Moonlight falls bright and dappled through the cedars as we shimmy into a narrow passage beneath the overhang of a hillside boulder that, in the shaky glow of my 13-year-old daughter Zoë’s headlamp, looks like the probable home of a rogue mountain lion.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been in here a thousand times and can assure you there are no lions, tigers, nor bears,” echoes the voice of Outdoor Adventure Experiences guide, Derek Young, 60, from the opening.
“Famous last words,” I tell Zoë as we maneuver into a long craggy tunnel that opens to five, six, then ten feet high as we go. Inside the air is a chilly 54 degrees and wet. The walls and floors glisten with moisture and otherworldly limestone formations that seem to have oozed or bubbled into place then hardened. For the next hour, we climb, crawl, creep, or repel up, down, and forward through a subterranean maze of natural staircases, knee-deep springs, jagged ledges, pits, tunnels, and thin passages that open here and there onto cavernous rooms filled with stalactite or stalagmite pillars that gleam eerie and spectacular in the beam of our headlamps.
We reemerge muddy, elated, and panting onto the starry, moon-bright Bridgewater hillside about two-and-a-half hours later. “Quite a different experience from a visit to Luray, huh?” chuckles Young.
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The veteran spelunker has been leading small-group guided tours—night or day—through wild caves in the Shenandoah Valley and eastern West Virginia for more than 35 years. Most entrances sit on private lands or those managed by the National Forest Service and require special permissions or permits to access. While the karst systems* boast features and formations similar to those in show caves like Luray Caverns or Grand Caverns, these are totally undeveloped. There’s been no digging or blasting to open up corridors; there are no paved walkways, handrails, electric lights, or formal staircases. Excursions are physically demanding, last two to five hours, and range in ability level from beginner to expert.
“I don’t do this to get rich,” says Young. “I do it because I love it,” adding that the caves are precious natural resources, and “I want to introduce people to them and help them appreciate something beautiful they probably didn’t even know was here.”
Derek Young inside Glade Cave, a beginner-friendly cave in Augusta County, often referred to as Virginia’s muddiest cave. Photography by Kyle LaFerriere
Young was raised in Manassas. He was introduced to caving as a first-year student at James Madison University by a local pastor.
“He took me to this very spot,” says Young. An adventure similar to ours left him “blown away.” He remembers thinking, “This is the coolest thing ever,” and begged the pastor: “‘Please, please, please take me to every cave you know about!’”
The experience ignited a lifelong passion. Young explored five wild caves with the pastor then looked for more. He studied geology and took drives through mountain areas searching for limestone cliffs, outcroppings, and caps. When he spotted promising features, he’d stop at a post office, country store, or at nearby homes to ask about caves.
“Believe it or not, that’s how I found probably 80 percent of the caves I’ve been in,” says Young, who’s explored about 30 noteworthy systems in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky to date. He founded Outdoor Adventure Experiences in 1988 and now does about 50 private tours a year in 14 different caves, in addition to offering guided canoeing, kayaking, and rafting trips—mostly throughout the Shenandoah Valley and Alleghany Highlands. While he enjoys leading adventures for adults, kids and teens are his favorite.
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Back in the Bridgewater field, Zoë beams. And almost on cue, she begs me to take her on another trip.
“You know, geologists say there are likely as many unexplored caves in Virginia as there are ones we know about,” Young tells her. He says it fills his heart with joy to know she could be the first to crawl or step foot in one of them. OutdoorAdventureExperiences.com
This article originally appeared in theOctober 2024issue.
ABINGDON, Va. (WCYB) — The made in Southwest Virginia artisan and craft market returns April 11, 2026.
The Southwest Virginia Cultural Center in Abingdon will host more than 20 local artists.
Those artisans will offer demonstrations of their work and they’ll also be selling some of their crafts.
“We want to give this opportunity for community members to come out, as the weather is warming up and as spring is rolling around, to meet these makers and take home a little bit of Southwest Virginia,” Ryan Vaughan with the Friends of Southwest Virginia said.
A new West Virginia law aims to boost the state’s coal and natural gas sectors while more than tripling its electricity generation capacity to 50 gigawatts by 2050.
The measure, signed Thursday by Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey, is designed to turn West Virginia into an energy hub for the data center industry. By sending more electricity to the regional grid and leveraging his state’s relatively lax regulations, Morrisey and his allies are looking to lure data centers to the state, as well as power those beyond its borders.
