Hippies and Hillbillies Part II

For those of you who were almost lulled into a comatose state by my last post, I will try to wrap it simply. Short and sweet. But just in case, maybe you should set aside a small chunk of time and maybe get some popcorn before you start.

So... in addition to the nylon suburbia and gun-shooting rednecks, there were also some campers on the other end of the spectrum. While looking for the end of a downhill bike trail we discovered a... commune?... of rather peaceful folk. There were probably ten or so of them sitting around the campfire... in the middle of the day. They had a small wall of fire wood, making it obvious that they may be there for a while. They were listening to some sort of chanting music and their faces were painted! Only one camper had full-face paint, the rest just had some beautification here and there. Nice people, but you had to ask yourself... is all that smoke coming from the campfire?

The last type of camper, the category we find ourselves in, is the green camper. When we moved into our campsite the first thing the boys did was pick up all the trash in the area. We had such a great time enjoying being outside. On Friday we started the day by exploring the cave. Now I have known for a while that I suffer from at least mild clostrophobia, but I have never tested my fear on any truly enclosed space. When we got to the entrance of the cave there were lots of people already there, standing around outside of the entrance. We turned on our headlamps and headed, not into a wide entrance to a cavern, but into a closet-door-sized hole in the wall. Apparently I had some misconceptions as to what caving would be like. There were not vast caverns, no stalagtites or mites, only a hallway-sized tomb that was packed full of families with small children. RUN!!!! I managed to contain my hyperventilation (though not my tears, yes, I am a wuss), and made it through about half the cave before Riley finally brought me to my senses and escorted me out. He took me out then requested permission to reenter the cave, so I then proceded to sit on the hill above the cave watching people go in and out for about forty-five minutes. I am proud to say, and a little envious, that they did not come out the entrance like everyone else, they had crawled all the way through and shimmied out the exit and came walking down the trail covered in mud, to the excitement of everyone sitting there. My day got better after lunch when we went on a hike and then settled in for the night. This was, of course, the hellish night of noise and booze, but we laugh about it now. I regained some of my studliness the next day when I road the rock-infested mountain bike trail.

All in all, a very satisfying trip. We had some laughs, got some exercise, and I even learned a little bit about myself. By the way, on our way out of the park we stopped to take a picture in front of the cave, and Riley handed me his headlamp and told me to just step in and see if I could conquer a little of my fear. I came out ten minutes later after going as far as I could inside the cave without having to crawl. There may be hope for me yet.