St. James Pit

[ScubaAl]

Made the run up to St. James yesterday. I was in Knife River so the drive wasn't too bad at all. Myself and my dive buddy Jim were the only divers there. A few local residents came by and a few did a little swimming.

Vis. might of been down a bit due to all the rain the area had during the past week. But still very good, maybe as much as 40ft. Just a lot of stuff in the water column made things a bit foggy looking.

Did two divers, first (and first at St. James) we want to find about 250ft but after dropping over several ridges we hit kind of a flat area the just seemed to keep going with no real increase in depth. So our max was 230ft. After about 15min we turn the dive and make our way back to the wall for our ascent and deco.

Second dive dropped down to 150ft and worked our way west. Having decided to have a total runtime on this dive of 30min. On both dives the water seemed colder then what I have dove so far this year. But check my bottom time it showed 40 degrees. Same as I have seem all season at Wazee and Isle Royale. So must of been us.

Both of us where diving rebreathers, Jim on a Meg and myself, Inspiration. dil 13/45. Both work flawlessly had a good time.

We will be diving St. James again. Wazee is closer for me 145 miles vs 214 to St. James but fun exploring new areas. One down side to St. James, there are no facilities available ie restrooms. So you have two choices, the woods or run to town. Sad

Al

[Kirk]

I was up at St. James Pit on Saturday.  The visibility is actually way down right now.  The lake must have finally turned over.  On Sunday, however, I was a couple miles away at Lake Mine, and the visiblity over there was perfect (that mine is a bit deeper, thus usually turns over a bit later in the summer / early fall).  I plan to hit these pits again in about a month.  Gotta love the Mesabi Range.  Busy holiday weekend with the best local inland diving and you can have it all to yourself.  - Kirk

[ScubaAl]

Have to agree about the vis being way down. Dove St. James on Sunday and thought the same thing, Still had a good time.

Might be wrong, but I was thinking it might of been due to recent rain. The road down to the boat launch was covered with gravel that looked like it was from rain water running down the road.

Lake turn over, from my understanding happens later in the year. More into the fall, as the weather cools and so also the surface water temp. As this happens the water becomes more dense and heavier, so sinks.

Al