Mike Boon
- Thread starter Badlad
- Start date
Bottlebank
New member
Easy enough - http://ukcaving.com/wiki/index.php/Boon,_Mike
Hello all,
My good friend Mike Boon died peacefully in his sleep while taking an afternoon nap on the 20th December 2014.
I am inviting all to a gathering to say a final farewell to Mike.
Where: Jasper Alberta Canada
When: May Long week-end, 16 and 17, May 2015
Saturday 16 May:
Athabasca Hotel 7pm, renew friendships and swap stories of Mikes antics.
Sunday 17 May:
11am meet at the picnic site next to the bridge on the Maligne River for a celebration of life for Mike.
Directions:
Drive east from Jasper approximately 4 km to the Maligne Canyon junction and turn right.
Drive 37.7 kilometres? to the bridge and look for picnic site parking area on the left, just before the bridge.
This location was chosen because Mike challenged others to a race down the river. His collapsible kayak made of wood bottom and canvas sides was crushed and destroyed. Mike?s strong swimming skills saved him. ( see Pete Thompson?s story attached also Mike?s obituary is attached.) Mike stories? we all have our favorites if you would like to share yours I will put them in a binder for us all to see.
Cheers,
John Donovan
My good friend Mike Boon died peacefully in his sleep while taking an afternoon nap on the 20th December 2014.
I am inviting all to a gathering to say a final farewell to Mike.
Where: Jasper Alberta Canada
When: May Long week-end, 16 and 17, May 2015
Saturday 16 May:
Athabasca Hotel 7pm, renew friendships and swap stories of Mikes antics.
Sunday 17 May:
11am meet at the picnic site next to the bridge on the Maligne River for a celebration of life for Mike.
Directions:
Drive east from Jasper approximately 4 km to the Maligne Canyon junction and turn right.
Drive 37.7 kilometres? to the bridge and look for picnic site parking area on the left, just before the bridge.
This location was chosen because Mike challenged others to a race down the river. His collapsible kayak made of wood bottom and canvas sides was crushed and destroyed. Mike?s strong swimming skills saved him. ( see Pete Thompson?s story attached also Mike?s obituary is attached.) Mike stories? we all have our favorites if you would like to share yours I will put them in a binder for us all to see.
Cheers,
John Donovan
John Michael Boon (1940 - 2014)
Mike Boon loved water in caves. He delighted in discovering a clean-washed stream-way, leading in Mike?s imagination, if not in practice, to The Main Drain or a Master Cave that collected all the subterranean waters and carried them to a clean, clear spring. Mike moved easily and gracefully in cave passage, but to see him excel, he needed water. He would slide like an otter into a pool and with scarcely a ripple glide away into the unknown. His inventiveness and cool determination were obvious from his early explorations in Swildon?s Hole in the Mendip Hills of the UK where he became the first cave-diver to remove his air tank completely and push it ahead of himself through tight passage. His powerful swimming was needed in Mexico in the waters of Yochib where he swam through raging flood waters to save his companion and himself. In Canada even glacial melt-water could not cool his determination to explore Raspberry Rising, where he took sections of a may-pole through the sump to climb the water-falls on the far side. Perhaps his strangest exploit was the exploration of Agua Escondida in Guatemala by kayak, taking two days to progress upstream to a camp site, and taking two hours to exit, kayaking downstream by the light of his caving lamp.
*********************************************************************************
Mike Boon was one of the best-known British cavers of modern times. Boon explored caves throughout Europe, North America and Central America, and epitomized the penniless caver traveling the globe in search of unexplored caves. Respected by his peers, and revered by some, his drive and unique personality often made him difficult to work with.
Boon first went caving at age 17 in Somerset, southwest England, and soon joined the Shepton Mallet Caving Club. He began caving energetically throughout Britain and, later, further afield. Boon became a bold sump diver, learning his craft in the tight, murky sumps of Mendip caves. He pioneered the change from oxygen re-breathers to compressed air and was one of the first sump-divers to use a hip-mounted ?tadpole? tank of 26 cubic ft. capacity, extending its duration by careful control of his breathing. In 1962 the records of the Cave Diving Group show 11 divers active in the UK, and Boon made 18 out of a total of 48 dives, being the only person using compressed air. In 1966 he wrote A Technical Review of Cave Diving On Air.
He led or participated in
* Breakthrough dives in Sump VI and Sump VII in Swildon?s Hole, Somerset, Britain.
* Explorations in Mossdale Caverns, Yorkshire, once considered the most difficult cave in Britain.
* Survey of the entrance crawls in Daren Cilau, south Wales.
* Exploration of passage on the far side of sumps in Predjama in Slovenia.
* An eight-month expedition documenting the river-caves of Jamaica.
This period is covered in his book Down to a Sunless Sea.
In 1963 he participated in a trip to the Gouffre Berger (then the deepest cave in the world) when Ken Pierce dived the final sump.After the Jamaica expedition Boon moved from Britain to Canada and joined Dr. Derek Ford?s Karst Research Group based out of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario where Boon also studied for a degree in English Literature. The KRG summer camps in the Canadian Rockies were the first organized cave explorations there.
