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2007 Spring Field TripReports
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Unofficial Report, by Brad Birchfielddrumroll please... Aside from a few unpleasant things (humidity, mosquitoes, Van farting, spiders) the spring AHS trip was a great trip. I always enjoy herping somewhere besides my own backyard. If you’ve never been down in that part of the state, you are not missing a whole lot. I must say, my initial impression was that it reminded me of the Apalachicola National Forrest in Florida, without the snakes…lots of tall pine trees lining 2 lane blacktop highways through the middle of nowhere. Felsenthal itself is a small ‘lake community’ kinda tucked off in this corner of Grand Marais lake. I must say, the mean age of the folks there at Felsenthal is probably pushin 75 years old, but they are a friendly lot. I don’t think we ever passed a person in that town that didn’t wave like we were the first visitors since De Soto. Anyway, its not the most scenic spot in Arkansas, but it has some unique habitat as well as some cool animals. Friday morning Van, Glenn, and Kory met me at my house in Mountainburg to start the trip south. After almost never finding a service station with an air hose to fill a low tire, we finally hit pay dirt in Mulberry. So with 33 psi in my front right tire, we pointed the trucks towards Little Rock and put the hammer down to make up time. Cyndi, of former field trip lore, had a garter snake she had picked up and was holding for Ryan and we were to pick it up from their (Cyndi & Erica) office on the south side of Little Rock. After securing the snake, it was just about lunch time, so we opted to accompany our fine herping ladies to El Chico. There Van and I consumed a staggering portion of salsa and chips, which didn’t leave much room for the fajitas I got. Being such a tightwad, I couldn’t bear to leave a crumb on my plate so I just kept shoveling it in. Van took down a good sized burrito of a thing, so needless to say, the cab of my truck had developed a nice funk by the time we got to Camden. Mmmmmm frijoles refriadas… Over lunch, Kory and I debated on a route to get to Camden. Camden, you see, is a known location for Coral snakes, according to Kelly Irwin, so since it was on the way, we just HAD to stop and see if we could find something to flip. Well, there was basically 2 routes to get there from Little Rock. One was straight down 167- probably shorter, but mostly a speed limit of 55 and it goes through a few towns. The other was to head down I-30, which was faster, but it takes you further west, so you have to backtrack somewhat when you get down even with Camden. When the dust settled, team ‘Van Birchfield’ had won the debate (as expected) and now I will beat that over Erica’s head hereafter, along with that big dog email she sent out. Man, its hard being right all of the time. Now this area of Camden is actually south of Camden. Kelly couldn’t remember the names of roads, but he pointed at an area on the gazetteer with the name “TATE” on it. Turns out, Tate is a group of about 5 or 6 impoverished black households out in the sticks. I will give them this though, there was some spectacular snake habitat. Junk was everywhere. Several of the ‘junk piles’ where marked with purple paint or ‘no trespassing’. We noticed 2 fellas out in the front yard of one residence working on a car stereo. There was SO much trash and so little time, it took little persuasion for me to go ask the guys if they minded if we looked for snakes. I must say, the look on this guys face was priceless when I told him what we were doing…at first he was kind of stand offish, but he warmed up pretty quick and gave us permission to flip, so off we went. And, in standard fashion, we were totally skunked at this awesome site. We hit several other great spots there in the area, but nary a herp was found. One thing to note, I screamed like a school girl when a big gray mouse shot out from under a board. Everyone got a good laugh at that. Except me. I hate mice. We finally continued our journey to Felsenthal, and arrived at the campground at about 17:30. Already there were Glen and Torry Chapman, Ed Black, and Melissa. After greeting them we learned that Robert Jadin, who I hadn’t seen since that Dogpatch trip, and Josh were out setting minnow traps to hopefully catch sirens. Not to be outdone, Kory took a couple of hands with him and set out some turtle traps. I went to use the facility when we got to camp, and in the sink of the bathroom, I found a nice red-headed 5 lined skink. I put it in my pocket and presented it as the first official herp of the field trip while waitin on Josh and Jadin to arrive. Upon their return, we waited anxiously for Torry to work her magic, and work it she did. We had a pot of the best fajitas I’ve ever eaten and all the fixins. It was a meal to remember, let me tell ya. I lost count at 4, but I just could not quit. Soon after eating, most of us piled into vehicles to go road cruising. We had no more than pulled around the campground when Kory said ‘there’s a snake!’