United States » Twin Dees |
Overview | Location & Specifics | Conditions | Resources | Nearby Systems |
Portions of the following information were taken from Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 66.
Little Spring (Twin D's) is located within the town of Weeki Wachee, approximately 0.5miles southeast of Weeki Wachee Main Spring. The spring is located in back of the main parking lot adjacent south of Weeki Wachee Main Spring. A sand track leads to the spring beyond a locked gate. The spring is surrounded by a locked chain link fence and is not accessible to the public.
Description – Little Spring is also known as Twin Dees Spring. The spring pool measures 36 ft east to west and 75 ft north to south. Two vent openings occupy the oval spring pool. The spring measures 13 ft deep over the south vent. The spring water is clear and blue-greenish. There was a moderate boil on the water surface over the south vent where water samples were taken in March 2003. The north vent was not flowing during either of the visits. Two spring runs that eventually merge exit the spring pool and flow generally northward into the Weeki Wachee River. The smaller of the two runs exits the pool on the west, and the larger exits on the north side. The surroundings to the east are recently cleared upland sand hills. To the west is a dense swamp forest along theWeeki Wachee River. In the Spring of 2002, Little Spring was not flowing, and the springrun was dry. By March 2003, the spring was again flowing, and the spring run averagedabout 10 ft wide and 1.5 ft deep. An underwater cave has been mapped in this spring.
Utilization - The spring is undeveloped and surrounded by SWFWMD land. There is nopublic access.
Little Spring (Twin D's) is located within the town of Weeki Wachee, approximately 0.5miles southeast of Weeki Wachee Main Spring. The spring is located in back of the main parking lot adjacent south of Weeki Wachee Main Spring. A sand track leads to the spring beyond a locked gate. The spring is surrounded by a locked chain link fence and is not accessible to the public.
Description – Little Spring is also known as Twin Dees Spring. The spring pool measures 36 ft east to west and 75 ft north to south. Two vent openings occupy the oval spring pool. The spring measures 13 ft deep over the south vent. The spring water is clear and blue-greenish. There was a moderate boil on the water surface over the south vent where water samples were taken in March 2003. The north vent was not flowing during either of the visits. Two spring runs that eventually merge exit the spring pool and flow generally northward into the Weeki Wachee River. The smaller of the two runs exits the pool on the west, and the larger exits on the north side. The surroundings to the east are recently cleared upland sand hills. To the west is a dense swamp forest along theWeeki Wachee River. In the Spring of 2002, Little Spring was not flowing, and the springrun was dry. By March 2003, the spring was again flowing, and the spring run averagedabout 10 ft wide and 1.5 ft deep. An underwater cave has been mapped in this spring.
Utilization - The spring is undeveloped and surrounded by SWFWMD land. There is nopublic access.
Date | Submitter | Visbility | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
8/3/2013 | Andy Pitkin | 30-40' | Still plenty of bacteria in the shallow part of the cave, but the flow is reasonable (new well is at 15.47) making entry and exit straightforward. At the Beach it was milky, around 40'. Brett and I scootered down to Middle Earth and into the Mines of Moria - vis didn't really change. Pleasure Dome passage still looks stagnant and unenticing. |
7/7/2012 | Andy Pitkin | 20-100' | After tropical storm Debby, Twin Dees is flowing hard with clear blue water. Today the main spring was at 188 cfs. The boil on the surface at TD was impressive. The flow made it hard but not impossible to get in. Brett was in side mount 85s, I was in backmount 104s. The cave looks cleaner than it ever did last year. Clear water with strong flow up to the Beach, where it was a bit hazy. Brett's big home-made exploration reel was still hanging from the float ball. We started down the Pleasure Dome drop but at 135 ffw the vis dropped to <20' with green/brown turbid water. Deco in the entrance was uncomfortable with all the flow going through it. |
10/26/2011 | Andy Pitkin | 30-60 | Almost no detectable flow at all, except a little in the entrance shaft. Bacteria proliferating in places beyond the fissure. Two dead turtles. About 50' visibility at the Beach and beyond into Middle Earth. Resurveyed the Middle Earth circuit and the Near Earth tunnel. Safety stages at the Beach were growing some interesting bacteria but they have now been removed. May be the last dive in here for a while, as the Weeki well height is dropping rapidly towards 15 feet. |
