Sounds like you might have a honey hole in hiding Bear. I'd definitely adopt a site like that if the opportunity arose.

Like coinnut says, start as close as possible. Maybe bring along a small saw and trim a straight path in towards the hole, wide enough to swing for now. If you dig up goodies in that cleared path, you know it's worth the effort to clear out more. And maybe do the trimming where eyes will see it the least in case other detectorists are in the area.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.