Significant exploration here included:
* Survey of the main stream passage in Nakimu Caves.
* Initial exploration of Castleguard Cave, with Peter Thompson to Thompson?s terror.
Boon moved west to Alberta in 1970, joining the Alberta Speleological Society and continuing his participation in western cave explorations.
* In 1970 Boon undertook a solo exploration in Castleguard Cave past the previously-unclimbed pitch that now bears his name (Boon?s Aven) to discover the Ice Plug under the glacier.
* Bottoming of the 536m deep Arctomys Cave, for many years the deepest cave north of Mexico.
* Boon participated in a British caving expedition to Pierre St. Martin in the Pyrenees.
Living in Canada made inexpensive road trips to caving regions further south feasible for Boon. In addition to trips to the eastern United States, Boon spent much time in Mexico and Guatemala where he undertook his best-known explorations, including:
Mexico
* Rio Iglesia ?535m
* Sotano de San Agustin ?612m
* Cueva San Agustin
* Agua Carlota
* Joya de Salas
* Sotano de Tenejapa
* Sumidero de Chenalho
* Cruz Pilal
* Huixtan Resurgence (Mapachero)
* Sumidero Yochib
* Guayateno and other caves in Cuetzalen
* Sumidero Chicja
* Sumidero de Agueyaco
* Sumidero de Tenejapa
* Xumula
Guatemala and Belize
* Investigation of the sinks of Chiquibul
* El Sumidero (Rio Huista)
* Sumidero de San Ramon
* Agua Escondida, explored in kayaks
In 1980 Boon wrote The Great San Agustin Cave Rescue, by dictating the text over a three day period, so giving a very personal perspective on his participation in the rescue of two seriously-injured Polish cavers.
In 1983, due to illness Boon was forced to abandon the planning of a British-Canadian expedition to Nare, a huge river-cave in New Britain, and spent some time recovering in hospital.
Following his retirement from active caving, Boon pursued small-scale political and human-rights causes and spent some years as a one-man, hands-on aid program to the Jacalteco natives of Guatemala and helped some specific families put their children through school. In later years Boon lived quietly, studying Buddhism, on a modest disability pension in Calgary, Alberta. He passed away on December 20, 2014.
==References==
J. M. Boon. Down to a Sunless Sea. The Stalactite Press, 1977.
J. M. Boon. Solo. Inside Earth, no. 3, 1974.
J. M. Boon. The Great San Agustin Rescue. The Stalactite Press, 1980
I. McKenzie. An Interview with Mike Boon. The Canadian Caver, vol 25 no 1, 1993.
W. Steele. Yochib, the River Cave. Cave Books, 1985
Martyn Farr. The Darkness Beckons ? The history and development of cave diving. Cave Books,
St. Louis, Missouri, 1991.
Various authors, The Canadian Caver, no 1 through vol 15 no.2.
Sent via John Donovan.
Mike Boon loved water in caves. He delighted in discovering a clean-washed stream-way, leading in Mike?s imagination, if not in practice, to The Main Drain or a Master Cave that collected all the subterranean waters and carried them to a clean, clear spring. Mike moved easily and gracefully in cave passage, but to see him excel, he needed water. He would slide like an otter into a pool and with scarcely a ripple glide away into the unknown. His inventiveness and cool determination were obvious from his early explorations in Swildon?s Hole in the Mendip Hills of the UK where he became the first cave-diver to remove his air tank completely and push it ahead of himself through tight passage. His powerful swimming was needed in Mexico in the waters of Yochib where he swam through raging flood waters to save his companion and himself. In Canada even glacial melt-water could not cool his determination to explore Raspberry Rising, where he took sections of a may-pole through the sump to climb the water-falls on the far side. Perhaps his strangest exploit was the exploration of Agua Escondida in Guatemala by kayak, taking two days to progress upstream to a camp site, and taking two hours to exit, kayaking downstream by the light of his caving lamp.
*********************************************************************************
Mike Boon was one of the best-known British cavers of modern times. Boon explored caves throughout Europe, North America and Central America, and epitomized the penniless caver traveling the globe in search of unexplored caves. Respected by his peers, and revered by some, his drive and unique personality often made him difficult to work with.
Boon first went caving at age 17 in Somerset, southwest England, and soon joined the Shepton Mallet Caving Club. He began caving energetically throughout Britain and, later, further afield. Boon became a bold sump diver, learning his craft in the tight, murky sumps of Mendip caves. He pioneered the change from oxygen re-breathers to compressed air and was one of the first sump-divers to use a hip-mounted ?tadpole? tank of 26 cubic ft. capacity, extending its duration by careful control of his breathing. In 1962 the records of the Cave Diving Group show 11 divers active in the UK, and Boon made 18 out of a total of 48 dives, being the only person using compressed air. In 1966 he wrote A Technical Review of Cave Diving On Air.
He led or participated in
* Breakthrough dives in Sump VI and Sump VII in Swildon?s Hole, Somerset, Britain.
