Lava tube day-hike

[edgear]

This past weekend I had the chance to test out a few flashlights and lanterns in the lava tube near Flagstaff, AZ. It was a perfect hike for a warm summer day, as the temperatures underground average 40°F year round. The three main units I wanted to test were the Black Diamond Orbit Lantern, the Bluestone Lighting InCharge, and the SureFire 10X Dominator (the first two of which are LED, and the latter being an incandescent bulb).

Initially I was mostly excited to test out the flashlights, but the lantern ended up being a huge asset in the cave. It provided a nicely diffused light to walk with; lighting up the area around our feet but not messing with our night-vision as our eyes had adjusted to the dark. The Bluestone flashlight was the other LED in the group, and made for a nice light to light up our path about 10-15 feet in front of us. The SureFire packed a big punch in a small package. This light was by far the brightest thing in the cave (we encountered probably 50+ other hikers that morning). This thing would light up the entire cavern like daytime, sending out a spot beam a few hundred feet down the tunnel on the highest setting. However, I only experienced a little over 20 minutes of burn time, mostly using the highest setting. I tried to only use it in smaller bursts, as the body would begin to heat up after about 20 continuous seconds of use. So the SureFire we only used sparingly to light up the cave to see what lay ahead, and the two LED lightsources we kept on the entire time. Another fun source of light were glowsticks - but I couldn't imagine navigating the lava tube solely with those!

 

[robert]

Cool place; I carried several lights when I went including my old Peak 1 single mantle lantern. The only time it was a pain was that cave-ine section you have to crawl through but ti was nice to be able to see everything.

On a side note, I was there in a March several years ago and only ran into a couple of people- probably due to all the snow on the ground. On the way out I found a Ziploc bag full of fresh dope and as we were exiting the mouth I heard some folks scrambling to get in a car then saw it speeding away. When we got to my truck one of the sliders on the camper shell had been opened but they hadn't cut the screen yet to steal anything- I got their dope and they got... nothing. Karma baby! Nope- I don't smoke or use any drugs (except an occasional beer, wine or tequila).

 

[intothewild]

I was there a couple years ago, cool place. Went during winter, quite a bit of snow. Came out to find my 1st gen 4runner had a dead battery and we were the only ones there! Luckily we were able to get a jump about an hour later when somebody else finally showed up. We actually stumbled upon it on accident, so we didn't go too terribly far into the caves unfortunately.