Wilderness Recap!

The philosopher and I went hiking Saturday on the Pinhoti Trail. We hiked from the High Point Trailhead (mm 161.1) near Piedmont to Wolf Ridge (or thereabouts, somewhere close to mm 158). Our forward trek was halted by a surprising find. It was either this or this. It was about three feet long, full grown, and decidedly evil. Basilisk! Anaconda! The Borneo snake monster! Aaaaahhh!

Ok, so I didn't really panic. The philosopher, drawing on his years of Boy Scout camp counselor training and ecology studies, stopped us well in advance of the snake. (He confessed later that as a counselor he was the go-to-guy for all snake identification and eradication. After 15 years of marriage, I'm still learning things I never knew.) He always hikes in front, not only as the spider-web-remover-and-bug-catcher, but also as the point-man-to-identify-all-potentially-life-threatening-situations. Like poison ivy. And dangerous cliffs. And very large snakes. So we stopped, and he moved a few steps closer, very warily. He identified it as either a timber rattler or a copperhead (though he's leaning toward copperhead). As the snake was sprawled completely across the trail and we were on a narrow-ish ridge, there was little to do but turn around. We moved back down a ways and ate our planned lunch. He went back up the trail to see if he could get a picture, but it had moved along its merry way by then.

I've always had a healthy respect for the world God created, and all its creatures. And we plan to go hiking again soon. But I did ask the philosopher if we could pack in a bazooka next time. Just in case.