A Winter Tale

One day, perhaps I will tell you about how it feels at the end of 16 hour trip underground in a large stream cave when you come out into subzero weather and all your clothes freeze to your body and the stars are glittering intensely because there are no clouds in the sky and the city lights are far, far away.

It starts far into the cave because of the cold air sucking in. It forms fog hundreds of feet from the entrance that gets thicker and thicker until it suddenly clears out because all the rock around the entrance is frozen. It's all frost shatter left over from the Wisconsonian glaciation, you have to crawl through the blocks that are all jumbled together. Your clothes stick to the frozen rock until they finally freeze as well. It was a long cold trip anyway and you feel exhausted and this is not helping, you just feel much colder much faster. Your hands are numb, retracted into claws. And you forgot to undo your boot laces before leaving the cave, the laces are now covered with frozen clay. Mild panic starts to set in as you feel your feet start to become frostbitten.

Finally, you get your boots off, then your pants, which are so covered with frozen mud that you lean them against the VW bus. Now, you are in the bus. Since it is an old VW, the heater doesn't work, but you are out of the wind, which makes you feel better. At least you are not getting any colder, even though feeling warmer seems impossible. But there is still the bus. You parked in the pasture at the top edge of a broad shallow sinkhole, because the starter doesn't work. You have to roll start the blasted thing. So there you are, sitting in the bus, hoping and praying it starts, as your buddy turns the key, releases the emergency brake, then the clutch. You are gathering speed rolling down the side of the sinkhole. The consequences are ugly, you feel your heart is pounding. This bus better start, or it's a cold, cold night in the pasture stuck at the bottom of a sinkhole.

Now you are approaching the bottom of the sinkhole, rolling at a pretty good clip. Your buddy has it in second gear. He pops the clutch... the bus coughs, shudders, coughs again... and roars to life! Yay!!! You guys are laughing insanely! This is so cool! You did it! It feels like you have defied gravity or something impossible. He floors it and you roll across the frosty grass up the other side of the sinkhole and off towards camp. You don't even need the headlights because the moon is almost full and heavy frost is glittering off of everything. Now, the cold doesn't matter so much. You feel warmed up just knowing you're homeward bound to hot chocolate, fire and warm sleeping bag. It just feels like heaven. This is what you live for.

Hrm.

Maybe I will tell you another story some other time. I have lots of them.