The Lost Sea Adventure : Largest Underground Lake - Boat Ride & Tour at Craighead Caverns
A visit to The Lost Sea in Sweetwater Tennessee , the largest underground lake in America . A lengthy tour thru the caves before boarding a boat to get a better view of this amazing hidden gem
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Transcript
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welcome everyone Adam the whoo here
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today's adventure brings us to the hills
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of eastern Tennessee to a little
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community by the name of Sweetwater
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we're just down the road of it lies the
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largest underground lake in America and
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did I mention it's inside a mountain and
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you have to go through some very dark
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caves to get to it it should be
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interesting
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I'm inviting you to join me Charlie
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the sign states one mile ahead her
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clothes we're very close
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the building out front is the entry
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point three flags the American in the
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middle and the two Tennessee state flags
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on either side and ahead in that front
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door and straight videobomb known as the
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great Craighead cave and in 1976 it was
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designated a natural landmark by the
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National Park Service's they start each
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tour at the top of the hour which gives
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me a few minutes of wander around before
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mine begins
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also on site as a picnic area an old
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western village with a blacksmith tucked
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away over there aunt if you get thirsty
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that's some moonshine on tap it appears
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as if he took the day off not seeing him
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in here his handiwork saw the horseshoes
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are on the door do not pump the bellows
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if you have a coin cast a wish and the
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well all funds go to the Scottish Rite
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shew fonts there's a little bit in there
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there's some change and a few a few
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dollar bills very peaceful out here and
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if you follow this pathway down it turns
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into a nature trail and just off to the
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side you'll notice these railroad tracks
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that are no longer in use sitting under
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the elements if you follow them along
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you will see the miniature train that
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once rode those rails and the little
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barn that houses it
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that's a serious antique right there
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designated a century flyer to give you a
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little more detailed close-up look at it
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and a little peek inside towards the
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engine even a little mirror of sorts was
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right there it's been removed but the
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holder still remains it would have just
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backed right up and to this makeshift
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station you can see how it would have
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just pushed itself back been stored
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right under here don't want to get too
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distracted however it's about time for
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me to start heading back over to the
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area I came here for this rainbow trout
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was found in the water 16 pounds 7
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ounces take a look at that dang I bet
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there's gonna be some just like that
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swimming around once I'm down there
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see if I can pinpoint it on the map a
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little bit northeast of Chattanooga past
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Cleveland Athens there Sweetwater and
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this is the Gateway slanted downward
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it's like a tube a big kind of scary
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yellow tube into the depths it's where
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I'm having the loss you guys ever have
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to offer and yes I do take that time
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very serious walking over a very shaky
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bridge you can feel it like buckling as
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I walk
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all be legendary veil of Tears no you
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think boy everyone that I know it's so
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active or how do I know so active well
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new look to the top robot air chamber be
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honest the live types are nice and shiny
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just a little bit well that's all the
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more they improved over the years from
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the cave system now all that water it
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actually dripped right over here on the
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bottom room those are coming back across
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the line mics and here's my eye tell the
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difference between the two sometimes
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became very tight to the ceiling in a
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way it almost looks like a mouth like
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teeth that are about to clamp down on to
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something stalactites and stalagmites
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down like almost alike types minds in
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our cave system and here's the real
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kicker it's only us it's salmon hunter
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caves in the entire world making eight
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kids at all that even actually have a
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population of appetites on their sites
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the shared velocity actually a good
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portion of the population is so thanks
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to them we were put on the back of the
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US natural light month in itself now the
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Confederate soldiers during the Civil
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War it would actually come down here and
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microcell Peter or scientific name
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potassium nitrate as soon as that we get
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some feelings about up they would add
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gold and hot water to it then we let us
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see from this part of the trial rights
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leader all the way to the end to the
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iron bucket right down here now
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everybody they will let it harden
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overnight
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now mothers liquor now you may be
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wondering what's so special about it
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after they would light it Harden and
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form of this liquor then they would add
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potash life or life stuff charcoal to
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the mixture that eventually creatives
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what we like to call shot Peter crystal
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well thanks to those first was thought
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they actually sent up to look refineries
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here in East Tennessee that that's how
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they made their gunpowder from the war
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to this very day so thanks to leaching
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back is one of two very big reasons go
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vertical on the map of the u.s. Civil
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War trail marker passing through a metal
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gate
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see this nice base build it up and we'll
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have to call the big Whirlpool effect
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now I will explain how both of them were
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actually formed now from the very way
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the peaches entered from the natural
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entrance right up here at one point in
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time to society and system was actually
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flooded such a kid magnet over a very
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long period of time all about water
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extroverted away the big up in itself is
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a big girl whole back right above your
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head as well we can actually eat over
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20,000 people for two weeks or the list
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entire chamber by itself by three times
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every week on the supplies that we have
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and what we could not donate to local
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communities churches and museums alike
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this is a quote we still have left over
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to this very day
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and yes the plastic grapes need meat
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ain't nothing they can do here are the
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dimensions 600 feet long from the floor
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to the ceiling
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it goes up to 35 feet has a very good
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name for this chamber we like to call us
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the cube root not kill kill because if
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you kill directly they're not behind you
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guys well you're not very lucky and
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you're behind you all that's the natural
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type of bacteria losing from the rock
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itself or moons milk now the Native
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Americans this is where they came in
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instead of buttermilk they've had with
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them lots of water say had a little
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copper little scrape on your arm makes a
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tiny bit of water with the smooth numb
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it would act like a natural new sport or
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not to bend it in the same sense this is
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a really big scientifical fact medicinal
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factor has the consistency of two-week
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old toothpaste I know right - visually
