wjv
Enlightened
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2012
- Messages
- 962
Today my family and I had a chance to go visit Ape Cave. Ape Cave is actually a dormant lava tube located in Gifford Pinchot National Forest just to the south of Mount St. Helens.
The tubes are divided into two sections. The upper cave and the lower cave. Combined they are just over 13,000 feet long. We did the lower cave which is just under a mile long. The tubes are only 40-60 feet underground (there are stairs). The tube vary in width, but run between 10-15 feet wide. Height wise, the ceiling ranges between 15-30 feet high. There is an air vent at the bottom end of the lower cave which allows for a nice airflow throughout the cave.
Even the lower cave (the easy route) can be dangerous. When we arrived the North County EMS & Rescue were hauling a guy out who tripped on the uneven, wet floor and "blew" his knee out.
The last time we went to Ape cave was 10 years ago. At that time it was my wife, my 3 year old daughter, my sister-in-law and myself. We rented a gas mantel lantern from the US Park Service booth and headed down in. We made it to the end and were about 1/3 of the way back when our US Park Service approved lantern ran out of fuel, leaving us totally in the dark! Thankfully we latched on to some other groups and made our way our without killing ourselves!
This time I came prepared:
- Fenix PD32UE
- Fenix PD32
- Fenix PD22
- Fenix LD10
- 47s Mini-ML
- ITP A2 eos
And a fanny pack full of batteries!
So today it was my wife, my now 13 year old daughter, my 9 year old daughter and myself. I was also happy to see that my daughters decided to each bring their Thrunite Tis lights!
All I can say is a cave swallows lumens like they don't even exist!! Especially when the walls were formed by lava so the coloring ranges from dark gray, to black!
Of course all the groups entering the cave had a light. Some people rented those gas lanterns. But most just had flashlights. Estimating the breakdown I'd guess the following:
15% had cheap incandescent lights that were dim as heck
50% had over the counter (Walmart, home depot and such) LED lights that were OK, but not that special
25% had LED head lamp of varying quality
10% had what I would call a better class of light than the Walmart OTC specials. . .
I was amazed that I saw some groups of 4-5 people where only one person in the group had a flashlight. I actually saw 2-3 people using the LED on their iPhone as their flashlight!
The PD32, PD22 & LD10 ran on turbo the entire time. I switched the PD32UE between levels a lot as level 3 (140L) & 4 (400L) were sufficient most of the time. Turbo on the PD32UE was especial nice when we wanted to view the ceiling or an entire cavern. I only saw one person who I could definitely tell had a better flashlight than what I had. I could tell the brand, but it looked a lot like a Fenix RC40 or similar format light. When he lit it up it was obvious that he had well over 1,000 lumen of output.
I normally like more focused beams, but in this situation the larger hotspot of the PD32UE was a true benefit!
So here are a couple shots I took. The cavern was probably 10 feet wide and 20 feet high at this point. The far "wall" is actually where the tunnel makes a left turn, and was probably 50 feet away.
LD10 on Turbo - 100 Lumen
PD32 on Turbo - 315 Lumen
PD32UE on Turbo - 740 Lumen (with some lens flare added from holding the light too close to the camera)
The tubes are divided into two sections. The upper cave and the lower cave. Combined they are just over 13,000 feet long. We did the lower cave which is just under a mile long. The tubes are only 40-60 feet underground (there are stairs). The tube vary in width, but run between 10-15 feet wide. Height wise, the ceiling ranges between 15-30 feet high. There is an air vent at the bottom end of the lower cave which allows for a nice airflow throughout the cave.
Even the lower cave (the easy route) can be dangerous. When we arrived the North County EMS & Rescue were hauling a guy out who tripped on the uneven, wet floor and "blew" his knee out.
The last time we went to Ape cave was 10 years ago. At that time it was my wife, my 3 year old daughter, my sister-in-law and myself. We rented a gas mantel lantern from the US Park Service booth and headed down in. We made it to the end and were about 1/3 of the way back when our US Park Service approved lantern ran out of fuel, leaving us totally in the dark! Thankfully we latched on to some other groups and made our way our without killing ourselves!
This time I came prepared:
- Fenix PD32UE
- Fenix PD32
- Fenix PD22
- Fenix LD10
- 47s Mini-ML
- ITP A2 eos
And a fanny pack full of batteries!
So today it was my wife, my now 13 year old daughter, my 9 year old daughter and myself. I was also happy to see that my daughters decided to each bring their Thrunite Tis lights!
All I can say is a cave swallows lumens like they don't even exist!! Especially when the walls were formed by lava so the coloring ranges from dark gray, to black!
Of course all the groups entering the cave had a light. Some people rented those gas lanterns. But most just had flashlights. Estimating the breakdown I'd guess the following:
15% had cheap incandescent lights that were dim as heck
50% had over the counter (Walmart, home depot and such) LED lights that were OK, but not that special
25% had LED head lamp of varying quality
10% had what I would call a better class of light than the Walmart OTC specials. . .
I was amazed that I saw some groups of 4-5 people where only one person in the group had a flashlight. I actually saw 2-3 people using the LED on their iPhone as their flashlight!
The PD32, PD22 & LD10 ran on turbo the entire time. I switched the PD32UE between levels a lot as level 3 (140L) & 4 (400L) were sufficient most of the time. Turbo on the PD32UE was especial nice when we wanted to view the ceiling or an entire cavern. I only saw one person who I could definitely tell had a better flashlight than what I had. I could tell the brand, but it looked a lot like a Fenix RC40 or similar format light. When he lit it up it was obvious that he had well over 1,000 lumen of output.
I normally like more focused beams, but in this situation the larger hotspot of the PD32UE was a true benefit!
So here are a couple shots I took. The cavern was probably 10 feet wide and 20 feet high at this point. The far "wall" is actually where the tunnel makes a left turn, and was probably 50 feet away.
LD10 on Turbo - 100 Lumen
PD32 on Turbo - 315 Lumen
PD32UE on Turbo - 740 Lumen (with some lens flare added from holding the light too close to the camera)
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