The Cascade CaverPublished by the Cascade Grotto of the National Speleological Society'.

Volume 26, No.6 July 1987

CAS CAD E C A V E R

The CASCADE CAVER is published 10 times a year by the Cascade Grotto, a member of the NationalSpeleological Society. All correspondence should be sent to: The Cascade Grotto, P.O. Box75663, Seattle, WA 98125-0663.

Meetings:

Officers:

7:00 pm on the third Friday of each month at the University of Washington,Room 6, in the basement of Johnson Hall.

Chairman: Jim Harp (206) 745-1010Vice Chairman: Jeff Forbes (206) 524-2443Sec/Treasurer: Larry McTigue (206) 226-5357Regional Rep: Ben Tompkins (206) 546-8025Storekeeper: Bob Martin (206) 878-7634Librarian: Larry McTigue (206) 226-5357Map Librarian: Rod Crawford (206) 543-9853Trip Coordinator Mark Wilson (206) 285-5724Editors: Mark Sherman (206) 524-8780

Ben Tompkins (206) 546-8025

Dues: Membership in the Cascade Grotto including subscription to theis $7.50 per year. Dues for additional family members is $1.50.to the Cascade Caver only is $7.50 per year.

Cascade CaverSubscription

Please note the date on your mailing 1abe1 that indicates when your duesexpire.

Dropped: Peter Carter 1/87, Maurice Magee 3/87, Mickey Hanson 4/87

Overdue:Brown, Bob 5/87Crawford, Ed 6/87Crawford, Mary 6/87Crawford, Rod 6/87Gunsalus, J. 6/87van der Pas, J.P. 6/87

Due:Dr. E. Kiver 7/87

Coming up:Stitt, Rob 8/87Garnick, Dick 9/87Garnick, Mark 9/87Hoyt, Howard 9/87Balsdon, Sheila 10/87Brenner, Sue 10/87Cebell, Wayne 10/87Dickey, Fred 10/87James, Richard 10/87

Cover:

52

Linda Heslop: Drawing of a generic fish-in-your-boots caver, nobody inparticular. This drawing started out to be a T-shirt design.

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987

CON TEN T S

UPCOMING EVENTS 53

JUNE GROTTO MEETING 54

'. GARAGE SALE .... 54

HORNE LAKE BROCHURE 54

NEW BATTERY CHARGER CIRCUIT 54

TIMBER SALE PLANNING 54

TROUT LAKE REGIONAL 55

CAVE REGISTER EVALUATION 56

CAVE • • • • • 57

CASCADE GROTTO STORE 60

UPC(JH NG EVENTS

Aug 7-9

Aug 8-16

Aug 21

Aug 22

Aug 29

Sept 4-7Sept 18Sept 19Sept 23

Oct 2-4Oct 16Oct 17Nov 20Nov 27-29Dec 5

Cave Ridge - Help plan rescue scenario and observe rescue practice by W. Washingtonmountain rescue groups. See Jim Harp.

Bighorn Project work session #3.

G ROT TOM E E TIN G

Vertical practice

Garage Sale

Papoose Cave, Idaho. See Bob Brown.G ROT TOM E E TIN GWindy CreekBusiness meeting to discuss changes to grotto by-laws and operating policy. Heldat regular meeting place in Johnson Hall, U.W. at 6:30pm.Mt. Adams: Falls Creek and Three Sinks.G ROT TOM E E TIN GBlack Mountain. See Dick Garnick.G ROT TOM E E TIN GPot of Gold, Idaho. See Bob Brown.Pre-Holiday party inviting Oregon Grotto and VICEG.

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987 53

JUNE GROTTO MEETING HORNE LAKE BROCHURE

(was vol un-sale to help

TIMBER SALE PLANNING

NEW BATTERY CHARGER CIRCUITBen Tompkins

In 1ast month I s caver we showed a"brochure" writ ten by Linda Hes1op on HorneLake Caves. Linda called and said that shehoped everyone rea 1i zed that thi s brochurewas just a joke. Now that tours are beinggi ven in Horne Lake Caves there is anOfficial Brochure and Linda has sent uscopies.

sent to Billis the TimberRiver Ranger

The following letter wasHa11i day from John Weston whoSale Planner for the WindDistrict of the Forest Service.

