SWWASAS Posted October 24, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) Again this location is just my guess based on the description of the area by the guys that found the cabin a few years ago. I could be wrong. The mountain above the marked location would be tricky to traverse because it is a talus slope on the side of Mt St helens but it could be circled But other than that I have been in the area to the right and below my marked location on the picture. That this area was not disturbed by the eruption is really interesting. There was a ridge line above that deflected the pyroclastic flow and saved this patch of trees from being destroyed by the blast. If a BF had been in this area and survived the pyroclastic flow, it would likely consider this tree patch a special place. Before the 1980 eruption much of what is bare in the picture was tree covered. Mind you what is known as the blast area is North and West of this area. The pyroclastic event sort of surged over the crater wall and cascaded down this side of the mountain, forming the lahar. It was pretty similar to shaking up a soda bottle then opening it. Instead of soda gushing out it was superheated ash flowing like a fluid. The lahar is gradually getting vegetation returning but most of it is fist or larger sized chunks of rock that retards the growth of vegetation. My annual trip up the lahar in the spring the big danger is twisting an ankle on the big rocks. Edited October 24, 2018 by SWWASAS
NCBFr Posted October 24, 2018 Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) On 10/23/2018 at 5:32 PM, SWWASAS said: SWWASAS - Any chance you can denote true North on this map? I remember looking at this real hard years ago with google maps and want to re-check my work with your beautiful picture. Below is where I had it located using google maps and the description. The description of the cabin's location sounds much more rugged than what is shown in your pic. Of course that could just be perspective. Edited October 24, 2018 by NCBFr add content
SWWASAS Posted October 24, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 24, 2018 Your location does not match the geology of the existing cabin picture. Your marked location looks like pretty solid rock and a steep slope. The cabin picture shows a talus slope behind the cabin. Another picture that the finders showed at their presentation showed the cabin and a definite flat ridgeline above it. Here is picture of the cabin but it does not show the ridge line. The talus slope and relatively flat ground that the cabin sits on better fits my picture of where I think it was against the ridge and the patch of trees.
BigTreeWalker Posted October 24, 2018 Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) On 10/18/2018 at 11:40 AM, hiflier said: Me too! I think (but I will have to go back and check) Fred Beck said that they shot one of the creatures and that it fell back off of a cliff? Recently some people had an article about finding the possible location of Beck's cabin. Makes me wonder if the BF's skeleton is still somewhere below that cliff. If BF's carry away their dead though then probably not. It's not. I've been in there. If it was it could have washed out years before. The canyon itself is very straight walled clear to the top and it's a box canyon. But it's only about 30 feet wide at most. Snow melt could easily fill it in the springtime and scour it clean. I think there is a discussion here somewhere of Marc Myrsell discovering the possible cabin site. Edited October 24, 2018 by BigTreeWalker
SWWASAS Posted October 24, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) I think part of the confusion is that Ape Canyon is in the area but not particularly the cabin location but nearby. Remember that the Forest Service did not want anyone to know where it was. Both factors were why it took so long to find it. It took the finders group a long time to find it. Edited October 24, 2018 by SWWASAS
BigTreeWalker Posted October 24, 2018 Posted October 24, 2018 Here are a couple screen shots of the Ape Canyon area in the proper north south orientation. Mt St Helens is off the map to the west, but that is the base of the mountain on the left side. The cabin site from the description Marc Myrsell gave would be near the left (upper) end south of the canyon and near the trees.
NCBFr Posted October 25, 2018 Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, SWWASAS said: Your location does not match the geology of the existing cabin picture. Your marked location looks like pretty solid rock and a steep slope. The cabin picture shows a talus slope behind the cabin. Another picture that the finders showed at their presentation showed the cabin and a definite flat ridgeline above it. Here is picture of the cabin but it does not show the ridge line. The talus slope and relatively flat ground that the cabin sits on better fits my picture of where I think it was against the ridge and the patch of trees. It is a puzzle. Here are the relevant facts from the article: · were working our gold claim, the Vander White. It was two miles east of Mt. St. Helens near a deep canyon now named "Ape Canyon" · It was in the middle of July · We had all come up in his Ford, and I had no way to get to town unless he took me. · we went back to our cabin, on the north side of the canyon · Hank asked me to accompany him to the spring, about a hundred yards from our cabin, to get some water, and suggested we take our rifles — to be on the safe side. We walked to the spring, and then, Hank yelled and raised his rifle, and at that instant, I saw it. It was a hairy creature, and he was about a hundred yards away, on the other side of a little canyon · It was not long before I saw one of the apelike creatures, standing about eighty yards away near the edge of Ape Canyon. I shot three times, and it toppled over the cliff, down into the gorge, some four hundred feet below. So if you distill this down further they were 80 yards north of the gorge which had a 400 ft drop in to the gorge with a stream 100 yards further away and another small canyon another 100 yards away from the stream. I swore I reads somewhere they had to descend to the cabin via ropes but that is not in this article. Looking at google earth there are only a few spots that qualify. As to which one, would need to hike it to see. Here is a cool pic if you have not seen it: Edited October 25, 2018 by NCBFr
BigTreeWalker Posted October 25, 2018 Posted October 25, 2018 Ape Canyon actually splits into two canyons a little lower down. You can see both forks on the topo map. There is a ridge of rock at the base of the mountain that drops off into the valley the canyons are in. A rope from there would probably be the only way to get down to the area between the two canyons. Don't remember if there were any trees there or not before the mountain blew. Not much there now but rock.
