Empire Cave Cleanup Trip Report Empire Cave is located on University of Santa Cruz property, in a heavily traveled area and within walking distance of University housing. This makes the cave the target of partiers and vandals, particularly on Halloween night. To counteract this threat, and save the unique arachnids which call Empire Cave home, the SFBC sponsors a yearly cleanup effort on the day after Halloween. As usual, I am either very late or very early for everything. This time, I was forty minutes early, so I had a few moments to survey the surrounding area. The little patch of dirt we call the "parking lot" was littered, but not that bad, relatively speaking. The cave entrance was also fairly clean. Lysa put up signs the night before, warning would-be cavers of the endangered arachnids, and much to my surprise they were still there. A few minutes before noon, three members of the newly formed Santa Cruz High Cave Restoration Club showed up. We chatted for awhile, and I got the impression that they were all rather "with it," or at least more so then when I was at sixteen. They all had their own helmets, lights, and backups. From the muddy, knee-padded jeans of one of them, I can safely say they had been underground before. Shortly after, Michelle showed up, mostly to say hello to Lysa and the Frantz', who still had not arrived. She chatted for awhile, mostly sizing us up I think, and decided to stick around for awhile to give a hand with the cleanup. Lysa finally showed up with the Frantz' and Ken, and we all geared up to go underground. Eric, age 8, would also be joining us on this trip. The entrance is a large cement block, with a hole in the top to permit access. A 15 foot ladder eased access into the first large chamber. Much to all of our surprise, this first chamber was relatively clean. A few batteries were found, and a bit of broken glass, but most of the trash was candlewax and smaller items. We spent maybe twenty or thirty minutes in this area, scooping as much of the wax out of the cave as possible, and picking tiny shards of glass out of the mud floor. We also collected any half-burned wood we found, and ended up with a half-full but rather heavy bag of trash. A large corridor connects the first chamber to the rest of the cave, and following this we did spot some fresh hay. A little panic set in at first, for fear that the back of the cave was littered with the stuff, but further investigation proved our fears false. The hay was mostly scattered around in very small patches, and the other chambers were also relatively free of trash. A few batteries, a bit more glass, some soaked newspapers, and some half-eaten fruit was about the extent of it. Obviously the cave was not used this Halloween. The signs Lysa left inside the cave were still intact, and the trashbags stashed next to them were untouched as well. An easy, but muddy crawl leads to final chamber, and this is where I headed. I wanted to work alone for awhile, in the back of the cave while the others were cleaning elsewhere. It was actually nice being alone, where the only light was mine. The final chamber contains the only remaining formations, a series of rimstone dams, currently empty of water. Hopefully when the cave floods this year, some of the mud will be washed away and the dams will refill. I picked around in the clay-like mud for a bit, picking up cigarette butts and decaying orange peels. The rest of the group soon caught up, and I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of everyone. I used a cheap automatic camera, so I don't expect many of the pictures will actually turn out, but with any luck I can scan them in and salvage one or two. Eric was having a great time, and the high school students were really busting their butts to get things cleaned up. No metadolloff spiders were spotted this time, and I didn't see any Empire Cave pseudoscorpians hanging around either, but all in all, it was a good trip with around 60 pounds of trash, mostly half-burned wood, removed from the cave. Shortly after we were done with the cleanup, we spotted a couple of groups hooting and hollering, approaching the cave. Of course they had fast food containers and alcohol. However, they assured us that since they were locals, they would never even think of littering. Needless to say, I would like to go back one more time before the cave floods for the winter and try to pick up any new trash that "non-locals" may have left behind. You win some and you lose some, I guess.
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