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blown but it could be bad news TV or
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some not in some way shape form you will
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see the devil himself
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I heard he went down to Georgia a couple
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times
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it's The Devil's Hole Beelzebub is down
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there so they say
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this is this section is a little steep I
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think we're almost to the lake I think
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we're almost there I now you may wonder
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how was it actually for as you can
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imagine all that water here wanted to
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move and wanted to move so came through
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here for burning away the baby Grand
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Canyon directly right here and
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heading down deeper and deeper at quite
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the angle is that another moonshine
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still
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let's see way down there it almost looks
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like a sci-fi droid for a robot of some
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sort and the stream from the waterfall
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is just careening downward I have a
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feeling it's going to culminate
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culminate very soon explore and here
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they drop season he actually found the
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hole the size of the bicycle tire so
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this is what each I decided to do he
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rides his bicycle election at the time
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he crawled down the whole back side team
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of explorers and divers come down here
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blast and drill out this tunnel my
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dental pieces right here these little
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endian the log right up here everybody's
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got is a basic black mark and right here
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there's a smooth indentation it's a
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black line now all these recipe edges
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that you guys are seeing right along
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this wall these are all the drill marks
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and here's the thing our teeth at this
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respect heard the stories from Ben sands
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and all the rumors from the locals as
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well so here's what we decided to do we
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gave him a bit of a text what I'm about
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to say may absolutely shocked you and
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your blow your minds we got mr. Ben
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stands down here at the age of 73 he
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explored that entire chair but like he
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knew like you knew like the back of his
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hand so when we first early
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commercialized we came from the very
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first boat ride a photograph and a
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plaque in an honor and memory of mr.
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Benson's reason being he actually passed
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away six months later at the ripe age of
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73 as well so that's why we give them so
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much credit here because without their
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discovering that chamber they all are
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about to see and experience for
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yourselves today we would not be the
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lofty that we are known for today as
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well you would think this is a mirror
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but that's water down there pretty
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amazing how clear it is and how
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reflective it is you see the rocks
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from above looking like they're down
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there when they're not there above it
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I've lost the rest of the group all
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right so now they are away from the boat
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dock you all can touch the water if you
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want to it is a nice warm 56 degrees the
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water to the Mount you may have looked a
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little bit soft that's because this
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water has natural moisturizing
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properties in it he was walking in
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Turkish I didn't believe that either
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now this little fountain over here next
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to the boat dock that is part of our
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aeration system that puts oxygen in the
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water so the fish can breathe and it
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does give this Lake a little bit of a
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curve to keep it from becoming stacked
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it's kind of like we're in a really big
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fish net now I had to put that down here
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to help the stickers because the fish in
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this lake are not happy they were
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originally brought into this cave as
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part of an experiment in 1967 to see if
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there's a way out we chose rainbow trout
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for a few reasons the main one things
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they like to swim upstream enjoy the
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cold temperature of the water here and
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they actually cannot reproduce inside
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this cave so we can control their
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population for that experiment we
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gathered up about 200 trout tagged in
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with our name phone number address a lot
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fun stuff let me set those free and the
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hopes one we get out and we call Feist
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and look up on the surface now as great
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as that plan sounds it did have one
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major flaw as it turns out if you keep
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trout roe room and you feed them on it
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every single boat ride I don't really
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want to leave now that experiment it was
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ultimately a failure but we do still
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stock fish down in here because people
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like to see them I imagine that if we
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didn't have fish who ended up being a
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pretty boring boat ride to somebody they
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will probably buy you and they do have
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teeth
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now there is no natural food source for
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the fish down here the only thing that
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they have to eat is what we feed them it
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is a special blend of food specifically
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for rainbow trout the only kind they
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won't eat they are very very picky the
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fish down here they can get pretty big
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that's mainly because there are no
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predators the only thing that they ever
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die of down here is all the age we also
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do feed them on try 30 single boat ride
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I'm a Jeanette if I was fed 25 to 80
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times right here's about 50 to 60 feet
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deep the deepest points is a little bit
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further back that's about 70 feet we
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have down here they're around 12 and 13
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pounds the biggest fish we've ever
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gotten out he's the one in the lobby his
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name is Trevor and he was seven now this
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is 30 grams of water in this part of the
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cave it's around 50 to 60 feet deep the
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deepest point is back here under this
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low rock and that's around 70 feet deep
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for bit of perspective we can put an
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entire six storey building down there in
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the top of I would still be underwater
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there's one
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how many fish total are there in here is
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out there are some pretty big ones down
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here where does this water flow it
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doesn't then seeps out through
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groundwater there is no outlet this is
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where our last major rock fall happened
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it started in this area back here these
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rocks are flat and ran all the way down
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to the boat dome this dropped three
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chunks each weighed about nine tons this
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is about 2,000 years ago so we should be
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due for another one any day now we know
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what this means you thousand years ago
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isn't the drapery up here on the wall
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this stuff cannot throw behind rocks or
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in cracks so all of this had to grow up
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the rock fall happened with this piece
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here scraped off sent to a lab and
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isotope dated came back about 2,000
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years old please from the rock fall
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happen about the same time
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these stairs you see are the only
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original pathway the Salaf from when it
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originally opened as a tourist
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attraction
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I can't walk up those anymore they built
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new ones but they're still here for all
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to see that's gonna do it for today all
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in all about an hour and a half of
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non-stop walking to the destination and
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then you know a quick trip back up a
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little bit longer than I expected all in
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all a good time if you're new here
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