A new integrated circuit has beenpointed out to me that is expressly designedfor charging the sealed lead-acid batteriesthat many of us use for caving. Mark Shermanand I have produced a number of our ownchargers that are relatively sophisticated asfar as caving chargers go but this littlechippy takes the prize. It makes the jobmuch simpler, just add 6 resistors, a coupleof capacitors, one transistor, and stirgently over medium heat.

The device is called the UC3906, made byUnitrode. There is a good article in theJune 1987 issue of QST, a ham radio magazine.The article gives equations for adjustingvalues to charge batteries of differentvoltages and tells where to send for a barecircuit card.

Now if I just had the time I would loveto 1ay out four of these circuits side byside in the same space as one of our existingchargers and recharge the whole crew simul-taneously.

There were 26 people in attendance atthe June meeting making this the largestturnout in several years.

Thanks to the efforts of Cascade Grottomembers, the 1987 Regional at Trout Lake wasa success with over 70 people attending. Theregion made $196 from the registration feeswh i c h was sen t toP h i 1 Wh i tf i e 1d, thetreasurer. There was some discussion aboutwhy Cascade Grotto didn't receive any of theprofits since it had hosted the show.According to Bob Brown, regional chairman,the grotto hosting a NCAregional function isentitled to 50% of the interest from theRegion's bank account, which would only be acouple of dollars.

June marks the end of our six monthtrial of having meetings on Friday nights.It was voted on to extend this trial periodfor an additional six months.

There will be a business meeting held inAugust to discuss the bylaws.

Howard Hoyt volunteeredteered??) to organize a garagefill the coffers.

Bob Brown suggested that maybe CascadeGrot to shou 1d merge wi th Oregon Grottobecause, he says, both grottos have s imil a rproblems - lack of money, marginal interestlevel, limited material for their newslet-ters, etc., and by merging together it mightsolve some of these. Rob Stitt suggestedhavi ng more joi nt ventures with Oregoninstead of merging.

The program for the evening was given byAlex de Soto, a geologist from Puerto Rico.Alex was visiting the UW and was asked byJeff Forbes to give a presentation on theKarst of Puerto Rico.

GARAGE SALEThe Cascade Grotto garage/yard sale istentatively scheduled for Saturday August 29on the parking strip next to QFC at 15th Ave.E. and E. Republican on Capital Hill. If youhave things to get rid of and want them offyour hands before the sale, bring them to theJuly or August meeting, or call Howard Hoytat 782-4567 or Jim Harp at 745-1010 (AfterAugust 1 for Jim).

Apri 1 30, 1987Dear Mr. Halliday,

The Wind River Ranger District is aboutto begin environmental analysis of the OutlawPlanning Area. This is an area with manylava tubes, the most famous being the FallsCreek Caves. The area surrounding the cavesis being considered for protection under thepreferred alternative of the New Forest Plan.However, this plan, which would allow notimber harvest within the area surroundingthe cave, has yet to be approved. In

54 Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987

Crawl:

Cave:

Walk:

TROUT LAKE REGIONAlHoward Hoyt

to be a few sane people.) And even thespeleopaths were mostly cheery, so that, allina 11, good cheer and exuberance were theorder of the day (the three days). And asidefrom freezing at night and one ratherimpressive rain storm and difficultiesstarting the first fire, life was joyous.Easy to meet people, easy to talk to people,a lot of happiness, and even the kids seemedto be mostly good. I didn't know that well-behaved children still existed in 1987 A.D.

And, I'm told, there was very good foodfrom the chuck wagon, a portable miraclekitchen equipped to handle the culinary needsand desires of legions. I watched itenviously as I burnt my food over a fire.Actually, it was great fun burning food overa fire. I'd never done it before, and Idon't know if I'll do it again. But it wasgreat fun.

It was a life replete with smiles,wonderful air, cave slime, back pains(chiropractors could make a mint if they setup shop outside the entrances to some ofthose caves), and in general everythingremote from my daily urban life. I talkedabout it with folks. There, we 75 caverswere family. Jobs and friends and homesseemed distant. Now writing this from myliving room, the opposite is true. Namesthat I was just getting familiar with havepret ty much s1ipped away. But I know theyare community, and that's what's important.

