No one should brave the underworld alone. — Poe

"The walls are endlessly bare. Nothing hangs on them, nothing defines them. They are without texture. Even to the keenest eye or most sentient fingertip, they remain unreadable. You will never find a mark there. No trace survives. The walls obliterate everything. They are permanently absolved of all record. Oblique, forever obscure and unwritten. Behold the perfect pantheon of absence." — [Illegible] — Ed.

On the first day of April, Navidson set out on the last exploration of those strange hallways and rooms. The card introduces this sequence as nothing more than Exploration #5.

For recording the adventure, Navidson brought with him a 1962 H16 hand crank Bolex 16mm camera along with 16mm, 25mm, 75mm Kern-Paillard lenses and a Bogen tripod. He also carried a Sony microcas- sette recorder, Panasonic Hi 8, ample batteries, at least a dozen 120 minute Metal Evaporated (DLC) tapes, as well as a 35mm Nikon, flashes, and a USA Bobby Lee camera strap. For film, he packed 3000 feet of 7298 16mm Kodak in one hundred foot loads, 20 rolls of 35mm, including some 36 frame Konica 3200 speed, plus 10 rolls of assorted black and white film. Unfortunately the thermal video camera he had arranged to rent fell through in the last minute.

For survival gear, Navidson took with him a rated sleeping bag, a one man tent, rations for two weeks, 2 five-gallon containers of water, chemical heat packs, flares, high intensity as well as regular intensity lightsticks, plenty of neon markers, fishing line, three flashlights, one small pumper light, extra batteries, a carbide lamp, matches, toothbrush, stove, change of clothes, an extra sweater, extra socks, toilet paper, a small medical kit, and one book. All of which he carefully loaded into a two wheel trailer which he secured to an aluminum-frame mountain bike.

For light, he mounted a lamp on the bike's handlebars powered by a rechargeable battery connected to a small optional rear-wheel generator. He also installed an odometer.

As we can see, when Navidson first starts down the hallway he does not head for the Spiral Staircase. This time he chooses to explore the corridors.

Due to the weight of the trailer, he moves very slowly, but as we hear him note on his microcassette recorder: "I'm in no hurry."

Frequently, he stops to take stills and shoot a little film.

After two hours he has only managed to go seven miles. He stops for a sip of water, puts up a neon marker, and then after checking his watch begins pedaling again. Little does he understand the significance of his offhand remark: "It seems to be getting easier." Soon, however, he realizes there is a definite decrease in resistance. After an hour, he no longer needs to pedal: "This hallway seems to be on a decline. In fact all I do now is brake." When he finally stops for the night, the odometer reads an incredible 163 miles.

As he sets up camp in a small room, Navidson already knows his trip is over: "After going downhill for eight hours at nearly 20 mph, it will probably take me six to seven days, maybe more, to get back to where I

started from."

When Navidson wakes up the next morning, he eats a quick breakfast, points the bike home, and begins what he expects will be an appalling, perhaps impossible, effort. However within a few minutes, he finds he no longer needs to pedal.

Once again he is heading downhill.

Assuming he has become disoriented, he turns around and begins pedaling in the opposite direction,which should be uphill. But within fifteen seconds, he is again coasting down a slope.

Confused, he pulls into a large room and tries to gather his thoughts: "It's as if I'm moving along a surface that always tilts downward no matter which direction I face."

Resigned to his fate, Navidson climbs back on the bike and soon enough finds himself clipping along at almost thirty miles an hour.

For the next five days Navidson covers anywhere from 240 to 300 miles at a time, though on the fifth day, in what amounts to an absurd fourteen hour marathon, Navidson logs 428 miles.