Matt and I had a great day hike up Mitchell Mountain today. The day was crisp and clear, the views were awesome, but the wind was a bit chilly on top. Matt had a thermometer and it showed the temperature at 15 degrees on top at about 10:30 a.m. We guessed the winds to be gusting up to about 50 mph. We had planned on snowshoeing, but the snow was frozen so hard that we were able to hike the whole way without ever using our snowshoes. There were lots of great photos to be had on top, but fingers started freezing within moments of taking the gloves off due to high wind and cold temps. It was a great trip! Sorry there aren’t many words in this report - I managed to throw together 18,000 words over here: http://www.farnellfamily.com/pictures/Climbing/2006-02_Mt_Mitchell

Update, 2/25/06: Mt. Mitchell used to have a fire lookout on the peak. Pictures of the lookout are available here: http://www.firelookout.com/wa/mitchell.html

Someone gave me a couple of notebooks for Christmas. On the front is a drawing of Garfield taking a nap at the beach. The caption says "Don’t ask me…I’m offline." Do you think that fits my personality?

Many of you know that I’ve been working to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics. I started out doing a fast-track, distance-ed program through Charter Oak State College (Verity DE) where I was supposed to complete the degree in only 21 months, via testing and correspondence classes.  Completion in 21 months didn’t work out, but I’m still glad I found this program as I am still saving lots of money and time in the whole process. So far I’ve spent about 3 years working on this degree while also continuing my web site design business and other activities.

I’m earning my credits through testing (CLEP, GRE, DANTES) and correspondence courses. Currently I have 95 of my required 120 credits, and I hope to be finished by summer 2006. I may teach math and/or computers at a public school or college after I get my degree (or maybe after I get my Masters Degree).

I only have two more exams to complete my degree, but one of them is a very hard math test in April (some of you will remember I’ve taken this exam before and not passed with a high enough score). I’m currently studying for this math test. It is the three hour Math GRE test, worth 20.7 semester credits toward my degree. It covers calculus, groups, rings, topology, fields, linear algebra, probability, regular algebra, and basically what an undergraduate math student would have to learn while getting a Bachelor’s Degree. It’s a lot of stuff to study and remember all at one time, and they don’t allow notes or calculators. The test is usually taken by people who already have their degree and want to show what they have learned to get into graduate school. If I can pass this exam, I will only need to take one more CLEP exam (simple in comparison to what I’ve been doing) and I will be finished with my degree. I have to get the 40th percentile or above on this exam, which doesn’t seem like it would be that hard. However, that makes my passing relative to how well all the other test takers do. I would appreciate your prayers as I study and take the Math GRE test on April 1st. Finishing my degree anytime soon is dependent upon my passing this exam. I usually study the best the last few days before an exam, when I start feeling a lot of pressure, but I need to be studying hard from now until April 1st. If I don’t pass the exam, I’ll have to take another 7 math classes or so, and that would add a lot of time and expense to my degree. I want to take advantage of what I already know, and what I can learn myself, and get the credits that way. This exam is only $130, which is very cheap compared to courses. My recent Abstract Algebra class from the University of Idaho cost over $1,300 for only 3 credits! Luckily, Verity paid for it with some of the money I’ve paid them.

Thank you and God bless. 

Monday, November 14, 2005 – The day started out with a meeting at the church to pick up my nephew, Jeremiah. Kim Luper had taken me to Little Red River Cave in August 2004, and I had some friends and family I was taking to the cave today. We were all excited and looking forward to exploring the cave, getting some good photos, and maybe even packing through some snow to get to the cave entrance.

Little Red River Cave is a locked cave, so Suzanne (my sister), Jeremiah, and I were headed for the Monument Headquarters to pick up the key and permit. Little Red River Cave has some fascinating features, including some very cool lava falls and a red river for which it is named. The cave is home to flatworms, an aquatic species found in this St. Helens cave only.

The rangers warned us that we might not be able to access the cave due to snow, but I was fairly confident we could. If we had to walk, that was fine. If it turned out to be too long of a walk, we could always go to a different cave at a lower elevation and just return the key without visiting Little Red River Cave.

The next stop was to pick up our friends Jacob and Ezra, and then on to Jacks to meet Ben. The group size is limited to 6 people, which was the size of our group. We read the rules on the back side of our permit, noting rules such as no food in the cave, no smoking in the cave, no entering the cave if the gate has been tampered with, etc.

We were soon on our way up the mountain, passing the turn off for Ape Cave. We didn’t see any snow until a little further up. The road was clear, most likely due to much hunting traffic, but there was 1 foot of snow in the woods. The parking area was full of snow, and we were a little concerned about how we would get back onto the road after caving. Ben and I both had 4 wheel drive vehicles, and I had tire chains, so after Ben tested out the snow, we both parked.

