Devil's Spring - Maple Leaf and Bone Tunnel

On Sunday we wanted to get to Ginnie early to avoid the crowds, and it worked. We managed to get a full dive in before anyone arrived.

For our first dive we wanted to go along the main line to the Maple Leaf. This is where the Bone Tunnel (yellow line on my map) jumps back to the main line. I led this dive and was once again astounded by the beauty of the "canyon" that flows along from the Key Hole passed the Hill 400 line to the Mud Flats. As an added benefit, this time everything was clear as there were no crazy divers digging in the side tunnels and we were the first divers in the caves. The Mud Flats reminded me a bit of Jackson Blue, with the piles of silty dunes and the main line tied off against the walls and ceilings.

Devil's dive 3, main line to the Maple Leaf (swimming)

We passed the jump to the Roller Coaster after the 600' marker, then passed a structure in the middle of the passage and got to the second structure in the middle of the passage that doesn't quite stretch from the ceiling to the floor. This had to be the Maple Leaf, and there was a jump with a reel already laid from the main line to a white line in the direction I knew the Bone Tunnel must be. So we'd made it.

We'd taken 35 minutes to swim slowly out that far in the current with one 32% stage each. We turned around and enjoyed the flow dragging us back towards the entrance. Devil's on the way home is a really nice dive, you just float along with the current and enjoy the sights. The journey back took only 20 minutes and then 10 minutes ascending slowly and in decompression at 6m just inside the cave at the entrance. Max depth 30m, temp 22.2 C. It's 2 degrees warmer than Jackson Blue, but we're still feeling the cold in our wetsuits on the longer dives.

For the second dive, we wanted to make the jump into the Bone Tunnel and try to get all the way back to the jump at the Maple Leaf. Gas distance and cold were the limiting factors. With only one stage cylinder each, we're not really comfortable going further than 1000'. We could make at least 2000' each, so as a buddy team that should be 4000' max, but we both enjoy diving with our gas as if we were solo divers, which leaves a single tank gas max of 1000'.

I led this dive and made the jump to the Bone Tunnel, using the walls to wedge myself as I tied off my reel in the flow. There's a bit of a canyon leading from the jump to the first tunnel back to the main line on the right. After that the rooms and passages get really large and there is a lot of silty bottom. The visibility seemed worse than on the main line channel, and I'm not sure if this was due to the size of the rooms or more particulate in the water. It seemed as if divers had already silted up the cave, but the flow was quite strong and I could notice the green halo Kev's light made because of the tannic in the water, so it could just have been darker because the rooms were much larger.

We passed the breakdown into the Bone Room and then the third jump to the right and into the Big Room which really was very big. At this point we hit 1000'. We hadn't made it back to the jump to the main line, but I turned us around anyway. It was 40 minutes and 1000' so it was time to go even though the main line was probably 200-300' ahead.

Devil's, Bone Tunnel to the Big Room