This hobby of ours - for most of us thatis what it is, isn't it? - this sport, no,this compulsion to go underground, is playingwith something very powerful. The layers ofsymbols manifest in "cave", some cosmic andsome persona 1, are not 1eft beh ind on ourexplorations. Al ice fell down a rabbi tholeand was transformed. This is something elseI learned in my eight caves in three days.This business is not to be taken lightly. Idreamt of nothi ng but caves for one so1idweek. In my last dream I was hunting for,and at the same time fearing to find, and atlast fleeing from an old bearded scary manthat 1ived deep down ina cave. Remi nd menot to tell that to my analyst. And I didthings I've never done and never ever hope todo again. I saw many beautiful wonders. Iexperi enced a new sense of ma 1e comraderi ewhile relishing a few secret conversationswith women. I existed three days without abath. And as I wa 1ked through a cavern thatshall remain nameless because my companionstold me we would be laughed at if we admittedgoing there, lantern in hand, and I looked at

(them)Wriggling on back orbelly.

(them)Interstices betweenrocks where the dirtfailed to fill in.

(them)Anythi ng other thanwriggling on back orbelly.

(me)Walk.

(me)Underground roomsand passageways some-times decorated withattractive formations.

No kidding, I'm not making this up.Look ing at cave maps will help prove thepoint: names like Masochist's Maze and Rat'sAnus .•• We needn't deal further on thesordid minds of people who invent thesedescriptive titles, let alone those who entersuch places.

Fortunately there were sane people theretoo. (Out of 75 registered there were bound

(me)Anything other thanwalking.

There are cavers and then there arecavers. This, although previously inferredon my part, was the lesson to be learned frommy first official outing with the Grotto.The latter have an as yet undesignateddisease; maybe speleopathology. Yes, I thinkthese people are speleopaths; and they aredangerous maniacs. The filthier, thetighter, the more precipitous, tortuous-words fail the quicker these men (ex-clusively men I bel ieve) leap to it. Andmany even brag about it to an absolutelyshocking degree. Around the campfire, whereelse. These folks even have their ownvocabulary I found out. A few examplessuffi ce:

addition there are other lava tubes that havenot been included in this area.

The purpose of this letter is to solicityour concerns and identify opportunitiesconcerning timber harvesting and how it wouldaffect the cave resource in this area. Ifyou have any questions or need more informa-tion contact me at (509) 427-5645.

Sincerely,John Weston, Timber Sale Planner

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987 55

the strong high vault, the vast road offrozen lava, a geological moment one millionyears old, locked in time, the solid, smoothwalls curving graciously, I said "This is acave," and was proud to be there, secure inthe knowledge that I am not, at least at thiswriting, a speleopath.

A few very dedi ca ted people made thisextraordinary gathering happen: Mark Wilson,registrar, organizer, entrepreneur; BobBrown, organi zer, adventurer, mas ter chef;Rod Crawford who produced the thorough guidebook (full of light reading for the dullmoments, but unfortunately I left my OED athome); and of course our gui des into whosehands we so eagerly committed our lives, ifnot our spirits.

I do have some recommendations for futuregatherings. Cave maps should always havetheir ceiling heights CLEARLY designated. Idiscovered what those little circled numbersmeant after it was too late. Caves should berated, either like forest service trails(l=easy, 2=medium, 3=difficult), or, as Iprefer, like movies: G, PG, R, or (frequent-ly) X or even XXX. This would give non-speleopaths fair warning, while saving thosewho prefer pornography much wasted meanderingin "subway tunnels". Finally, extra blanketsshould be advised. But details, details •••

CAVE REGISTER EVALUATIONJohn Clardy

From March 1986 to June 1987 the SkagitCounty Chuckanut Mountain talus cave registerrecorded 289 individuals, 30 of whom areresponsible for 48 return visits, but only 16entries represent Cascade Grotto membership.Aside from the Grotto, organized cavingactivity was conducted by the BellinghamRufus Jones Preparator School annual cavetour, Boy Scouts of Ameri ca Troop One, andSeventh Day Adventist Church activity.

Of statistical interest, from a total of114 dated entries by caving parties, anoverview of traffic flow by day and month isdisplayed:

Table 1. RegisteredCaving Parties By Day

Sexual Orientation sums for registeredvisitors were 180 males, 74 females, and 35individuals who remain unidentified. Ofcavers wi th spi rit for one or more returnvisits one third were female.

