Ôωô ples!

a blue-ridged adventure

"hey garry! give me a hand," mark shouted from the top of a rocky embankment.
"just a moment," said garry, as he made an attempt to strengthen his footing on the rocks near the cavern.
together, garry and mark descended into the famous underground caverns of shenandoah. as they entered the cavern, both boys had no regrets about signing up for this trekking trip in the blue ridge mountains in virginia.
"i don't think we need a flashlight," mark said, looking at the natural crystalline cave formations that seemed to be emitting a light of their own.
behind a large, craggy rock formation, the boys saw a small opening about the size of a doorway, and began to move towards it. quietly, they stepped in through the entryway.
"let's see where this takes us," whispered garry boldly as he took the first step down a long, narrow path.
as they moved further down the walkway, the light became dimmer, and eventually they could not see anything around them.
after what seemed like an eternity of dragging their fingers along the walls of the cavern to follow the path in the dark, a glimmer of light appeared. silently, the boys hurried their steps until they found themselves in a brightly lit open expanse, about the size of a large concert hall.
the cavern here was unlike the other caverns because the sun poured in through an opening in the ceiling.
the boys were amazed to see concentric, ancient stone circles piled on the floor of the cave.
"we may have stumbled upon an ancient paleo-american indian site," said mark, who had just written an article on the ancient people. when he grew up, he planned to become an archaeologist. "this site must be at least 9,000 years old," he said. though he wanted to stay and explore, he knew it was illegal to tamper with archaeological sites. so, he turned to garry and said, "we should get out of here without disturbing anything."
guess i'll come back here one day when i write my book on the paleo-american indians, mark thought.
as they walked back down the pathway that led to the room, garry exclaimed "can you believe what we just saw? that was so great! you'll have to come rediscover this place when you're a famous archaeologist and author! "
stepping out of the cavern, they took in the pristine, lush scenery all around them. they had a panoramic view of the mountains from where they stood.
"think we should try to head back? " garry asked.
when they climbed back toward the hiking trail, they discovered that sarah and abe, a couple of their fellow trekkers, were waiting for them. they walked along the riverside and turned the corner to close in on the campsite. as they did, they spotted sue and ben, two other trekkers on the expedition. the team had planned a delicious campfire meal for the night.
"where were you both? " asked sarah.
"we were getting a little worried about you," said abe.
"garry and i were just walking around. we saw some neat crystals," mark said. "right, garry? "
garry smiled and nodded, "right."
as the sun set over crystal clear waters of the river, both boys thought about their adventure. it was nice to have a secret, especially one that they could rediscover some other time.