10/15/2011 | Andy Pitkin | 50-80' | Got past the breakdown in the new tunnel ('the Mines of Moria") but it walled out 300' later. Shame because it's headed directly towards the Dead Marshes tunnel in WW. Rest of the system is as it has been: 50-60 in the Beach, Grand Central and upper Middle Earth; a little better deeper. Flow has peaked and is just starting to drop - we may only have a few more weeks of diving. |
10/6/2011 | Jeff Petersen | 100' | Andrew Pitkin and I dropped into Middle Earth hoping to find the suspected siphon tunnel. We found it directly below the "Far Earth" balcony and added 200' of line at 250ffw. Tunnel is 40' wide x 20' high and going. More to come... |
9/27/2011 | Andy Pitkin | 40-120' | Pushed the end of the line in the Alph tunnel. Visibility there around 100-120' depending on depth (layering). Generally better deeper (>310 feet). Around 80' in Middle Earth, similar at the Beach and in between. Shallow entrance passage less but getting better as flow picks up. |
9/18/2011 | Jeff Petersen | 1-60' | Matt Vinzant and I went out to Middle Earth. Did some line adjustments and made sure stage depo were ready for a push. Water quality improved since prior dive (getting much more blue). Visibility varied depending on location in the cave. Very clear past 245ffw in the Alph tunnel. |
9/11/2011 | Jeff Petersen | 50' | First dive of the "2011 season". Matt Vinzant and I went to the Beach to assess conditions. The bacteria growth on the floor due to the surficial feeders is bad for the 1000' - after the last feeder water quality improved substantially. It has been flowing for a month, but still too weak to force out the organic materials. |
9/3/2011 | KUR | 0 | Although the system is flowing minimally, organic build up if choking the entrance resulting in zero visibility in the first room. |
4/8/2011 | KUR | 10 | Due to increased rainfall in the area we went to check the system. The system is starting to purge itself and flow is visible in the run. |
9/18/2010 | Jerry | 75 | The entrance is daunting at first but not bad after you commit; vis was exceptional. The flow was adequate to keep things clear; a small boil was perceptible. There were many large crayfish and a lot of amphipods. We made it past the "Beach" to the T; this room was incredible. Dropped down towards the Pleasure Dome the vis dropped to about 15 ft below ~145 ft. The spring was pretty stirred up after deco but cleared within 30 minutes or so |
9/22/2009 | KUR | 0'-80' | KUR did a scouting dive on Twin Dees to determine if the system would be able to support exploration. Visibility was fair with periods of zero visibility between the entrance and the Beach. Beyond the Beach visibility was 80'. Exiting visibility was reduced to near zero. Unfortunately, the system will not support exploration at this time. |
9/13/2008 | Stanley Fatmax | 60 at the beach | did a swim out to the beach with Walter, visibility improved over the previous week. |
9/7/2008 | KUR | 20'-30' | In an effort to continue exploration of the Weeki Wachee Karst Plain, KUR has conducted a series of familiarization dives. These dives were to get divers acclimated to Twin Dee's difficult entrance and first 1,300'. All divers made it out to The Beach where a float ball has been installed to assist staging exploration. The system is trying to heal. The flow is positive, the water is blue and particulate is high. Viz at the Beach is hazy but beyond 30'. |
1/13/2008 | Eric Deister | less than 1 foot. | Went over to check on the hole, we thought it a had filled in. Going down feet first with a line in one hand and a light in the other I hit a mud mound at the bottom. It’ didn’t fill up the room. I had about 10 foot of vis going in the tunnel ( only had a backup light ) . I turned and kicked the mound trying to break it up so we could get back in without mucking it up. Came out in 0 viz. Should be a fun dive with ZERO flow. |
11/3/2005 | Eric Deister | 50' - 80' | Well my midweek dive this week was to Twin D’s with a diver from Karst Underwater
Research, we stopped by there about a month ago to see how it was flowing and I couldn’t
even get in the solution tube. Well last night the flow was way down. My buddy went first
pushing his HUGE sidemount bottles and his RB in, I followed with my stage and O2. We
geared up in the small room at 40ft and headed off, that’s when the vis went to crap.