Wildlife information was tallied but wasinsuffi cient in deta il and is not presentedin this report.

Table 2. RegisteredCaving Parties By Month

1986 1987March 7 January 3April 9 February 6May 9 March 15June 8 April 15July 10 May 8August 7 June 5September 2October 2November 4December 4

Study of the cave register denotedidentification of return visitors. Flo w -charts record dated entries of returnvisitors, identification of other individualsinvolved in exchange of cave related informa-tion, and developing traffic trends with oneor more return visits. One individual wasfound to be an initial information source for27 subsequent visitors. While registered aspresent in 6 of 18 dated caving parties theflowchart touched 6 other repeat cavers.None of the 28 individuals involved areGrotto members.

Within the 16 month period two register-ed individuals applied for Cascade Grottomembership. Two other cavers, both withflowchart in progress, have contacted thewriter for regional speleological informa-tion; the pa ir were referred to the Grot toP.O. Box. The writer does not initiatecontact unless requested by log entry orperson-to-person contact during registerstation maintenance.

An evaluation procedure with otherSkagit and Whatcom County cave registerstations is being considered.

SundayMondayTuesdayWednesday

56

321055

ThursdayFridaySaturday

161729

Cascade Caver Vol 26 NO.6, July 1987

..

CAYEA story by

Kathryn MacDonald

There was a moment, just as she startedto fall, when Margaret knew she might havebeen able to save herself if she just hadn'tbeen so tired. As it was, she tripped on therippled lava of the cave floor, seemed tofloat for a moment in the dim light of herheadlamp, and then crashed down hard on bothknees. Reacting to the pain, she threw herbody to one side and ro11ed through a sma11stream, hidden in the bad 1ight. Her lampwent out.

She lay still in the dark, gasping withpain, clutching her left knee. It wouldn'tmove. She tried not to cry; ahead, she couldhear her husband, Jon, calling her name.Then a light appeared around the next bend inthe corridor and Jon's "omigod" voice (whichtold her he'd been expecting something likethis) said, "She's down."

If it hadn't hurt to breathe, she mighthave found the expression amusing. Itsounded 1ike a stockman's comment 01) afoundered horse.

Two lights moved toward her now as Jonand Bob -- the only one of their friends whoknew his way around a cave -- retraced theirsteps.

"Are you hurt?" Jon crouched down, hisface yellow in the light from his helmet.

Gritting her teeth and fighting backtears she said, "Yes, dammit!", understandingat last why heroes in books were so tersewhen wounded or savaged by wild beasts. Painwas a great conversation killer.

"How bad is it? 00 you think we shouldcarry you?" His voice had the strained,overcharged quality of a chil d on the vergeof tears. Poor Jon, she thought suddenly.The past few weeks have been hell for both ofus.

Aloud she said, "No, you'd never manageit. I just need to lie here for a minute andrecoup ..•"

"I could go for help." Bob's headlampmoved closer, its light increasing the goldglow on the walls, making them shine wetly.His voice, echoing off the rock, died away.

"No! I don't need help." Margaretimagined herself being lugged out of herfirst cave on a stretcher. "It's bad enoughtripping over my own feet. I'm not going tobreak backs too. I'll be okay. I just needto rest a minute."

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987

Jon and Bob crouched down and wa ited.She rested her forehead on her right arm anddidn't look at them. Just lying down feltgood, even on the hard floor of a wet cave.They had left the city at dawn, and it hadtaken three hours of steady driving to reachthe mountain. Somehow Margaret had expectedthe entrance to the cave to be close to theircampsite, but they'd had to leave the car andcatch a ride up an abandoned 1oggi ng roadwith a ranger until they were close enough tostart hiking. Then there was the long slogto the upper entrance of the cave, throughunexpected snowfi e1ds that shou 1d have beengone by this time of year. Instead, the snowhad been hip-deep in places. Margaret'stennis shoes were soaked, and her jeans hadnumbed her 1egs long before they'd reachedthe chill air of the cave. The whole expedi-tion had been so tinged with unrea 1ity bythat time, however, that chafed skin and coldfeet had seemed interesting, a challenge,until now.

