Snakes In Trees

Deep Creek Virginia
N 36 44.432 W 076 20.698

Nora, our friend in Elizabeth City, gave Libby an interesting bit of local color. She said that tree branches overhanging The Great Dismal Swamp Canal are often brushed by the rigging of sailboats as they pass underneath. (We can attest to that, we've often brushed against branches in the canal.) Well in the spring, Nora says, poisonous snakes (cotton mouth snakes) like to mate in the branches of the trees. Sometimes, the boats brush the branches and knock the snakes off.

Imagine yourself as a snake enjoying a nice nap. Suddenly, you're knocked off your perch and you fall 50 feet to land on something hard. Well if that were me, it would put me in a very foul mood. I expect that it would be the same for the snakes. Yikes! Having an angry poisonous snake fall on your neck could ruin your whole day.

Well, you better believe it, today as we cruised up the canal we had our eyes on the sky. We eyeballed every tree. It turns out that we didn't see any snakes, and that the trees have been trimmed back so that Tarwathie didn't brush against any branches. Nevertheless, we couldn't stop looking.

I have no way to validate Nora's story, but it occurs to me that if she was pulling our legs, then it worked perfectly. Never again will I be able to go through the swamp without looking up. Come to think of it, that is the perfect prank to pull on your friends. You may have to think up different circumstances, perhaps wolverines hiding in garbage cans, but if you succeed it would be great fun.

This morning we got up at 0530 to get underway at first light. It worked. We backed out of the slip 10 minutes before dawn. Unfortunately, the draw bridge at Elizabeth City wouldn't open. The lady bridge tender apologies profusely, and she tried again and again. After four retries and 45 minutes, it finally opened. So much for our early start.

The Posquotank River above Elizabeth City is especially beautiful. It is surrounded everywhere by cypress swamps. In the early morning, mist rises off the still water giving it an ephemeral appearance.

We stopped at the visitor's center on the canal. One of our goals this year was to visit the newly opened swamp museum and nature trails just completed next to the visitor's center. We were a bit disappointed. The ranger warned us that there are ticks on the trails, and we were wearing short pants. We had to settle for a walk on the 300 yard long boardwalk, then to peek in to the exhibits at the museum. We saw everything there was to see in only 20 minutes. Next time, we'll come dressed to
hike on the trails. That would be more fun.