Tom Falardeau
August 7th, 2007, 10:33 PM
This fine August Tuesday saw the Ottawa Cave Rats drive "up the line" to the closest thing to God's country in this part of North America: Ottawa River cave county!
With my truck in the shop, we all crowded into Marc's pick-up and for once, were on the way on plan and on time.
The expected clouds of mosquitos turned out to be a bit thinner than we feared and the change into our dive duds was less painful than it could have been, always a good thing when you go full commando under your woolies. In no time flat, we were in the water and scootering out to our favourite river resurgence, which we found thanks to our amazing memories - not an easy feat in a tannic river whose bottom is so strewn with boulders so as to make visuals difficult and depth sounders almost useless.
As usual, in such a low visibility environment, we went our separate ways in sidemount teams of one. Jim took a side tunnel, which turned out to be almost 2,000 feet long to an upstream resurgence, repairing line along the way. Marc and I went up the main tunnel, separately, but with Marc in the lead, it was inevitable that I would catch up to him. He tends to be slower (to be charitable, I'll say he's more deliberate) than I am, so I ended up following him for most of the inwards part of the dive. I turned on thirds at about 1,200 feet penetration, against the flow, having small tanks instead of my usual 119s or 130s. Marc turned soon afterwards, having reached the point where our tunnel joined the main cave. On the way out, I went a few hundred feet up the side tunnel Jim took, just to see, since I had enough gas left after recalculating thirds. Inevitably, I met Marc on my way out of the side tunnel just as he was going in. Back at the resurgence, I picked up my trusty X-Scooter and returned to shore, after a 76 minute dive at a maximum of 30 feet of amazing tunnel (at least what I could see of it).
I still had my six-inch tall Homer Simpson figurine attached to my rig for the dive (since last check-outs), which means Homer has dove caves even our exalted cave instructors never dove. You're never quite solo if you have your Homer with you :D I think I'll take my rubber chicken for a dive next time (and if you think I'm kidding, ask any of the cave rats... I have a rubber chicken in one of my dive gear boxes - it keeps Homer company when he's not diving with me).
Heard in the truck on the way home:
a. Marc: on the way in, I could hear Tom's bubbles behind me and then they suddenly stopped. Took me a few moments to realize he'd turned the dive.
b. Marc: I could see a lot of tunnel on the way in.
Tom: I could see a lot of silt on the way in.
Jim: was that a dart, a diss or a dig?
Tom: all three
c. Tom: I could see a lot of silt and crap coming out of the cave when I was doing my safety stop in the resurgence, waiting for you guys
Marc & Jim: you did a safety stop for a 30ft dive? (all conversation ended here due to loud and braying laughter)
d. Marc: I gotta pee again
Tom: not only do you breathe like a girl, you have a bladder like a girl (that'll teach him to laugh at me for doing a safety stop!)
e. Marc: man, I feel like taking an nap
Tom: do try to drop Jim and me off at home before doing so
Jim: *snort* *giggle* *fart*
Well, that would be it for this time. No exciting events - just a good solid hour+ of cave diving, and a lot of good-natured ribbing and back-stabbing in the truck on the way there and back (the ribbing directed at each other, the back-stabbing... well.... never mind). The tree branch, complete with green leaves we saw 1,000 feet into the cave was kind of surreal, but whatever.
Remember, kids. Don't try this at home, and if you're not properly trained to do so, do not take six-inch tall Homer Simpson figurines as your sole dive buddy. D'oh.
With my truck in the shop, we all crowded into Marc's pick-up and for once, were on the way on plan and on time.
The expected clouds of mosquitos turned out to be a bit thinner than we feared and the change into our dive duds was less painful than it could have been, always a good thing when you go full commando under your woolies. In no time flat, we were in the water and scootering out to our favourite river resurgence, which we found thanks to our amazing memories - not an easy feat in a tannic river whose bottom is so strewn with boulders so as to make visuals difficult and depth sounders almost useless.
As usual, in such a low visibility environment, we went our separate ways in sidemount teams of one. Jim took a side tunnel, which turned out to be almost 2,000 feet long to an upstream resurgence, repairing line along the way. Marc and I went up the main tunnel, separately, but with Marc in the lead, it was inevitable that I would catch up to him. He tends to be slower (to be charitable, I'll say he's more deliberate) than I am, so I ended up following him for most of the inwards part of the dive. I turned on thirds at about 1,200 feet penetration, against the flow, having small tanks instead of my usual 119s or 130s. Marc turned soon afterwards, having reached the point where our tunnel joined the main cave. On the way out, I went a few hundred feet up the side tunnel Jim took, just to see, since I had enough gas left after recalculating thirds. Inevitably, I met Marc on my way out of the side tunnel just as he was going in. Back at the resurgence, I picked up my trusty X-Scooter and returned to shore, after a 76 minute dive at a maximum of 30 feet of amazing tunnel (at least what I could see of it).
I still had my six-inch tall Homer Simpson figurine attached to my rig for the dive (since last check-outs), which means Homer has dove caves even our exalted cave instructors never dove. You're never quite solo if you have your Homer with you :D I think I'll take my rubber chicken for a dive next time (and if you think I'm kidding, ask any of the cave rats... I have a rubber chicken in one of my dive gear boxes - it keeps Homer company when he's not diving with me).
Heard in the truck on the way home:
a. Marc: on the way in, I could hear Tom's bubbles behind me and then they suddenly stopped. Took me a few moments to realize he'd turned the dive.
b. Marc: I could see a lot of tunnel on the way in.
Tom: I could see a lot of silt on the way in.
Jim: was that a dart, a diss or a dig?
Tom: all three
c. Tom: I could see a lot of silt and crap coming out of the cave when I was doing my safety stop in the resurgence, waiting for you guys
Marc & Jim: you did a safety stop for a 30ft dive? (all conversation ended here due to loud and braying laughter)
d. Marc: I gotta pee again
Tom: not only do you breathe like a girl, you have a bladder like a girl (that'll teach him to laugh at me for doing a safety stop!)
e. Marc: man, I feel like taking an nap
Tom: do try to drop Jim and me off at home before doing so
Jim: *snort* *giggle* *fart*
Well, that would be it for this time. No exciting events - just a good solid hour+ of cave diving, and a lot of good-natured ribbing and back-stabbing in the truck on the way there and back (the ribbing directed at each other, the back-stabbing... well.... never mind). The tree branch, complete with green leaves we saw 1,000 feet into the cave was kind of surreal, but whatever.
Remember, kids. Don't try this at home, and if you're not properly trained to do so, do not take six-inch tall Homer Simpson figurines as your sole dive buddy. D'oh.