I have a friend who is writing an article on underground adventures in SF, and I went out with him last night for a little “research”. I’ll be vague about what we found until he gets his notes together, but I will say that we found our way into a cavern that ran far under the city.

It was a terrific thrill to boot up, sneak out, ascend, descend, and finally be alone in the darkness, surrounded by tons of dripping rock.

The highlight however was the pair of animals that we cornered. 

We were walking deeper and deeper into the tunnel, and I kept seeing little glints out of the corner of my eye up ahead. Finally I caught sight of two perfect pairs of illuminated cat eyes. But they just seemed to be moving too slow to be cats. Underground tunnels are always a little freaky, especially deep under a major city, but tunnels with company? It was unnerving.

We kept going, slowly, and they kept ahead of us, deeper and deeper into the earth, turning every now and then to glint at us before plunging forward. Eventually we hit the end of the shaft. I looked ahead and could see two pairs of eyes, brilliant in the darkness, some fifty feet ahead. But now, as we kept coming, they just stayed put. We got closer and closer, and these bright eyes in the darkness kept looking at each other (disappearing into blackness) and then looking back at us, lights twinkling out of nothing.

Finally, when we were within twenty feet, they started getting a worried, looking around, looking back, faster and faster. If we would freeze, they would freeze, four shiny yellow lights, waiting. I started talking to them, trying to let them know that we were nice guys, but then it dawned on me what we looked like. These animals had no light. Duh! And while they heard our every sound, all they saw was two brilliant lights closing in.

We turned our lights off, and not a minute later, we heard the animals passing us. I clicked my light on again right after they went by, and saw the hind of a large raccoon scooting back into the darkness from where we had come.