* Explorations in Mossdale Caverns, Yorkshire, once considered the most difficult cave in Britain.
* Survey of the entrance crawls in Daren Cilau, south Wales.
* Exploration of passage on the far side of sumps in Predjama in Slovenia.
* An eight-month expedition documenting the river-caves of Jamaica.
This period is covered in his book Down to a Sunless Sea.
In 1963 he participated in a trip to the Gouffre Berger (then the deepest cave in the world) when Ken Pierce dived the final sump.After the Jamaica expedition Boon moved from Britain to Canada and joined Dr. Derek Ford?s Karst Research Group based out of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario where Boon also studied for a degree in English Literature. The KRG summer camps in the Canadian Rockies were the first organized cave explorations there.
Significant exploration here included:
* Survey of the main stream passage in Nakimu Caves.
* Initial exploration of Castleguard Cave, with Peter Thompson to Thompson?s terror.
Boon moved west to Alberta in 1970, joining the Alberta Speleological Society and continuing his participation in western cave explorations.
* In 1970 Boon undertook a solo exploration in Castleguard Cave past the previously-unclimbed pitch that now bears his name (Boon?s Aven) to discover the Ice Plug under the glacier.
* Bottoming of the 536m deep Arctomys Cave, for many years the deepest cave north of Mexico.
* Boon participated in a British caving expedition to Pierre St. Martin in the Pyrenees.
Living in Canada made inexpensive road trips to caving regions further south feasible for Boon. In addition to trips to the eastern United States, Boon spent much time in Mexico and Guatemala where he undertook his best-known explorations, including:
Mexico
* Rio Iglesia ?535m
* Sotano de San Agustin ?612m
* Cueva San Agustin
* Agua Carlota
* Joya de Salas
* Sotano de Tenejapa
* Sumidero de Chenalho
* Cruz Pilal
* Huixtan Resurgence (Mapachero)
* Sumidero Yochib
* Guayateno and other caves in Cuetzalen
* Sumidero Chicja
* Sumidero de Agueyaco
* Sumidero de Tenejapa
* Xumula
Guatemala and Belize
* Investigation of the sinks of Chiquibul
* El Sumidero (Rio Huista)
* Sumidero de San Ramon
* Agua Escondida, explored in kayaks
In 1980 Boon wrote The Great San Agustin Cave Rescue, by dictating the text over a three day period, so giving a very personal perspective on his participation in the rescue of two seriously-injured Polish cavers.
In 1983, due to illness Boon was forced to abandon the planning of a British-Canadian expedition to Nare, a huge river-cave in New Britain, and spent some time recovering in hospital.
Following his retirement from active caving, Boon pursued small-scale political and human-rights causes and spent some years as a one-man, hands-on aid program to the Jacalteco natives of Guatemala and helped some specific families put their children through school. In later years Boon lived quietly, studying Buddhism, on a modest disability pension in Calgary, Alberta. He passed away on December 20, 2014.
==References==
J. M. Boon. Down to a Sunless Sea. The Stalactite Press, 1977.
J. M. Boon. Solo. Inside Earth, no. 3, 1974.
J. M. Boon. The Great San Agustin Rescue. The Stalactite Press, 1980
I. McKenzie. An Interview with Mike Boon. The Canadian Caver, vol 25 no 1, 1993.
W. Steele. Yochib, the River Cave. Cave Books, 1985
Martyn Farr. The Darkness Beckons ? The history and development of cave diving. Cave Books,
St. Louis, Missouri, 1991.
Various authors, The Canadian Caver, no 1 through vol 15 no.2.
Sent via John Donovan.
rhychydwr1
Active member
With the ropes dry. It is time to cut, measure, and inventory them. Here is part 2 of the history of British cave diving. Look for an interview with the late Mike Boon.
CAVE DIVING STORY, PART TWO, THE DEVIL IS A GENTLEMAN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBw1pBfumIs&feature=youtu.be
The part with Mike Boon starts at 13 minutes in.
CAVE DIVING STORY, PART TWO, THE DEVIL IS A GENTLEMAN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBw1pBfumIs&feature=youtu.be
The part with Mike Boon starts at 13 minutes in.
rhychydwr1
Active member
Did you know Mike Boon? You might be amused by some of the tales told at the farewell gathering weekend before last in Calgary. Bill Steele recorded these; somebody recorded Steele's own comments, but I haven't seen them.
Peter Thompson
https://vimeo.com/128752622
Ian Drummond
https://vimeo.com/128756114
Daryl Donovan
https://vimeo.com/128754207
John Donovan
https://vimeo.com/128757686
Peter Thompson
https://vimeo.com/128752622
Ian Drummond
https://vimeo.com/128756114
Daryl Donovan
https://vimeo.com/128754207
John Donovan
https://vimeo.com/128757686
Mike?s Farewell.
17th May, 2015.
The day had finally arrived. Donny & Daryl set off early so they could arrange everything before the gang of hungover cavers arrived; John and I luxuriated in their shower. We didn?t make it back to camp so Donny & Daryl kindly gave us one of their beds in the Chateau Jasper. We had hot coffee, buns and even watched the telly for a short while.
