Expedition notes 5
Expedition 5 (July 6 & 7) - Supply dump and confirming measurements
- James is pretty sure there’s rope somewhere in his dad’s “shop”, except that’s basically a terrifying pile of boxes in the garage, back behind the car inherited from his grandmother, so it’s going to take some doing to locate it. In the meantime, they get film and batteries for the Polaroid, snag the analogue pedometer their dad hasn’t used since the move, and head back down into the caves after a family July 4th gathering. With these tools and some graph paper, James and Jane make a pretty thorough survey of the area they’ve explored so far, and in the process discover that there’s another tunnel accessible from the entrance area.
- This one is high enough that James can boost Jane and George in, but has to create some sort of step for himself. After a lot of trial and error and dragging various tree limbs/rocks/basically anything they can move on their own, the three of them manage to make a relatively stable platform out of medium-sized rocks from along the creek bed. It takes a couple of days, and they almost squash the rabbit once (because at this point George is just carrying it everywhere, like a lazy cat- “That’s going to become the fattest rabbit ever,” Jane comments, but it does keep George occupied during some of the fiddly/boring bits of the process, and the rabbit seems happy enough, so they just leave him alone), but they’re all pretty pleased with the end result, especially since they now have somewhere to explore while they brace themselves for the ordeal that will be sorting through boxes to find the rope.
- It seems to be a different kind of rock up here-almost soft and slightly crumbly, like chalk or certain kinds of cheese. The roof is much lower and smoother, almost dome-like, even, and here and there cracks let roots and sunlight through. “Definitely not a place to explore while it’s raining,” Jane comments, and James mentally adds it to his list of Rules.
- (Some Rules are private, mostly with a concern to prevent George from accidentally killing himself or getting them trapped.)
- The floors and walls are much smoother as well, and although their path curves around a bit, there’s nothing like the jagged climbing necessary through the other entrance. There are also no openings-it just keeps going and going, roughly level, and it starts to feel a bit like they’re on an endless treadmill. The timer goes off at the 55-minute mark, and they all kind of shrug at each other (by now they really should’ve broken through and out into the forest again), sit down for a snack, and then turn around again. Though Jane draws a very fancy pattern on the ground with a date to indicate how far they got and when. (And then James does it on both walls, close to the ceiling, in case of flooding.)
- And then they tromp back again, feeling weirdly undismayed by their seeming lack of progress. “Maybe it’s a magic feel-good cave,” Jane says, and James starts to scoff before changing his mind. “Wouldn’t be any weirder than what we’ve found in the other set of caves so far.
- Getting down again takes most of the skin off one of George’s knees, but he’s pretty used to that at this point, and doesn’t make much fuss. Jane makes him put 4 band-aids on it, which he half-heartedly objects to, and they go home again with James making vague plans about how they can use the magic feel-good cave for roller skating, given how generally flat and free of debris the floor is. Roller skating with headlamps. Maybe not the best idea, but right now they’re stuck with either gravel or their basement/garage (both full of boxes from moving).
- They wind up sneaking the pushbroom from the garage and their roller skates out to the caves, and sweep a decent-sized section of the magic feel-good cave so they can go skating without worrying about breaking their necks. They debate leaving the skates there, but wind up deciding to wait until they’ve had a chance to check the cave after a rainstorm, to see just how wet things get.
- The “magic feel-good cave” name sticks because it seems to be accurate-doesn’t matter their moods when entering the cave, exiting it they always feel kind of chill and vaguely optimistic.
- They wind up spending several days just working on building more reliable steps/railing/poles so that they can get in and out of the cave more easily. It’s not as interesting as the other caves, but it’s definitely more enjoyable to hang out in, and if their parents ever get curious/worried about what their kids are doing, James thinks it’s probably safest to tell about this cave and just not mention the others.