Now the pain was insistent, especiallyin her left knee. I suppose it's broken, shethought dully. But it cou 1dn't be broken!Her family didn't break bones easily -- she'dnever broken a bone in her life! (Not thatyou tend to break bones curled in an armchairwith a good book, she reminded herselfsternly. This is probably one more newexperience to credit to the day.) But nomatter how hard she tried, she still couldn'tbelieve she'd broken anything. She felt aperson would have to know a thing like that.The crack of a bone, even if not audible,must communicate itself to the body somehow.How could you not know?

She couldn't imagine being in more painbut finally decided that it must be possible.She raised her head from her arm and kept hervoice steady, "I think I've just bruised afew nerves. Hurts 1ike hell, but I canwalk."

But her glasses were gone, along withthe extra flashlight she'd been carrying, andher helmet. It took several minutes offumbling in small wet crevices to find theglasses, and several more to try to cleanthem on her damp, gritty clothes. Jonstepped on the flashlight and nearly fellhimself. And Bob finally located her helmet,about six feet from where she'd fallen. Heswitched it back on. Its light was dim evenby cave standards. "Damn!" he said, switch-ing it on and off quickly. "The battery'salmost dead. No wonder you fell."

57

She tried not toKeep it 1i ght.

Sorry to hold

"Listen. I feel better if I can blame iton the lamp." she said in his direction.Slowly. with Jon's help. she got to her feetand began limping along the cave's downwardsloping floor. It had become ominouslyimportant to her not to give up. not to haveto sit down and wait for rescue in the blacktunnel of this lava tube. But for a longtime each step was as bad as falling again.and she began crying silently. to no one. inthe dark.

Bob moved on ahead and outdistanced themquickly. The glow from his head1amp outlinedthe top of a large rock fall as his voicefloated back to them (eerie in the dimcorri dor) from the other side. "I t doesn'tseem to be getting any better ahead." Hisvoi ce bounced from the rock with a hollow,musical sound. "The breakdown is a lot worsethan I expected."

Jon and Margaret looked at the rocks infront of them, piled like a jumble ofchildren's blocks until they almost filledthe arch of the cave. "Should we turn back?"Jon shouted. Margaret thought of the longway they'd come already and hoped Bobwouldn't say yes.

"No," Bob shouted back. "It's uphillgoing back. Then we'd have to hike backthrough all that snow aga into get to theroad. We'd never ca tch a ri de back to thecar this late in the day ••• that would makeit five more miles, at least!"

"Damn! How much fa rther to the lowerentrance. then?" Margaret glanced up at Jon,surpri sed. He sounded tired. He neverseemed to tire normally. She shivered.Well, life hadn't exactly been "normal"lately. The arguments that exploded out ofher at odd moments were difficult for Jon.He didn't understand her frustrations, herdisappointments with herself -- with themboth. She sat down on a boulder at the baseof the breakdown, suddenly too weary to move.She wanted to 1augh. Jon kept asking her,What is it you want? She didn't know either,unless it was change. Well. being stuck inthi s cave was a change. No wonder Jon wastired. Living with her was like being caughtin an avalanche these days.

Bob's voi ce came back over the pil e ofrock between them. "I'm not sure how far wehave left. I've never been in this part ofthe ca ve before. I have a map, but I don'tknow ••• probably no more than a mile, two atthe mast. I wasn't keepi ng t rack of 1and-marks. And with all this breakdown •.• "

58

"It's going to be a long, hard haul,"Margaret finished grimly.

"Can you make it?" Jon sounded as badas she felt.

"No choice, is there?"dwell on her liabilities."If I go slow I'll be fine.you up, though."

Bob, talking to himself on the otherside of the breakdown, said something almostunintelligible about never again bringingbeginners to this cave. Margaret smiledfaintly at Jon and thought he smiled back,then they began to climb. Margaret steppedup onto a flat stone (about the size of as teppi ng stone) and peered ahead. Jon wasstepping quickly from rock to rock, using hishands occasionally, moving easily. Theblocks formed crude steps ••• sometimes highones. They wou1d be hard on her knees, shedecided, but not impossible. If she wascareful. Suddenly the rock moved as sheshifted her weight. It rocked, making aheavy k10kking sound, like river rocks sheremembered from her childhood. If the wholeheap slid •.• but no, only her rock hadteetered. It settled back into place and thepile loomed solidly, as though settled formillennia.