We arrived by the Maligne River at about 10.30am, Mike?s farewell was to begin at 11.00 prompt. The day was sunny, although quite crisp, and the mountains were clear. Lots of speakers took their turn in entertaining us with Mike?s escapades around the globe. This confirmed all my personal feelings and experience of Mike? laughter and tears were exchanged in equal measure.
We each took a handful of Mike?s ashes and tossed them into the Maligne River, where he?d spent many a happy hour doing dangerous stunts?.but that was Boon! My ashes fought back and left a covering on my new jacket. I also had trouble getting the grit out of my long nails, so I expect I?ll always have a bit of Mike in my left pocket.
We drank whisky, hot coffee; ate cranberry muffins, chocolates and enjoyed our time together. I even managed to get sell some of my books... as we sat on the riverbank, enjoying our last moments together, I noticed an eagle which kept soaring above. I also noticed lots of chipmunks, cheekily playing close by.
I began to think of Mike?s Buddhism ? I thought of the eagle with its sharp eyes staring down on us. It looked so proud, strong and brave. I looked at the chipmunks, they with their cheeky little faces, watching us from a distance; it was then that it occurred to me that the eagle and the chipmunks both portrayed aspects of Mike Boon, our friend, caving legend; benefactor of people less fortunate and thoroughly nice guy. :kiss2:
17th May, 2015.
The day had finally arrived. Donny & Daryl set off early so they could arrange everything before the gang of hungover cavers arrived; John and I luxuriated in their shower. We didn?t make it back to camp so Donny & Daryl kindly gave us one of their beds in the Chateau Jasper. We had hot coffee, buns and even watched the telly for a short while.
We arrived by the Maligne River at about 10.30am, Mike?s farewell was to begin at 11.00 prompt. The day was sunny, although quite crisp, and the mountains were clear. Lots of speakers took their turn in entertaining us with Mike?s escapades around the globe. This confirmed all my personal feelings and experience of Mike? laughter and tears were exchanged in equal measure.
We each took a handful of Mike?s ashes and tossed them into the Maligne River, where he?d spent many a happy hour doing dangerous stunts?.but that was Boon! My ashes fought back and left a covering on my new jacket. I also had trouble getting the grit out of my long nails, so I expect I?ll always have a bit of Mike in my left pocket.
We drank whisky, hot coffee; ate cranberry muffins, chocolates and enjoyed our time together. I even managed to get sell some of my books... as we sat on the riverbank, enjoying our last moments together, I noticed an eagle which kept soaring above. I also noticed lots of chipmunks, cheekily playing close by.
I began to think of Mike?s Buddhism ? I thought of the eagle with its sharp eyes staring down on us. It looked so proud, strong and brave. I looked at the chipmunks, they with their cheeky little faces, watching us from a distance; it was then that it occurred to me that the eagle and the chipmunks both portrayed aspects of Mike Boon, our friend, caving legend; benefactor of people less fortunate and thoroughly nice guy. :kiss2:
andychapm
New member
Hi,
I recorded these interviews with various American cavers about Mike Boon and his time in Mexico whilst on expedition earlier this year. Hope you enjoy them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXbGmQTpDY
(Mark Minton talking about the San Agustin rescue)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX68xghm-kc&feature=youtu.be
(Ernie Garza)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkh1jE7A5Cg
(Bill Steele talking about Mike Boon in Yochib and also about the PESH expedition)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1-nh7Jbj80
(Jim Smith talking about Mike Boon in Yochib)
I recorded these interviews with various American cavers about Mike Boon and his time in Mexico whilst on expedition earlier this year. Hope you enjoy them
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXbGmQTpDY
(Mark Minton talking about the San Agustin rescue)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX68xghm-kc&feature=youtu.be
(Ernie Garza)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkh1jE7A5Cg
(Bill Steele talking about Mike Boon in Yochib and also about the PESH expedition)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1-nh7Jbj80
(Jim Smith talking about Mike Boon in Yochib)
garethjdavies
New member
As some of you will know I too spent time caving with Mike in Chiapas, and Cuetzalan, Mexico. I first met Mike in Denver, CO at Norm Pace's house (1976). A US caver, Wil Howie, and I were on a caving/hiking/climbing tour of the US west when we heard of a caving trip to Yo Chib when we stayed at Norm's house. Mike was clad in his usual (I came to realize) set of anyone's discarded clothes, with a pair of RD Super Guide mountaineering boots but, with the soles worn out, flapping loose at the front, no laces etc. We went to a McDonalds and got a Big Mac (my first) apiece and then returned to Norm's house to hear about Yo Chib; on hearing of Mike's passing, I had my second ever Big Mac). The dire nature of the Yo Chib cave was emphasized, but Mike was a very persuasive person and convinced us to join the expedition. Later he was separating me and coaching me to join the British/Canadian contingent (him and Wes Davis) and his plans at Martine's houses not Yo Chib (one of only a few in the village) over beer, that of course I bought (actually gladly, 1 peso each or something).... My Mike Boon recollections of that are...
