2006

O'Leno 2006 Trip Reports

17 December 2006 -

Location: Big Tick Sink, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Brett Hemphill
Profile:               85 minutes total
Conditions:         68 degrees

Description: Explored passage to the north about 700 feet. Began low and silty and got larger. Same character as south passage. Ended in a room.

9 December 2006 -

Location: Big Tick Sink, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Jerry Murphy, James Toland, Brett Hemphill (surface)
Profile:               58 minutes total
Conditions:         Downstream, 67 degrees, visibility between 10 and 20 feet, seemed to clearer farther back as we got shallower

Description: First look at this sink. James took the first look to confirm the sink had cave in it and found passage heading north and south of the sink. We then explored south for about 600 feet ending in going passage at 90 feet of depth. We saw many isopods in one area about 550 feet back, and saw crayfish on subsequent dives.

2 December 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher, James Toland
Profile:               147 minutes total
Conditions:         Upstream, 65 degrees, visibility between 7 and 20 feet, worsening with depth;

Downstream visibility still at 20 to 30 feet.
Description: Line maintenance in upstream passage and introduction dive for James. Visibility was much worse than anticipated upstream. Seasonal turnover appears imminent. Floor covered with glass shrimp, many small (1 foot in length or smaller) white catfish and cave amphipods observed throughout the system. One yellow bullhead catfish was seen just past the cavern. Bream appeared to be dying on floor of cavern, may be related to low water temperature. We swam to the first break in the line and added about three hundred feet. Completed decompression and swam across basin to downstream. Walter and Eric had relined the cavern area, bridging a gap. Floor of cavern was littered with leaf debris from surface.

18 November 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Eric Deister, Jerry Murphy, Walter Pickel, Michael Poucher
Profile:               271 minutes, maximum depth of 177 feet
Conditions:         71 degrees
Description:        Continued relining of downstream. Relined out to 3000' - going deep, around 180'. Line was coming back up. New line is running parallel with the damaged old line. Kelley provided surface support.

12 November 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               113 minutes at a depth of 54 feet
Conditions:         72 degrees, visibility was approximately 60 feet
Description:        Video wreck dive on the old Chevy truck.

Mike holding the Big Reel used on the November 11 dive. This reel can hold 2000+ ft of knotted line. Cookies were added at each 1000 foot and arrows are added during the relining process.

Line courtesy of Dive Rite. Thanks guys!

Sandy working on the camera.

Amphibico VH1000 housing and

Sony VX1000 digital camera.

A salamander hiding in the underbrush.

See if you can find him.

We can't.

11 November 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               195 minutes at a depth of 153 feet
Conditions:         72 degrees, visibility was approximately 30 feet
Description:        Continuation of relining of downstream. Scootered to end of first reel, about 1800 feet, dropped scooters and stage bottles and continued on backgas. Finished first reel and tied on second reel, continuing to approximately 2400 feet. Noticeable temperature change at a potential spring influence at around 2000 feet. Visibility improved further into the cave.

5 November 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Eric Deister, Walter Pickel, Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               165 minutes at a depth of 120 feet
Conditions:         72 degrees, visibility was approximately 30 feet
Description:        Relining Sweetwater downstream at a constant depth along the right wall. During flooding the main flow of water (and debris) appears to be along the left wall. By staying on the right wall, the line should remain in better condition preventing unexpected breaks. Mike and Sandy ran the line to around 1800 feet, Walter and Eric made line placements and placed arrows along the line. We did not see the 10-foot alligator that Assistant Park Manager Andy Woolum mentioned was living in the lake. During deco we checked the car again and found it was a Chevrolet. After some looking around on the internet, we believe it is a 1920's model car or truck. We plan to get more photographs to help identify it.

22 October 2006 -

Location: Vinzant's Landing, Santa Fe River, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               27 minutes open water and cavern
Conditions:         74 degrees, visibility was approximately 40 feet
Description:        Video dive. Surface, basin and cavern. Sandra was the videographer, Mike carried the video light and was the subject. Footage of fish in the cavern fighting the flow, Mike exiting the cavern, darters in the basin.