SWWASAS Posted October 25, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 25, 2018 Good point. The geology of the area changed with the eruption. While the blast and pyroclastic event missed the ape canyon area, the torrent of melt water off the mountain during the eruption deeply eroded the canyon. It uncovered stuff previously buried by many eruptions and made the ape canyon area much more interesting (rugged) than it was before. The discoverers certainly eventually had to use ropes for descent down to the cabin. So it is likely the miners did too. I vaguely remember a picture of the area with something like a rope ladder but I cannot trust my memory. I have seen other pictures of the cabin. If we can find some showing shadow and know the date, you can determine orientation. Orientation and geology were what led the discoverers to find it, so that is the key to determining the location. The spring location or any creek location is not likely to lead to anything because the eruption disturbed and rechannelled a lot of stuff. In my picture taken in June, you can see a lot of snow fields of good size, and every one of them would have water coming off of them. Certainly the cabin was not above the tree line as trees are evident in the cabin picture. The cabin sat on relatively flat ground at that time. That could have changed some with the eruption. Torrents of rushing water can really change things. I see that in the lahar. Every spring the spring runoff of snow melt changes stuff significantly. It takes a lot of energy to wipe out features made out of large rock year to year. To me this is more archeology than much to do with BF. That side of the mountain was much different before the eruption. Much of the forest was destroyed and now only fragments of the previous forestation remain. It could have been that the cabin was too near some BF camp or gathering place and the summer visits by the miners was a problem for the BF in the area who got aggressive.
BigTreeWalker Posted October 25, 2018 Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) Here's a link to the original thread about finding the possible cabin site. Ape Canyon Cabin Found? It didn't copy the link sorry. Here it is. Edited October 25, 2018 by BigTreeWalker
SWWASAS Posted October 25, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) As I remember the presentation at the Hopsquatch event given by the discoverers was recorded. Perhaps Guy Edwards has or knows who has the video. Many more pictures were shown at that event than I can find on the internet. I know they showed pictures of the cabin site, the burned log etc. While the cabin site was not level it certainly did not have much of a slope but had a steep slope behind it. Likely the same slope the trailer showed them rapeling down. They really did not want others going there. I guess they intended to produce a film and never did. Certainly Mountain Devils is not in Youtube. Years ago I did some videos of my field work and it takes huge chunks of time. Publish it on Youtube and all you get is snarky comments from skeptics. I decided I would rather spend the time in the field than sitting for hours editing video. During that time frame Todd Standing was producing puppet videos and I did not want to be lumped in with his kind. . Edited October 25, 2018 by SWWASAS
BigTreeWalker Posted October 25, 2018 Posted October 25, 2018 Here are a couple links people mind find interesting.
Doug Posted October 28, 2018 Posted October 28, 2018 On 10/24/2018 at 3:25 PM, SWWASAS said: Your location does not match the geology of the existing cabin picture. Your marked location looks like pretty solid rock and a steep slope. The cabin picture shows a talus slope behind the cabin. Another picture that the finders showed at their presentation showed the cabin and a definite flat ridgeline above it. Here is picture of the cabin but it does not show the ridge line. The talus slope and relatively flat ground that the cabin sits on better fits my picture of where I think it was against the ridge and the patch of trees. SWWASAS, the picture here is not the miners cabin. it is a picture of the cabin used in the documentary about the incident. The miners cabin had a barn shaped roof that came down near to the ground. The picture of their cabin is in the news paper articles of the time.
SWWASAS Posted October 28, 2018 BFF Patron Posted October 28, 2018 I was wondering about that since this picture did not match what I remember from the finders presentation. The real cabin picture is around but I have not been able to find it. The picture I remember had the cabin sort of built into the hillside like a daylight basement. That would have made it easier for the BF to get on the roof too.
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