Freshly home from a lengthy day out and about. Today was the ape caves adventure in which I'd been looking forward to for about a week. Any chance to depart Olympia is a welcome one for me, and this was no exception. We hiked for about two miles in the snow and entered at the top of the lava tube. As we approached the depression in the snow that was the entrance I, being first in line, made my way down into the dark unknown. Some steep-ass metal stairs, which eventually turned into a ladder, greeted me as I inched my way down the snowy hill into the cavern. It was all pretty intense as the blackness engulfed me, and as I got to the bottom I saw that about ten meters inside there was a beautiful moss coated skylight with rain trickling through, which distracted me momentarily from the fact that I am indeed alone underground with a void to either side of me. We walked to the beginning of the tube and then back to the entrance where we had our lunch. The only scare we had was when the cavern suddenly started to fill with smoke. The first thing through my mind was "oh shit, the lava's triumphant return!" But as it turned out some idiots in front of us had started a fire, for what reason I am unsure. The only thing I can think of is that they were smoking weed (which I definitely caught a whiff of) and, seeing our lights coming, got paranoid and lit some TP on fire to cover the smell. Sounds like a plausible stoner scenario right? When we got to the main entrance we decided to proceed down the tube long enough to escape the light and turn off all of our lights for a good five or more minutes. We all had weird sensations including seeing textures, light sorces from behind us, hearing voices, and generally going momentarily insane. Someone earlier told a story of a man who got stranded in a cave with no lights by himself and was not rescued for three days. I can only imagine the terror he must have felt having only experienced complete darkness for a matter of minutes. Hopefully I can snag some pictures of the excursion and post them at a later date. For now my dogs are tired and I think I'll make some tea and go to sleep.
keep your stick on the ice,
-Randall
kale is back
11 years ago
awww, sounds like fun. i've never been there in the snow. was it your first time at those caves?
ReplyDeleteWhere is this! Also, I rejected your comment, I will call you, my cell doesn't work in bethel though.
ReplyDeleteComplete darkness. I had a similar experience when we were out in the middle of the Bering sea on a tiny boat with huge waves and another one when I was in the middle of the island in a shit white out and had no idea which way was home.
The earth has mysterious...mysteries.
Randall, your writting is great I realy feel like as if you are just right next to me talking, very personable, very fun to read.
ReplyDeleteAs for the subject of complete darkness I too have experienced its wobbly funk of nothingness. I was visiting some parents who lived in the gypsy village next to my own and had to go drop the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean, and that ment the out house. Talk about dark I couldn't see my own hand and every scratch and scrap from god knows what literally scared the shit out of me.