27: What Lies Beneath?
Mill Creek Cave near Blacksburg, Virginia B L A C K S B U R G, V A I’m following the State of Virginia’s Karst Protection Coordinator up a steep mountainside slope toward a cave opening. Wil Orndorff is also Virginia’s number one cave expert. We’re getting closer, but I see nothing that qualifies as an opening big enough for two six-foot-tall, slender and graying guys to slip through. Wil stops when we reach a granite wall. We can go no further. He kicks dead leaves and fallen branches away from a hole in the ground about the width of a five gallon bucket. About a month ago Wil asked if I wanted to go underground during our tour of Mill Creek Springs Natural Area Preserve , the first of four private preserves I’ll be visiting during my sabbatical - all others will be publicly accessible. It took about three weeks to respond to his question. I have never been caving and wasn’t sure how I would respond to the claustrophobic ...