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More Pioneering With Charlton;
Hixson Begins His Quest
Well, that trip into Windymouth, we got on back to about the big, waterfall room. Bill says, "Roy, I'm going out. Here's some Tootsie rolls. Y'all can ha brother Jim, brother Harvey, and myself were there. Harvey had just flown off down the passage ahead of Jim and myself. by the time we got to him, he said "The major air stream is coming from there." We followed him all the way down through the big waterfall room, across the room, and up to the Blow Hole. The Blow Hole was a real pretty place. All this flowstone, coral in the bottom of the pool, standing waves on the pool from the wind blowing. I stood and looked at it, and said, "There, I wish I could get through that thing. I wonder how we could do it." "Harvey said, "Give me my pack." He reached in his pack and pulled out a plastic bag. He proceeded to strip, put his clothes in the plastic bag, fell down in the water and slid through. He dropped the plastic bag after he took his clothes out of it, and the wind blew it right back through. And he says, "Come on, the next man." Well, Jim and myself looked at one another and we didn't think much of the idea of getting wet with no clothes on. Well, we followed him. He carried us on back through the next room, through the next crawl-hole, into the canyon passages. On a single trip that guy led us through all that maze of cave back into this virgin area until finally we just had to call quits. We were past our endurance. No food, practically no water; we were using water out of the pools, not out of the stream. The only thing that got us back were those Tootsie rolls of Bill's. Our stomach acid was getting so mean that it was burning our noses. We would take a Tootsie roll and get along a few more hundred yards.
Well, we got back out of that cave. The only way we knew was back around Red Rock. We went down and looked at the river. "That river has come up. It's higher than when we were here before. We better sleep here until daylight. Maybe the other guys will come and get us." We were so fatigued, "No, let's try the road." We stripped, again, and with Harvey leading, holding his clothes and gear above his head, and went into the water. Harvey went up to his neck in that river. He had enough weight over his head to keep the current from sweeping him away. Jim and I followed. It was so blooming foggy we couldn't see one another. 'we made it around Red Rock, got up to the cars, and just woke up everybody. Told everybody about our big discovery.
Earl, Jim and myself decided we would set up camp back in the new discovery area. We got the old tin torpedoes and dragged 'em in. We got too hungry before we got to the place we designated for camp, so we set up camp at the big waterfall. Of course, there was just too much traffic of cavers through there. Sleeping bags and everything just got torn all to pieces; people would unroll 'em, and use them for rugs or something. Just got 'em muddy from walking, on them.
We went back and wound up at the top of the Wells in the discovery we'd made with Harvey. I carried Alan Boudreau, who caves with the Boston Grotto, there. He just came back from OCS camp, and thought he was in top shape. I noticed he looked at us right funny when we went back, and threw a rope up in the top of a dome where a waterfall was coming down, and big passage was showing. We got it over a bolt, and pulled it back down. I said, "OK, give me that rope. Give me the ladder and we will pull the ladder up". Everybody stood around right stupid like. "Who brought the ladder in?" nobody. Well, we got the bright idea we could but butterfly knots in the rope every two feet and use carabiners instead of prusik knots. Now, that was beautifiil climbing. It should be in the standard techniques. It was a beautiful emergency climb. The other guys didn't want to climb. I got up there and found out we had a major passage. I came back and checked the first side lead on my way back and said, "I wonder where this one goes." I noticed Alan gave us a right terrible look. We found some more dome pits that hadn't been climbed. Alan didn't complain any; kept up with us, and didn't have much to say.
Bill Biggers, Roger, Jim, myself, Capone and several other guys went back to the p-1 drop, we called it. We got down into the pit, and made a crossover into another drainage passage which had a pretty good-sized stream in it. I went right up the stream and found tremendous breakdown there. I went on through the breakdown. I had a few boulders slip behind me after I passed, and fall way down into the water below. I didn't realize the break down was so active. The stream was just cutting the boulders out from under you. Roger followed me and all of a sudden I heard Roger start hollering. Bill Biggers was right behind him. "Bill, don't move, don't move! I went back and Roger had a boulders 70 to 80 pounds, I reckon, on his back. I got in there, and between Bill and myself, we got it off of him. That really shook Roger. We went on through this breakdown into the Z-trail. It was some fantastic! You could see the guys' lights get smaller and smaller ahead.
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