Chapter 25: Into the Caves of Hidden Canyon
Windham detects the sign of some four-footed wildlife. Probably mule deer and mountain lions, as the men have encountered both on the buttes and mesas in their travels. Nothing recent, that is, not in the last few days, he believes.
The investigator notices Jake looking at the spring. Another aspect of learning from Red Shirt involved an improvement in the Californian's ability to hunt and forage. Tracy finds himself estimating the number of creatures this spring can water in a day. Probably several if nature were left to attend to herself. Maybe a dozen or more if a body had the notion to collect water from the spring.
At which point, both the Texican and the Californian notice two wooden buckets near the spring. Funny that they had never noticed these before, although both are tucked away near the edge of the rocky canyon walls. So perhaps they just never noticed, or maybe the buckets weren't there two months ago. No tellin'.
The men settle in for their night of rest. Windham takes the first watch, which passess uneventfully. He wakes Richardsen for the second stint. The Texican heard noises in the night ... wildlife he reckons, although he spies no creatures. Jake rouses Pearce next, advising him to wake the professor a little later on. Finally, as the sun rises to the east, spilling light into the dale, the heroes break their fasts with rations, fill their canteens from the spring and make sure the horses are watered.
Eager to use the full light of this day, the men make their final preparations before tackling the rockslide climb. The Irishman's duffle bag reminds everyone of Dave Walker, who carried his belongings in a similar way.
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OOC: The Judge needs final "consensus" or agreement on whether the horses are hobbled or left to graze freely. Pearce gave some notes about preparation...anyone else who wants to make special notes here or in PM should do so.
See the game map for Group 2. The Judge is proceeding with the idea that the heroes, once their preparation is sorted, will travel down the passage and into the rockslide area.
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The four heroes squeeze through the narrow passage, with Windham in the lead. Jake, Tracy, and Earnest remember the first time they came here, with Red Shirt guiding them. If Pearce had harbored questions about why the horses couldn't proceed, or any of the other three hadn't remembered, those questions were soon answered by a sharp turn early in the passage. It requires each man to turn sideways for a few seconds, slowing down to navigate the turn. It is no hardship for a man, but impassable for anything larger than a mountain lion.
Now, having passed through the twisting rocky passage, the heroes come to a dead end ... a wide, almost circular open space at least 20 yards in diameter at the end of the passage. Stopping just beyond the entrance to the circle, the men take in the sandstone walls rising high around them, except for straight ahead, where a sizable gap opens above a small rockslide about 50 or 60 feet up. It looks steep ... and high enough to the trail above to require some kind of climbing effort upwards.
The professor points out the two paths upwards, each of which has two spikes embedded in the rocks for tying rope -- one roughly halfway up and one near the top -- although no ropes are affixed, presently. Jake remembers the trail at the top; he and Red Shirt had shot down a couple of bandits there after the YBB's ambush. The rifleman reminds everyone of the trail at the top of the slide, stretching generally to the north and south, but neither of them can discern anything more about that trail, from this vantage point. The trio who had traversed the trail before remember that the path to left ended in a dead end, while the one to the right took them, eventually, to the bandit's hideout.