2015 Summer Roadtrip: Day 23–Monday—7/6: Mountain Biking in Mt. Hood, OR; hike Lava Tube at APE Cave, Mt. St. Helens, Washington

We packed up our campsite and drove the RV/CRV over to the fun mountain biking trail we were at previously. Ryan really wanted to ride one more time on the berms and bumps. So we mountain biked for only about 1hour. Then we drove north a few hours to APE Cave in the Mount St. Helens National Forest. Ape Cave is the single longest lava tube in the Western Hemisphere (over 2miles long). We brought 6 flashlights for the 4 of us (redundancies!!!), descended the stairs built into the cave and immediately went from bright and 86 degrees to pitch black and 44 degrees. There’s an easy passage and a difficult passage. We chose the hard way and enjoyed 2+ hours of underground scrambling, rock climbing, ascents and descents in this great lava tube. Parts of the tube seemed like a subway tunnel. There were many lava rock piles we had to ascend and 30+ feet and then descend down the otherside—often while ducking to avoid hitting our head on the roof of the lava tube. There was also a difficult 7 foot high, vertical lava waterfall we had to climb—all of this in pitch black with flashlights. Ryan absolutely loved this adventure! It was very adventurous and fun. At one point, we all turned off our lights and just listened to water seeping into the tube from above. Although Ape Cave is out of the way, it is worth it for the fit and adventurous. Bring flashlights and strong ankles. We then went to walmart, McDonalds for their wifi and dinner and then drove to our campground across the street from the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center.