Top Secret

Jon Barker

We poked about both south and in the north
Safe route to God’s County we pushed forth
We pushed north the left there at the base
Then became too tight there in that place

Then up the hand line had to ascend
An overhang so on it did depend
A climb exposed but really not so bad
I still dread it but face the dread I have

There on top an excavating challenge
Decorations in a fascinating mélange
Carefully these high considerations
Presented problems for our contemplation

Past this flowstone lined shaft choked with mud
This route ended as a dud
Still when times were wet it moved a torrent
Flooded Huccies’s Secret mud cracks warrant

A crew dug left I think was led my Mike
Their new Golden Room the name they liked
But in our minds the questions still had force
From whence the sediments and water’s source?

So from time to time when disengaged
We would poke this dig past which floods raged
They had washed out dirt before we stored
Leaving us a place to store yet more

Eventually the tunnel pushed so long
A larger crew had to be brought along.
At the face it looked to be a wall
But when dug down a duck-under was all

This led to an opportunity we sought
Digging up in sediments we fought
Eating dirt that dropped down in our face
Depleted air would often slow the pace

Fascinating silt up there was found
With sandites there embedded in the ground
This presaged flowstone somewhere up above
It was time for push to come to shove

I had not been there for some time past
Armchaired progress nonetheless beer glassed
Newly volunteered for dig committee
For update inspection tour I had a duty

They were at the limit of their storage
For all the diggings at the face they’d foraged
I judged that they could dig there some more
For it would go to Huccie’s Secret’s floor

We never really got that far at all
For not too many sled-loads did we haul
Before a rush of air was felt by all
A breakthrough in that chimney dug so tall

It was a climb up forty feet at least
Then under flowstone floor crawled like a beast
Popped up through a hole was naturally there
Then at flowstone decorating stare

It was good to stand up straight and tall
Before the air it beckoned to a crawl
It was tight and roofed with soda straws
But seeking the unknown all us would draw

Past it was a passage tourist grade
With floor as flat as those cave tours made
More flowstone commonly was seen
As passage wound its way on past the scene

Off there to the left was a tight lead
But the main way forward right could read
High up in this Williams Cañón stone
Not too much solution cave was known

Finally it ended at some rifts
There from some forgotten glacial drift
Were chocked up in them clean alluvial stone
To tight for us to climb up to go on

A survey needs to be done in that hall
Top Secret is the name we’ve come to call
It warrants yet more digging I’ll approve
There’s storage for the dirt that will be moved