Nice report on past caving experiences as only David can relate them. Fritz Holt fritz...@gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 4, 2016, at 6:51 PM, David via Texascavers > <texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote: > > a personal story by David Locklear, dlocklea...@gmail.com > > Bare with me here please. It is a beautiful day, and I am stuck in > horrendous traffic driving with the Sun in my face, with my mind wandering to > a more pleasant memory. > > A quarter of a century ago, I was having preliminary discussions with my > caving colleagues in Houston about planning a real grotto caving trip - > something that had rarely been successfully pulled off. > > I suggested a trip to Las Grutas del Precipicio and convinced them that we > could do it. > > In those days, nearly every caver in Houston did not have a computer in the > house nor easy access to one ( except maybe at work ). Email / Internet had > not yet reached Houston caving. Communication was done via landline phones > ( we just called them "phones." ) None of had answering machines nor used > beepers ( pagers ). > > I am writing this from a very fuzzy memory, but there is a trip report in > SpeleoSpace. > > I think the trip occurred over Thanksgiving 1991 ( maybe 1990 ). > > Charles Fromen offered to drive us to Bustamante Canyon in his old 1977 ( ? ) > supercab Dodge Powerwagon. His young son, Carl Phillip Fromen, was with us. > He about 12 years old. > > Also Kenny and Carol McGee were there ( probably newlyweds ?? ). > > I think I was semi-homeless at the time, and caver Bill Rupley had offered me > an inexpensive room in his fancy condo. I was most likely working as a > contract draftsman using Microstation CAD for a temp agency. I had not yet > made many modifications to the SpeleoStationwagon. > > In those days, the only bridge across the Rio Grande ( to Bustamante ) was in > Laredo and there was no gas near Bustamante. > > I think our trip was uneventful. > > Carl Phillip Fromen used an Inchworm system for the ascent of the 2 pits. ( > I still have his Inchworm rig that his dad built ) We probably used PMI > rope, but maybe Bluewater ? Charles probably jumared out on a Texas system, > and Kenny and Carol probably used Ropewalkers without any pulleys. I most > likely had a system I made up combining a Mitchell System with a Gibbs at the > foot instead of a lower Jumar. We did not know anybody that liked the > Frog, and most cavers I knew ridiculed it. Charles was in excellent > physical shape and his son showed a promising future as an award winning > rope-climber. > > We probably just took a quick dip in the creek after the visit to the cave, > as the canyon was still destroyed by Hurricane Gilbert ( from 1988.) > > We also might have swam at the spring in Lampazos ( a place that was a whole > lot better back then ). > > I can't remember if we slept in the cave. I can't remember if we ate at the > Hotel Ancira, but we most likely did. > > I just know we did not have aerial-video making drones, or cell phones or LED > headlamps or digital cameras or Google Earth, and the truck most likely had a > carburetor. And we survived !! > > I think we did spend an hour looking for caves on the North ( west ) ridge of > the canyon, before heading home. > > If you see the participants at TCR, try to see if they remember the trip. > > I attempted this trip 6 times, and only twice did I make it to the big > formations at the back room. All the memories are blended and fuzzy with > forgotten names. > > David Locklear > NSS # 27639 > > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
_______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