We arrived at the Yo Chib campsite. Mike had travelled down with Wes ("weasel") Davis in a Toyota Estate Car - that I'm sure belonged to Wes. They had a rather eventful trip where they, in a thick fog, had driven into the back of a cow, which "buggered up the headlights." This meant the police saw them sans lights in Mexico City, where (the starter was a bit dodgy) they had to push run and start the car to avoid (or escape) the fine by the police...... Later this car carried on Mike's tradition of resourceful living....from Mexico City to Austin, TX, the last part of my writing here.
This of course was all typical Mike, he conned a friend to drive him to Mexico so Mike could go caving. Mike, being the person he was, had a suspicious nature (about some of the US contingent) and often told me this when he dragged me to Yo Chib village for a beer at Martine's. Anyway I ended up on a trip into the cave with Mike, Wes, and Carmen Soileau - with the aim of extending a phone line to Camp 1 and then Camp 2 so there would be warning system in place in a flood. This would introduce me to the cave....(see Bill Steele's book Yo Chib, The River Cave for all the details).
There was a nice long boulder hopping river entrance passage but a 75 ft waterfall into a lake, at the end, and that was the end of the... introduction. I had not arranged my gear well, was not exactly positively bouyant and I could have drowned in the lake (2 - 3ft higher waves from the 40 cubic feet/second River hitting it from 75 ft)....I struggled and coughed and spluttered across...Mike yelling at me.
Mike saw my carbide light was out and as I dragged myself up the beach he leaned forward and relit it, screaming at me (the noise made normal speech impossible) " are you f***ing up for this, you can very easily die here?" He then told me not to clip into any horizontal line, because of the chance of being swept away was high and I would need to not be tied to anything if swept over a waterfall..... I followed Mike's advice except for the time clipping in saved my life...below Bad Dreams......
Anyway we reached Camp 1, but before, at Fool's Falls, when I got down that rope, Mike was diving the pool with a mask to look for a gear bag lost earlier in the week, in the hurricane conditions at the bottom. We stopped at camp and dumped food, sleeping bags etc. and then proceeded down Bad Dreams - a set of the most violent and swiftly flowing (really thundering, crashing) falls and rapids, that turns a corkscrew downwards below Camp 1. The way beyond this was a tyrolean rope across and Boon went across. We were to go as far as Camp 2 (some hammock on a ledge affair) but met Bill Steele and others coming upstream. Here I witnessed the Mike Boon Mike Van Note finger jabbing incident, that I watched from across the maelstrom, after Wes and I had crossed the tyrolean and returned (we had reasoned Camp II was a futile goal after 12 harrowing hours in a constant Hurricane and Tsunami. We retreated to Camp 1 (much to my relief, I could not imagine what Camp 2 would have been like....
I heard, later in the trip, Wes had been shopping for souvenirs and Mike got upset that he had spent so much money, Wes's money of course, and if my memory doesn't fail me I heard Mike went back into San Cristobal de Las Casas and sold the souvenirs back. Wes had taken enough abuse and left Mike in San Cristobal de las Casas with no money, but the Toyota, but with an empty gas tank, and dodgy headlights etc.
Mike stayed with France's Mendez a lady Pete Lord? had met and who was friendly to cavers passing through. Apparently to get money to drive back to the US Mike removed a filling in a tooth he had filled there a year ago, and got his money back and a new filling (Mr Resourceful, par excellence). This enabled Mike to drive as far as Pete Lord's house in Mexico City - where the second part of my association with Mike in Mexico story begins, a year later in Cuetzalan.
One year later (1977) I was again in Mexico, with Jim Eyre, Wil Howie and John Sevenair enroute to do Sotano de las Golondrinas, El Sotano del Barro and some exploration in Cuetzalan. Mike was already at the house near Greengates School (Pete Lord and Cathy Pryce-Jones, lived there) - and he was living entirely on black beans and tortillas.... We arrived brought beer, and all went shopping for a slap up nosh, T-Bone steak, chips, which Mike loved of course....If I remember, Mike indulged in Cana + Tang powder to the point of sleeping on the stone stair case.
We heard that only Cathy and someone else was there when he arrived unannounced and they mistook Mike for the local dustman, (trash collector) and tried to shoo him away.
Whatever, we loaded into Wil Howie's van and set off for Cuetzalan. Mike rode with us, and en route we stopped for gas and a toilet break, but there were no conveniences. Mike grabbed a toilet roll and walked some (short) distance away from the gas station, and proceeded to have a crap under a lone tree. Jim Eyre and I thought this was pretty funny - what a silouette against a cloudy sky, but Wil and John were pretty amazed.....
The house at Cuetzalan (Casa Carmen) became home and soon we were joined by a huge group of McMaster University cavers (all packed in one van), Marge Saul, Chas Younge, and cavers from all over the US, Norm Pace, Joe Liebertz, and Pete Lord and Cathy from Greengates/Mexico City, and Mike Colishaw. (Norm Pace told me when he arrived Mike was warming a candle on the gas stove to use as temporary treatment for his hemorrhoids)...
