16- SPELUNKING I...An Adventure to Remember!

The quietness far below in a "wild" cave is like nothing most of you have ever experienced. It is an adventure I will not forget. My senses seemed more alert, with a watch's time vanished.
A "wild" cave, by the way, is simply one that has never been commercialized, like, say, Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley. By the way, Luray is far more extensive in scope than what you see with a ticket.
My first spelunking adventure took place in an old valley, Deerfield, in Augusta County, Va. Three of us, after spending the night before in a cabin, hiked up the side of the mountain to a small entrance near the top. It was like a slanted tunnel created by Nature thousands of years earlier, with us having to lean over most of the way down. At times I would look back to see the entrance growing smaller and smaller, until there was total darkness behind us and in front of us...save for our trusty carbon lights on our hats.
Ah, the bottom!...we could stand up in a series of rooms around us. To my right, we crawled up one tunnel and discovered a neat shoot that took us back down, sliding all the way, to the main room. Yes, we slid down the shoot more than a few times!
With suppertime approaching, a stomach or three growling, the three adventurous pals headed back up the long tunnel, bending over once again, with no visual sense, surrounded by the pitch
darkness and a carbon headlamp growing a bit weak. After a spell, I could spot the tiny lighted entrance of fading mountain sunlight growing larger and larger.
Suddenly, my chum leading the way, screamed and ran up towards the entrance, still bending over. He reached the entrance, took off his jacket and threw it into the air, down the side of the mountain! As I approached, he yelled "BATS!...run for your life!" I turned around and saw a few, then a swarm of bats leaving the cave entrance near the top of the mountain, hungry for a feast of insects on the wing. We didn't realize, though, at the time, that teen-age guys were not on the bats' menu for the evening.
We stopped later at the Deerfield Valley old-fashionedd grocery and ordered a balogna and cheddar sandwich, with mayo, on homemade bread, and a bottle of cold Royal Crown Cola for each of the brave adventurers. We didn't, though, share our adventure while we ate, with the group of old-timers sitting nearby and around the store's potbellied stove. We didn't need any teasing from the adults checking us out.
Part II is soon...hmmmmm.