Burleigh's Blurbs: Caves, Saves and the ER

Last Sunday we didn't have the kids, so we convinced two other friends (Cris and Christian) to go to the Ape Caves with us. The Ape Caves are ancient lava tubes from an eruption from Mt. St. Helens. Here's a link to read a short synopsis - it's cool! http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/ape-cave/index.shtml

Instead of taking the main entrance and hiking up the lava tube, we hiked the 1.3 miles to the "exit" and hiked down. Once you get into the cave by taking a steep ladder it's completely dark and I had read that it's wonderful to adventure a little ways into the cave and then turn off all lights and just stand in the complete dark and silence. THAT was cool! The hike was hard. Our only light sources were the flashlights we were carrying, so it was difficult to gauge depth and footing. After scaling up a 6ft wall, we had to then scale DOWN an 8 foot wall - in the dark! Luckily there was another hiker at the bottom who helped the 4 of us down, however, we're all not sure what happened next, but I was last down from the wall and Cris was at the bottom waiting for me. I turned around, smiled at him and then suddenly saw him fall. Trying to catch himself, he scraped his hand along the wall. It was pretty nasty. C, being very safety conscience at all times, had packed the first aid kit. Thank goodness b/c it was needed. She patched Cris up as best we could in a middle of a dark damp cave and we moved on. I don't know how Cris did it b/c the trek ahead was hard and using both hands was necessary.

2.5 hours after starting our journey, we emerged from the cave, tired, dirty, hungry and injured. We took Cris to the ranger station to clean up his hand better and it was there we were told that 80% of injuries happen from people descending down the cave (like us) rather than up the cave - Cris was NOT happy to hear that news. Once we saw his hand in daylight, we decided that it would be best to take him to the ER for a thorough cleaning. THAT was an adventure in itself and we thought we may be kicked out for laughing too much. Cris has the pictures on his camera, so those will follow later. Some numbing, skin cutting, soaking, x-rays, a lot of pain and some Percocet, a very loopy Cris emerged from the ER with a bandaged hand with a sprained middle finger - which he proudly displayed to everyone!!

Cris has most of the photos on his camera - more will be coming.

Getting to the "exit" entrance of the cave