>From David Locklear
At some time in 1983 or 1984 before I started caving, several Texas cavers ( maybe from U.T. Grotto ) arranged with the rancher to haul a ton of heavy trash ( mostly rusted metal ) out of the sinkhole with the big tree in it ( a.k.a. Big Tree Cave ). The tree is just a little hackberry surrounded by an occasional rattlesnake, but it is the largest tree for 5 miles. Sometime around September 1984 those cavers invited the A.S.S. to join the fun. Two Aggies, John Ragsdale ( of the Texas Transportation Institute in College Station ) and Freddie Platt ( a quasi-student ?? ) [ originally from Houston ] decided to accept the invitation and drive out there. I probably begged them to let me tag along. I had never been caving, and I did not know them. They had only done a little caving, but John was older and an N.S.S. member. They were hesitant to let me tag along ( because I was weird or too much a newbie, or both ), but we had a fun road-trip in John's old van. At the cave camp by the entrance, we were met by Bill Mixon, Ed Sevcik ( on his first caving trip ? ) and James Reddell and his friend Mauricio and at least 10 other cavers, maybe John Spence, maybe Bill Elliot. I recall they were all still hauling trash out of the sinkhole. It seems like we still had to climb over some rusted metal to get to the tiny belly-crawl entrance. But it was all hauled out the next day, or on the next trip a month or two later. Everyone took off for deeper parts of the cave. Bill Mixon guided Ed and I down to the first technical chimney climb. We would have been able to easily do it had there been a caver below to show us how super easy it was, but from our perspective it looked like a 30 foot drop into darkness. So we sat there for 2 hours, listening to Bill Mixon tell caving stories in almost total darkness. Later that night, another caver guided us to "The Hall of Unicorns." That was exciting for a first time caving experience, but I knew then that my expectations of what I wanted to experience in caving was tropical river caves. There should be a write-up by somebody in December 1984 or early 1985 Texas Caver about that trip. I can not remember if my name was included. If your name is in that report, then we once sort of went caving together. I seem to recall we also visited the Junction Room in Emerald Sink and there was somebody surveying a lead off of that. I recall seeing a caver rappel into the big pit for the first time and was using a rappel-rack and thought that was all fascinating. I had never even heard of rappeling or even knew what a carabiner was. Almost all of the cavers used helmet-mounted brass carbide lamps. I just had a flashlight. The rancher came out as we were going home and greeted us as all, and he told me we could come back any time. So I started taking the A.S.S. there once every semester for about 3 years, and later GHG cavers. [ Sidenote: I typed most of this story on my smartphone while riding in a car with my mom who was lecturing to me that swimming in places like Paradise Canyon gives you brain amoebas ] I went caving several more times with both Freddie and John. Freddie disappeared in 1985. I have no clue what became of him, ( I only recall he was a hypochondriac. ) I have not seen John Ragsdale since 1987, but he was the caver that rescued me 3 months ago when my Sequoia blew a head-gasket. In his job at the TTI, he has done thousands of vehicle crash-test with dummies including test with expensive sports cars like a Ferrari.
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