Day Trip to Cheraw State Park, SC

Our most recent day trip was to a quiet

destination exactly one hour from home.

Cheraw State Park, just south of Cheraw, S.C.

Join me for a brief tour.

Here's a view of the boardwalk that skirts

one shore of the lake.

Taken from the boardwalk.

Long enough for a little exercise, but not
overly exerting.

Especially for Liz. (Private joke).

The noise of the spillway creates the illusion
of a mountain waterfall.

Can you spy the skink lurking on the old iron bridge?

The lake is pod-shaped.  This view is from one
end to the other.

Unlike most parks, this one actually invites you to leave
the trail and proceed downstream below the dam.
With caution!

A brochure explained that the apparent "soap suds"
were a natural product of certain decaying leaves,
not a result of pollution.

A nice view below the dam.

The massive roots of a bald cypress tree.
They were plentiful downstream.

And the natural suds billowed to epic size!

This reminded me of a canoe trip on the Lumber
River years ago.

In this watery environment, trees send out roots in
all directions seeking to drink up every drop they can.

Liz, I repeat: This means you!

It's always fun to spot a turtle or other wildlife.

Or two.

A beautiful variety of wild iris grew right in the water.

While hiking a loop trail in a longleaf pine forest
we spotted this Reconyx Rapidfire game tracking camera.
Very cool.  It can take a picture per second of wildlife in
motion.  Including me and Judy, I suppose.

Needless to say, we were already familiar with the
longleaf forest habitat.  We prefer the varied trails
at our own Weymouth Woods.

Isn't it nice when trail directions are so specific?

This simple boardwalk through a sometimes
wet area gave me a great idea for a similar
problem on the Farm Life Nature Trail.
The county has promised assistance.

We picnicked near this nice little playground.
On departure we drove through the park's campground,
then wound our way homeward, with a few timely
stops in Cheraw and Hamlet, NC.  Including cheap gas!

First Copperhead on the Loyd Place

Disclaimer: If you've been reading about our

copperhead experience on Facebook, you won't

find any new photos here.  I've consolidated the

pictures and one video here, along with some

explanatory comments.

The story begins.

Last Friday, about 4:00, Jennifer was picking

up her kids at our house.  We had played all

over the property with Claire and Evan, including

in the garage.  After they were buckled in their

seats, Jennifer, Judy, and I were still chatting in

the driveway, when we noticed that Kitty Cat

was in attack mode in front of the garage.  We

assumed the target was a lizard.  But when I saw

him repeatedly attack, then leap back, I knew he

had found a prey that was fighting back.  When I

approached I heard a tell-tale vibrating in the leaves.

No, it wasn't a rattlesnake.  But I knew of two snakes

that mimic that sound to scare away predators (or

sometimes to lure their own prey closer).  It was

either a black rat snake (my favorite) or a copperhead

(beautiful but deadly).  When I saw the distinctive

pattern on its back, I immediately knew it was the 

latter.  I had to frighten Kitty Cat away, and was 

just hoping he had not already been struck by the

lunging pit viper.  I strode to my tool shed and 

grabbed a shovel.  The cooperative copperhead

had stayed put.  I plunged the shovel into his body

about one-third the distance back from his head.

He was pinned to the ground and couldn't get away,

but he wasn't yet dead.  With my family still a safe

distance away, I went for my limb loppers.  My 

captive couldn't escape as I clamped the loppers

just inches behind his head.  He still wasn't dead.

At this point I did another power plunge with

the shovel and severed the body.  I knew the

head could still bite and kept a safe distance.

The jaws were actively opening and closing and

the fangs awaited an opportunity to deliver their

toxic dose.  He never got the chance.  I read that

most copperhead bites occur when attempts are

made to kill or capture.  Normally, I am reluctant

to kill most forms of wildlife (notable exceptions:

ants, moles, mice, roaches, mosquitoes, and flies).

I realize that all God's creatures play their part in

the complex web of nature.  But to the extent possible,

I'm determined to keep our environment safe for me,

Judy, Kitty Cat, and most of all, the grandchildren.

