Sometime around 1995, myself and Houston caver Susan Herpin and her young son, David ( about 11 years old ), did a tourist trip in the cave, in the upper-level passages up to the first drop. We also found small cave while hiking up to the cave, that had about 100 feet of walking size passage.
David is now a bartender in Lake Charles, and has children of his own. His claim to fame was that when he was about 11 or 12 he did a very deep pit in the Sierra de Alvarez during Mexpeleo. The cave was he highlight of the convention. I forget the name of it. It might have been Cueva de Tizar, but I thought the pit had a fancy name, like Pozo de Turan or something similar. Susan Herpin allegedly lives in Queens, New Mexico west of Carlsbad. She was rumored to have participated in numerous restoration projects. David was the person most affected by the passing of Houston caver, Charles Haskett. Charles died in his treehouse in his backyard, and David was just a kid and alone and had to deal with the tragedy on his own. I do not know if he ever went caving again. His mom was on a clean-up trip to the Lake of the Clouds Room, and had to rush back to Houston alone to deal with the tragedy. It was all overwhelming for them. It was a major event in their lives and mine too. I haven't heard from Susan in over 24 years, or seen them, but I did have a chat on Facebook with David about two years ago. We have never talked about it. It was just too painful. But on the topic, of Precipicio permission. There is a family that lives in a small house ( or did then ) just to the west of the trail. My recollection is we asked them to watch our vehicle for us. I may have totally imagined all that. Memories too fuzzy now. I still think Precipicio has virgin passage waiting to be discovered. It would either take a whole lot of digging, or mining, or maybe bolt-climbing very high into various areas of the ceiling. I seriously doubt I could even hike to the cave now, even without a pack on my shoulders.
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