November 2010 Crabbing Camp-out

Ape Caves Campout

This month, our camp-out was a trip to St. Helens, Washington to visit the Ape Cave lava tube. We left Friday at 6pm and had a long slow drive through bad traffic up to Cougar, WA. We drove just past the past the ape caves on Forest Road 83 towards Climbers Bivouc, and found a small turnoff on the right where we decided to camp for the night. We didn't get to the campsite until about 9 because traffic was so bad. (GPS N 46' 06.342" W 122' 12.276", altitude 2,036 ft)

It was raining pretty steadily as we set up camp, and the terrain was rough so we just set up our tents on an old logging road. Most of the boys had had dinner before we left, so everyone jumped into the tents to get out of the rain, and we all were in bed by 10, and everyone just went to sleep.

In the morning we woke to great clear skies and no rain, and a great view of nearby Mt. St. Helens that you can see in the first picture above. Our tents were wet since it rained all night, but we all ate breakfast and then packed up the tents. Our first activity of the day was a conservation project: The spot where we had camped was packed with trash of all kinds. We spent an hour cleaning up broken bottles, spent shotgun shells, lots of food wrappers and containers, and tons of cigarette butts. We ended up with 5 bags of trash and the area looked pristine when we were done.

Next,  we drove down the road to the Ape Caves. This is a huge lava tube that is the longest in the Continental US. We did some cleanup in the parking lot, picking up trash, and there weren't very many people there. We made our way to the cave, which starts as a stairway leading right into a hole in the ground just a short walk from the parking lot. We all brought a few flashlights and headlamps, and made our way through the mile tunnel.

Some spots of the cave were as smooth as a train tunnel, with nice flat floor and cuved walls, like this picture above. The ceiling was low in spots just over our heads, and in other spots was 60-70 feet high. Then there were lots of places where the ceiling had caved in and we had to climb over huge piles of rocks.

 These were a little tough and people kept having to go slow. We kept making jokes that cave people would catch and eat whoever was slowest. We also stopped to turn out the lights and it was amazing how dark it was inside the cave.

Most of the rock piles were pretty easy to climb over, but there was one spot that was a 10 foot ledge. There were a few good footings there, but we all had to work together to get each other up over the ledge to the top. You can see Bro. Lindgren climbing up the ledge in this picture:

Once we got to the top, we climbed out of the cave and took a water break and relaxed for a bit, and then we walked back down a one mile trail to the cars. Some of the younger boys had some fun exploring a smaller tube on the way back and we are glad they didn't get lost.

We ate lunch in the parking lot with the beautiful weather, and then headed back to Oregon where it was raining. It was a fantastic campout and a good time was had by all.

(attended: Bro Davis, Bro Dahl,Bro Lindgren; Mitchell, Conner, McKay, Anthony, Kyle, Caleb, Dallin, and Tucker L came along too.)

Summer Camp 2010 @ Camp Pioneer

We arrived in Camp Pioneer on Saturday July 17. We got settled and enjoyed a quiet day in camp before Church on Sunday in Sisters, Oregon and the afternoon Camp Orientation. This was followed by lots of merit badges and lots of fun activities. These are just a few of the pictures from boys in the middle of the action:



















































...more pictures soon when the other leaders get their pictures to the Scoutmaster.