CRF Lava Beds February 1998
Presidents' Day Trip
by Robert Jon Mudry

The plan was, we were to each get off work a little early on Friday, February 13th, and leave for Lava Beds National Monument at around 4:00 PM. Five o'clock rolled around, and my ride still wasn't there. By 6:00 PM, just when I started to worry, I got a call from Lysa saying that they would be "a little late" and they were leaving Santa Cruz in a few minutes. They were just leaving Santa Cruz? Great, a storm was rolling in and they were still an hour away!

While I was waiting for them to show up, I amused myself by watching the various weather programs, tracking that "massive storm" as it went from "just off shore" to "right in our path." Heavy snow and rain, and we weren't going to be on our way until at least 7:00 PM!

When Lysa and Jonah finally showed up, at around 7:30 PM, I mentioned my concern about the weather. Jonah tried to ease my fears by stating that he lost his snow chains. Uh huh. As I squeezed into Jonah's two "and a half" seater truck, I realized this was going to be quite a trip. Our first stop was the autoparts store closest to my home--they claim to have "everything but gas," however they need to add "or snowchains" to their little motto. We piled back in to the truck, after resecuring our stuff with an already tattered plastic tarp. Lysa, whose relatively short legs (I have a bad left knee, really!) automatically delegated her to the "center position," put her feet up on the windshield. CRRRAAACCKK! A spiderweb pattern snapped into place under her foot. Yup, this was going to be quite a trip indeed!

We checked three more stores in Sunnyvale, and soon discovered that snowchains weren't considered a required stock item in this part of the state. Oh well, it should be fine, right? It was already 8:00 PM and if we didn't get on our way now, we wouldn't get in until after 5:00 AM! Anyway, how bad could the weather possibly be?

The snow had covered the road with slush at least four inches deep, and the fluffy white flakes stuck to the face of each freeway sign, rendering them useless for navigation. I had never driven in snow before, but taking it easy in 2nd gear I felt confident that I could, if not keep us on the road, at least minimize any collision we may have. Sleet pounded against the thin metal roof, like ball bearings rattling in a tin can.

"Is that our exit?" I asked, as we passed what was obviously our exit.

"Uh, I think so."

"Better turn around before we end up in Oregon, I guess." I turned off at the next exit, thankfully still on the California side of the border, and got us back to the correct exit. As soon as we got off the freeway, things began looking up. I was deathly afraid that the rest of the trip was going to be the same 20 mile and hour condition, but miraculously it thinned out to nothing. The road was even dry as we got closer to Lava Beds. Looked like we were going to make it by 5:30 AM after all!

Day One
The first day had us finishing up the surveys from the last trip. It is amazing how different the caves looked this time around! Icicles draped over the dripline of each entrance, sparkling in the sunlight. Venturing inside the cave, taking care not to disturb the cave's new formations, I was greeted by a wonderland of ice. Crystal ice formations grew from cracks in the basalt ceiling. The beam from my headlamp danced around the chamber, glittering off delicate ice formations like a thousand frozen diamonds. The size and variety of these formations was stunning! I thought I had seen every kind of icicle when I lived in New York, but once again, the caves at Lava Beds proved it was still full of surprises. I made my way through the cave, carefully stepping over icy breakdown, until I caught up with the rest of the group. The cave seemed so much longer when I was surveying it. This time, I was through in a minute or two, even after taking it slow in the entrance chamber. I may not have much caving experience, relatively speaking, but I have some advice for you: get yourself involved with at least one cave survey! The cave has so much more to share with you when you go through carefully and deliberately. Formations you miss when "touring," you are given a chance to study in minute detail when looking for the next station, or are waiting for the sketcher to finish a tricky profile.

All that remained to survey here was a side passage we had skipped due to bats. The plan was that I was to pop in and quietly check to see if the bats were still there. It was a relatively low ceiling, at least on Aa lava, but I remembered where the bats were last time so I was able to carefully inch along on my back off to the opposite side of the tube. There was one bat still there, it's frost-covered fur sparkling in my light, but if we were quiet and stayed to the side, we could avoid pestering the sleepy Plecotus. We completed the survey quickly and quietly, about sixty feet of passage which ended in a small domed room.

The next cave had fewer ice formations, but it still looked different. Where before, I recalled a huge passage with massive breakdown, this time it seemed smaller and less imposing. Perhaps it was because this time I avoided smashing my ankle, but I still had a feeling like the cave had shrunk. The features were familiar, just smaller. It reminded me of revisting my childhood home fifteen years later--everything which previously had seemed immense, was now just a small house on a small block in a small part of town.

