Wild Spot with my Guest-of-Honor

This is not a cave. It's a mineshaft.

I brought my boyfriend to my wild spot. The leaves were falling like a surrender and we meandered all around the cave before finally lowering our bodies into it. It is about time that I brought another set of eyes with me to my wildspot. While my eyes scanned the ground, finding old bottles that I now collect and display in my kitchen, rocks, acorns, leaves...my boyfriend Jeremy found a nest of baby raccoons in the crevasse of a tall tree. The little masked children looked down at us without fear, not knowing, maybe, that we are typically something to fear. Look, Jeremy said, pointing up at them and I was in love in more ways than one right then.

We continued to follow a familiar path I had followed before. A very rough path that if you took the wrong step, you'd fall or slide off the side of a steep grade. Grasping on to weeds, jutting roots, and crumbling rock walls, we continued on the trail until we reached a look-out spot that overlooked the Tarentum Bridge that connects New Kensington to Tarentum/Natrona Heights. It was a beautiful view. It's interesting how when all your senses are working together, you create one scene. But if I were to close my eyes, I would hear traffic and a phone ringing. If I were to close my ears, I'd see a wide, meandering river, hills and hills of changing trees. If I were to close my eyes and ears, I'd smell the herbs I was unable to identify. At first it smelled like peppermint, but I know what peppermint looks like. Jeremy found the source of the smell and I pulled several from their roots. Over breakfast the next morning, he hung them upside down in my kitchen to dry.

I entered the cave/mineshaft first. This was my second time and I was a little bit nervous. I was very relieved that Jeremy, after seeing the not-so-welcoming entrance, was as giddy to enter the cave as I was. We entered like a backwards birth, into the cave. We located stalagmites and calcium deposits that were about a decade old. We came across raccoon tracks and their scat. On some of the scat, there was a strange mold that grew. It appeared like white hair and when I touched it with a stone, the white hair melted away from the rock towards the cave floor and turned black. Amazing! We were so excited. We were so excited, yet another underground excursion for us. We are growing used to being the warmest things.