Thanks for posting, Munk. I miss your stories.
When you mentioned the caves that looked like they'd had fires in them, the first thing that came to my mind was wondering if you've ever done some digging for artifacts. Ya know, arrowheads, pottery, etc. One of the neighbors moldboard plowed his field for the first time in a generation, and we got permission to go out there after the rain. We found several perfectly intact arrowheads, and enough flint flakes and pottery shards to fill cupped hands heaping full. So I guess it's fresh in my mind.
There have been dozens of couger sightings here in southern Illinois now; several on my dad's own property. I'm perhaps more alert when I'm in the woods, but I don't know what I'd do going into an area like your 'Cougar Canyon'.
Have you considered treating your clothing with DEET (?) to keep the ticks off? In the survival forum, pict mentioned this several times in the past. He said you can watch a tick crawling up your sleeve, just curl up and die.
I didn't know those little bitty ticks were called deer ticks. We pulled 30 or 40 of 'em off of my college room mate one time after hiking around Giant City state park. We thought they were baby regular ticks or something.
It sounds like you might have a little more time with the boys now that school is out, and you want to do more exploring in that canyon. Would you do it even more often if it wasn't so hard to get into it? What I'm hinting at here, is whether you'd be able to clear a better path through the tangled mess of debris. It could be done in such a way that would make travel much faster, but zig zag around & leave the entrance hidden so it's not obvious to others. It would also be a great excuse to get a real workout with a khuk, and your kids- always time well spent.
Don't know if that's possible from what you described though.
Some pictures would really be great!