We all ate a snack so we wouldn’t have to carry food into the cave, and we were soon hiking toward the cave. Walking in the snow wasn’t bad under the trees, but once we were out on the lava flow we were sinking in quite a ways in soft snow. Fortunately the cave was close and we soon found the snow-free entrance.

I changed shoes (didn’t want to wear out my good boots on the lava) and headed down into the entrance with Jacob to unlock the cave. I let Jacob have the honor of unlocking the cave. Soon, he was telling me he couldn’t find any locks. The gate is made to be difficult to break in, so there are two locks on the inside of the gate. I reached in and felt around and couldn’t find any locks either. We opened the steel cover to the second lock – no lock there either! We lifted the pin and the gate swung open easily…

Uh oh. This was a surprise. There were no fresh tracks in the snow leading to the cave, other than one set that looked like someone had glanced down into the entrance and then left. There were no steel shavings or saw dust or anything that gave evidence of a break in. The only strange item in the area was one link of a steel chain off to the side on the floor, right inside the gate. We looked around a little more, and then sadly decided we couldn’t explore the cave today since our permit said not to enter the cave if the gate had been tampered with. This was a disappointment for us all.

We walked back to the car and decided to visit an alternate cave at lower elevation and report our find to the Forest Service later. We caved in the area down closer to the river where there was no snow, and I returned the key to the Chelatchie Prairie store on the way home. I left a note with the key explaining our find and letting them know I would call in the morning.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 – I called Lisa Walker’s direct phone number, since she is in charge of the caves of the monument. Her message machine said she wasn’t working that day, so I left a message. I also wrote her an e-mail explaining all the details. I also volunteered to take new locks up to the cave if they wanted me to. I then decided to call the main office and let the person at the desk know the situation. They asked me a few questions and took down some notes.

At this point, I was guessing that the person who took the locks had to have had a key as I didn’t know how they could have broken the second lock.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 – I got an e-mail back from Lisa Walker saying that they had gone up and looked at the cave the day before. She said the person definitely had to unlock the lock. She also said they were checking to see who was the last group to enter the cave. She said she would let me know about taking new locks up to the cave.

Thursday, December 1, 2005 – I wrote to Lisa Walker and asked for an update on the Little Red River Cave situation. I told her my group really wanted to explore the cave sometime since our last trip didn’t work out, and asked her if that would be a possibility.

Sunday, December 4, 2005 – Lisa wrote back to my e-mail. She said they did get new locks put on Little Red River Cave. They had to use new locks and at this point didn’t have backup keys to issue to the public. She said with winter hitting, it might be a little while before they got duplicate keys cut. She was leaving on a four month detail starting December 12, so referred me to some other forest service personnel for updated information on public access. She didn’t say if they had any information on who might have left the gate unlocked.

Monday, December 26, 2005 – Today I am writing this report and don’t have any updated information. I still want to visit the cave, but I’m sure there is a lot of snow up there now. It would be fun to cross-country ski to the entrance, but I will have to find out if keys are available first. My group still wants to visit the cave, so I may have more information in the future.

On October 22, we took a group from our church, Clover Valley Community Church, to Lake Cave. It was basically a trip to have fun, fellowship with other church members, and enjoy God’s creation. We invited the whole church and ended up with 22 spelunkers for this trip. The youngest caver today was four years old!

Lake Cave was found in 1958 by a party of boy scouts who called themselves the “St. Helens Apes.” They were the original explorers of Ape Cave as well. Lake Cave is named for a lake that forms at the lowest point in the cave during the rainy season. Lake Cave is much less visited than Ape Cave, due to the fact that its location is not published and only spread by word of mouth.

The day started out with a meeting at the church at 10:00 a.m. for carpooling. Next stop was Jack’s, where we met up with some more church members coming from Amboy. Quentin Robbins also met us at Jacks parking lot, where he gave us a brief presentation about Ole Peterson and the history of the area. Quentin’s family homesteaded in the area presently known as Cougar. His family knew Ole quite well, and when Quentin was about 8 years old, he had the privilege of taking a tour of Ole’s Cave with Ole himself. He shared some very interesting history with us.

After everyone had an opportunity to ask Quentin questions, we were on the road again. Next stop was the Cougar rest area for people to use the restrooms. After this, we were truly on our way to the cave. We parked in a wide spot along the west side of the road and everyone began gearing up for the hike and cave exploration. Everyone had been asked to bring some type of helmet, but some people still either forgot or chose not to wear one (please excuse the cave pictures with un-helmeted spelunkers!).

Lake Cave is located south of Mt. St. Helens and requires a short walk from the parking area. The area is densely forested for a lava bed, and there are numerous tree casts to be seen in the area. Watch your step! Today we stopped in the clearing by Red Rock Cave for lunch. Everyone had brought their own sack lunch, and the weather was very nice with the sun shining down through the trees, making it hard to get good pictures without highlights being washed out or shadows being too dark.

