Looking for adventure? Just getting there may be enugh.

Less than ten miles from Albany Kentucky, is the Caney Branch Church.  Behind the church is a bluff that winds its way through the mountains to just this side of nowhere. However this bluff also hides the entrance to a cave that is locally known as the Caney Branch Cave.  Little else is known about this cave other than it runs under the graveyard, and for this reason, it has been shied away from by the locals for the past two hundred or so years.  It is rumored that someone did brave the dark underground passages and discovered an exit in a sinkhole on the edge of a field more than a mile away.  It is also said that this was not the end of the cave but just a good place to get out that required only a small amount of digging.  What secrets lie hidden beneath the earth beyond that point? 

Even if there are no noteworthy secrets, the cave is well worth seeing and exploring for its natural beauty and the adventure it so amply provides.  Your adventure begins when you attempt to get to the secluded entrance.  When you leave the backyard area of the church, you have a well-used red clay and rock path about two feet wide.  This nice little path takes you on a tour around the trees and house-size rock formations then abruptly stops at the edge of a high cliff overlooking a beautiful valley that is nestled between two tree-covered mountain peaks.  This is where your adventure really starts because you turn left and follow the ridge for a few hundred feet.  It is now that you can truly enjoy the pristine beauty that nature has so generously bestowed upon this area.  It is important that if you want to take pictures, eat, drink, or just rest that you do it now because the next five hundred yards will require your total concentration as well as a bit of good luck.  At this point you can easily identify the trail leading you around a boulder about the size of an older model VW.  However, when you get to the opposite side of that boulder the trail becomes a four-inch wide ledge with a very steep downhill grade.  You will also discover that the ledge your feet are now on is covered with loose shale that slips and slides so that navigating this section of your journey is enough adventure for most people.

OK, so you are a tough one and you want to continue.  Before you start down this part of the trail, look to your right and you will see that it’s at least one hundred feet down to the tops of the tallest trees.  Then, look to your left and notice that the cliff you are on rises about twenty feet over your head and that the jagged potential hand holds are also covered with loose shale.  The good news is that it’s only about fifteen feet down the steep trail to a relatively flat spot of at least four feet in length.  Assuming that you made it that far, you are now faced with a life-altering dilemma.  From here you can see around the rock formation that was sticking out from the cliff effectively blocking the view of the trail ahead.  You take a long look at what lay ahead, then, turn to see where you’ve already been.  You make your choice and inch your way around the rock formation.  The trail ahead is much like the one behind you except that there is no flat spot and the length is more than one hundred feet.  You also see that there are places where the four-inch width has been broken off and only one or two inches remain.  Unlike the trail behind you, there is no good news. 

In an attempt to control the length of this article, let’s assume you make it all the way down to the ledge that is in front of the cave entrance.  This ledge is four to ten feet wide, forty feet long and is supporting a number of moss-covered boulders in varying sizes.  The cliffs that guard the entrance are majestic as well as forbidding and worth exploring.  You can close your eyes and mentally visualize a family of Native American Indians making this spot their home.  It would be warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and easy to defend any time. 

You carefully negotiate the slick moss-covered rocks until you can see inside the mouth that opens facing north.  Although the sun is bright and high, the light only penetrates a few short feet into the yawning orifice and then the darkness regains control.  The first thing that grabs your attention is the human footprint in the soft dry earth of the cave floor.  You find yourself wondering if the tracks you see today were left by someone in that Native family hundreds of years ago.  When you enter the large room and look around, the chill in the air reminds you that if you go a little farther, you will be sharing space with the inhabitants of the graveyard.  That knowledge causes the natural cave chill to feel a bit colder.  

Due to the hardship you encountered getting this far, you have only one small flashlight with which to combat the darkness.  Turning it on and pointing it upward reveals that you are on the first floor of a two-story cave.  Unfortunately, because I failed to find a way up to that second story, I cannot comment on it with any knowledge.  I can however; tell you that in my opinion the person that does conquer that obstacle will have something to write about.

In the lower level you will find a small stream about three feet wide and three to six inches deep.  This stream supports small white eye-less fish, and white crayfish as well as some type of insect that resembles a spider.  The walls and floor also have an abundance of insect life forms that range from foreign to freaky.

There are many caves in the US that are virtually unexplored, but this one might hold more than one surprise in its dark depths.  The area was active during the Civil War although there were no great battles fought there.  Long before that war the Native Americans hunted, fished, and lived in and around the cliffs of Clinton County.  What stories could this cave tell if it could only talk?

John Braswell