Ah, I remembered another big cat incident. Over the Christmas holidays 1974, I went to the El Abra range with other cavers. We had to re-chop a caver trail and follow old and mostly missing flagging tape in the regrown, thick vegetation. I was the lead guy and really got into it, not giving up the lead all day long.
We reached the Tanchipa (sp?) sink and rock shelter where we were going to camp before I realized that I was covered in tiny seed ticks. They were especially bad around my waist. I was in misery all night long, itching and scratching, watching the stars move slowly across the sky, longing for morning. Then I heard something big and very close walking ever so stealthily in the jungle just a few feet away. I kept my hand on my machete and concentrated on my sense of hearing. I could just barely hear slow inhalations of breath, a low, barely audible growl. I thought a the time that a big jaguar was checking us out. In the morning we looked for tracks, but the jungle floor was all leaves and plants, and all we could see was that something big had been walking back and forth just a few feet from us. Bill --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
