snorkling for bottles? Is that crazy?

batfish · Apr 23, 2004

In the summer I like to take my kids up to the mountains. We often end up at one of several clear, sandy, kettle ponds in that area. I know that at least two of the ponds were once the sites of grand resort hotels that were built in the 1850â€™s. I know that these resorts maintained fleets of little boats that their guests could use to paddle around in the ponds.

I was thinking that these ponds might be good places to look for bottles. Theyâ€™re clear, sandy and not too deep (30-40 feet at the deepest points). The waterâ€™s cold, but I can deal with that. Iâ€™m worried that, because the ponds tend to be very popular with swimmers, and that they are not large, that anything that was dropped in them over the last century and a half would have been recovered by now.

I donâ€™t know how to scuba dive, but I was considering taking a trip up to one of these ponds, when they warm up a bit, to snorkel and see what I could see along the bottom. Do you think there is a reasonable chance that I would find something? Or is a pond like I describe such an obvious target that it would have been picked over long ago?

Harry Pristis · Apr 23, 2004

Batfish . . .

There is only one way to find out.

My experience with lakes is that the deeper, still parts of the bottom collect muck -- the decomposed algae of the last 10,000 years. Rivers flush that stuff, and that's why bottle collectors like rivers.

-------------Harry Pristis

oz-riley · Apr 24, 2004

That sound like a good place to find bottles, you may have some success snorkling.
I have found a few snorkling over the years however I prefer to probe in these sort of places.
We have a lake here that had pond boats on it and 1000's of bottles have been recovered from this one.

Thanks
Chris

IRISH · Apr 24, 2004

Lakes where people went in the old days are always good for bottles, better if you can probe them as oz-riley said but you should still find a few snorkling.
You will probably find that if you stir the bottom up you will have no visibility for a while, what Harry said is true and there are some horrible substances on the bottom of some lakes, sand should be ok and if you find good bottles though who cares anyhow [

] .
Good luck.

bigkitty53 · Apr 25, 2004

Batfish,
As per the general consensus,your lake should be a potentially good bottle site.I dive/snorkel a lot of old hotel/tavern/warehouse frontages and just like digging,there's rarely a case of 'dove out'.What I will suggest,however,if you're not a regular snorkeler be aware 25 to 30 feet deep will your max. depth that you can probably equilize.(Sharp pressure in your eardrums!!)And visibility usually decreases as water heats up.Oz-Riley's probe suggestion has a lot of merit.Perhaps you can modify a basket-type fruit picker on an extention pole to send down from a lilo or boat?

In any case,your site sounds like it's worth a look.Good luck!

KAT

batfish · Apr 26, 2004

Some have said that it may be better to probe. Do you mean probe along the shoreline - or do you mean probe at the bottom of the pond while snorkling? Also, how deep do you typically find bottles probing in ponds? If a bottle is detected whilst probing - but it is four feet under the sand - how in the world would you get it up (well, I imagine digging a large hole would do it, but that would be hard to do in the water!)?

Thanks!

bigkitty53 · Apr 26, 2004

Batfish,
'Probe' means just that mate!(Seek)Wherever the bottles might be, probe!They might be in the shallows if your lake has a fair current feeding the appropriate shoreline.In deeper water look for a natural depression, or, on a flat or gentle slope figure on about 100-150 ft from the expected source,depending on any normal currents,and allowing for storm surges,flooding,etc.My suggestion with the fruit-picker is more of a probe/scoop/dredge idea,like digging a few speculative holes on D.L.Send it straight down on a pole or weight it heavily on a rope and drag it if the bottom is fairly free of obstacles.If it looks that promising,however,you really need to learn to scuba dive! (It's a blast,whatever you're doing down there! ; ) Recovery depth will depend on the volume of sediment and/or debris deposited/flushed in your site's particular acculative 'zone'(which can flucuate wildly in a small area due to currents,underwater geography and boat traffic!)If it's promising,(but everythings buried deep and you've learned to scuba!) email me via the forum for instructions on building an air-lift.(suction vacumn)

Hope this is some help.

KAT

batfish · Apr 27, 2004

Thanks for the advice, people. Sounds like it'd be worth a look! I'm looking into a scuba certification course, currently (my wife and I have toyed with getting certified for a while - we like to snorkel and figured that was a logical next-step).

I did a little more research and found another pond in the mountains that used to be the site of a soda bottling works (in the 1800s). I'll check that one out, too [

]. There are a ton of these sites that 'look good on paper' - whether or not they pan out is another thing - I still wonder if these have been picked over - they seem like an obvious place to look.

Water temp is still in the 40s up here, so it'll be a while, but I'll be sure to update the board with any results.

Thanks!

snorkling for bottles? Is that crazy?

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