Tom asked Jackie and Kate to go in first with him and Rick following. “Turn your flashlights on before going into the cave.”
Tom was last to enter and found there was enough light without his flashlight.
The cave entrance was high enough to walk the horses inside but not high enough to ride. The tunnel went in about ten paces and bent to the left with a slight downhill slope. Tom guessed he was about fifty feet into the hillside when the cave opened up to a large chamber. Granny B had lit a Coleman lantern, which gave off ample light to explore the roughly twenty feet wide by thirty-five feet long room with a fifteen-foot-high ceiling.
Jackie slowly turned as she looked around the cave and noticed the markings and soot on the ceiling. “Some old Indians probably lived in this very spot.”
She gasped. “Cave paintings!”
Tom walked over to her. “More like charcoal stick figures. That animal could be a bear or a beaver.”
Jackie snarled. “Then why is the beaver taller than the man with the spear?”
“Good question,” Tom said and then motioned to Granny. “I think you said there were several chambers this large or larger. Let’s see the whole cave. Hey, where are the supplies?”
Kate chuckled, “Before we go, how do we feed the horses in here, and how do we get rid of their poop?”
Granny B urged them to take the tour first and then get into the detail. Kate pressed. “I just wondered about how to keep the smell down a bit.”
“Hold your horses, and you’ll find out how we can live here if needed.” Granny B laughed when she turned around and saw Kate holding the horses’ reins.
They hobbled the horses and took off following Granny B, who’d lit another lantern. There were several openings on both ends of the cave, but only two large enough for a person to walk upright. A couple of them were only large enough for a large dog to run into. The opening wasn’t large enough for horses, but Tom never had to duck, and it only narrowed to three feet once. The floors were much flatter than Tom expected. “Why are the floors flat when the rest of the tunnel is an elongated oval?”
Granny B guessed at the answer. “My guess is water washed the dirt into the cave.”
Kate wondered why the old lady chose this tunnel. “Why this tunnel? There was one the other end of the cavern that was almost as large.”
“Because this one goes where I want to go, and the other only goes to where we store the hay, firewood, and Coleman fuel. Do not. I repeat, do not go in there before I show you the way. It’s dangerous.”
Tom tapped her on the shoulder. “How so?”
“Stop with the dad-burned questions and take the tour!”
Tom chuckled, “She’s getting a bit testy.”
“I heard that, and I’ll test your sorry butt when we get done with the tour. There are several pitfalls and traps in this labyrinth of tunnels. So shut your pie hole and learn from this testy old woman.”
Kate started to speak, but Tom gave her a dirty look, and she held her comment. Granny B abruptly stopped. “Look! The tunnel splits off into two sections. We’ll take the left one and live. We’ll die if we take the other because it has a sheer drop-off. The crack in the floor is at least six feet across. We never tried to cross it, just too dangerous. Follow me.”
Tom spoke. “I feel like we’re going down the hillside. Does water ever gush through the cave? Could we be in danger if there’s a rainstorm?”
“Not along this route. The tunnel that leads to the hay storage has another tunnel that runs past an opening with a year-round spring. I’ve seen it almost overflow into that tunnel, and if it did, the water would flow down through these tunnels. Oh, the water is mountain spring clear and fresh.”
“Here we go! Look ahead.”
The tunnel had exploded into a colossal cavern forty feet across by sixty feet long. The ceiling was over thirty feet above them. Granny B turned the lantern off, and dancing in front of them were several shafts of light with dust particles shimmering in the beams.
“We’re close to the surface!” Tom shouted and listened to his voice, echoing off the walls. “We could build a cabin above one of the holes and have a place to escape to when in danger,” Tom announced.
Granny B walked ahead to the far left side of the expansive room and lit the Coleman lantern. She motioned for them to join her. “Look down that way. Do you see the pile of wood, burned wood, broken pots, and other material? That’s what washed down from above us. Now, look at this wall. Yes, it’s a doorway to the outside. Follow me.”
She led the way through the rocky tunnel a short way. Along the way were roughhewn shelves stocked with food, water, and supplies. Tom’s eyes opened wide, and he felt his heart racing with expectation. Granny B stopped on a landing at the top of a short flight of stairs. “This is it.”
She fiddled with a hidden latch, and what appeared to be a rock wall silently opened to reveal the inside of the cabin. “Take a look but don’t step in yet. There are a few booby traps. Take turns and look.”
One by one, they each looked into the cabin by the light of the lantern in Granny B’s hand. Tom looked to the right and saw a small rustic kitchen with a small table and only three handmade three-legged stools. The fireplace was small but did have iron hooks with a large kettle hanging, waiting for the cook to throw a rabbit into the pot. The two
