"The Ape Caves", Part 1 of WA/OR trip, Oct. 2012

We took a trip to Washington/Oregon in October 2012 to see my sister, Karen and her boyfriend Scott. For about three years, we have talked about this. So when Jonathan started talking one morning about lava tubes after a unit in Science, we told the kids about the Ape Caves south of Mount St. Helens. Michael looked across the table at me and said, "Call your sister. Let's go to Portland in three weeks." I did some internet searching for times and places and things to do, coordinated events with Karen and Scott, called some friends in Vancouver who sweetly offered to coordinate a potluck so we could see several families at one time. 

 On October 16, we flew. At the little airport close to home, we went through our first TSA mess with the kids. My hands were swabbed as was everyone else. I think a residue of gasoline must have been on my hands from fueling up that morning. ugh. So I had to be searched. Then I was asked if the suitcase I had been pulling was mine. (We managed to pack into two suitcases, the kids and Michael and I all sharing space.) I made the mistake of saying yes. All the work of rolling socks and kids underwear and shoving them into hiking boots to conserve space was wrecked. The suitcase was a MESS. argh! I had to repack that suitcase once we got to the next airport and had a little time. Here we are on the moving sidewalk at DIA. The kids thought that was cool.

Annisia enjoyed her first plane trip. Jonathan's first was back in 2005, but fun to do again. They were excited to watch a movie on the plane, but you had to buy a movie (and we were feeling cheap so we didn't!) so they were content with iPod/iPad games.

I think the mountain showing out the plane window is Mount Rainier...not sure though. It was fun again to see the changing landscape from the air.

We landed in Portland where Karen and Scott met us with some booster seats. Yay! That eased our minds with the traffic there. Plus the kids were able to look out the windows in our travels. We went out to dinner with Scott's daughter and husband. Then home to Karen and Scott's place for a night's rest.

The next morning we met up with Terry W. and Scott P., some of our ministers in that area. The 40 mile drive to the Ape Caves entrance was beautiful and we got a lovely view of Mount St. Helens. The road wound through the lush green forest and through quaint mountain towns. We saw old rusted logging equipment left from the eruption of 1980 parked in front of little restaurants. 
I thought I'd just copy and paste the info from this website. There are other lava tube throughout WA/OR, but this is the only one I have been in, and several times too.
"How the Ape Caves were formed:  About 2,000 years ago lava poured down the southern flank of Mount St. Helens in streams. As the lava flowed the outer edges of the lava stream cooled forming a hardened crust which insulated the molten lava beneath. This allowed the lava to remain hot and fluid encased in this “lava tube” and continued flowing months during the eruption. The end result was the creation of this spectacular 13,042 long lava tube. This formation is especially unusual at Mount St. Helens as this type of volcano usually erupts lava of a much thicker consistency which tends to block flow and build up pressure resulting in explosive eruptions like the blast of 1980."

Our little family in front of the Ape Headquarters with Terry W. This from the web site for how the Ape Caves got their name:  "Common lore attributes the name to a scout troop who explored the caves back in the early 50’s.  Apparently the troop’s sponsor was the St. Helens Apes – a group of foresters. Foresters and loggers in those days were sometimes referred to as “Brush Apes”.  Those that have claimed to have seen bigfoot in the area believe the caves would have been a perfect habitat for the reclusive creatures." Terry kept saying, "Oh! What was that? Was that an ape? Is that puddle where the apes take their baths?" We all thought it was funny.
"Recommended equipment for exploring the Ape Caves is sturdy shoes or boots, warm clothing, and three sources of light."  So we all had on our hiking boots, base layers, fleece and headlamps. The Ape Caves remain approximately 40 degree F year round.

 This is a map of the underground hike we're about to do...

Here we are climbing over one of the 27 boulder piles described here: "The upper Ape Cave is 1½-mile long and takes about 2½ hours to complete, returning on a surface trail. This section is more adventurous as cavers must climb over approximately 27 boulder piles and scale an 8-foot high lava fall.  The boulder piles formed after the eruption subsided and the fluid lava drained from the tube. As the lava tube cooled, it began to shrink and crack. These cracks weakened the ceiling and walls causing parts of them to collapse – forming entrances to Ape Cave."

