It was the beginning of spring break, and my 19 year old daughter, Becca, was home from college. It had been a while since my wife Rachel and I had seen her, and we were very excited. Becca said she wanted to spend this first day exploring our back woods like when she was younger, so that's what I planned for us.
Our property connected to the national forest, so it was like we had an infinite back yard. The woods in the immediate vicinity were lush and dense in the Summer, only beginning to wake now in Spring. There wasn't much snow left, just a few patches in shady areas, and life was returning to the forest.
Becca arrived at the house around 10am. Rachel and I were waiting in the driveway to welcome her home. When she stepped out of her car, I was reminded just how much she'd bloomed since her youth. When she was younger, she was very thin and a bit lanky, and mostly hung with the nerdy crowd. With puberty, there were only minor changes. I'd hoped she was just a late bloomer, and boy was I right. After she turned 18 she rapidly grew into her lanky frame. Her breasts were particularly surprising given that Rachel's also weren't very large. Becca flew so far beyond her mother physically that you wouldn't guess a relation. She was stunning.
Rachel wrapped Becca in a huge rocking hug, and they exchanged hellos and said how much they missed each other. I slung my arms around both of them as they hugged and joined in, over the moon to have our daughter back, however briefly.
We went inside and ate a late breakfast, preparing for the day's adventures, and then set off out the back door, into the forest. The air was crisp but pleasant, needing only a light sweater to be comfortable. The trees were starting to bud, speckling the backdrop of grey bark with yellow and green dots. There's nothing like the smell of spring.
The woods here were fairly sparse, and made for easy walking. Rachel and I walked, holding hands, behind Becca, who was tracing the bank of a small creek cutting through the forest floor. We followed this creek for a while, simply enjoying nature, before coming to the mouth of a small cave that the water flowed into. This forest was dotted with hundreds of tiny caves like this, many of which no human has ever set foot in. I used to explore them with Becca when she was very little, and I know she used to bring her friends out here in her teens to do God knows what.
Becca had stopped at the mouth of the cave and turned back toward us, waiting for us to arrive. "We should go in! Come on, please can we??" she asked excitedly.
I looked at Rachel with a "why not" expression, but you could tell from her vibe that she was hesitant.
"I've read too many stories about people getting stuck in holes or tight squeezes, and these caves are uncharted. It's way too dangerous."
"Becca and I have explored tons of these caves, probably even this one. We're always careful! Come on it'll be fun," I propositioned, wanting to do whatever Becca wanted while we had her.
"You two are welcome to go spelunking all you want, but I'm not interested."
"But what will you do while we explore?" Becca asked, "It might be a while, you should come!"
Rachel looked at the ground for a moment, pushing some pebbles around with her foot as she tried to find the courage to say yes. She failed.
"I'll just walk back, it's not that far. I'll wait at the house, you two have fun! Seriously!"
Becca and I looked at each other and shrugged, accepting Rachel's resignation from our caving team.
"Okay babe, we'll try not to take too long," I said, kissing Rachel goodbye. As she turned to leave, I helped Becca down into the cave, jumping after her onto the first large wet slab of stone.
The floor of the cave was dotted with pitfalls and other openings that we were careful to avoid. The creek had cut a small channel toward the back, so we followed it deeper, looking for an opening to a new passage or chamber to explore. We walked forward and found exactly what we wanted. The creek poured into a large hole at the furthest depth of the first chamber. We could hear the water dropping and splashing at the bottom, indicating it wasn't very deep, maybe 6 feet. Things were about to get super cool.
Becca went first, sitting at the hole's edge. She dropped through the opening, which was about two feet wide. Not crazy tight, but requiring you to maneuver. I watched her disappear into the hole and then got down and went after her. It was impossible not to get wet, and the water was quite cold, so we knew we couldn't stay long. Once inside, we sat for a moment, letting our eyes adjust to the new found darkness.
This passage was much roomier than I was expecting, I could almost stand up completely. It went on forever, the creek carving its way into the Earth, and it would have been impossible to explore it all. There were several offshoots from this main chamber on the left and the right of the creek, so Becca suggested we check out a few of those and then call it.
Her original excitement to enter the cave seemed to have changed to something else. She kept telling me to go first into these passages, and watched intently as I did, but she didn't seem afraid. She seemed nervous, but excited. She would wring her hands and lean into the entrances that I was exploring, trying to see what I was doing. Her energy felt like she was watching me open a present on Christmas and hoping I'd love it.
I had checked out three of the offshoots and found nothing of interest, so I told her we should probably go, that I was quite cold from the creek water.
"Wait, wait, just one more. Maaybeeeee, that one?" she pointed at a large offshoot on the opposite wall of the cave.
"Come on, Becca, we're going to catch a cold down here," I protested.
She crossed her arms and made an exaggerated pout. "Hmph!"
"Fine, fine," I sighed, remembering that I was going to do whatever she wanted while she was here.
I jumped across the creek and went over the offshoot in question. As I entered, I could feel Becca watching me, her eyes burning with excitement. The small tunnel was totally dark, and even with my eyes adjusted I couldn't make out much, so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. I squinted as the brightness lit the offshoot, and noticed that it ended some 20 feet ahead. Something dark was hanging from the roof of the cave at the end.
"Hey Becca, there's actually something in here..." I said as I pressed forward, surprised to find anything of interest.
"What is it?" she asked, her face appearing behind me at the tunnel's entrance.
"I'm not really sure, maybe just a stalactite, but it looks darker than the surrounding rock."
