Carrizal was my 2nd cave in Mexico in late December of 1984. I had only been horizontal caving in about 20 small Texas caves, and the 3 big caves in Langtry. I had not yet met any cavers outside of about 8 A.S.S. cavers. ( Although, Ronnie Feiseler had giving a special slide presentation at my first A.S.S. meeting in late September of 1984. )
We had done all the lower passages of Palmito the day before Carrizal. I learned how to say guano after Carrizal, as I thought it was called "bat iguana." The mayor's staff in Candela could not locate a key to the ejido gate, so we parked about 1-1/2 mile north of the cave and hiked in. Trip leader was James Mueller, who had some caving experience and might have had some idea where the cave was. ( He lives now in the Burnett area and is a songbird specialist, and former professor of horn-toads. ) Other participants were Mary Kay Manning who is an expert professional naturalist, and daughter of old-timer caver James Manning. She nearly died on our hike to Precipicio the following day, and was saved from rolling off the big cliff by a lechuguilla plant. Jim Hudson, of Boerne, who would the next day would risk his life to save mine in the first drop of Precipicio ( my 2nd time on rope and first time in a cave ). Also, Freddie Platt of Houston who seemed like a young gung-ho caver, but disappeared around 1985 ( meaning he lost contact with anybody I knew that knew him. ) Steve Tonnesen now of Austin who has been an a electrical engineer for 30 years. Steve saved my life about 3 hours later on my 3rd time on rope ( 2nd pit in Precipicio ) He is probably a good canoeist or kayaker by now or owns a yacht. He was the only smart Aggie I ever met. Had he not saved my life, the other 4 cavers below me would have been trapped and died of dehydration. ( As I was wearing the only vertical gear the 6 cavers had ). Steve was above me and had a rockclimber's Figure-8, but he had no harness and had only used a Figure-8 once in his life rappelling at Enchanted Rock. Surprisingly, they all went caving with me again in 1985. Steve and I did a canoe trip north of Dallas in 1988, and never heard from him again. Freddie and I did some ridgewalking in the hill-country in 1985. Jim and his wife and I and an female Aggie caver, Audry Wright went to Klar's Ranch Salamander Cave near Boerne in 1987. I never saw him again. We send each other a Christmas greeting on Facebook. Mary Kay and I did 2 trips to the Guads and we have met up to socialize once a year. I bumped into her on a beach near the Boliver Peninsula about 2 years ago. I never heard from Jim Hudson ever again after Precipicio. He was supposedly a member of the informal group called The Boerne Speleomaniacs in 1984 and 85 and was not an Aggie. Anyways, I took cavers once a year to Carrizal in 1985, 86, 87, etc up until about 1994. It is all a blurry fuzzy memory of forgotten names and forgotten faces, and we did not take photos. Carrizal was always for us just a side trip before or after the principal primary destination. There are 200+ nicer caves in Mexico. But it is an opportunity for a good cave-diver to push it one more time. David Locklear
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