Search the Community

Last weekend TFF member calhounensis (Daniel) posted a notice that he was driving down from Ohio for the Florida Paleontological Society meeting & fieldtrip on Saturday in Bradenton (his old hometown). He wanted to know if anybody was up for some diving off Venice to fossil hunt. It has been years since I've taken the opportunity to do so (been focusing more on the Peace River lately) and so I said I was interested. As plans evolved it turned out that windy weather (and unseasonable storms) had been wreaking havoc with the offshore visibility and diving off Venice would likely not be in great conditions. Daniel came up with alternative which was to dive the Rainbow River in Dunnellon, FL instead. This was even more intriguing as I've never done that before and I'm all about new experiences. My wife Tammy was able to take off work Friday and so Thursday evening after she got home from work I had a whole array of gear ready to pack into the car for the trip north--scuba tank & gear, wetsuits (cold water those spring-fed rivers), sifting gear (screen & shovel), and even the "Aqua-Scope" we'd picked up at the silent auction table at the Florida Paleontological Society (FPS) meeting last fall. The scope is basically a portable glass bottom boat in that it is a rectangular "cone" of Styrofoam with a pane of glass about the size of a piece of paper at the bottom. Two rope handles and curved edges at the top to fit your face and forehead complete the high-tech design. Tammy thought it would be fun to try this out on the Peace River and so we bid and won the auction item. Needless to say it hasn't seen action on the Peace River yet this season and so the Rainbow River would be its first chance to be used. Once I realized how far north the Rainbow River was I decided to book a hotel in Ocala. Rather than going up for a single night--a 5.5 hour drive (each way) for a single dive seemed a bit excessive--we booked a 3-day weekend in Ocala and joined Dr. Hulbert from the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) for two more days of digging in the new Montbrook site. You can read about that weekend here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/63056-volunteer-dig-with-the-flmnh/?p=673017 We met up with Daniel early Friday morning and followed him to K P Hole Park on the river where we could rent a canoe (for us) and a kayak (for Daniel). We decided to paddle upstream a ways and then work our way downstream to the exit point on SW County Hwy 484 (just past the colorful Swampy's Bar & Grille restaurant) where we could call for a pickup that would take us back to the park and our cars. With everything loaded on our rented means of flotation we took off upstream. The water was so much clearer than the tea colored tannic waters of the Peace River being spring fed. We could see a wide variety of fishes in the gin clear water and an amazingly high density of turtles--gators (thankfully) seemed not to be in residence. We arrived at our first spot to get in and get wet. I donned my thickest neoprene (a 5mm suit) and an additional hooded vest (most of your heat is lost through your head and so a hood will go a long way to retaining body heat. As the river is spring fed from underground taps into the karstic groundwater supply the river maintains a relatively constant temperature of around 72 F (around 22 C). A fine temperature for floating down the river on an inner tube on a hot summer day but quite chilly when immersed for extended periods on scuba. I was used to diving in 55 F water when I lived in the Chicago area (and even two very silly ice dives at a temperature of around 37 F) but since moving to Florida two decades ago my skin has thinned and I am now a proud card-carrying member of the Warm Water Wimps and cringe at temps below 80 (unless there is a good reason to dive). I was wet most of the day and (uncharacteristically) didn't grab the camera to take my usual number of photos to illustrate the day. My wife (who was smarter than me and decided to stay warm an dry in the canoe) was enjoying the beautiful surroundings and plentiful wildlife but didn't think about snapping any other photos than this one as I first entered the chilly water.