… Over the course of time, some random weekends, 2 full growing seasons, we visited this “Honaleigh”.   Sometimes the visitors were known, other times the visitors were not.  It was always a surprise when we arrived, as to what we would find.

The entry was now 600 feet in, not to the top yet, but almost.  On one occasion, we determined where the first camping deck would be located.  There were at least 4 males, all who deemed themselves the leader, and me, who was happy just to be part of the chaos.

At that time, I was recovering from back surgery and not able to really do much work.  We did have some goals for the camp though, cut some trees, burn some brush, bull doze a flat spot.  Eat, Drink and be Merry… Being in our 20’s there was a lot of Merry, and shotgun shells. That’s another story.

It didn’t take long, a dozen crisscrossed trees, dull chainsaws, a bull dozer that sat and watched over the boys.  There were a few close calls and near-death experiences, it went well that day, but we still were sleeping in the bed of a pickup truck.

Over the next day, we put the machine to work, created another firewood pile, smoothed out the area for the deck.  We were ready for the concrete.  However it was time to go, they came to get the machine.   We figured we would be back in a week or month or … as soon as possible.   We did visit occasionally, but only to drive in and drive out.  It would be 9 months before concrete.