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Unofficial Report, by Brad BirchfieldWell, after the finale of the herp trip, I have been too exhausted to muster much in the form of an unofficial report. So after some much needed rest, some desitin on my nether regions, and re-hydrating, I will take a stab at documenting the weekend’s events. First lesson learned on this trip…My son is a little young to go for an AHS weekend trip. Bless his heart…he is into it 100% (unless there is something funner to do like throw sticks into the campfire), but asking him to trudge through tall grass, briars, brambles, up and down hills all to find a couple of animals may be expecting a bit much. I know for sure that having to CARRY him up and down hills and through briars etc is too much for dad! But regardless, in a deal with the devil, err…uh…I mean, my wife…I agreed to take him, at least for Fri-Sat. Needless to say, watching others go off to look for rattlesnakes while I worried about my boy messing his pants or falling in a hole was almost too much to bare. He will understand someday. I think Erica had a similar experience with her son Jacob. Now, both boys had a big time, but it did cut into me and Erica’s revelry and herping. Lesson Learned. Reagan and I arrived about third numerically at about 2:30 on friday…preceded by Ed Black and Devin. Now, the conditions when we arrived were, lets say, less than ideal. It was 44 , windy, cloudy and COLD as we threw up our tent. No sooner than we’d arrived we met Jerrod (a first timer who I finally convinced to come) and the Erica/Jacob team. Next into the campground was Van…soon followed by Glenn in a new truck. Sometime in there James Whalen showed up, Kory, then team Irwin (Kelly & Lisa) arrived. Chance and Mark from Dardanelle made it up, good to see those guys again. Tyler showed up with his mom Bobbie, then team Englebert (josh, Melissa, and Melissa’s parents)pulled into the parking area. Finally the sun started breaking through Friday evening, and a group of us headed out to do some flipping before sunset. That short trip yielded a few slimy salamanders and ringnecks, which made it worthwhile, but not much more than that. Back at camp, Erica and I began to whip out some delicious hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages while folks visited. We made plans that we’d start EARLIER the next morning than in trips past, so campfire revelry was kept to a minimum…with myself and Reagan retiring at 9:30. Erica & Jacob and a few others had already gone to bed. The night was cold, but pleasant in a sleeping bag. Saturday morning began for me at 06:45 with my son waking me up to tell me the sun was up. Reluctantly, I drug us out of bed and to the bathhouse for a much needed shower. At breakfast, we discussed several areas to herp and who would do what. The ‘hardcore’ group consisted of Kory, Van, Glenn, Ed Black, Devin, Tyler- they went off to hit some rattlesnake slopes. Josh & Melissa and her parents were gonna focus on some birding, while Me, Erica, Jerrod, Keith Whalen, and the boys would wait for Ryan before heading to the valley below to find stuff to flip. Speaking for our trip only, we didn’t find much. The highlight of this adventure was Reagan sustaining the first snakebite of the trip. As Keith and me pulled over some boards, we found 4 ringnecks. I grabbed up two and handed them to my lil buddy and told him to hold them while I got the others out. So as he has them clasped in his hands, he starts saying “Daddy…snake bit me…” Well, being father of the year, my reaction was, of course, “No its not biting you…now don’t drop them”. To be honest, I didn’t even really look, but then I heard Keith say “Uh, I think it IS biting him”…SO I turn around to see my son holding up his left hand with a ringneck just chomping away at the web between his middle and fourth finger. Well…since they recently decided that ringnecks ARE venomous…I actually got a little concerned. I pulled the snake off and it actually broke the skin and drew a little blood, but neither were any worse for wear. Of course after hearing some of us talking about the possibility of envenomation, Reagan started tellin me his knee hurt…then his ear…then his tummy…I think I am raising a hypochondriac. He suffered no ill effects other than a guarded attitude toward fossisorial snakes. As we drove a county road that passed through some farms, we saw one guy working out by his barn so we stopped to ask permission to herp. Keith and Erica got out and greeted the guy…Keith asked if he knew who owned the abandoned chicken house back up the road…because we were looking for snakes. “Well, the only snakes I’ve seen down here is the ones the Forest Service traded to Texas for Turkeys.” Keith calmly said ‘Uh, I work for the Forest Service