So, an epic trip was organized into Sumidero Atepolituit and we all made camp in a great chamber on a huge sandy beach next to the roaring river (about 12 people, lots of McMaster Univercity cavers). Chas being well organized fed us and off we went in three parties, two to go deep and Chas to look at some prospects, with the less experienced cavers, above a technical obstacle called the Black Cleft, below which the whole river for a short section, assumed Yo Chib like characteristics.
This is written up in Jim Eyre's book The Cave Explorers. Several kilometers downstream Marge Saul and I found a passage (that I think later connected to Chichicasapan) while Mike and company went even further downstream. We met back at a huge mud bank at the junction and Mike said we should get the stove out and eat. He told me to go over to the wall of the passage and dig up a tin of baked beans he buried in a sand bank there two years ago...
I was as hungry as the rest, and there was this large (UK large) tin of beans, which looked a bit new... And was buried in disturbed sand. Whatever we ate and enjoyed them (a couple of spoonfuls apiece). After a very long trip back upstream we got our lesser experienced McMaster group safely back to camp, where Chas was cooking up a meal, muttering, "I know I am missing a tin of baked beans, but I cannot fathom where it is....."
The New Year's celebrations in Mexico are special, and Cuetzalan had a town square do, where there is a high pole with a revolving platform that the locals tie the feet to and spin around unraveling some fabric until they reach the ground, of course Mike climbed to the platform (20 m or so).
A year passed and Mike wrote to me talking about even bigger river caves in Honduras, and this conversation continued at UMIST and the BCRA meeting. Mike turned up there, his luggage consisting of two black rubbish bags, one with all his traveling stuff, and another with copies of his book (Down to a Sunless Sea). His sleeping bag was his Aunty Gladys's discarded eiderdown..., of course. On Saturday night we were joined by John Frankland and Jim Eyre, had a great curry, and prepared to retire to sleep. I, along with my first wife, Carol, had arranged a place to stay, but I lost the address.... So with Mike and some others, we set up camp on an demolished area next to UMIST. Carol and I slept in my 1972 Triumph 2000 and Mike slept under the stars in his eiderdown - somebody else pitched a ten near Mike. The friendly Manchester police came to inspect our little encampment about 3 AM. They searched the Triumph and then moved to Mike and the tent. They gently shook Mike in the feet to wake him up and asked who he was and where he was from. When he said Calgary, Canada, one policeman said "but this is the middle of Manchester" Mike sat up looked around and said, " is it, Good Lord..." We tried in vain to be serious. Finally when the policeman shook the tent - the zipper came down and a head emerged to puke at the policeman's feet and then disappear back inside.... They walked off disgusted, shaking their heads, at a loss for words. Carol and I bought Mike a great big breakfast the next morning and whilst selling his books later than day, when he signed my copy, was the last I saw of him In person. Later I was reading my copy of his book when I got a letter from Mike saying I never paid him, which I did not, accidentally. I then realized that I was missing a duvet jacket, and a foam sleeping pad Mike had borrowed that night. He agreed they were a fair swap for a signed copy of his book.
Now, there is still one more piece. The Toyota's fate, + jail time.... Pete Lord, Cathy Pryce-Jones, Mike, and Cathy's mother and I heard this story from Mike in a restaurant in Cuetzalan on New Year's Eve, 1976. Mike managed to collect enough money (by selling McMaster University Caving gear to local cavers) to drive the Toyota from Mexico City to Austin, TX. He stayed a while, because Jean Jancowicz was living there.... (See Jim Smith's YouTube video interview about Mike infatuation with Jean). Jean resisted his advances again and again, and Mike then proceeded to piss off just about every caver (that he could stay with) in Austin. He went to a pub/bar and got rather forlorn and drunk (someone probably bought him the drinks of course, or he simply went "mine sweeping"). Then some people began singing the US song (probably prompted by Mike) that has the same tune as our God Save the Queen. Mike dutifully informed them what the song really was and started a kerfufle and got kicked out of the bar. While he was sitting lying/sitting on the kerb, a police car came by and stopped; Mike promptly ran away (he said he had no idea why) but got arrested. He was booked into the local jail. Since he was now to the caving community, missing, Bill Russell (I think) looked for him, and found him, and tried to bail him out. Mike said this upset him greatly, reasoning that they were very nice to him and it was the best accommodation he had experienced in years (lots of free food, a great bed, and all the books he could read).
The Toyota was bought and thence driven back to Huautla by Gerry Atkinson? Apparently en route near Huautla it collided with a burro. I believe Gerry gave the car to the Burro owner as compensation.... The owner thought this was excessive compensation and awarded a goat in "change." The owner's daughter was getting married and Gerry (or whoever, I will check) gave the goat as a wedding present...or something like that, it's been a few years.
I feel very privileged to have caved with Mike, and become his friend. He was a special person, always very sure of his situation, and very confident he was correct, but often to the suffering of others. He was a very confident caver, and he left me in awe in that respect, often caving with his carbide lamp in his hand, only to put it on his helmet when necessary.
