Hey All-

We had a good time at Willow Springs this weekend. As it turns out, only 3 of us were able to make the run but we got in 5 dives.

We camped on the east end right at the edge of the water and we were the only ones on that end of the quarry. It was beautiful.

Can't say the same for the diving on that end of the quarry, though. On our first dive on the east end as I dropped down I held my wrist out in front of me to make sure my computer had started doing it's thing, and I couldn't see my hand. My dive buddies were about 3 to 4 feet away from me, and they might as well have been on the next planet. I did manage to find one of them. We joined hands to stay together and promptly ran head first into the quarry wall. At this point we decided we had better surface and look for the other team member. LadyDog was already bobbing around on the surface.

So, we decided to surface stroke it to the tanker truck bouy and try again. The viz was a little better there - maybe 3 or 4 feet in some spots. We found the truck and something else - it may have been a car (we never could tell). We spent the rest of the dive effectively blind. We did make it back to the tanker truck and using our superior navigation skills (um, look at the compass idiot) actually made our way back to the dock.

The rest of our dives were done from the west end of the quarry. The viz there was still very tough, but much better than the first dive. Maybe 10-15 feet in the good spots. We found cars, airplane, fire truck, torpedo, several boats including the "Quest", railroad tracks, steel tanks, snowmobile (I think), and even a few fish. Coldest water temp was 57 degrees.

Topside, Willow Springs is very nice. Awesome camping areas, nice bath house, great picnic areas, a good air-fill set-up, and nice people. They are rebuilding the main shop and the entrance gates. Looks like it will be very nice when it's done. If they can get the viz improved, this will be one top-notch dive park.

It was a lot of fun and actually a good experience diving in low viz conditions. We'll be back.

Mountain Dog