She took a deep breath and heavedherself quickly up to the next block, forcingher swollen knees to bend, her legs totighten, push, relax. She scrambled onward.not her trusting balance, using both hands onthe wet rock. It took six 1ungi ng steps tomake it to the top. Panting, she sat downand rubbed her left knee gently. Waterdripped from the ceiling, water from thesnowfields lying far above the cave in thesunshine.

Her legs were numb, aching, but bothknees fe lt hot. throbbed with pa in. Herfingers ached. too, and her back was sore.She had shooting pains in her left hip andleg -- and oddly, her lips were chapped anddry. She ca ta 1ogued her miseri es with theself-pitying notion that she was doingpenance for her life. Her teeth chattering,she licked her lips: grit. the metallic tasteof cave water ••• blood? Wiping her fingerson her jacket. she touched her lower lip.Sp1i t. Not bad, not bad though. She tri edto keep from cryi ng again and thought abouthow wonderfu 1 it wou1d be to 1i e down, tosleep. The dark would seem more naturalthen. like night. She was tired -- that'swhy she kept tripping. Her feet were heavy.She needed to sleep now. But the rock was

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987

,.

hard beneath her, angular, unwelcoming. Shesat up straight and stretched her arms aboveher head to rouse herself. Her fingersscraped the wet ceiling. A cold drop slidacross her cheek.

"Peggy! You need help?" Jon had alreadymade it down the other side and was waitingat the bottom for her to follow. She rose,bent over to avoid the low ceiling, her lampcasting impenetrable shadows among the piledrocks.

It was easier to climb down. Then therewas a long stretch of cave, straight andclean, with sand on the floor. She tried torelax, but the walls moved. She saw themfrom the corners of her eyes. She wou 1dreach out to steady them by touch, but theymoved away or back again as her light bobbedand shifted. Then, more breakdown. Jonwaited for her at the base and they went uptogether, rested together at the top.

"This is sure weird," he said softly,rubbing his hand across his eyes.

Her face was so stiff that she couldn'teven smile. She nodded agreement. The airwas thick, damp, cold, with a peculiarminera1 smell to it. The sun on the snow-fields they'd crossed just this morning wasas remote as Antares now. Once again, shereached up and touched rock with herhalf-numb fingers. Jon heaved himself to hisfeet, crouched slightly, but still banged hishelmet on the ceiling. "Let's go! If we sittoo long, you'll get stiff."

She rose slowly and they started down.Rock by rock. She tried to be careful,planted one foot at a time, testing each stepbefore she let her full weight come down.

"I wonder what time it is," she said,more to herself than to him. "Does it seemwe've been down here long to you?" Henodded. They were both hungry, thirsty.They'd thought of nothing beforehand, sherealized suddenly, not even a watch. It madeher feel stupid to think she'd used so littleimagination and foresight when planning thistrip.

"Bette~ not think about time," he said.She concentrated on feeling her skin scrapi.ngagainst her wet clothes and wondered if aperson could sweat in the cold. It seemed asthough the water in the air seeped into youthrough your clothes, through the exposedskin of your hands and face, and filled youwith liquid ice. Or else it was filling herfrom within, permeating her body with everybreath she drew.

Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987

Bob, after seeing them safely down,moved off quickly. They watched his lampdisappear around the next bend. Soon theycou1dn't even hear the sound of his boots,the rock shifting as he climbed up the nextbreakdown. Margaret sat down and took offher glasses, put her head down on her knees.

"How do you feel, Peg?"She put her glasses back on and got to

her feet. There was breakdown ahead, andmore beyond that. "Stubborn," she replied."Ready?" He looked at her as though he wereabout to say something, then he just nodded.

They moved on. The cave seemed tolower. The rock pressed in. Her lamp wasuseless now, worse than useless, a dimflicker against the dark. She fell againwhen her left knee refused to lift her footover a ridge of rippled basalt, a hardenedstream winding along the floor. Now her kneequivered every time she put her weight on it.That worri ed her. She'd seen 1arne horses I

1egs quiver 1ike this, as though there werewires vibrating just beneath the skin, butshe'd never been able to imagine just how itmust feel.

