I changed into my caving clothes before leaving home and headed to Bedford. I watched the sun fade beneath the horizon as I drove. Eventually, I neared my destination. I turned on my GPS and honed in on my parking spot. I spotted the parking spot, pulled off, gathered my gear, and begin hiking. I followed a dirt road up and cut off onto a trail. I was a little nervous but also exhilarated.
I followed my GPS into the darkness walking softly along the dirt trail. I heard something moving up ahead. I whipped out my powerful flashlight and saw two sets of eyes. I quickly identified them as opossums and was surprised to see them approaching me. One seemed to be chasing the other. They came within 1.5 feet of me, paused to look up, and scurried off chittering into the darkness. Weird.
I followed the trail to some downed. I was still a couple hundred feet off the approximate location. I started off-trail towards the point. The GPS told me I was there but of course I wasn’t. I hadn’t really considered that I might not find the cave but was starting to realize that was a very likely possibility. I knew that since the point was quarter quarter plotted that I’d just have to flail around in the woods for awhile so I started to circle around the approximate point descending further down the hill side.
I wasn’t having much luck. I hadn’t spotted any sink holes or karst features at all. I knew the point could be way off but wasn’t ready to give up yet. I circled uphill scouring the landscape with bluish light occasionally spotting a powerful beam of light around the woods hoping to glimpse something karst-like. Nothing. I continued along and finally found a sink hole. Yeah! Unfortunately, there was no hole at the bottom but I could see that the water had been pirated from this ravine underground and knew that where there is one sinkhole there’s almost always more. I looked downhill and spotted another sink. I circled around and spotted a dark hole in the ground, Felknor Cave.
I was glad because I was going to get to go caving. I first took a GPS point on the entrance and documented the entrance dimensions in my survey book. Then I grabbed my dry box and started into the cave. The entrance is 3’ W x 2’ H. I descended down a short but steep, loose-leaved slope into the top of a 4’ wide walking canyon passage. Below a narrow canyon descended further into the cave but I decided to check out the upper level first. I canyoned and walked along the upper level. There were many formations ahead. The floor was quite slick in spots and occasionally I could see down a crevice in the floor.
I decided to leave my dry box on a rock shelf and explore the cave first to see if anything was photogenic. I climbed around the knobby formations. The passage walls became plain as I began to stoop walk. I noticed many large spiders on the walls as I finished a short crawl emerging in a small standing room. The passage ended ahead. To the left was the “coon entrance.” It looked like a small hole exited topside. I thought with a little work it would probably be about big enough for me but didn’t continue up there because I expected it exited to the sink hole that I’d already seen above ground and this feature is documented on the cave map. While I was in the room I heard a rock and some leaves fall back towards the entrance. I paused, listening but heard nothing more. I thought it unlikely that anyone was nearby. More likely the loose entrance slope was rearranging.
I headed back towards the entrance wondering which crevice dropped into the lower level. I climbed down a narrow canyon midway back to the entrance and determined this wasn’t it. I passed a narrow slot below the left wall thinking I could probably enter the lower level through the crevice just below the cave entrance.
I reached the entrance and looked down the crevice and it did indeed seem to connect. I climbed down to a ledge and continued into 3.5 - 4’ wide walking passage. I walked around a narrow bend and stepped over a pooled section. I then ducked under some formations and down into a small dome room. I saw an in-feeding hole on the left. I walked ahead and the canyon passage soon narrowed to an end. I slid back into the narrow canyon a little way and shone my powerful light ahead to confirm that it definitely didn’t go.
I climbed back up to the entrance and went back outside to retrieve my other dry box and came back in to where I’d left my camera. I first tried to take a picture of the formation filled upper level section of canyon passage but soon saw that it wasn’t going to work so I continued back towards the upper level room to take some spider pictures. I spent the next 15 minutes taking close-ups of spiders. I’d forgotten that I needed to have the camera on F8 but changed from F2.8 midway through. It was kind of funny because the camera would only focus on the spiders legs. About ¾ of the way through the shoot, I added a second flash.
After the spider pictures, I headed back towards the entrance picking up both of my dry boxes in my right hand. I slipped a little bit on the slick mud and prepared to exit the cave when I noticed that my foot had almost landed on top of a small salamander. I got my camera out and took some close-ups of him. The wall below him was composed of moss covered popcorn which was quite photogenic. The salamander didn’t really like me and tried to hide under a small ledge which ended up making an excellent picture.
I climbed back out of the cave, collected my stuff, and descended the hill noticing a trail right next to the cave entrance. I suspected you could follow a trail all the way to the cave. I followed the trails for awhile but decided it wasn’t heading where I wanted to go so I bushwhacked the rest of the way back to the car. I was again a little nervous hiking through the dark woods but I felt pretty happy upon the successful completion of my mission as I approached the car. I stashed my stuff in my trunk, pulled my pants down so as not to muddy up my car seat and drove to Gory hole, my not so level camping spot that night.
Felknor Cave
Spider walking.
Scary spider.
Felknor Cave
Bad ass spider pose.
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Felknor Cave
Web slinger.
Spider profile.
Felknor Cave
Spider profile.
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Felknor Cave
The underside of a spider.
Cute little cave salamander.
Felknor Cave
Cute little cave salamander.
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Felknor Cave
I love how you can see his rib cage.
The 2' H x 3' W entrance to Felknor Cave.
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