Gareth
We arrived at the Yo Chib campsite. Mike had travelled down with Wes ("weasel") Davis in a Toyota Estate Car - that I'm sure belonged to Wes. They had a rather eventful trip where they, in a thick fog, had driven into the back of a cow, which "buggered up the headlights." This meant the police saw them sans lights in Mexico City, where (the starter was a bit dodgy) they had to push run and start the car to avoid (or escape) the fine by the police...... Later this car carried on Mike's tradition of resourceful living....from Mexico City to Austin, TX, the last part of my writing here.
This of course was all typical Mike, he conned a friend to drive him to Mexico so Mike could go caving. Mike, being the person he was, had a suspicious nature (about some of the US contingent) and often told me this when he dragged me to Yo Chib village for a beer at Martine's. Anyway I ended up on a trip into the cave with Mike, Wes, and Carmen Soileau - with the aim of extending a phone line to Camp 1 and then Camp 2 so there would be warning system in place in a flood. This would introduce me to the cave....(see Bill Steele's book Yo Chib, The River Cave for all the details).
There was a nice long boulder hopping river entrance passage but a 75 ft waterfall into a lake, at the end, and that was the end of the... introduction. I had not arranged my gear well, was not exactly positively bouyant and I could have drowned in the lake (2 - 3ft higher waves from the 40 cubic feet/second River hitting it from 75 ft)....I struggled and coughed and spluttered across...Mike yelling at me.
Mike saw my carbide light was out and as I dragged myself up the beach he leaned forward and relit it, screaming at me (the noise made normal speech impossible) " are you f***ing up for this, you can very easily die here?" He then told me not to clip into any horizontal line, because of the chance of being swept away was high and I would need to not be tied to anything if swept over a waterfall..... I followed Mike's advice except for the time clipping in saved my life...below Bad Dreams......
Anyway we reached Camp 1, but before, at Fool's Falls, when I got down that rope, Mike was diving the pool with a mask to look for a gear bag lost earlier in the week, in the hurricane conditions at the bottom. We stopped at camp and dumped food, sleeping bags etc. and then proceeded down Bad Dreams - a set of the most violent and swiftly flowing (really thundering, crashing) falls and rapids, that turns a corkscrew downwards below Camp 1. The way beyond this was a tyrolean rope across and Boon went across. We were to go as far as Camp 2 (some hammock on a ledge affair) but met Bill Steele and others coming upstream. Here I witnessed the Mike Boon Mike Van Note finger jabbing incident, that I watched from across the maelstrom, after Wes and I had crossed the tyrolean and returned (we had reasoned Camp II was a futile goal after 12 harrowing hours in a constant Hurricane and Tsunami. We retreated to Camp 1 (much to my relief, I could not imagine what Camp 2 would have been like....
I heard, later in the trip, Wes had been shopping for souvenirs and Mike got upset that he had spent so much money, Wes's money of course, and if my memory doesn't fail me I heard Mike went back into San Cristobal de Las Casas and sold the souvenirs back. Wes had taken enough abuse and left Mike in San Cristobal de las Casas with no money, but the Toyota, but with an empty gas tank, and dodgy headlights etc.
Mike stayed with France's Mendez a lady Pete Lord? had met and who was friendly to cavers passing through. Apparently to get money to drive back to the US Mike removed a filling in a tooth he had filled there a year ago, and got his money back and a new filling (Mr Resourceful, par excellence). This enabled Mike to drive as far as Pete Lord's house in Mexico City - where the second part of my association with Mike in Mexico story begins, a year later in Cuetzalan.
One year later (1977) I was again in Mexico, with Jim Eyre, Wil Howie and John Sevenair enroute to do Sotano de las Golondrinas, El Sotano del Barro and some exploration in Cuetzalan. Mike was already at the house near Greengates School (Pete Lord and Cathy Pryce-Jones, lived there) - and he was living entirely on black beans and tortillas.... We arrived brought beer, and all went shopping for a slap up nosh, T-Bone steak, chips, which Mike loved of course....If I remember, Mike indulged in Cana + Tang powder to the point of sleeping on the stone stair case.
We heard that only Cathy and someone else was there when he arrived unannounced and they mistook Mike for the local dustman, (trash collector) and tried to shoo him away.
Whatever, we loaded into Wil Howie's van and set off for Cuetzalan. Mike rode with us, and en route we stopped for gas and a toilet break, but there were no conveniences. Mike grabbed a toilet roll and walked some (short) distance away from the gas station, and proceeded to have a crap under a lone tree. Jim Eyre and I thought this was pretty funny - what a silouette against a cloudy sky, but Wil and John were pretty amazed.....
The house at Cuetzalan (Casa Carmen) became home and soon we were joined by a huge group of McMaster University cavers (all packed in one van), Marge Saul, Chas Younge, and cavers from all over the US, Norm Pace, Joe Liebertz, and Pete Lord and Cathy from Greengates/Mexico City, and Mike Colishaw. (Norm Pace told me when he arrived Mike was warming a candle on the gas stove to use as temporary treatment for his hemorrhoids)...