The bacteria build up in there was incredible, my bubbles, our fin kicks and just us
moving was enough to dislodge all of it and have it screw the vis. I moved up to be
parallel with my buddy so I could see. There the water was crystal clear. We made it
back to Grand Central, which is huge room. Several lines went off from there but do
to time and gas mix we called the dive and headed back out. Due to the low flow vis
didn’t improve much. Deco wasn’t too fun since I had to do it in a nice tight tube
with my stage, O2 and fins all above my head. But the worst part of the dive was in the
basin, my buddy was in the tube about 15ft down and I was just playing around...Well I saw
this nice big stick in this hole and decided to pull it out…big mistake, it was blocking
everything behind it, so all of a sudden the whole side of the basin decided to go down
the solution tube..where my buddy was...lucky for him (and me) there was enough flow to
push the silt away from him but once it was clear enough for me to see him, he was
covered with shells, rocks and sugar sand oh to have a camera...Total Run time was a little over 2 hours. As a reminder, Twin D's is a closed site and is owned by SWFWMD. The only way to dive this site is with a permit. |
Description | Type | Date | Author | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
Profile | Map | |||
System Map | Map | |||
System Map | Map | 2018 | KUR |
System | Depth | Cave | Cavern | OW | Last Report | Distance (mi) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buford Spring | 167 | True | True | False | 10/1/2024 | 8.3 |
Eagle's Nest | 315 | True | False | False | 3/14/2024 | 3.3 |
Lost 40 | 165 | True | False | False | 7/15/2023 | 2.8 |
Hospital Hole | 143 | False | True | True | 4/30/2023 | 2.8 |
Warm Springs | 140 | False | True | False | 11/1/2022 | 8.5 |
Ward's Sink | 198 | True | True | True | 9/30/2022 | 8.3 |
Arch Sink | 197 | True | True | False | 7/18/2021 | 6.1 |
Bulldozer Sink | 60 | False | True | True | 3/22/2020 | 2.9 |
Diepolder III | 300 | True | False | False | 5/27/2017 | 3.2 |
Little Gator Siphon | 180 | True | False | False | 1/3/2015 | 8.4 |
Isabella Spring | 110 | True | False | False | 5/22/2013 | 9.8 |
Weeki Wachee Spring | 407 | True | False | True | 4/28/2012 | 0.5 |
Diepolder II | 360 | True | False | False | 12/23/2010 | 3.2 |
Gator Spring | 192 | True | False | False | 12/6/2009 | 3.5 |
Blind Spring | 180 | True | True | False | 11/29/2009 | 10.5 |
Free Ride Cave | 120 | True | False | False | 10/10/2009 | 10.1 |
Cedar Island Springs | False | False | False | 9/19/2009 | 12 | |
Double Keyhole | 230 | True | False | False | 1/11/2009 | 8.9 |
Horseshoe Spring | True | True | False | 1/10/2009 | 10.3 | |
Little Salt Spring | 240 | True | False | False | 9/23/2008 | 3.3 |
Bobhill Springs | False | False | False | 12/29/2007 | 6.6 | |
Jewfish Sink | 200 | True | False | False | 9/2/2007 | 9.7 |
The Jewel | 315 | True | True | False | 6/2/2006 | 9.1 |
Mud Spring | 210 | True | True | False | 11/20/2005 | 3.5 |
Nursery Sink | 214 | True | False | False | 2.1 | |
Garden World Sink | 250 | True | False | False | 8.5 | |
Willow Sink | True | False | False | 2.8 | ||
Mary's Sink | 58 | True | False | True | 2.6 | |
Jenkins Creek | 50 | True | False | False | 3.3 | |
Joe's Sink | 60 | True | False | True | 2.6 | |
Snook Spring | 120 | True | False | False | 10 | |
Star Sun Spring | 120 | True | False | False | 10.1 | |
Snake Eyes | False | False | False | 3.4 | ||
Wolf Sink | False | False | False | 2.1 | ||
Hospital Spring | 40 | False | True | False | 3 | |
Coffee Sink | False | False | False | 8.5 |