Spelunkadunk.

Mike Fusi (typically referred to as simply "Fusi") is my adventuring buddy. We went hunting with our pocketknives once, trudging uphill through patches of snow and along a trickling stream, following trails of deer poop hoping to find that elusive pooper. We didn't see a single animal the entire time.

A few days ago I pointed out a cave on the way down the canyon from Nederland to Boulder. Alongside the canyon is a... it's too big to be a creek but too small to be a river. It flows from the reservoir dam in Nederland all the way down the 20-mile canyon. About halfway down are the Boulder Falls, off-limits due to falling rock (Fusi and I checked it out anyway, and we weren't the only ones. It's really pleasant down there). Across from the falls is the cave. As soon as I pointed it out Fusi wanted to go, and today we went.

The biggest problem was that the spring snow is melting, and that little river? It's turned into wide whitewater rapids. We scouted up and down the bank looking for a way across, a precarious bridge of rocks to hop along... And eventually we found something. There was a rope stretched over the water, tied between two trees a little way up the canyon. It looked... Intense. There was nothing past it though, so we went back down instead. And found another rope, this one bolted to rocks on either side of the river, and lower to the water too.

Faced with no other alternative, we took hold of it and shimmied across. I pulled myself along the top, balancing as carefully as I could, and it sagged enough in the middle that I got soaked from the waist down. Fusi opted for a monkey-climb, hanging from the bottom of the rope, and at one point he was completely submerged--but we both made it across just fine (even if I was ready to jump in after him if he fell).

Wet, we walked along the bank, on rocks and through brush, to come to the mouth of the cave. The opening was perhaps eight feet tall. The first chamber was roughly circular, and sloped up slightly. It was full of moths and dust, and when we crested that little hill the darkness started to set in. We moved down the slope until we hit water, filled with slippery sticks and swampish murk. The walls were wet and muddy and we clung to them as best we could to not sink to the ankle in that narrow little corridor. The water was deepest where the cave split into three passages, the mouths of the last two dry. The middle passage was short, but had a small hole you could squeeze through into the left passage, past the water. That leftmost passage was the longest, and ended in a small spraypainted message: RANDY WA-- the rest was indiscernable. Was here, perhaps; or maybe a last name.

The rightmost passage had a black arrow spraypainted, beckoning onward, but it was short too. It culminated in a nest of grasses, divoted as though it had been slept in for some time, perhaps by a bear. There were no bones or waste or other signs of habitation, though, and Fusi and I left, content with our explorations. The trip back across the river was a little more successful for the both of us, and we looked a fantastic mess. We both loved it.

Tomorrow we go down to the Boulder Ranger Offices to plant donated trees--a nice change of pace from murdering so many in so many campsites.

Don't wake me, I plan on sleeping in

Every time we return to Denver there's a community meeting where all 250 to 200 of us (the number shrinks each time we return and see that new people have been kicked out or left) get together for a fairly unnecessary proclamation from the lady who runs our campus. One person from each of the four units is also declared Corps Member of the Round, a pretty informal title given to someone who went above and beyond during the last project. I won it for earth unit.

When the four Corps Members of the Round were asked to stand, only three people stood up. It was the first meeting of any sort I've missed yet. I slept through it. Fortunately, my absence was mistaken for modesty.

At the career fair yesterday the CIA did not show up, but the FBI and the Department of State did. So I talked to them about domestic security jobs and foreign ambassador jobs.

Beyond that, I've been thoroughly proofreading my brother's book. When I finish I'm going to resume my studies in Italian via Rosetta Stone, see if I can't get the Arabic one to work, read Blood Meridian and The Catcher in the Rye, read some nonfiction (a book on oil and a CIA agent's memoirs), read Bone (Coby has the entire comic series, about 1300 pages, in one volume), and finish applying for colleges so I'm doing something fairly soon after I get back.