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Published: April 7th 2010
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Ape Cave Adventures
We packed up and departed the Vagabond Lodge this morning, grabbed some breakfast and lunch fixins at the local grocery store and got on the road towards Mt. St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. With nothing but a map and some vague directions from my Lonely Planet book we found our way without too much difficulty. Lola climbed higher and higher into the mountains and got the chance to flex her All-Wheel-Drive muscles as the snow got deeper the higher we climbed. The views down to the Swift Creek Reservoir deep in the valley were absolutely gorgeous.
As we made our way through the Gifford Pinchot National Forrest we became concerned that the road to Ape Cave would still be closed for the winter. Soon our fears were confirmed. Less than 3 miles from Ape Cave the road was chained closed. There were a handful of cars at the roadblock, including a couple of snowmobilers. We debated, but we had come this far so we decided to continue on foot, after all a truck had been up the road recently and left tracks for us to walk in. After about 1/4 mile the road to Ape Cave
turned, but the truck tracks didn't. We'd come this far, so we continued up the snow-covered road. The snow was knee deep in some areas, Francis lead the way and I followed his foot steps. We trudged up the mountain through the thick snow until we finally reached a huge parking lot that we will be parking in on our next visit.
Just a few hundred feet from the parking lot we found the entrance to the cave, a snow covered set of steps into a deep, dark cavern. The cave runs a mile underground before coming back to the surface. You can return to the start through the cave again or on the overland trail. This time of year the overland trail would be much more hazardous than the cave, so we knew every step deeper into the cave we would have to take back on our return. The cave was created when lava flowed through the earth after the explosion of Mt. St. Helens and the rocky trail would be impossible without light to guide you. Water constantly drips in from the roof and a shallow creek flows down through the cave. As we made our way
through the pitch dark cave it got narrower and deeper and wetter. The top of the cave that was once 30 feet above our heads was now within the reach of our fingers. Questioning the life of our headlamps, knowing the long trek we had back up the cave and down the snowy trail to the car, and not having any idea of the time, we decided to turn back about half way, but we will definitely be back. Sloshing through the snow back to the car was easier going downhill, but the path we made on the way up was little help as the thinner layer of snow we created had started to melt and become slushy. We arrived back at the car about 4 hours from when we'd left with thoroughly soaked socks and pruny feet. We peeled off our wet outer layers and pulled out our lunches. After a quick car picnic we set off back for Seattle.
Sitting on that giant Ming dynasty camel replica in Volunteer Park just one year ago tomorrow I knew that if the man sitting in front of me leaned in and kissed me my life was going to drastically
change course. He did, and it did and I'm so glad for it. We have had so many wonderful adventures in the last year, I can't wait to see what the next year and the years to follow hold.
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