and that’s just a myth..” The guy took it well, but you could instantly sense that “Well that’s what they told YOU” in his actions. His place had junk strewn about…but he advised us there were NO snakes on his place cause he ‘kept it real clean’ and had killed all snakes he’d found. Oh well, on up the road we went. Then we really came upon a treat. As we passed it, Jerrod spoke up and said, “I think that was a snake…but its dead I think..” So Keith backed up the big Nissan and we confirmed that it was a LARGE hognose snake eating an even larger toad, right in the middle of the road. Now, I’ve witnessed this nasty process many times in my collection, but seeing one out in the wild was…well…wild! The funny thing too. ,Reagan had fallen asleep on my lap…well, we all jump out to see the hoggy, and I just assumed he was awake I guess, so I stood him up on the ground and stepped away to see the hoggy…well, he was still asleep, so after maintaining balance for a second or two, he toppled over, completely unaware of his surroundings until he hit the ground ! Whoops. After some apologizing and hugging, all was well and he enjoyed watching nature in its natural state. The whole toad eating process took about 15 minutes and luckily there was no other traffic on the road. Back to camp we scurried with a ‘meet back here at 1pm deadline beating down on us. When we arrived, we started throwing together some samiches for lunch. The other group showed up, along with the Irwins and a group from the U of A Batesville. Apparently, the Batesville group had run into the ‘hardcore’ group and we all shared our stories and finds. Kory wisely decided to shoot the group pic then, and with a little heated debate on location, we all crowded together and immortalized the moment. Then the crew (of like 10-12) from Batesville got back in their van and left! So much for getting to know you guys! Apparently, they were headed to some other spot in the Ouachitas to meet up with Dr Trauth or someone of note in the herping world. Anyway, we saw them for a moment. At 2 pm, as part of the camping arrangement at the park (as well as our desire to change things from mainly focusing on county record vouchers), “We” had agreed to do a snake presentation at the visitor center. We were running a wee bit late, and when we arrived, the park Interpreter Don Simons, had already started a PowerPoint presentation. We sat in the back and after his slides were done, he invited us in to show some live animals. Now, Kory and I had worked this out on the presentation, but when I saw one Mr. Kelly Irwin, professional herpetologist, sitting at the campfire, I asked if he would do the demonstration while we showed the animals. He reluctantly agreed…and I laughed in spite of myself because I knew this would be good revenge. You see, last summer the intrepid Dr Irwin sent Jeremy and I to rescue a couple of unwanted pit vipers. What he didn’t specify was that they were at a working meth lab, manned by a working crack whore. Ask me about that sometime. Anyway, back to the snake talk, Kelly dutifully got up there and started telling the gospel of snaking to a listening audience. Then the predictable questions started pouring in. Now, Kelly handled this really well, but at one point I think he was fighting the urge to curse in response to some of the questions. So, by the time the talk was over, he had heard everyone in the room’s personal thoughts and stories on snakes etc. Which made me happy, considering he sent me to a crack whore. Paybacks are….well you get the idea. Does anyone know where I can get some Coral snake boots? With daylight burning, we decided to get back to the herping. Van, Tyler, Josh & Melissa (I think that was it…) headed north to check for downed barns and the like, while the rest of us (the Irwins, Kory, Devin, Ryan, Glenn, Keith, Erica, the boys, and Myself) headed out to the end of signal hill(the west end of magazine). There was lots of looking, but not much finding. The highlight of that trip was a worm snake, if that gives you any indication. By the time we were done, Chance and Mark had re-joined us…and helped us find nothing…so around 6pm, we headed back into camp for dinner. Leslee(my wife) came down at my request to take Reagan back home..he was worn out and I planned to look for rattlesnakes on Sunday, so it wouldn’t make sense to drag him along. A collection was taken up then Keith and Erica headed into Paris to pick up some pizza and an air mattress with a cap. According to Erica, it doesn’t do you much good to bring an air mattress if it doesn’t have a cap. As the pizza & firewood dwindled, soon it was me, Josh, Ryan, and Van around the fire. Some classic conversations there…but around 11 pm we all called it a night. The next morning brought the tremendous task of