Post by L Roebuck on Aug 7, 2007 11:17:35 GMT -5
Going underground at Lava Beds Monunent
By LAURIE KAVENAUGH
LAVA BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT — The beam in my sturdy park flashlight wavered for a second and then went out. I stopped, surrounded by the cold cave air and got a sinking feeling of being in complete darkness. I'm not a caver, preferring to have my feet on solid ground at the surface, but Thomas and I were spending the day exploring the lava tubes in this monument honeycombed with caves formed by lava flows. I had overcome my trepidation about going underground and was curious to see these wormholes formed in hot lava. Thomas moved ahead of me into the next chamber just as things went dark.
I shook my flashlight, hoping the beam would flutter back to life; then fiddled with the on-off button that finally restarted the shaft of light.
For a second, total darkness was fun, then the novelty quickly wore off. I realized a big chamber in a lava tube in complete darkness feels like a tiny closet. Without any light to focus on, the blackness of a cave becomes tangible, like black velvet. The normally cool temperature can feel increasingly warm. We discovered early on the beams from our personal Maglites were so small, they were useless against the wall of black.
"That's it," I said, once light was re-established. "We're going back to the visitor center and getting me a better flashlight." With Thomas and his light in the lead, we retraced our steps back to the entrance.
We awoke the morning of June 10 in Tulelake to a steady rain. While it was in the '90s in Chico,
Tulelake and Lava Beds were a breezy 66 degrees. Since our plan was to explore the caves in this 72-square-mile national monument at the California-Oregon border, rain wasn't a concern. The caves, other than the ice caves, remain dry most of the time.
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By LAURIE KAVENAUGH
LAVA BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT — The beam in my sturdy park flashlight wavered for a second and then went out. I stopped, surrounded by the cold cave air and got a sinking feeling of being in complete darkness. I'm not a caver, preferring to have my feet on solid ground at the surface, but Thomas and I were spending the day exploring the lava tubes in this monument honeycombed with caves formed by lava flows. I had overcome my trepidation about going underground and was curious to see these wormholes formed in hot lava. Thomas moved ahead of me into the next chamber just as things went dark.
I shook my flashlight, hoping the beam would flutter back to life; then fiddled with the on-off button that finally restarted the shaft of light.
For a second, total darkness was fun, then the novelty quickly wore off. I realized a big chamber in a lava tube in complete darkness feels like a tiny closet. Without any light to focus on, the blackness of a cave becomes tangible, like black velvet. The normally cool temperature can feel increasingly warm. We discovered early on the beams from our personal Maglites were so small, they were useless against the wall of black.
"That's it," I said, once light was re-established. "We're going back to the visitor center and getting me a better flashlight." With Thomas and his light in the lead, we retraced our steps back to the entrance.
We awoke the morning of June 10 in Tulelake to a steady rain. While it was in the '90s in Chico,
Tulelake and Lava Beds were a breezy 66 degrees. Since our plan was to explore the caves in this 72-square-mile national monument at the California-Oregon border, rain wasn't a concern. The caves, other than the ice caves, remain dry most of the time.
Full Article
