#ape cave

[katty-bird]

Pleased with some shots from my recent road trip.

[etherealamoeba]

Went lava tube exploring in Ape Cave over at Mount St. Helens! It was 42°F/5.5°C in there while it was 92°F/33.3°C outside!

Will post about this more on my sideblog @wrapped-in-green-velvet, so I'll leave this selfie here!

[wrapped-in-green-velvet]

Enjoy the quiet ambience of water dripping from the cave ceiling at the end of the upper passage💧

Ape Cave, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Learn more about Ape Cave

[tiny-buzz]

You are a Mid-Level Counselor, 2nd Tier (M.L.C. 2) for the Regis Ass Camp For Kids. (R.A.C.K.) Carrying a flashlight and a backpack, you set forth into the unsealed “Ape Cave” at the outskirts of camp acreage.

>> Look

You are at the MOUTH OF THE “APE CAVE.” Brown leaves cover the forest floor of the entrance to the cave. A faint wind comes from out the cave. To your north lies APE CAVE ENTRANCE. To your south lies GREATER UTICA.

>> South

You can’t return to GREATER UTICA until you’ve solved this mystery . . . Regis Philbin himself is counting on you.

>> Leave ape cave

You can’t return to GREATER UTICA until you’ve solved this mystery . . . lives, the local government, and R.A.C.K.’s financial solvency are all counting on you.

>> Inventory

You have your trusty FLASHLIGHT, currently off. On your shoulders, you are carrying an orange BACKPACK, zipped closed.

>> Open backpack

You take off your backpack (orange), unzip it, and look inside. There you find:

— HANDWRITTEN NOTE

— MAP

— BANDAGES

— BANANA (3)

— A LENGTH OF CURED ITALIAN DRY SALAMI TYPICAL OF THE PUGLIA REGION

— FLASK

— COMPASS-SHAPED FIGET SPINNER

— SALACIOUS PHOTOGRAPH OF MADAM WOLVERINE WITH PERSONAL MESSAGE WRITTEN AT BOTTOM AND SIGNED WITH A KISS

>> Read note

You unfold the HANDWRITTEN NOTE and begin to read:

“Hi friend,

This is Regis — Regis Philbin — talking to you, right now, through the miracle of the written tongue. Language. It’s really something else.

Now, you’re probably reading this via flashlight, in the “Ape Cave.” If you’re not in the “Ape Cave,” then drop whatever you’re doing, and go to the “Ape Cave.” You should have a map and compass in your backpack to help guide you. And if you ARE in the “Ape Cave” but you’re not using your flashlight, you probably can’t read this next part, which I’ve written in very, very paper-colored ink:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway! That’s the crucial information, at least as I see it. Try to avoid directly battling the apes, as they are strong, and mad, because they’ve been sealed in that cave for a long time now.

Good luck. I’m counting on you, which you probably already know. Give my best to the missing Youth Minister if you find them alive. Or, alternately, if you die, and they’re dead, and you meet them in heaven. Or hell! Whatever. Death is not the final battle.

— Regis F.X. Philbin”

>> Turn on flashlight

You press the button on the FLASHLIGHT, and nothing happens. Maybe the batteries are dead.

>> Look at photograph

You look at the SALACIOUS PHOTOGRAPH OF MADAM WOLVERINE WITH PERSONAL MESSAGE WRITTEN AT BOTTOM AND SIGNED WITH A KISS. There, on black and white film stock, reclining on a tasteful midcentury Barcelona daybed, is Madam Wolverine, clad only in heroic and salacious nightclothes. Her eyes burn into the camera and she is kind of sneering, salaciously and heroically. She holds on hand athwart her heaving bosom, her adamantium claws gleaming. Below, next to her lipstick print, she has written:

“My sexual typhoon,

Regis Weekend has been extended until Wednesday, September 27.

—M.W.”

[nocturnalpicnic]

A small view of the sky. 39x54cm 2021 michael pontieri

[darthcatboy]

i belong in a cave

[foreverpunk69]

Ape Cave, Washington

[earthstory]

Ape Cave, Mount St. Helens

Ape Cave is the name given to the longest continuous lava tube found on continental USA. It is located on the southern side of Mount St. Helens, Washington, in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The photo I’ve included shows the entrance of the cave.

Ape Cave is 3975 meters long and is named for the Boy Scout Troop (the Mount St. Helens Apes) who explored the cave in the early 1950s, subsequent to its discovery by local logger, Lawrence Johnson. The Mount St. Helens apes named their troop as an homage to the well-known local folk legend, "Bigfoot", a cryptid, ape-like creature who has been sighted in the area for hundreds of years.

The cave was formed approximately 1,850 years ago by basaltic lava flows, of a type known as pahoehoe lava. These flows are characterized by their ropy, billowy, smooth surface and “toes”, lobes of lava that balloon from one another at the front as the lava advances in channels. Pahoehoe lava has a slow flow rate and as the molten rock cools by air, a smooth, insulating skin forms on the surface. This skin (or crust) allows the lava to maintain its temperature and viscosity as it travels away from its source (up to tens of kilometers away). The lava tube is the hardened “shell” that remains once the lava has drained away. The people in the photo nicely illustrate just how large the interior of a lava tube can be.

Ape Cave is unusual, as the volcanoes in the Cascade Ranges do not typically erupt with pahoehoe-type lava. Instead, usually they erupt explosively, with stiff, pasty magma, forming stratovolcanoes that are composed of layers of hardened lava, ash, pumice and tephra.

YK

Image credit: “Ape Cave (Lava Tube)”, by Marcin Chady, 2012 (https://flic.kr/p/cYusn5). Used under creative commons licensing.

Related stories: Thurston Lava Tube, Hawai’i:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=504141972980185&set=a.352867368107647.80532.352857924775258&type=1 Spouting Horn, Hawai’i: https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/posts/511350508925998 Pahoehoe Lava: https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/photos/a.352867368107647.80532.352857924775258/780594428668270/?type=1&relevant_count=1 https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/posts/617194018341646 The Deccan Traps: https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/posts/519289364798779