 

And here is a photo of Scott, Annisia, myself and Jonathan at the bottom of the above mentioned 8 foot high lava fall. Michael scaled it, then Terry, then we roped the kids (with climbing rope my brilliant husband had the foresight to pack) and they climbed like, well, like monkeys! heehee! I also decided to rope up as I didn't really relish falling and breaking something. (We think of these things as we get older...) Scott brought up the rear.

The kids were super excited to get their very own headlamps. They practiced turning them on and off at home, then we packed them up ready for this trip. We were about 1/3 the way through when Scott said his head lamp batteries died. It wasn't until we were about 3/4 the way through when I remembered I had extra batteries in my pack. {oops!} Scott didn't mind; he enjoyed the challenge and was having fun just using my light in front of him.

Here are the kids up on the wall under a skylight. This is not an exit point; that's farther up the tube, a permanently attached metal ladder. They thought it was cool to take a photo in the same place I took one of their Daddy before we married.

Look for the steam rising from the center right-ish side of the above photos...that's where the metal ladder comes up into the forest. It was a gorgeous day; we were almost sorry to have been underground for part of it, until we realized that the sunny dry weather meant that we weren't continuously dripped on during our hike through the cave! Annisia enjoyed picking a little moss bouquet...she loves all things little and pretty, just like her.

Terry W, Jonathan, Darla, Annisia, Scott P

Our little family just out of the Caves...

 The U.S.D.A. Forest Service Cave Inventory marker...not really sure what this means, but interesting to see it. We headed out for our mile and a half return hike through the forest. Did I happen to mention it was a lovely sunny day?! The kids were troopers. After all the boulder piles we climbed, they still had to hike back. We heard a little grumbling, but they were good sports.

Jonathan LOVES his "new" ability to read everything. And everywhere we went there were things to read. Big placards outside the caves described everything that is on the website. Here, he is reading about the existence of life in the caves. As we completed our hike and went to use the restroom before our drive out to the freeway, we noticed this sign. "Upper cave is not recommended for small children." Funnily enough, I don't think we saw this on the way in, and we walked right past it!

It was a good day, so far that is. We dropped Terry and Scott back in Woodland then continued up I-5 to Castle Rock where we took the exit to go to Mount St. Helens...Part 2 of our trip. Oh, and the kids took a nap...

A Trip up to Hellroaring Plateau, July 2010

The next morning, we hobbled out of bed and decided to go on a hike. Hellroaring Plateau was our destination. But first, we had to drive up a CRAZY steep, bumpy single lane road. The seven mile road took us ONE HOUR. If you met someone coming the other direction, one of you backed up until the road got wide enough for you to pass. In the pics below, it's the foremost road.

 And that's Hellroaring Plateau on the upper right.

We started hiking around. Very cool country there. We started noticing these troughs scattered around the area and figured they were dugouts for miners. We passed a mining entrance on the way up. Silver? Gold? Don't know, but these dugouts were cool.

Some were small, possibly the sleeping areas. A couple were larger, likely a cooking area and a gathering area. Here's Michael standing in the largest one.

The area was very pretty. We found pretty trails, rocks, canyons...likely named Hellroaring for the sound of the wind through the canyon.

The collage shows some of the wildflowers we enjoyed, a photo of the mine entrance, and a beautiful gorge, and me, posing...cheese!

Then we had to go back down...

Hiking...August 21st...

Off hiking and camping again. We really like this place. It has good climbing and hiking for the kids. The kids love the rocks. Anytime, anywhere, any way...they love to climb on rocks.
It's obvious their daddy is Michael!!

Then they down climb, a very important thing to know when climbing rocks. I shudder when I see them starting to just scamper down some rocks, then call out to them to "turn around and down climb" so they learn how and can use the skill when the really need to. So! Here's Jonathan down climbing a fairly benign rock, but proving he knows how! What a good boy!

