the old section
The Dive: The work-up dive implied we could make it on a single stage and backgas. We both added a layer of undergarment and a DEW (Doing Everything Wrong) urine retention device (a little humor there). As usual, the vis near the entrance was poor but improved to 30’ just after the first T. We wasted no time in the old section marking the five T’s as we made the turns. We arrived at the Hall Rd line in 22 minutes, exchanged OK’s, rechecked our gas, and headed on. Midway to the next T (3rd T of the Hall Rd line) we dropped the stage bottles. We passed the 3rd T at 40 minutes and the 4th T at 44; we entered the horizontal shaft, and the pulling and gliding began.
At 56 minutes, we passed the line marker, still undisturbed, that we had placed on 6/30 at our point of maximum penetration. A couple hundred feet later with the dive going perfectly, I started getting the hibby-jibbys again; something about this shaft just works on my brain! I asked Dennis to take the lead and managed to settle down shortly thereafter. We stuck with the pull, kick, and glide along the ore-cart tracks; the pace was blistering (at least for us, we usually dive slow).
68 minutes into the dive, the shaft opened up; we had made it to the control room. The ore cart track continued into the center of the room. A layer of silt covered everything, even the line. I guessed that it had been quite a while since anyone had been back this far. With five tunnels departing this area, we had planned to swim a couple hundred feet down each tunnel to get bearings for our map. However, pushing the pace had taken its’ toll; we had burned up our gas and were only 200 psi short of thirds as we entered the control room. We stayed with the line we came in on; as it turned to the southeast, two side by side jumps leading to the other tunnels were right in front of us. No time to fool with them. We got a couple of bearings on those lines, swan the southeast line about a hundred more feet, and turned the dive at 72 minutes.
We still had more that a half mile to swim and nine line markers to pick up. We pushed the pace back thru the long tunnel and geared it back to sight-seeing mode when it opened back up into big rooms. At 111 minutes we picked up the bottles (sure good to see them babies waiting for us) and at 119 we had make it back to the T heading over to the main entrance.
Being back into familiar territory, plenty of gas, and great vis prompted us to slow it down even more and take in the sights on the last 1000’. The sunshine sure looked good as neared the entrance. The dive went well and the cold was never a factor. We added 1000’ and three more lines to our map. While entering at the Bat Cave might allow about 10 more minutes for exploration in the Control Room, the dive should be done with two stages; no use swimming an hour each way for five minutes of exploration.
Max Depth: 58’, Dive Time 151 min, Penetration 3500’ total to 3150’ of the Hall Rd line, Water Temp 49-52, Vis 5-35, no decompression required.
Guess most of us will be dry tomorrow, ya’ll have a Happy Thanksgiving.