22 October 2006 -

Location: Vinzant's Landing, Santa Fe River, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               48 minutes to a depth of 48 feet
Conditions:         74 degrees, visibility was approximately 30 feet
Description:        Cave had been described as going approximately 300 feet at 30' depth then dropping to 180 feet in a large terminal room (a room that ends in an impassable restriction). Dive plan was to continue to the room, drop to 180 feet and survey out. We would breathe an AL80 stage (Aluminum 80, a lighter weight tank than the steel tanks usually worn by cave divers) and switch to our side mounts if necessary. Went in with the flow to between 500 and 600 feet, flow did not slack off when we approached the large room and actually increased considerable as we approached the drop off. The line was broken yet again. Mike dropped over the lip and tied off the knotted line. Sandy decided against attempting to survey in the strong siphon. 11 minutes and 500 lbs of breathing gas going into the cave, 34 minutes and 2400 lbs exiting on an aluminum 80.

21 October 2006 -

Location: Vinzant's Landing, Santa Fe River, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher
Profile:               67 minutes to a depth of 34 feet
Conditions:         74 degrees, visibility was approximately 30 feet
Description:        Dive to reline system with knotted line for survey and remove old broken lines. Went back to around 475 feet and tied off. Mike did line maintenance while Sandy surveyed from the tie off out of the cave. Flow seemed considerably stronger than previously. With the survey we noted that the cave goes underneath a second syphon flowing under some roots of trees surrounding the main swallet. This corresponded with our feeling the the flow actually increased as we got further in the cave. Most of the dive we were traveling backward or sideways to maintain position in the high flow. Swimming was very difficult coming out and pulling was the best way to make progress.

1 October 2006 -

Location: Vinzant's Landing, Santa Fe River, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Michael Poucher, Sandra Poucher (cave divers), Brett Hemphill, Eric Deister, Walter Pickel (surface and OW support)
Profile:               52 minutes at a depth of 32 feet
Conditions:         72 degrees, visibility was approximately 50 feet
Description:        Quick dive into the vortex of a strong siphon. Cleared debris from the opening. Several lines in various states of damage. Mike did line maintenance while Sandy provided support and light. Tubular gold limestone very fragile and very sharp. Flow is very strong.

17 September 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Brett Hemphill, Michael Poucher
Profile:               190 minutes to a depth of 147 feet, 21/20, 50/25 and 100% (oxygen for decompression)
Conditions:         75 degrees, visibility was approximately 40 feet downstream
Description:        We scootered to 1800 feet and picked up two stage bottles and then found another break 100' away. We dropped our scooters at this point, tied in and began looking for the other end of the line. After about 200 feet of searching we decided there were too many line issues to try and continue further and it would be safer to reline rather than relying on line that had multiple breaks and potential unseen damage.

16 September 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Jerry Murphy, Michael Poucher, Walter Pickel
Profile:               157 minutes to a depth of 151 feet, 21/15 and 100% (oxygen for decompression)
Conditions:         75 degrees, visibility was approximately 40 feet downstream
Description:        Went into downstream to set bottles for tomorrow. Scootered about 500' in and swam to 1800' to drop 4 stage bottles. Jerry dove his rebreather. Deister had a light failure. Brett had a football game and came up later.

9 September 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Eric Deister, Michael Poucher, Walter Pickel
Profile:               162 minutes to a depth of 154 feet
Conditions:         73 degrees, visibility was approximately 40 feet downstream
Description:        Went in a repaired second break Jerry found last week. Looked at an old truck Eric and Walter found last week. Several glass panels are visible and some of the copper tubing for the brake lines. After the downstream dive, we took a look upstream and found the line is broken at around 800 feet before the first T (intersection in the line).

27 August 2006 -

Location: Sweetwater Lake, O'Leno State Park

Divers:                Eric Deister, Brett Hemphill, Jerry Murphy, Michael Poucher, Walter Pickel
Profile:               101 minutes at a depth of 108 feet, 21/25 and 100%
Conditions:         74 degrees
Description:        Went downstream to check line. Cleaned branches and old line out. Jerry found a break about 300 feet in which we repaired and then found a second break another 100 feet in. While decompressing, Eric and Walter found an old car in the entrance opposite of our normal entry point.

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