So, an epic trip was organized into Sumidero Atepolituit and we all made camp in a great chamber on a huge sandy beach next to the roaring river (about 12 people, lots of McMaster Univercity cavers). Chas being well organized fed us and off we went in three parties, two to go deep and Chas to look at some prospects, with the less experienced cavers, above a technical obstacle called the Black Cleft, below which the whole river for a short section, assumed Yo Chib like characteristics.
This is written up in Jim Eyre's book The Cave Explorers. Several kilometers downstream Marge Saul and I found a passage (that I think later connected to Chichicasapan) while Mike and company went even further downstream. We met back at a huge mud bank at the junction and Mike said we should get the stove out and eat. He told me to go over to the wall of the passage and dig up a tin of baked beans he buried in a sand bank there two years ago...
I was as hungry as the rest, and there was this large (UK large) tin of beans, which looked a bit new... And was buried in disturbed sand. Whatever we ate and enjoyed them (a couple of spoonfuls apiece). After a very long trip back upstream we got our lesser experienced McMaster group safely back to camp, where Chas was cooking up a meal, muttering, "I know I am missing a tin of baked beans, but I cannot fathom where it is....."
The New Year's celebrations in Mexico are special, and Cuetzalan had a town square do, where there is a high pole with a revolving platform that the locals tie the feet to and spin around unraveling some fabric until they reach the ground, of course Mike climbed to the platform (20 m or so).
A year passed and Mike wrote to me talking about even bigger river caves in Honduras, and this conversation continued at UMIST and the BCRA meeting. Mike turned up there, his luggage consisting of two black rubbish bags, one with all his traveling stuff, and another with copies of his book (Down to a Sunless Sea). His sleeping bag was his Aunty Gladys's discarded eiderdown..., of course. On Saturday night we were joined by John Frankland and Jim Eyre, had a great curry, and prepared to retire to sleep. I, along with my first wife, Carol, had arranged a place to stay, but I lost the address.... So with Mike and some others, we set up camp on an demolished area next to UMIST. Carol and I slept in my 1972 Triumph 2000 and Mike slept under the stars in his eiderdown - somebody else pitched a ten near Mike. The friendly Manchester police came to inspect our little encampment about 3 AM. They searched the Triumph and then moved to Mike and the tent. They gently shook Mike in the feet to wake him up and asked who he was and where he was from. When he said Calgary, Canada, one policeman said "but this is the middle of Manchester" Mike sat up looked around and said, " is it, Good Lord..." We tried in vain to be serious. Finally when the policeman shook the tent - the zipper came down and a head emerged to puke at the policeman's feet and then disappear back inside.... They walked off disgusted, shaking their heads, at a loss for words. Carol and I bought Mike a great big breakfast the next morning and whilst selling his books later than day, when he signed my copy, was the last I saw of him In person. Later I was reading my copy of his book when I got a letter from Mike saying I never paid him, which I did not, accidentally. I then realized that I was missing a duvet jacket, and a foam sleeping pad Mike had borrowed that night. He agreed they were a fair swap for a signed copy of his book.
Now, there is still one more piece. The Toyota's fate, + jail time.... Pete Lord, Cathy Pryce-Jones, Mike, and Cathy's mother and I heard this story from Mike in a restaurant in Cuetzalan on New Year's Eve, 1976. Mike managed to collect enough money (by selling McMaster University Caving gear to local cavers) to drive the Toyota from Mexico City to Austin, TX. He stayed a while, because Jean Jancowicz was living there.... (See Jim Smith's YouTube video interview about Mike infatuation with Jean). Jean resisted his advances again and again, and Mike then proceeded to piss off just about every caver (that he could stay with) in Austin. He went to a pub/bar and got rather forlorn and drunk (someone probably bought him the drinks of course, or he simply went "mine sweeping"). Then some people began singing the US song (probably prompted by Mike) that has the same tune as our God Save the Queen. Mike dutifully informed them what the song really was and started a kerfufle and got kicked out of the bar. While he was sitting lying/sitting on the kerb, a police car came by and stopped; Mike promptly ran away (he said he had no idea why) but got arrested. He was booked into the local jail. Since he was now to the caving community, missing, Bill Russell (I think) looked for him, and found him, and tried to bail him out. Mike said this upset him greatly, reasoning that they were very nice to him and it was the best accommodation he had experienced in years (lots of free food, a great bed, and all the books he could read).
The Toyota was bought and thence driven back to Huautla by Gerry Atkinson? Apparently en route near Huautla it collided with a burro. I believe Gerry gave the car to the Burro owner as compensation.... The owner thought this was excessive compensation and awarded a goat in "change." The owner's daughter was getting married and Gerry (or whoever, I will check) gave the goat as a wedding present...or something like that, it's been a few years.
I feel very privileged to have caved with Mike, and become his friend. He was a special person, always very sure of his situation, and very confident he was correct, but often to the suffering of others. He was a very confident caver, and he left me in awe in that respect, often caving with his carbide lamp in his hand, only to put it on his helmet when necessary.
Gareth
rhychydwr1
Active member
What a fantastic story. Brings back memories of Mike when he caved on Mendip.