. We all jumped out of the exterra like a bunch of clowns from a mini cooper, to discover a nice sized broad banded water snake crossing the road. Not bad. We drove down a gravel road, that bordered a body of water to the left and saw several frogs and toads. Stopping at a pull off on a corner, we found another pair of broad bands, some copes gray tree frogs, a toad (don’t recall the id on it). Not fifty feet from this corner stop, we saw Josh’s truck screech to a halt from the seats of the exterra. They both jumped out, so we figured it was something more than another broadband. It was. Jadin walked up to the truck and found the one species I really wanted to see on the trip, a juvenile mudsnake. Talk about a neat animal. So at the end of the first night, we’d already seen a good diversity of animals and stuff that I don’t find in Mountainburg…sounds like a good trip to me. When we got back to camp, Torry, Melissa, et al told us a hilarious story of a ‘visitor’ they had in our absence…a guy they did impressions of that sounded like Dale Boomhauer on “King of the Hill”. He was rattling on about having a bunch of drum to eat (a bottom feeding trash fish) and to come down to his bbq. Needless to say, truer words were never spoken as we met him face to face the next day. A side note here- we had no phone service in the campground. At some point, Anya and Adam Hogan arrived with her brother Logan and a friend named Matthew. They had gotten lost, sidetracked and were pretty worn down by the time the got there. Soon after they arrived, I called it a night and resigned my tired body to a leaking air mattress. Some of the other campers got a rude awakening at about 04:30 while I re-inflated my bed. Sorry fellas, a mans gotta sleep. The next morning after a fine breakfast courtesy of Torry, we decided to split the group up and hit different spots/habitats. The ‘terrestrial group’ consisted of me, Van, Glenn, Glen, Ryan, Kory, and Ed Black. The rest of the group opted for a swampier habitat- that consisted of Adam, Anya, Robert Jadin, Josh, Melissa, and Ashley. A phone call to the absent Cyndi Porter gave us some intelligence reports of snakey locations found by co-workers of her’s. So the terrestrial herpers headed west to El Dorado, then south on some back country roads. We needed ice, so we stopped at a gas station at the entrance to Felsenthal. Since it never hurts to ask, I inquired of the lady behind the register, if she knew where we might find some snakes or junk where snakes might be. She said she didn’t know, but hollered at a guy in the back. From behind the deli case, out steps this tall lanky fella…and if I am lying, I am dying…the guy looks EXACTLY like a human characterization of Dale Boomhauer. He had dark hair though, but buzzed pretty short like the cartoon character, square head and all. And it gets better. He says something like “Dang ‘ol rattlesnakes man,…down there on melba lane…you know jim davis? Dang ‘ol last summer killed that one, dang ‘ol 18 rattlers…in dat cemetery, dang ‘ol SNAKY down in there...(shivers)”…you get the idea. I about busted out loud with laughter. He also kept mumbling something about bbq chicken and dang ‘ol ribs for supper…but we’re not sure what he was talking about. It provided laughs for the rest of the trip. Although we never found a real good spot to flip things, we did happen upon an old pickup pulled off on the left side of the road (as we approached)on a road out in the sticks. As we drove by, the driver, an older man…maybe 60’s…looked like he was putting on a button up shirt…actually kinda holding it up as if to shield something taking place RIGHT in front of him. The problem was, as we approached, I (and several others in the ‘ol silver ford) noticed that the feet on the ground were wearing some stiletto high heels. Now, one of 2 things was goin on here…1. he has backwards feet and likes to cross dress or 2. He had a lady friend who was facing him, doing God knows what. The vote is still out on this one. Wish we’d have taken a picture of it, that’s for sure. We arrived back at camp and had a quick bite, then jumped back in the vehicles to head east. This time, in the exterra, it was Anya, Logan, and Kory, and in the silver ford, Ryan, Glenn, me and Van. We let Kory take the lead at this point, and I was sleepy so I gave Van the helm and took a good nap. From what I gathered when I awoke. we’d been driving around for 2 hours and the only thing flippable was a some 2 ton chunks of concrete that Hulk couldn’t have moved. Finally throwin in the towel, we headed back to camp. Then on the road north of Crossett, as we came around a corner, we saw a LARGE black snake in the road. Dead of course, but we had to ID it, so we turned around. Sadly, we came back upon a huge dor mudsnake. What a beast! We collected it and back at camp, Robert Jadin injected it with formalin and preserved it for the ASU museum in a large jar. Now by this time, the clouds had gone and the sun heated it up real nice. Nice for a night of road cruising in perfect conditions. So we opted to forgo Torry’s spaghetti for supper and hit the road by like 19:30. Once we pulled onto our target dirt road, we knew we’d made the right decision. For the next hour or so, we saw like 20 snakes, some 10 species. It was exciting to see a new animal crossing the road about every headlight length. I think Ryan enjoyed this most of all as he was in rare form with his impressions, shenanigans and general comedy. Son, you remind me a lot of myself at your age. We need to talk, so I can steer you right. By the time we returned, we were beat. I inhaled some spaghetti and hit the bed. The next thing I knew, the sun was coming up. After shootin pics of some of the previous nights collected specimens, we gathered to photo the group. Soon after, we were hugging and saying our goodbyes. Kory, Glenn, Van and I took the long way home, to re-release the previous nights specimens (aren’t GPS’s great?). I think we voted/decided that the fall trip will take place at Mt Magazine in Logan county, but don’t quote me on that. Regardless, I am looking forward to seeing you good people again. Good herping, 'OL B |
