The first time Mystik Miller went caving , oddly enough , was the result of a Tinder date with a guy who had a cave on his property . There wasn ’ t a spark with the fella , but she was intrigued by the caves .
Her next opportunity happened after meeting an elderly gentleman , Ed Sweptson , while she was at a local bar listening to a band . He happened to be the then vice-chair of the Greenbrier Grotto , a local caving club .
According to Miller , Sweptson was wellknown in the area for caving and connected her with other avid cavers like Bill Balfour and the late Cliff Lindsey , and they all taught her how to cave .
“ That ’ s how I fell in love with caving ,” explains Miller . “ It was just so different than anything I ’ ve ever done before . I loved being outdoors and climbing rocks as a kid , it was just so fun and exciting and very much a three-dimensional playground , like a jungle gym .” She speaks highly of the cavers . “ The people who taught me to cave were like big names , just kind of local legends , and that ’ s who I got to learn from and that ’ s kind of amazing .”
According to Balfour , a retired geologist with over 50 years of experience with caves , West Virginia boasts about 4,000 known caves and Greenbrier County alone has over 1,500 of them . In Balfour ’ s 50-plus years of caving , he has found 500 caves in the county and produced maps for at least 250 of them .
“ We ’ re just scratching the surface ,” explains Balfour . “ We could find a cave just about every time we go out looking for a new cave . They ’ re harder to find than they used to be .”
What fascinates him the most is exploring somewhere nobody has been before .
“ That ’ s what got me into it , being the first one .”
Miller was quick to point out that Balfour is known as , in the caving world , a “ Big Name Caver .” It is likely a well-earned title .
Balfour acknowledges , “ I have worked in exploration for years and years and mapping [ the caves ] and seeing where they go , doing hydrologic studies and seeing where the water goes and where it comes in caves .”
In Greenbrier County , there are a lot of big , long cave systems , with two known caves over 50 miles long .
“ I have a cave on my property that is 21 miles long and it ’ s the fifth largest cave in the county ,” shared Balfour .
On the east coast , caves are formed out of limestone , something Greenbrier County has a lot of – 600 to 800 feet thick and world-renowned for its purity .
“ The purer the limestone the easier it is to dissolve by groundwater ,” he said .
“ We know a lot more about what ’ s going on here in Greenbrier County than we did 50 years ago . I ’ ve done a lot of dye tracing and sinkhole studies and a hydrologic study for Lewisburg .” It ’ s worth noting that Balfour also is a part of the West Virginia Cave Conservancy which works to purchase cave entrances to preserve them for future generations .
“ A lot of times a property sells with a big cave on it and that person doesn ’ t want anyone on their property and they ’ ll lock us out of it . They don ’ t want anybody in the cave because of liability .
“ Years ago , we pushed through the Legislature a Cave Protection Act which protects that landowner from liability if there was no money involved , like giving out tours or something like that , and to protect the species in the cave and make it illegal to break or deface cave formations .” l l l
Miller , in her short time as a caver , has explored over 50 caves , serves as a guide to others looking to explore caves around the Greenbrier Val-
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