After lunch I headed over to Lake Cave’s entrance to set up for a group picture. While I was setting up a group of Boy Scouts exited the cave, telling me there was no water in the lake today. In the meantime Charlie was giving the caving rules to all the spelunkers. Once the group photo was taken, everyone headed into the cave.

One of the first of many caves to be found in the area, Lake Cave is still one of the longest lava tubes in the area at 4,597 feet in length. Most of the cave is one continuous tube, but there are a couple of significant side passages. In some places, the ceiling height can be as much as 20 - 30 feet.  Lake Cave has much variety and is well suited for both novice and experienced spelunkers. Much of the cave is walking passage with original floor, but a couple of places require hands-and-knees crawling and there are significant sections of breakdown (broken rock) that must be climbed over. There are also a couple of small lava falls and pits which must be climbed up/down. One even has a built in ladder. For the more adventurous, the side passages and upper levels may be explored.

We skipped the red passage today, and headed straight down the main tube. Our first major obstacle was the 16 foot pit and ladder. The ladder is made of chain with steel pipe as steps. Some of these steel pipes are loose, resulting in spinning steps as your toes bump into the wall. This makes for a very interesting situation when your foot flies off the step when you’re halfway down the ladder! We warned everyone and proceeded to help everyone down. Everyone made it safely. The next obstacle was a 7 foot pit that had to be free climbed. It was a pretty easy climb and everyone handled it great.

We continued on down the cave with kids exploring the upper levels and crawlways on the sides of the main passage. I hadn’t been in this cave for a couple years, and I noticed many interesting features I hadn’t seen before. I guess I’m just more alert to cave formations now, or maybe it was because of the lanterns in our group which really made it easy to see around the cave. At one point the cave floor and walls turned red, which I had never seen in previous trips.

I love taking pictures in caves, and this trip I had brought my digital camera, slave flash, tripod, and enough memory to take over 500 pictures. While the others explored the cave, I took photos. Suzanne also had her camera so she was also taking pictures.

On all my previous trips to Lake Cave, the stream erosional passage had escaped my exploration. I’ve been to the end of Lake Cave twice, and I’ve only seen this side passage one time. The only time I saw the passage was on the way down the cave, and the only reason I noticed it was because another group was sitting in the entrance eating a snack. I decided to look more closely at the passage on the way back up the cave, but I never found it again!

This trip I hoped to find the passage again, and sure enough, a little over halfway down the cave we found the side passage. A few of us explored the passage while the others sang songs and waited for us in the main lava tube. I headed down the left fork of the erosional passage. This passage is unique compared to the rest of Lake Cave, in that this passage is actually under the lava. Water has washed away the dirt under the lava leaving this small passage. The floor was a dry streambed with lot of rocks and dirt, while the ceiling was solid lava. There were tree molds in the ceiling in some areas, but they did not go all the way to the surface. These must have been tree stumps which were completely covered by lava before burning up.

Once everyone was back in the main tube, we headed on toward the lake. This section of the cave is very easy walking passage with smooth floors. We soon noticed the lake’s high-water marks on the ceiling and walls – it is a little strange walking under where water sometimes sits. The passage floor turned to sand as the ceiling started to lower. This is the area where the lake normally is. We’ve had a dry season and there was no water this time. The passage continues on for a ways, but soon turns into a belly crawl and then ends completely with the ceiling coming down to meet the sand. Who knows how far it goes under the sand.

After a brief break we began the trek back up the cave. By the time we got to the chain ladder I think most everyone was starting to get tired. One ladder makes for a traffic jam with 22 people, so a couple of us decided to try free climbing out on the opposite side of the tube from the ladder. It’s actually a pretty easy climb, and makes for a good vantage point to take pictures of others climbing the ladder.

Once outside we headed for the cars. It was about 4:00 p.m., and we had a dinner appointment at 5:00. The Mattila family had invited all the cavers to their home after caving for a wonderful meal. Special thanks to the ladies who stayed home and cooked all day! I had also brought my laptop computer and a borrowed projector, so after dinner we all enjoyed a slideshow of the day’s events. What a fun way to spend a Saturday – I’m already looking forward to next time!

Pictures are available here: http://www.clovervalley.org/gallery/lakecave2005

The other day I got a funny looking envelope in the mail.  It looked kind of like junk mail, but I opened it. It was a weird looking check for……$149.36! Hmm, I don’t have any clients that owe me that. I looked a little closer and saw the check was from Google, Inc. Ah, so that’s what it is!

Have you noticed the ads on the sidebar and other areas of farnellfamily.com? Those are targeted ads provided by the Google Adsense program. I’ve had these ads on the site since January 2005, and this was my first check! I had been expecting a payment from Google, but I thought they had to send me a PIN number before they would actually send the check. Apparently PIN numbers are only given to members who joined at a later time than I did, so I didn’t need one. Thus, this check was kind of unexpected. How’s that for a surprise Christmas present?

Merry Christmas Everyone!