Don't forget to yell "ROCK!"

Can you find me in the picture below?  I have a black jacket and white stocking cap on.  This is the only picture that I have to go along with the adventure I'm about to tell you. 

After we tired of playing football, Mike and I went for a walk.  Our plan was to go check out the two cabins down the road from us.  From the last cabin we decided to make a path through the woods back to our cabin.  When we were at the point you see in the picture above, we were enticed further into the woods up the mountain.  There was a moss covered creek bed that looked like a "follow the yellow brick road" to two explorers.  We couldn't resist the tug of nature and were soon climbing up the side of the mountain.  At first it was an easy climb.  The rocks had fallen down the creek bed in an almost stair step pattern.  Then we reached an area that was more like bouldering.  Before long we were having to navigate through a maze of briers while trying to stay on our feet on the steep incline.  The path was covered with leaves which made it difficult because we weren't certain what was under our feet with each step!  When we ventured outside the creek bed the terrain was loose which caused us to lose our balance, however the mossy creek bed was becoming slippery.  After climbing for a while it looked like we were nearing a ridge, but there was an obstacle.  During the spring, I'm guessing that water cascaded like a waterfall down the small bluff in front of us, however, during the winter it was just a moss covered bluff of rocks.  We decided to try to climb the bluff rather than going around...because that's where the adventure was!

 

I began to climb first.  I found some good hand holds and a few good foot holds, however as I climbed farther up I couldn't find anything to hold onto that wasn't a mossy, muddy, slippery mess! There was a huge oval rock that was sitting on the top ledge of the bluff.  I told Mike (who was climbing up behind me), "There's a big rock up here that has an edge I can grab onto, but it's just sitting on top of this ledge and I'm afraid it'll move!"  He told me to try pulling on it really hard...putting my weight on it.  I pulled hard and the rock didn't budge, so we decided to keep climbing using the rock as a hand hold.  I reached as far as I could around the rock and put all my weight on that hand hold to pull myself up to the ledge.  As I did, I felt the rock give way!

 

Suddenly I was watching a 200+ pound rock as it came lose from the ledge and fell straight towards my husband!  I yelled "Aaaaaaah!" (you're supposed to yell "ROCK" when you knock a rock loose while climbing...but I think adrenaline took over...besides...Mike knew there was a boulder headed for his head!).  Then (as I fell) I looked back to see Mike throw his body backwards off the bluff and saw him tumble back down the mountain head over hills for about 20-30 feet.  Praise the Lord that he threw himself to the right and the rock went to the left.  I saw the rock banging into other rocks and trees until it came to a stop 10 feet past Mike.  It was at this time that I realized that I had slid straight down the bluff and landed straddled on a tree that was growing sideways out of the mountain. 

 

Mike slowly got to his feet as I called out "what's broken?!?" He stood there for a few minutes taking inventory of his body parts.  It was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to walk away with just some scrapes and bruises.  He must have hit a rock or tree pretty hard with his left butt cheek (it was swollen and red/green/purple)...but besides that he just had some scrapes on his arms and legs and quite a few briers stuck in his hands.  I was shaking...but besides a scrape on my leg, I too was no worse for the wear!  If Mike had not thrown himself off the bluff...or if he had jumped left rather than right, the rock could've killed or maimed him!

 

We took a few minutes to regroup.  After we realized that we were ok...we both looked up towards the ridge and then back at each other with grins on our faces.  We decided to take the safter, round about way up to the top of the bluff and were surprised at what we found at the top.  It was a huge cave!  It was at least 8 feet tall at the top of the opening and 10-15 feet wide.  We could see that there were lots of tunnels that went back deep into the cave, but without a flashlight...there was no way we were going to explore a cave that was off the beaten path!  I was just a little paranoid that there would be a bear hibernating in there (although Mike saw no signs of bear...only deer).  It was then we realized that we didn't even have a phone with us (not that we'd get cell service...but we didn't have ANY source of light).  Since the sun had already disappeared over the peak of the ridge, we decided we better began the trek back to the cabin.  We didn't want to have to hike through the moss covered rocks and briers in the dark! 

 

We arrived back at the cabin as darkness set in and when we walked in the door I announced, "Well...we're alive!"  (This is something we usually say to Namaw after we've done something that she wouldn't approve of....like sky diving.)  She wasn't thrilled with our adventure story and reminded us that we have 2 little boys to take care of.  We know that...and that's why we headed back before dark!  ;)

 

This is one of the things that I love about Mike.  He thrives on adventure.  Some of my favorite memories are of the crazy adventures we've lived through.  I see this same hunger for adventure in our boys and it makes me so happy to know that our life will be full of many adventures as a family.  We don't ever intentionally put ourselves in situations that endanger our lives....but I have a feeling that Namaw will hear "Well...we're alive!" a few more times over the next couple decades.