Building on Dreams

Chapter 37 - Exploring a Cave

"Hello!" Greg called.

"Hello Greg! I hope you don't mind, but I couldn't wait to show Lee what we've found," Brian said as he and their Asian friend emerged from the tunnel.

"No, I don't mind," Greg assured him. "Brian, I'd like you to meet Neil, my step-son from my second marriage. Neil, this is Brian Stevenson, my architect, and his friend Lee Sato who does landscape architecture. One of Neil's interests is spelunking so I thought he could help. "

"Nice to meet you," Neil said as he shook each man's hand, looking curiously at the landscape architect. "Excuse me for asking, but why is a landscape architect interested in a cave?"

"Normally I wouldn't be, but this came up as we discussed how to treat the land in relationship to the house your step-father is building.  My curiosity got the better of me when they discovered it," Lee explained. "It's not every day you get involved in designing landscaping for someone's house and end up with a cave."

"No, I suppose not," Neil said with a bemused expression on his face as he studied his step-father.

"What is it?" Greg asked curiously.

"When did you get to be so interesting?" he asked. "You never did anything like this when you were married to Mom."

"True," Greg agreed. "Susan seems to bring it out in me," he said with a shrug. "You want to help me unload?" he asked the group at large.

"Sure, what are we unloading?" Brian asked.

"I brought a generator, gas to fill it, several long extension cords, three strings of white Christmas lights, and three high-powered outdoor flood lights," Greg explained. "I thought it would help if we could see what we are exploring."

"Good thinking," Lee told him. "I couldn't see anything in there."

"It was even less distinct than before without the flares," Brian shared.

"Which is the reason for the lights," Greg said. "Let's set the generator up near the entrance then intersperse the extension cords and the Christmas lights to illuminate the tunnel."

The four of them worked together to get the generator in place and started, then began connecting the extension cords. At the end of each, they attached another cord and a string of the Christmas lights as provided by the splitter. As before, roughly two hundred feet in, the sides of the tunnel fell away and that's where Greg set up the first actual light, shining towards the end of the tunnel and out into the cave.

"That is better," Brian commented as he looked back through the tunnel at the string of tiny lights lying along one wall.

Brian, it turned out, had brought a high powered flashlight with him. He turned it back to the black empty space in front of them and began shining the light around, illuminating the inside of the cave. His intent was to show Neil what they were dealing with, but it allowed all of them to get a better look at it for the first time.

"It looks like if this tunnel had been angled a bit more to the right, it would have opened on top of that natural bridge," Neil commented pointing his own light towards a thick wall of lava that separated the cave to the west of where they stood into an upper and lower section.

"It does look that way, doesn't it," Brian agreed. "Is there any way we can get to it from here to explore that upper part?"

Neil looked around for foot holds or places to attach a rope.

"Not easily," he told them. "Personally, I'd go down first, get some rappelling lines and a ladder in place, then think about going up."

"How do we do that?" Greg asked.