So, here's another video of Jonathan climbing. But, this time it's up a more vertical rock. For you faint of heart, he did GREAT! So, swallow your heart and watch the vid anyways!!

Anniversary Trip - On to Lewistown

We left Kallispell on Wednesday, the 18th, drove through Big Fork and got 20# of Logan cherries and 5# of Rainier cherries, and are now desperately trying to eat them all! YUM!

Anyways, our next destination was Lewistown where my best girlfriend, Debbie, lives. She and I have been trying to get together since January for a girls' weekend in Billings, but circumstances keep foiling our attempts. Finally! I got to see my friend! We got there in time for a quick dinner and off to Bible study. It was a late night as the boys really wanted to play a bit before bed. Debbie's boys were excited for "baby Jonathan" to come and visit. I got a kick out of them...they wanted to carry him around.

We went for a hike the next morning. It was a 2 mile hike up to Lewistown Overlook. A pretty hike with lots of pine cones to interest the kids!

Debbie with her three boys, Michael and Jonathan posing on the trail.

Jonathan enjoys hiking too. Especially if he has a walking stick! His little legs sometimes make him slower, but he does really well. He fell once, hopped up and said, "I'm OK. I just took a digger!"

Debbie and the boys...

A nice little family photo...

Then we went back into town, ate Subway sandwiches and went to the pool. They have great waterslides in Lewistown! Jonathan got such a kick out of going down the slides with Daddy. He'd laugh all the way down, then squeal when they splashed in the water. I took him down once, but I couldn't stay sitting up, so we laid down on our backs. The only problem was he went under with me at the bottom! Gasp, gasp! He wasn't impressed...

Circle Park again!

Well, we found ourselves up at Circle Park again on the 8th of June. (Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!) We like this area because there are little hikes all over, and Jonathan can hike some with us. Annisia had a rough night, so we were still sleeping when Michael went out around sun-up for a little hike.

He walked from our campsite (note the white truck and camper in the center left) to the meadow (top center right). From there he looked around and saw this rock. So he ambled over and climbed up it. From the top, which is probably 100 feet above the surrounding land, he could see all around the area. He saw sign of elk by the little puddle of water. It must have been a cross between a mountain goat and an elk, I think!

I think Daddy feels a little like Lewis and Clark because he "discovered" this cool place!

Annisia got to ride in the backpack and Jonathan proved he is his father's son by clambering up the rock like a pro. It was incredible to watch. He scrambled up the boulders as fast as his little legs could take him, and Mommy scrambled up behind him praying!

Then we hiked around to the south of our campsite and at one point were rewarded with this gorgeous view.

Circle Park hike

We did a couple of hikes on our camping weekend. This was on Memorial Day...a hike of about 4 miles, maybe 5. It was lovely. Everything is so green right now as we've had so much rain. The wildflowers were in bloom...lupine, and ...all the others I don't know the names of! I was going to try sounding knowledgeable, but I simply don't know what the flowers are.

(Ask for help, Darla. It's your homework for the week to ask for help.) OK, OK...What is this wildflower?

Jonathan enjoyed being in the backpack, but did hike about 1/2 mile. He did really well, except he doesn't drink water when we tell him to. Does anyone know if anyone makes a child size Camelback? I haven't taken the time to look yet...

Annisia rode in the front pack which was great for getting a nap. However, when I turn her around, her center of gravity shifts and makes it hard to hike with her in front. SO! I think we'll be getting another backpack. Bella, our dog, enjoyed the outdoors too!

There's our truck and trailer in the aspen grove at the center of the photo. This is about mid way on our hike.

We got back to the trailer around 2pm and made some lunch. Jonathan didn't really want to eat, just sleep. He felt pretty warm to the touch at that time. We packed up and came home arriving around 5pm. That evening we all took a hot tub together and we checked Jonathan's temp. It was around 102. That night, he came into our room around 2pm, burning up. His temp was 104.5 I think. Michael felt like he was headed for another seizure, but he didn't actually have one. He ran a temp, 103.5 average, all day Tuesday, with no other symptoms again. Wednesday, he had some tummy trouble and rested a lot. By Thursday, he was fine.