In any event, all we had to do here was finish putting in some details. We hadn't done a proper profile on one of the skylights, so we finished that up. I also got a chance to test my new-found confidence in "not falling," obtained from taking up rock climbing at the indoor gym. The skylight was a hazard before, now it was almost a bouldering opportunity! I jammed a foot in here, a hand in there, and was perfectly comfortable hanging over the (gasp!) ten foot drop. OK, spiderman I'm not, but it was a big thing for me!

I got yet another opportunity to test my "climbing" skill, by scrambling up into a small tube above this one which previously went unnoticed. Apparently, when this tube had formed, the lava level dropped a foot or two after the first ceiling formed, and a second ceiling formed under that. It quickly closed down to a few inches, and wasn't really worth surveying, but it was neat nonetheless. There wasn't much of a climb involved, since I was able to edge across from the side of the entrance, using the breakdown as a ramp, but it was about fifteen feet up and I wouldn't have had the nerve just a few months ago to try it.

The night was finished by a quick visit to an ice cave were a large hole had opened up in the ice. Previously, it was thought the ice was eight feet thick straight through. That may well have been the case for awhile, except for some reason the ice started sublimating from the bottom up, creating an upside-down funnel.

Back at "Our Discovery"
Last trip, I mentioned Lysa and I thought we discovered a new cave only to find that it had been discovered on a previous expedition a year before. Well, there was a high lead I wanted to try so after we were done with our other CRF stuff, Lysa, Jonah, and I wandered back there to check it out. Once again, the cave seemed smaller, but certainly no less beautiful! Jonah seemed to really enjoy himself, and upon sending him down a rather uncomfortable looking lead, we soon discovered the grotto has a new "squeeze psycho!" After several minutes of waiting, we finally went to see what was taking him so long. Had our nasty looking lead turned into hundreds of feet of walking passage, or did Jonah fall down a pit? We soon discovered the truth: Jonah had stripped down as far as modesty (and the rough Aa lava) would allow, and was trying to flatten himself for a seven inch squeeze. In Aa lava, it just wasn't going to happen, but tantalizing larger passage was just beyond! Rats! Maybe there is another way around... We soon found even more new passage, we hadn't noticed the last time. Once again, Jonah found another squeeze. This one wasn't as long, but just as low, and he wasn't having any luck. Being a bit smaller, I gave it a shot myself. I could barely fit my helmet through, even when pushing it in from of me! But just beyond was more passage. Big passage. I compressed my chest and thrust forward, but it just wasn't going to happen. The harder I tried, the tighter the lava gripped my clothing. We had to abandon the attempt and move on.

Continuing down our new passage, we found yet another high lead! Deciding to save it until later, we moved on to see how much further this passage went. That's when we saw it--the packs we had left behind previously! Damn, we've come in full circle, and that previous high lead was the one we originally came to do. Back we went, and I did manage to climb it. It was easy (particularly when Lysa allowed me to use her as a stepping ladder) but went nowhere.

On the way back out, we tried to find the bones we spotted on the previous trip. We didn't see them, but we did find an intact packrat skull and a miscellaneous jumble of thin ribs and other bones. This back room is some sort of packrat graveyard, and I bet if we continued looking we would find more tiny bones scattered around. But enough of this--it was late and we only got a few hours sleep the night before.

Day Two
A brand new cave awaited me on day two. This one also had icicles in the entrance area, of which I managed to get an almost-good picture of. It was a small cave, but with a lot of character. The first area was in the shape of a gently curving "Z." Three lava channels, one inside the other, followed the cave for its entire length. At the far end of the "Z," the tube broke through the wall of the trench, but if you followed it to the left, through some jumbled breakdown, you entered the tube's second half. It was much more complex then the first half, and all that I was thinking as I scouted ahead was "glad I don't have to sketch THIS!" Besides a breakdown floor, there were small side alcoves, columns, and even a second upper level. Along the left side, a small passage was formed in the breakdown, creating more survey joy. But don't let me fool you, I loved every minute of it! Scrambling up, squeezing down, and trying to figure out the best place for stations so we can tie everything together. And who knows, maybe next time I will give sketching a shot...

Fortunately, we finished the survey in one day. I even had a little extra time to take some pictures. Results were mixed, but now I'm a little more confident that I can get the same mediocre pictures underground as I can above.

"Looping" the Night Away
The lunatics that we are, Lysa, Jonah and I decided to run around cave loop deep into the night, hopping from cave to cave. One cave quickly melted into the other, and the experience was completely overwhelming. There were huge tubes, and low tubes. Crawly tubes and tubes you could drive a truck through. I would love to survey something like one of these tubes someday! My second piece of advice, this one aimed at anyone who does a CRF Lava Beds trip, is to do Cave Loop. Check out as many caves as you can. Yes, they may have "trails" in them, though you can find out-of-the-way areas if you look hard enough, but each is unique and beautiful, and has something special to offer if you just look. Once again, Lava Beds proved itself to be a place of magic and discovery, and I can't wait for the next expedition in May. See you there!

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