"Poor horses.""What?" Jon turned to look at her. She

waved him on. He stopped, said impulsively,"We make a good team, don't we?"

"Don't," she said. "We've been throughit too many times already."

"Then this is the last adventure we'llhave together? You're really leaving tomor-row?" He sounded so young, so unprepared.

She suddenly felt very old. Tomorrowseemed too far away to think about, but shenodded anyway. Just in case they didn'tfreeze to death, she didn't want any morecomplications. She stared into the dark,away from him. It all seemed so heavy andstupid, all this emotion, part of a world asalien now as the world of this cave, and evendarker.

She wanted to say, "Look -- I do carefor you •••", wanted to tell him she didn'tunders tand what was happeni ng to them anymore than he did. Instead, moving away fromhim, she said "I want to thank you' forhelping me today."

He froze, then nodded as though he werea stranger she was thanking for having givenher directions in an unfamiliar city. Thenhe moved off, leaving her behind.

She watched his light disappear afterBob's over the brea kdown, watched the glowrecede. The walls glimmered wetly in hersma11 flash1ight's du11 beam. They looked

59

deceptively soft in the meager 1ight undertheir 1ayer of s1ime. She had reached outagain and again today to touch them, but shewas cont inually surpri sed when they felt ashard as the rock she had fallen on.

The bowels of the Earth, she thoughtruefully. And the cave wrapped around herlike the cold insides of a snake. Shewaited, a rodent swallowed whole, for thecontractions that would crush her.

She shook herself. It would be too easyto let your imagination carry you away inhere, she decided, and she concentrated onput ting her body through the motions neces-sary to climb the next breakdown. Her hip,now, was addi ng its mite of misery to thewhole as she struggled painfully to the topand sat down again. Her helmet brushed thedripping ceiling, and she took it off to wipeher face on her sleeve. Water trickledthrough her hair, making chill streaks downher scalp.

Shivering, she suddenly felt a wave ofexcitement, of recognition. The size, theshape, the true nature of everything shepassed was hidden here, or distorted by hernarrow beam -- loomed or was invisible in thedarkness. What had she missed so far? Whathad she seen? She wished she could suddenlyilluminate it all with floods of light, tried

to imagine what it would look like if seenexactly, objectively.

Still, she knew there was an absolutereality even to mistaken impressions, eventhose which, now and then, were given the liewhen she cracked her helmet against a rockknob she hadn't suspected was there or whenshe tripped over ripples in the lava floor.Even when she established a limit -- thecave's height, for example -- with her hands,she sti 11 fel tit was as high or low as herdistorted sight of it had first reported.And the dark was always waiting to close inif the light failed. One couldn't forget thedark.

She unders tood, now, why peop 1e cameback to caves again and again. The dark,near, silence, magnified every bruise andaching muscle; each rock outlined by thelight became significant, every drop of waterthat plinked from the ceil ing had its ownmusic. It was another world, ancient anddifficult as dreaming.

She stood up and realized that her legswere stiffer as she began her cautiousscramble, once again, from rock to rock.

"Jon? How much farther?" Her own voiceechoed back at her.

Ahead was darkness -- and the steadywhisper of the cave's endless rain.

Rent Hardhat with light, requires 4 0 cells1.00 /day, 2.00 /wkend, 6.00 /month

Premier carbide lampLamp bottom with lidParabolic reflector 2.5"Parabolic reflector, 5.0"Premier repair kitFelt, 1.5"Felt Holder, 1.5"Felt plate, 1.5"Felt holder, 2.0"Rubber gasket, 2.0"Wing nutFlintsSpringsCap nutTip cleanerTip reamerTipsHex nutReflector braceRubber gripFoam "0"Light bulbs

$23.006.005.505.504.000.250.750.750.750.300.750.100.250.252.500.751.250.250.751.000.500.50

CASCADE GROTTO STOREPRICE LIST

Grotto decalNSS decalGrotto patchNCA patchHardhat and bracketHardhat suspensionGas mask packL-1 bracketCarbideCaving tee shirtsKnee pads.Cascade Caver, back issues

1.502.00n/a5.001-5-..00- 7•502.00

--&..00- 5.003.500.75 /lb8.50

0.60

,, "

60 Cascade Caver Vol 26 No.6, July 1987