It was getting late, so we all decided to turn in, and get an early start in the morning. Niki and I had decided earlier, as we were getting our things together to go, that we would share a tent when we got there. Since neither of us had ever had sex before, the thought of us sleeping together was very arousing. I wondered if she was thinking about it too, and if so, if it affected her like it did me. We zipped our bags together and used our body heat to keep warm. Niki snuggled up next to me, with her head on my shoulder. We talked about tomorrow and the possibility of finding something interesting. Then we talked about the chance of being able to take some great pictures to put on our Webshots site. We kissed goodnight, and settled in. I lie there wondering if we would find evidence of strange occurrences.
We all started out early the next morning. This was to be Niki's and my first cave exploration. I was pretty excited, and I could tell that Niki was too by the way she kept squeezing my arm. The group traveled quite a ways in before we came to our first branch.
The cave was what you might expect. The farther in we got the cooler it became. The ground was angling at a slight downward slope, and the walls were becoming damp. We were reminded to notch the rock wall at each branch to mark the exit route. The group split up at the first branch. Another couple joined us, and the rest continued on. The tunnel we chose continued to slope downwards, and the temperature started dropping rapidly. About an hour later we came upon our second branch. We split here from the other couple. We had been traveling without a break. The tunnel continued to be large enough to walk upright in, though it was getting more and more damp. Not knowing how much farther this passage continued we decided to rest here and eat, then return to the camp site.
That evening after dinner there was a big discussion on whether or not it had been a wise decision to split our group at the second branch, and rejoin again later on at a set time for heading back to camp. The other group had also encountered a second branch, but had decided not to split up. They had continued on until they came upon a third split. There they stopped and returned to camp. Some of the members were a little concerned about the splitting up of the groups, and worried that we'd get too scattered. After going over all the pros and cons on the safety of it, the club leader impressed upon everyone that if we were going to split up again, he thought it would be alright. It was important though, that each couple keep in constant communication with the others over the radios, especially if the path branched again. Then it would be imperative that the direction that is chosen was announced over the radio and clearly marked. A vote was then taken, and the vote to split up at the branches won out.
Niki and I called it a night, and went to our tent. We decided to sleep without our clothes that night. Even though it wouldn't be as safe, it was definitely more comfortable. So we undressed down to our underwear, and snuggled up together in the sleeping bag. This was our first time sleeping together this way, and we were a little nervous at first. We talked for awhile, and I could feel her body gradually relaxing against me. We kissed goodnight. When we felt it turning passionate we decided we'd better get to sleep, before we got carried away, and were up all night. Morning came all to quickly, as we woke up hearing the rest of the club already up and about. Niki got up and dressed. I noticed right away that she sure looked sexy in the morning in only her panties and bra, and that's as descriptive as I'm going to get here. Sorry. I felt myself becoming aroused and starting to harden. Luckily, before I could suggest that she come back to bed, she went out to clean up. I got up and dressed and got our things together for the new day.
We all ate breakfast and the same couples were assigned to each group. We also made sure that each couple had a working radio. We reached the cave in good spirits, and headed down to the first tunnel split. When we reached it we went over the safety plans again, rechecked our equipment, and headed down the tunnel we'd taken before. The other group headed down theirs. We soon reached the second branch and said good luck to the other couple in our group as we split up. The branch we took angled down in a sweeping curve. We headed on down, knowing we only had three more hours to explore as much of this area as we could before heading back to the split at the agreed upon time. The deeper we went the cooler it got. Eventually we heard the sound of water and noticed that the tunnel was getting quite wet and the ground was slippery. We turned a sharply descending curve in the path, and came upon an ever increasing flow of water along one side. Our path was steadily widening, probably the result of the flow of the water on the stone. Walking on downward, we entered a fairly large open cavern like area.
The stalactite formations suspended from the ceiling, and the stalagmites rising from the ground were beautiful. They were streaked with the different shades of orange, reds, and yellows of the minerals from the earth above and shades of green on the stalagmites from the growth of lichen and moss. We stood gazing at the beauty of the open area. The differing colors of the walls and formations were breathtaking. I fished out our camera and started taking pictures of it all. The water flow we'd been following emptied into a large lake then continued on down through a small opening at the far end of the cavern. I took several pictures of that as well. I stepped back as far as I could and took a panoramic picture of as much of the entire cavern as I could get. The view was beyound description.
We split up and started exploring the area. Niki was searching a small alcove at the back of the cavern, when I heard her cry out. I hurried over to her. She was just standing there looking into the area she'd been checking. I shone my light in and saw what had startled her. There was a pile of bones, and after a closer inspection, I found that they were not only animal bones, but also human bones. I'm not an expert, but thinking back to the pictures and the different types and shapes of human skulls in my biology classes, some were more primitive then others. The way the bones were broken and some of the skulls crushed, whatever had put them there had to be a very large animal, or one with very strong jaws. We also found some unidentifiable prints leading in and out of the lake. I took pictures of the bones before we disturbed them and of the prints I had found by the edge of the lake. Niki took some castings of them, while I started to gather up as many different samples as I could. By the time I'd gotten all the bones together, and the castings were dry, it was getting near time to return to the others. We gathered up all our samples and hurried back up the passageway, anxious to show the group what we'd found.
We met the other couple waiting for us at the branch. We told them what we had discovered, and showed them some of the samples. They told us that they had also taken some castings of some strange footprints, but had found no evidence of any bones. Excitedly we hurried on, anxious to show the rest of the group our find. After we all got back to the campsite, we examined all of the samples that the groups had brought back. We discovered that whatever had made the prints in our cavern had roamed throughout the entire cave. Each group had found signs of our mysterious animal. It seemed, though, that he only fed in the cavern that we were in. Probably because of the access to the lake, or maybe thats where it entered the cave. No one in the group could identify the type of animal that made the prints. One member had brought a book of known animal prints, but ours didn't match any of them.
We recorded and packed away all the specimens, cleaned up, and had dinner. By then it was getting pretty late so we called it a night. Niki and I headed for our tent. We laid there talking about the discoveries we'd made that day, and just enjoyed lying close together, snuggling. Niki had her head on my shoulder, her leg draped across mine. I was thinking of how nice that felt as I driftted off to sleep. The next morning came too soon, as we again awoke to the sounds of the rest of the club members outside.
Today would be the last day of our field trip, so we were kind of anxious to get started. We still had a lot of the cave that was unexplored. I think that's where our troubles first started. We became too anxious and forgot the rule of always checking our direction, the way we got there, and most important, the path in front of us. We got ready and joined the rest of the group outside. After a short breakfast we were ready to descend. Niki and I hurried down the path leading to the cavern we'd been exploring. Then fate took a hand in the outcome of our day. The last time going down there we hadn't noticed another path that branched off of ours. It was right after a large curve. This time though in our rush to get to the cavern and explore the rest of it, we inadvertently took that branch instead of the previously chosen one. After about a hundred yards of shallow descent, we came to another curve. Too late though, I thought to myself, "Where did this second curve come from?"
