Justin horn is squeaking squeezing into
a cave in hue falda County I would say
we but it's really just Justin horn and
there's a reason for the coaster phobic
maneuver he's learning more about the
ever changing Edwards Aquifer the edge
of the hill country is nothing short of
beautiful especially on a day like this
blue sky is virtually untouched scenery
but it's not the surface we're
interested in it's you have a report
world just below our feet so I'm
standing on the rock so it's just like
down no big deal right turns out this
cave Adventure is not for the
claustrophobic cult Big Easy there's
nothing big about the interest to this
cave we're gonna put your foot in places
where we can hold you and then we're
gonna slide you down the rest of the way
after a tight squeeze we're greeted by a
colony of daddy longlegs and the beauty
of South Texas is underworld this cave
actually may be an old spring mouth no
Paleo spring it's been seen by only a
few visitors millions of years old the
Big Easy is well preserved and has some
unexplored reaches the cave continues
down this deep slow probably another 100
feet or so and they tell us it likely
opens up into an even bigger cave
located in Uvalde County along was
called the canopy gap this formation is
important to the Edwards Aquifer
Authority and it's out for scientists
gary Shindo who has decades of knowledge
in spelunking under his belt
these caves basically record the the
groundwater flow that helped form the
offeror many millions of years ago in
other words this is what the Edwards
Aquifer looks like just without water
and that means they can study historic
water flow affecting things like our
drinking water plus these incredible
stalactites can be dated by geologists
these formations give you a continental
record of what the climate may have been
like as old as 400 thousand years ago
all important research it's why you'll
find these researchers caving often and
it's why they'll likely be down here
again as for our adventure comes to an
end that is as long as we can squeeze
our way out Oh Justin Horne case at 12
News clearly not claustrophobic and good
thing you're skinny well yeah well yeah
my dad bought just barely squeeze
through so it was a tight fit I was I
was surprised it might be a question how
does someone find a cave like this I
mean it literally was hidden behind some
plants but the landowner which by the
way bill Cofer and I talked to him to
this fascinating guy he's owned this
ranch for five generations taking great
care of it he's in the Edwards Aquifer
protection program so he makes sure the
land stays in good shape for the aquifer
but an e-rate they found the cave and it
reveals a lot about the aquifer how
scary was it to go down there you know
it wasn't that bad I I enjoy that sort
of stuff but you know the the
claustrophobia will get to you sometime
when you mentioned in the piece about
going down there was probably another
bigger one and I was like why didn't you
do it right yet no they the safety
concerns they said they said no I kind
of wanted to but yeah you get you got to
have some training you need ropes and
you got to rope up in that sort of thing
probably not the best idea for us
especially with the camera all you're
missing is the fedora and the whip well
I don't know if I'm quite there yet you
okay with spiders and snakes no well the
last time we came we saw a snake this
time it was the spiders but the daddy
longlegs you know they don't generally
mess with you my daughter was a couple
of years now a tour guide and Natural
Bridge matrons and I've done those but
those you know they actually have
walkways for you to go dad sure to
squeeze through the railing and Braille
lights yeah all of those things so I'm
proud of you well thank you and you know
being tall you have to be careful
because you'll hit your head on the
still AG I think Heights right because
it's they have the ceiling tight and
they want to make sure those are
preserved so yeah you have to dock any
human touch on any of that stuff no it's
important and I want to show you these
were the daddy longlegs as we came in I
took a little bit of video of it there
it goes there in these colonies and you
kind of come face to face with them and
unless you it's just like a colony of
the daddy longlegs spiders and they'll
bill kind of crawl around but yes it was
look fascinating any