Within ten minutes after Jennifer and the children

had departed, I had dug a shallow grave and deposited

the still-writhing reptile in it.  Video is included at the

end of this blog.

This is the severed front end of the copperhead.
He could and would still bite at this stage, even
without use of his better half (so to speak).

Here's the rest of his body.  I estimated the length
at 28 to 30 inches.  Typical adult copperheads can
be about three feet.  

I reassembled him purely for your viewing pleasure.
A taxidermist I'm not (biology lab convinced me I wasn't
 enough of a perfectionist to pursue a surgical career).

This closeup of the head shows the distinctive color
which gives it its name.  That copper is a different
shade than the various hues of tan and brown that
make up the impressive camouflage bands.

This video shows that my victim did not

go quietly to his grave.  His Latin nomenclature

is Agkistrodon Contortrix.  While an article said

that contortrix refers to his twisted pattern, my

video (which might give my more squeamish

friends nightmares) suggests the contortions of

his death throes would make it an apt name.

By strange coincidence, I was wearing the snakes

of the world shirt pictured below on that day. If

brave Kitty Cat had not detected our visitor, at great

peril to himself, the copperhead would likely still be

a potential threat.  There may be more, but it was the

first poisonous snake we've seen ON our property in

35 years here.  So with this scary episode over, we

will proceed with caution.  Our property supplies many

of the ingredients of perfect copperhead habitat: 

compost pile, woodpiles, leaves, small rodents and 

birds, and old rotting stumps.  

I hope you enjoyed my latest snake stories.

I don't suppose I'll ever run out of them.

Snakes seem to be attracted to me.

The Eno River: A new hiking venue for the Loyds

The first chance we got in April, Judy and I

headed off to Eno River State Park, just west

of Durham.  We took a beautiful scenic route

on backroads from Chapel Hill and never

encountered any traffic.  Let's take a tour.

The amazing number of turtles sunning themselves
was the first thing we noticed.

The trail we hiked before lunch was fairly level and
suitable for all ages.  It basically followed the river.

A turtle closeup.  Typically, we'd see several, but by
the time I could get close enough for a picture only
a couple remained.

We observed a lot of interesting natural
formations.  "X" marks the spot!

You don't see too many rapids on piedmont rivers,
but this made us feel like we were in the mountains.

I haven't identified this lovely plant yet, but it
was quite prolific.

Note the little "fiddletops" of these newly
emerging Christmas ferns.

This is a troll hole 'fer shur.'

I think Gandalf may have turned some evil
creature into this odd formation.

The black rat snake is the first of two
nice specimens we spotted that day.  Judy
saw both of them first.

I thought this view of solitary violets blooming on
this ancient log was picturesque. (FIRST time using
that word on this blog!)

These parallel fallen saplings would have
been a tempting footbridge for some folks.
Not me, not today!

Ducks or geese, you tell me.

Hmm.  All kinds of possibilities here!

Is this the way deer mark trees?

Our second snake was a beauty of a King Snake.

Not only did this turtle wait for me, he
appears to be waving!

A favorite woodland plant of mine, running
ground cedar (or ground pine).

The William Few that this historic ford was named
after ended up in Georgia and was a signer of the
U.S. constitution (right next to Abraham Baldwin, Caryn)!

One of the few places the trail rose was for the
express purpose of viewing these rapids, the most
impressive on the entire Eno.

The turtles definitely preferred the more placid spots.

I finally got around to identifying these papery leaves
as beech.  I had observed it from here to Georgia
all along the interstate and in neighborhoods last winter.

I wish we had this tree on our SFL Nature Trail.
We have a Slingshot Tree.  This could be "L'il
Slingshot Tree.

This bridge would have led to many more miles of
trails we didn't have time or energy for that day.
But we plan to visit this park in the future.

Our return hike led us down, down, down . . .

. . . and up, up, up!

It was worth the steep climb to see this view.

In fact, everything we saw at the Eno River

State Park impressed us.  We'd like to see it

at different seasons and experiment with

different trails.  It's just a little over 90 minutes

from our house and well worth the trip.

Let me know if you want to know the shortcut,

but there's no need to go through Durham's traffic.