steve2281
September 2nd, 2007, 02:39 PM
Many thanks to Skip for making good on his promise to get me in a TN cave and to Mike M for guiding us around after ear problems prevented Skip from diving.
Sat morning found Dennis and I in middle TN looking at the spring head pool of Three Sisters Cave. Mike had told me that conditions had been very good and the laying of virgin line might be possible past 2000'. However, since this was our first dive in the system and our first dive with Mike, we opted for a conservative dive plan and didn't take stage bottles. The spring head pool had a FL cave-looking appearance; entry to the cave was easy. Mike led the dive with me following and Dennis pulling up the rear. Vis was about 15' along the first few hundred feet of penetration and gradually improved to 30' back in the cave.
As I started getting a look at the cave, I couldn't believe I was in TN. The cave reminded me of Telford with low horizontal sections and higher vertical areas. There were many ups and downs, twists and turns, formations, and a few tight places. I'm impressed. About thirty minutes into the dive, we arrived at the end of the line with virgin cave immediately ahead. Yes, we all want to go on, but since we were nearing thirds, we briefly paused and turned the dive leaving the line laying for another day. A bit slower pace on the return with Dennis leading gave us some time for sight-seeing.
We headed back to town to get airfills. Skip met us at the shop and rode with Mike out to show us the next dive site. Mike was not able to dive in the afternoon, but was kind enough to get us oriented to the site. After turning off the road, a short drive thru a pasture and we were at Cow Pie Sink. The open water area lived up to it's name since a dozen or so dairy cattle were cooling off in the water. Skip and Mike told us where to find the mainline which extends to open water. After visiting for a short while, they took off leaving Dennis and me to enjoy cow crap.
With the spring pond mucked up by the cows, it took three attempts and running a line from an irrigation pipe to find the entrance. Finally in the cave, we found conditions much different from the morning dive. Vis was 5-7' in the single tube-like tunnel.
The line ran down the left side much of the time allowing us to enjoy the lightly colored clay-layered wall. We spotted many crayfish and a few cave fish. Since we had burned some of our air fumbling about in open water, our time was limited. We penetrated slowly for about twenty minutes to an estimated 700' making the dive only 41 minutes total. Vis was reduced even more on the way out, since most any movement stirred the silt. I really didn't mind the low vis; it allowed concentration on objects close by (including the line).
Quite a day and quite an experience. Again, thanks to Mike and Skip for great southern hospitality and sharing their resource
Sat morning found Dennis and I in middle TN looking at the spring head pool of Three Sisters Cave. Mike had told me that conditions had been very good and the laying of virgin line might be possible past 2000'. However, since this was our first dive in the system and our first dive with Mike, we opted for a conservative dive plan and didn't take stage bottles. The spring head pool had a FL cave-looking appearance; entry to the cave was easy. Mike led the dive with me following and Dennis pulling up the rear. Vis was about 15' along the first few hundred feet of penetration and gradually improved to 30' back in the cave.
As I started getting a look at the cave, I couldn't believe I was in TN. The cave reminded me of Telford with low horizontal sections and higher vertical areas. There were many ups and downs, twists and turns, formations, and a few tight places. I'm impressed. About thirty minutes into the dive, we arrived at the end of the line with virgin cave immediately ahead. Yes, we all want to go on, but since we were nearing thirds, we briefly paused and turned the dive leaving the line laying for another day. A bit slower pace on the return with Dennis leading gave us some time for sight-seeing.
We headed back to town to get airfills. Skip met us at the shop and rode with Mike out to show us the next dive site. Mike was not able to dive in the afternoon, but was kind enough to get us oriented to the site. After turning off the road, a short drive thru a pasture and we were at Cow Pie Sink. The open water area lived up to it's name since a dozen or so dairy cattle were cooling off in the water. Skip and Mike told us where to find the mainline which extends to open water. After visiting for a short while, they took off leaving Dennis and me to enjoy cow crap.
With the spring pond mucked up by the cows, it took three attempts and running a line from an irrigation pipe to find the entrance. Finally in the cave, we found conditions much different from the morning dive. Vis was 5-7' in the single tube-like tunnel.
The line ran down the left side much of the time allowing us to enjoy the lightly colored clay-layered wall. We spotted many crayfish and a few cave fish. Since we had burned some of our air fumbling about in open water, our time was limited. We penetrated slowly for about twenty minutes to an estimated 700' making the dive only 41 minutes total. Vis was reduced even more on the way out, since most any movement stirred the silt. I really didn't mind the low vis; it allowed concentration on objects close by (including the line).
Quite a day and quite an experience. Again, thanks to Mike and Skip for great southern hospitality and sharing their resource