“We know there’s virtually unlimited need for energy in our country,” Morrisey said at a bill signing of H.B. 5381. “PJM and our grid operators, they’re starving for states to step up and take the lead. And that’s what West Virginia is doing.”
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The new law calls for the state’s Office of Energy to produce rolling five-year plans to keep the state’s existing coal-fired power plants operating through 2050, while also developing new “baseload” energy powered by gas, nuclear, geothermal and hydrogen.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — No. 23 Boston College Baseball will host Virginia Tech in a three-game series from April 10-12. On Friday and Sunday, the two teams will compete at Harrington Athletics Village with first pitch at 3:00 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, and both games will be streamed on ACCNX. On Saturday, the game will be played at Fenway Park for the 14th annual ALS Awareness Game. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. and broadcast on ACC Network.
The 2026 ALS Awareness Game
The 14th annual Boston College ALS Awareness Game is coming to Fenway Park on Saturday, April 11, at 2 p.m., when the Eagles will face Virginia Tech in the second of a three-game series. The game has been played annually in honor of former BC baseball captain Pete Frates since his ALS diagnosis in 2012. This year marks the seventh time it has been played at Fenway Park. Frates passed away in 2019 at the age of 34.
Record vs Virginia Tech
Boston College is 26-35 all-time against Virginia Tech, including a 14-13 record at home. The Eagles were swept when the two teams last met in 2024. Six current players saw action in that series, with Nick Wang, Kyle Wolff, and Owen DeShazo seeing at-bats. Wolff was a combined 4-11 with five RBI, a home run, two doubles, and a triple in the series. Kyle Kipp, A.J. Colarusso, and Tyler Mudd all pitched, with Colarusso starting and going six innings with six strikeouts.
Scouting the Hokies
Virginia Tech is 15-16 this season and 6-9 in conference so far. The Hokies dropped their lone midweek contest, 11-4, to Liberty and lost two of three over the weekend to Miami. They won the finale against the Hurricanes, 6-3. Virginia Tech is hitting .256 as a team this season, but has three hitters above .300, led by Ethan Ball at .310. Ball leads the Hokies in hits and home runs with 35 and six, respectively. Hudson Lutterman is the team RBI leader with 23. The Virginia Tech pitching staff has four arms with over 20 innings, including Griffin Stieg, who has thrown 37 innings with 33 strikeouts. Brett Renfrow is the Hokies’ strikeout leader with 49 so far this season. The staff has an ERA of 7.68, but two arms with sub-5.00 ERAs: Luke Craytor and Chase Swift, with 3.77 and 4.24 ERAs, respectively.
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The Matchups
The first game of the series will feature A.J. Colarusso against Logan Eisenreich. Colarusso is 3-1 on the year with a 2.88 ERA in 40.2 innings of work to go with 37 strikeouts. In his last outing, Colarusso went six innings against No. 6 North Carolina, allowing just one unearned run while matching his season high of seven strikeouts. Eisenreich is 0-1 this season with a 6.60 ERA in 15 innings of work to go with 18 strikeouts. His last appearance was three innings in relief against Miami, where he allowed an earned run while striking out two.
On Saturday, Brady Miller and Brett Renfrow will face off. Miller has yet to earn a decision this season in 27 innings of work. He has posted a 2.33 ERA to go with 27 strikeouts. His last outing saw him throw five innings against No. 6 North Carolina, where he gave up five earned runs with two strikeouts. Renfrow is 1-4 this season in 34.1 innings with 49 strikeouts and a 6.82 ERA. His last start came against Miami, where he allowed seven earned runs in five innings of work while striking out six.
Sunday’s starters are still to be determined.
Last Time Out
Boston College won both of its midweek contests, defeating UMass 11-1 in the Beanpot semifinals before beating Dartmouth 13-3. Against the Minutemen, Cesar Gonzalez, Luke Gallo, and Carter Hendrickson all had two RBI, while four guys had two hits each. On Wednesday, Wang paced the offense with three RBI. Julio Solier, Ty Mainolfi, and Jack Toomey all had three hits in the win. Jacob Burnham earned the win against UMass, while Peter Schaefer won against Dartmouth.
Up Next
The Eagles will host two midweeks next week, beginning on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. with the championship game against Northeastern, followed by UConn at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. They will then host Duke for an ACC series.
