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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Cold Water and a Copperhead

Saturday, Drew and I went hiking at Keowee-Toxaway State Park. The trail passed Natural Bridge and Raven Rock on the way to a lakeside view. Natural Bridge is a rock that is hollow underneath. A small creek passes under it. It was dissappointing to say the least. Raven Rock also left much to be desired. No ravens were to be seen...nor was much of anything else for that matter, except for trees and the rock.

The trail down to the lake was steep...really steep. I was scared that we wouldn't be able to make it back up with forty-pound packs on our backs. The trail spit us out on a small camping area beside a cove.


A golf course and several houses were across the lake from us, but at least we had the unspoiled cove. After getting our feet wet in the icy water, we noticed some large rocks about a hundred yards around the water's edge. We were compelled by some unseen force to get over to them. Steep hills and thick brush blocked our way, but nothing would keep us from our goal. We finally made it over to the rocks, which now seemed much higher off the water than from our previous vantage point. We made our way down to smaller rocks and, of course, Andrew had to jump in. I followed suit soon after. The water was frigid, but refreshing. Soon, Andrew decided that he would have to jump from the higher rocks, twenty-five feet off the water. With a running jump, flailing arms and a boy-like scream, Andrew flew out into the air.


On our trip back, we saw a cool lizard.


I nearly stepped on a Copperhead, so we had to take pics of it.


So what was in our packs to make them forty pounds?


Two dictionaries and a one-volume New Testament Commentary in my pack. A twelve-pack of Cheerwine, a camelpack, a Nalgene bottle and a Maglight in Andrew's pack.

We'll be back to go rock jumping soon. Guaranteed!

3 Comments:

  • The creek would probably have been less disappointing if we had had a normal amount of rain.

    By Blogger Martin LaBar, at 9:14 PM  

  • Hello! I enjoyed looking at your blog. I have a quick question: can you change the description of the snake you took a picture of? What you took a photo of is in fact a harmless, nonvenomous northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon), not a copperhead. And if you type "copperhead in water" into Google, yours is the first image that pops up. I don't want people to get confused about how to identify a venomous snake!

    Thank you,

    Bradley Allf
    Educator, NC Museum of Natural Sciences

    By Blogger Unknown, at 2:46 PM  

  • The snake is a water snake. Not a copperhead.

    By Blogger ChunkyTuna, at 3:11 PM  

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