IXL Cleanup Trip Report Attended: Chris, Ken, Lysa, Mark, Robert, Sunia IXL, known to many locals as Hellhole, is Santa Cruz's largest known cave, at about 600 feet long and around 150 feet deep. Recently acquired by the park service, the cave is currently closed to the public, however "the public" doesn't seem impressed by this change of status, and thus a gate is planned to be installed sometime in the not too distant future. Legally speaking, the cave is considered an "attractive nuisance," meaning the people attracted to this cave are, generally speaking, a nuisance. Since without a gate, the cave is accessible to anyone who has figured out how to turn on a flashlight, or knows someone who does, things are rather trashed. With special permission from the park service, our goal was to do a quick assessment of the damage and pick up as much of the larger trash items as we could. The trip started with Chris and I arriving about an hour late. Lysa, Mark, Ken, and Sunia were just getting out of Empire Cave, which is across the road. Chris is a coworker of mine, who had expressed an interest in caving. Since this was going to be my first wild cave trip, and Sunia had never been underground before, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to get Chris hooked as well. Chris and I suited up, and we all headed off on the somewhat longer than advertised hike to the cave. The entrance, a foot or so in diameter, appeared more like a rabbit hole than a hellhole to me. I couldn't help but picture a little white rabbit run past, pull a gold pocketwatch out of his vest pocket, and then frantically dive in the tiny opening while mumbling something about "being late." Instead, we were greeted by a fluttering bat, possibly a Townsend's. The tiny flying mammal flew around Sunia's head once, then silently dove into its dark home. After gathering our bearings, we began to file into the cave. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the entrance's small dimensions so I couldn't warn my friend Chris of the impending crunch. Chris took one look at "The Mancatcher," and announced that he didn't think that he would make it. The Mancatcher opens into "The Big Room," and we were sure that he would be able to make it to that part of the cave. But when your instincts say no, it's never wise to push your luck. Chris decided to exit the cave and stay topside with Ken, who was tired and not feeling in the right frame of mind to enjoy the cave properly either. Instead, they would be our "first line of defense" from the previously mentioned "nuisances," and attempt to convince them that caving was best done with working lights, helmets, and some form of footwear. The entrance corridor is maybe twenty feet long, very tight in spots, and filled with large spiders with long creepy legs. As one who is officially Rather Creeped-Out By Spiders, I made a special effort to zip through the Mancatcher as fast as the cave would let me. No Metadollofs, a spider unique to the caves of Santa Cruz, were spotted in the entrance, and neither did I see that bat. Upon entering the Big Room, we all recognized a rather unpleasant odor. Scanning the room with our lights, the source of said odor was spotted. A nuisance decided to prove that not only was he an asshole, but he had one as well. The evidence was found somewhere around the middle of the chamber. Upon assessing its dimensions, Mark classified it as a "big bore turd," and the rest of us readily agreed. Thankfully, the offender's obviously high-fiber diet made the odiferous object easy to contain, and it was promptly sealed in a ziplock baggy and placed in a corner for later extraction. After neutralizing the obvious threat, we proceeded to assess and clean. The Big Room averages around fifteen feet high, and is maybe twenty feet or so long. Most of the floor is covered with solidly packed dirt, crudely adorned with thousands of tiny objects, none of which you will find classified as "speleothem." The objects included broken glass fragments, buttons, scraps of unidentifiable metal, various plastic items, and candy wrappers, all painstakingly embedded in the cave floor by hundreds of trampling feet. We removed as many of these artifacts of human stupidity as we possibly could. Also recovered were various cans, bottles, one condom (slightly used) and globs of candlewax. The walls were covered with spraypaint, most of which were arrows for the benefit of those more intellectually challenged then the original artisans. These beacons of ignorance will be removed on future trips, after the gate has been installed. Speaking of speleothems, every one of them in this previously beautiful cave was severely damaged, utterly destroyed, or completely removed. The once sparkling white walls are now brown and muddy. Hundreds of hours of hard work may help restore the walls and flowstone to something close to white, but nothing can repair the vicious damage done to the formations. Our lives are nothing more than a flicker, yet our arrogance in the face of millennia is only surpassed by our ignorance. After perhaps thirty minutes of picking up loose trash and prying objects out of the mud, a group of seven students entered the Big Room. Their attire generally consisted of shorts, T-shirts, and sneakers. None had helmets, but most (not all) were carrying flashlights. We're talking cheap plastic discount store flashlights. Most were already dim. Lysa took this opportunity to talk to the group, notifying them that they were indeed trespassing and that if caught they would each be fined $150. She also discussed safety and conservation. I was surprised that we weren't told to just go bugger-off, and all except one, appeared genuinely interested and almost concerned. After the lecture, we then sent them on their way. It was at this point that Mark and Sunia decided to go with this new group and clean the back of the cave, at the bottom of the pit. Lysa and I stayed behind to finish up our work in this room, and clean the connecting passageways and side-chambers. The groups kept on coming. None were dressed for caving, and none had helmets. Only one small group of three had head-mounted lights. The highlight was one woman who entered without any shoes. We mentioned that broken glass, used condoms, and human feces generally don't mix well with bare feet, and she agreed to exit the cave. Without a flashlight though, she had to be escorted to the surface by someone slightly better illuminated. Another group was detected when Lysa and I were cleaning an area thirty or forty feet down a passage. I smelled the cigarette smoke all the way from the Big Room, before even hearing them. Going to investigate, I was greeting by another largish group, with no less then three of them smoking. It doesn't take a genius to realize that cigarette smoke inside a cave is patently stupid, and I found myself saying something that, as a smoker myself, I have never before uttered: "Gentlemen, would you kindly extinguish your cigarettes." Much to my surprise, they complied and actually apologized. Lysa then joined them in the Big Room and gave them the "standard lecture." Lysa and I eventually met up with Mark and Sunia, at the top of the pits. I didn't have the time or the immediate urge to venture to the bottom, having been underground for around five hours or so. I'm sure the next time we do a cleanup run, I will have the opportunity to see the rest of the cave. Maybe by then, I will have managed to get the rest of the mud out of my hair, and clean some of the dirt out of my nasal passages.
There is no such thing as a sacrificial cave, and IXL is no exception. With hard work, a well planned management proposal, and education, IXL and its residents can be saved. Almost all of the people we talked too inside the cave were genuinely interested in what we had to say and wanted to enjoy, not destroy, the cave. With education, and if given an opportunity to join a grotto or other caving club where they can be taught good caving practices, I am certain most of the people we encountered would become responsible and productive cavers. Lysa and I had just finished lecturing another group, when we moved into a nearby passageway. The group was still exploring the chamber, when from behind we heard one exclaim: "Wow! That's so cool!" I pictured a gloveless, dirty hand pointing in the dim glow of a flashlight at one of the broken mud smeared formations. Lysa and I smiled at each other. There was a caver back there. We can not abandon her any more then we can abandon IXL.
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