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scariest herping trip?
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by SCatheris on December 7, 2007
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Well in light of the new speakout section, I thought it might be interesting to hear some of evryones scariest herping trips or trips moments. Mine was when I was out walking the edge of a pond with a friend and we got to some relatively thick scrub and I saw a tail that was rattling a little and I instantly thought cottonmouth buuuutttt it turned out to be a black racer that I tried to chase down without success. when I was younger (like 12 maybe) and in the scouts I almost stepped on a baby copperhead.
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by Jahon on December 7, 2007
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The first rattlesnake I ever caught which was a red diamondback. I had been looking for rattlesnakes for years and when I just went to relax in a field the rattlesnake was right behind where I was sitting. It was scary because it was the first time I had ever caught a venomous snake and it had me sweating bullets.
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by Chris_Harper on December 7, 2007
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Okay, this wasn't actually a herping trip, but it was the scariest incident I've ever had with a snake in the field. I grew up on a hundred acre lake on the coast of Georgia. Because it was freshwater, we got the occasional alligator, and periodically cottonmouths. [I never saw a water snake on that lake - only cottonmouths.]
One day I took a friend swimming, and we were having a great time swimming with the fish in the shallows. We were treading water about 15 off the bank where the tips of the water oaks dipped into the lake, talking about something we were just doing. I was looking straight at my friend, but a tree limb was directly in my line of sight between us. In the blink of an eye, I watched the back half of an adult cottonmouth slide into the water, not 3 to 4 feet in front of me. We both saw it at the same time.
Immediately, being a lake dweller, I blew out my air and sunk straight to the bottom. Wearing only a mask, I laid on my back about 12 feet deep on the lake bottom, trying desperately to silhouette the snake against the sky. I knew that cottons could bite underwater, and wasn't sure if the commotion would put it into a defensive mode. I held my breath for probably a minute, and when I couldn't locate the snake, figured it would be best to surface right where I had gone down. As I emerged, I scanned the surroundings for my friend. He was about a hundred yards away, trying frantically to climb into the side of an uncooperative canoe, that was tipping over with each of his attempts. "It was right behind me!!! he kept screaming. It was a hilarious site, and made me forget about the cottonmouth. Initially, it was a terrifying moment, but I had fun talking about it at school the next day.
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by AquaHerp on December 8, 2007
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My first year of Timber rattlesnake research I got hit solid on the forearm while waist deep in a den crevice. I was an hour and a half from my truck and alone at the time in the middle of nowhere.......yup....darn good times.
DH
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by Rob_Carmichael on December 9, 2007
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I've got quite a few interesting field herping outings but one that just popped in my head:
I was speaking at a herp symposium in California a couple of years ago. I arrived a few days early so that I could do a little herping. Joshua Tree was an awesome place and did well there. I also decided to just hit the road and find some unknown area to see what I could find. THere was a gorgeous mountain range with nice vegetation, rocky crevices, everything you could want for in a herp area. The time of year wasn't great but since I'm a midwesterner, if its above 60 degrees, it's herping weather. After a very long hike in the mountains, I noticed a large alligator lizard and he skirted my reach and went under an old boundary fence. The place looked pretty deserted so I crawled underneath the fence in a deeper area where the fence couldn't reach the ground and continued chasing the little lizard. I finally caught him but had strayed away quite a bit from where I started. Before I knew it, there was a HumV hauling full speed right at me - I saw men with big scary guns on their shoulders and thought "well, this it". Apparently, I stumbled onto a military base and was quickly surrounded by armed gunmen. After picking up my stomach from off the ground, I tried to explain to them that I was following an alligator lizard and was there to speak at a large herp symposium (they thought "herp" meant "herpes" and that I was some sort of doctor...once I explained, they thought I was even more weird than if I was talking about sexually transmitted diseases). After a brief interrogation, I was escorted back to the fence and told to be more careful. Nice to know our military bases are doing a good job protecting our country and I wasn't mad in the least - just releived.
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by SCatheris on December 10, 2007
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haha that's crazy! I would of started runnin like serpentining or something in case they started shooting lol
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by SerpenXotics on December 11, 2007
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while on a day trip with a friend I was walking up on a trash pile in about waist tall weeds I felt something hit the side of my leg like I stepped on a stick but I didnt feel any stick under my foot about 3 seconds later the buzzing began and thats when I looked down at a roughly 3' cane every bit as pissed as I was nervous at this point needless to say not a scratch (thanks to some good boots) that was my only scary field trip
peace
joe
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by Cro on December 11, 2007
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I have had some close calls over the years. There was a time when I went wading at twilight out into a flooded beaver swamp, to try to get photos of the beavers as they came out just before dark. I was waist deep in brown colored water, with a camera around my neck. I was trying to get photos of the beavers as they came out in the evening and became active.
Well, I am out there 100 yards from shore, and this 4 foot Cottonmouth decides to slide down from one of the beaver lodges and swim directly toward me. It stopps about 3 or 4 feet away from me, and just sits there in the water, looking at me. Apparently, it felt the vibrations in the water as I waded out to the beaver lodges. It decided to eventually turn away from me and swim back to the beaver lodges. But it was scarry, as all I had was the camera to chase it off.
The interesting thing about this, is that it was a Florida Cottonmouth, compleate with the facial stripes, which should have not been in Dekalb County, GA, which is supposed to be out of the range of Cottonmouths.
It turns out that a friend of mine had a trip to the alligator ally road in S. Florida, and had captured 7 baby Cottonmouths. He had brought them back to Atlanta, and tried to sell them. No one wanted to purchase them, so he let them loose in the Mercer University swamp.
Well, guess where I was wading a few years later trying to take photos of beaver lodges when this 4 foot Florida Cottonmouth decided to swim up to me ???
I know that at least one of the snakes he released survived to be an adult. I wonder if others of the original 7 survived ? I wonder if there is a population of Florida Cottonmouths in the Mercer University swamp that might have resulted from CB releasing those snakes long ago.
Best Regards JohnZ
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