An unforgettable, dirt-filled, exhaustive adventure through the Santa Cruz Caves...It rained just enough on Sunday to make it interesting. We were slipping and sliding over everything, and most of us had trouble keeping our foot placement on the slick holds. We spent eight hours exploring the depths of the elaborate labyrinth of caves--crawling, shimmying, and climbing our way through the honeycomb network, and we still didn't see it all.
There was a lot of laughing, a lot of, "You want me to fit through that? Head first or feet first?" kind of talk. We felt like we were in The Goonies movie. Tiny little passage ways opened to larger caverns. We could see how getting lost could be so easy. The darkness disguised the deep trenches where one misstep could lead to...we tried not to contemplate that thought. It was a good thing we had Stan to navigate us around the dangerous maneuvers and to lead us back out to the safety of the open air.
We made it to the hall of faces--a large cavern where people have crafted artistic creations of everything imaginable into the walls, using the grimy, muddy, clay-like substance. We left our own sculptures--a giraffe in a boat, a snake, a bear, and Ryan did reconstructive surgery on some of the faces that were already there. We read through the notebook that served as a visitors log and left our own notes.
This was a lot like the caving Chrissy and I did in Budapest except that for this one more technical climbing ability was needed. We learned some good chimney and stemming technique on the fly through some good tips from Stan. It's really not the kind place to venture without someone who knows what they're doing. And as Stan suggested, "you might want to reconsider if you wear an XL shirt."
When we finally made it out of the caves and retrieved the bags of gear we had hidden from the path, we were starving and ready for some group bonding time over pizza and beer. The look on people's faces was priceless when we emerged from the forest and bum-rushed the public restrooms all mud-encrusted and rain-drenched, looking like characters from "The Swamp Thing."
Special gear required?
- head torches
- knee and elbow pads
- mud-ready shoes that are good on slick surfaces
- someone who knows where they're going
