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Why I don’t hike in the summertime
Posted on | June 9, 2008 | 19 Comments
You know how memory fades over time, and things aren’t as bad in retrospect as they were at the time? That’s the way I’d started to remember hiking during the summer.
SB needed to hike a short distance for his next column (!!!) and I decided to tag along since it was only 5 miles, we’d leave early so it wouldn’t be ungodly hot, and I’m trying to get some exercise on the weekends as well as during the week.
The day started out innocently enough.
Big beautiful butterflies and wildflowers everywhere. On the drive in, we saw two bunnies and a turtle crossing the road. It was very picturesque. Deceivingly so.
Can you see it?
He’s a little easier to see with the flash. If he hadn’t moved, I probably wouldn’t have noticed him until I was right up on him.
He’s beautiful, but he’s also pretty scary. Lucky for us, we interrupted his dinner.
That thing sticking out of his mouth is either a bat wing or funny-looking toad leg.
He was working really hard to swallow his prey! I don’t know if he knew that WE knew he couldn’t bite us with his mouth full, but for being as defenseless as he was, that snake did not move. He didn’t leave the trail until he was finished eating and we’d already gone past. If I’d been channeling Steve Erwin, I could’ve picked him up and checked him out, but I prefer to leave dining snakes lie.
This Copperhead is not the reason I hate hiking in the summertime, though. I actually consider it a bonus to see one, particularly under favorable circumstances like this.
THIS, THIS is the reason that I turned around at mile 1.5 and cut my hike short:
This is a biting yellow fly. Otherwise known as the bane of my existence. These things love me. I have to think that they love me especially, because I didn’t see anyone else doing the Wild Arm Dance and Prance. They swarm around my head and the moment – the second - that I stand still, they’re on me like, well, flies on honey, and they BITE. They bite HARD. It hurts and I hate them, hate them, hate them! At one point during the hike back to the safety and security and sauna of the car, I was running through the woods, flailing my Lekis at the evil demon flies and screaming “LEAVE ME ALONE!” When I got to the car and lay, panting and sweating, in the back seat (there’s a first time for everything), they flung themselves against the car windows and I laughed and mocked them gleefully. Until the heat overcame me and I got out to feel the breeze, enjoyed a brief moment of ahhhhhh until they started divebombing me, so I said to HELL with the environment, I am SORRY Al Gore, but I HAVE to run the a/c off and on for a few minutes to avoid melting into a pool of goo.
This, my friends, is why I don’t hike in the summertime. And this is what I must remember when I look back at pictures like this and think, ‘oh, it wasn’t that bad.’
Comments
19 Responses to “Why I don’t hike in the summertime”
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June 9th, 2008 @ 10:39 am
I hiked in the canyon with my cousin and husband. We were single file, and I was in the middle, walking through tall grass (in my TEVAS) when my cousin said, “Woop!” and hopped. I stopped dead, almost stepping on a BIG diamondback on the tiny trail. It seemed to be moving away from me, even though I could only see about 6 feet of it which DIDN’T include the head or tail. Mama don’t hike if it’s too hot for jeans and boots after that.
June 9th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
I got a couple of pictures of a copperhead swimming at the base of the Buck Creek falls. Glad to be 10 feet above him since they really are beautiful to watch. Thanks for the link- I am always on the lookout for new trails and outdoor adventures.
June 9th, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
nothing like a snake to ruin a hike. but actually, those buzzing things would do it, too. maybe fall will be better for hiking. certainly will be cooler!
June 9th, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
A friend of mine used to have a pet snake that loved to sit draped across my shoulders with it’s head poking out of my hair. I didn’t mind it so much, but only because I knew it wasn’t venomous. Wild snakes, however, completely freak me out.
June 9th, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
One summer day, DH and I went to Fort King George in Darien and Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation between Darien and Brunswick, GA. Blackflies. At Ft. Frederica in St. Simons, they sold OFF! in the gift shop. One of those places asked if we wanted pith helmets with netting. We started for the fort, then ran back and watched the film in the visitors’ center. Gas was 69.9 around Ft. Stewart that spring.
June 9th, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
Cool snake, cool pictures. We have big black flies that bite and cause infections to grow…ugly stuff. Long sleeves, light colors do help. We don’t have summer, YET!
June 9th, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
nature is overrated
June 9th, 2008 @ 7:25 pm
And that is why we always take our big hiking vacations in the fall. I do admire that you had enough motivation to go out and attempt the hike to begin with. I don’t think I’ve spent more than 5 minutes outside the house since the heat wave struck…
Cool snake, though. Wildlife (except for irritating biting insects) rocks.
June 9th, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
Ack! Those sound worse than the hordes of mosquitoes we usually have here.
I would like to see the snake – not eating someone else though. I know that is how it works but it always makes me sad for the food.
June 10th, 2008 @ 6:20 am
This is the second time in a couple of days someone has posted a picture of a SNAKE in their blog! That is why this little bird does not walk around outside in South Alabama. Helping sister with her side lawn and moved a brick. You can only guess what was under that brick? A baby rattler. Set and ready to strike. Little Miss Snowbird and her Snowbird sisters took care of the situation quickly. Where there is one, there is another. I have been on the lakes with snakes swimming across the water and alligators underneath in South Alabama. Cured me quickly of the outdoor life here. Other than that, the butterfly picture is beautiful!:)
June 10th, 2008 @ 7:02 am
It’s the coppermouths under Surprise Circumstances that bother me.
June 10th, 2008 @ 7:32 am
Up here in Michigan we supposedly have Michigan Rattlers but I don’t know anyone who’s seen one. I think snakes are beautiful but
wild ones freak me out. I like the butterfly much better. Hey, I’m a wimp. :-)
June 10th, 2008 @ 8:51 am
ech! Snakes and flies….I suppose they have to EAT too!
The Greenheads around here bite, well, it is really the females that bite. They need a blood meal before they lay eggs. The only thing worse than being bitten is knowing that I have contributed to the life of many more of them.
ECH!
June 10th, 2008 @ 8:22 am
Seeing the snake would have been enough for me to turn around…Did you SEE his big evil orange eye in pic #5? Yeah. I’d be outta there.
June 10th, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
I second Cyndy’s comment. I hate being on the bottom of the food chain. Great pictures!
June 11th, 2008 @ 8:34 am
I don’t like snakes….at ALL….any kind, any variety!!! I would have COMPLETELY freaked if I had run across this snake!!! UGH…..just glad he had his mouth full when you saw him!!!!
June 12th, 2008 @ 8:36 am
Cool pics! Looks like a copperhead snake. Glad he had his mouth full!
ANg
June 15th, 2008 @ 7:36 am
Deer flies (our version of your fly) are just annoying as hell. Wear a hat (not that I can stand to), then they just try to bite the hat rather than your head.
And cool snake! What a great observation!
June 23rd, 2008 @ 4:15 am
I’m all about hiking, but the damn mosquitos and biting flies (that we didn’t have up north) and TICKS (which we didn’t have enough for me to encounter any) make it very tough here in the summer. And the snakes – I saw a big black one drop from a tree into the water at a park near here, and the fact that they hang out in the trees (and swim!) weirds me out a bit! That’s a great picture though – the pictures always make it seem worthwhile :)