taking down camp. After exchanging goodbyes, Kory, Van, Glenn, Devin and myself decided to hit one last spot for rattlers. This particular spot produced a juvie Diamondback back in 2006, so we were cautiously optimistic. I could not demonstrate in mere prose, the extreme physical demands of herping on the first slope. It was all steep, rocky, covered with briars, but absolutely perfect rattlesnake habitat. It was about 1 mile of unbroken glade habitat, probably some of the best I have ever seen…but no snakes! Van did manage to snag a large coachwhip as it tried to shoot into a hole. He paid heavily with several bites and blood dripping from his hairy paw. At the end of the mile long slope of death, Glenn voiced that he needed to get back. Devin echoed his sentiment so they opted to hike back to the vehicles and go home. When Kory presented the ‘what do you want to do, guys?’ Van remarked that a. he didn’t have anything else to do and b. we were already there, so why not keep pushing on. I concurred with his opinion, and off we went getting further away from civilization and deeper into some of the most rugged habitat around. Soon after getting started on the second ridge (which was basically a mirror image of the first ridge, just steeper) it didn’t take long for Kory to grab a county record rough green snake. Yeah, oddly enough, no voucher specimen for rough green for either Yell or Logan county. This must have been a sign, because within 20 minutes I heard Kory yell “ATROX….ATROX….ATROX!” Needless to say, I sped down the slope to his location with Van not far behind. Now, I promised Kory I’d go easy…but also promised that I would make fun of him…so here goes. As I am CAUTIOUSLY (for snakes and falling to my death) but expeditiously making my way to Kory, he is just repeating the same stuff over and over in a voice that sounded like he’d seen bigfoot. I mean, all weak voiced…like on the brink of terror, or crying or something…it was hilarious now that I think back…but all jokes aside…emotionally, I was right there with him. Finding those snakes on Kenny’s mountain was awesome, but nothing prepared me for seeing 2 large atrox’s in the process of making babies. We just stood there dumbfounded at what was taking place in front of us. I mean, for Kory, and me and I guess Van…this has been sort of the unconquerable goal. If I had a nickel for every time I went herping with a goal of atrox, and come back with -0-, I’d be a rich man. Now there were 2 beauties right in front of us on a rock ledge totally immersed in each other’s company. We studied them for about 30 minutes before even approaching closer than 30 ft or so. As we did, finally the female became aware of our presence and bolted. The big male was not far behind. So carefully, Van and I began the laborious task of dragging the big male back out onto the ledge with our tongs all the while being VERY cautious because if the snake decided to go on the offense, we didn’t have anywhere to go but the chasm behind us! Oddly enough, this ‘easily agitated’ species with a bad wrap, wanted nothing more than to continue with the female…so after tag teaming him with the tongs, we finally wore him down enough to where he’d stay still. I think all three of us were exhausted (van, me and the snake). We assumed that the female had vanished into the cracks, but to our surprise (and happiness) she returned to a basking spot to our right, and just sat there right out in the open for us to take pictures. Folks, this is like finding the hope diamond and a Honus Wagner baseball card in the same trash can…I cant really express in words what it meant to us, but needless to say, herping this summer is gonna stink, because I done seen it ALL! So in closing, this was one of the worst, yet still the best herp trip ever. Although we didn’t find many snakes, we did have a good time visiting and carrying on, and that’s about 90% for me anyway. The atrox find was so over the top, that I am still walking 3 ft above the clouds.(although the Bataan death march back to the trucks after the diamondbacks left my mouth dry, and the inside of my thighs looking like beef jerky). I think Josh reminded me of this while around the fire…but we’d almost hit the 4 year anniversary to the day of the “2nd Meeting of Reptile and Amphibian Enthusiasts of Arkansas, Saturday, April 17, 2004, Mount Magazine State Park, Arkansas”. I remember that meeting like it was only yesterday. It was the First time for me to meet Josh & Robert Jadin, Glen and Torry, some stand-offish chick from Maumelle 8) . The next day I introduced myself to Jeremy…who I found out worked on the floor beneath me at work. Anyway, it was hard not to be sentimental about the old times and to look forward to the good times ahead. See ya'll around the next campfire. B |
