My Fever Broke

 

Indeed, the feverish heatwave of the past several days eased this morning. But as you'll see, I still broke. I have my limits!

Visit #1607, Sunday 5 July 26, 7:25-11:05 a.m. 4.3 miles, 3.5 lbs. of litter.

Temps in the low 70s, cloudy with high humidity after a week of heatwave conditions.

I planned to follow the road around Merimere Reservoir and up to West Peak.

Reaching the north end of the reservoir, I found these two teenagers illegally fishing. How do I know they were teenagers - the one on the left was wearing a Platt Panthers t-shirt. I think they got spooked by my presence and moved to another location because I was picking up litter on the trap rock shore and getting too close to them.

I give them credit for getting up early to be fishing at 8 a.m.  Points deducted for illegal fishing.

But they weren't the only ones fishing.

This jeep belonged to another pair of young men fishing on the reservoir as well.

The two teenagers above - later, when I returned to the park via the north end gate, a woman in a vehicle was blocking my access. I politely asked her to move her vehicle when she explained she was there to pick up her son who was fishing there. Her son turned out to be Platt Panther boy or his buddy, as they came traipsing by. What timing!

Anyway, I continued walking up the road but didn't get too far beyond the reservoir.

I wasn't about to fight my way through that, so I turned around and followed the road back to the park.

Along the way I noticed the Japanese Knotweed which was sprayed and cut down just a few weeks ago has grown back with a vengeance. When they say it's tough to get rid of, they aren't kidding.

One thing was for sure; people weren't going to reach Castle Craig or West Peak today with that tree across the road.

So I drove home, packed my gear, and returned to the tree.

Using loppers and my chainsaw, I laid the tree naked.

It was almost 10:00 a.m. when I started, and with the gate open, cars started showing up. But they all got the hint and turned around without an argument. A couple people asked when I might be finished and I asked they give me a couple hours. Fact is, it only took one hour to complete. 

Well, I PLANNED to complete the job until...

Actually, TWO snakes slithered out of that knothole, one much smaller than the one you see. I don't know where the small one went but the one in the photo didn't move a scale for over ten minutes!

Here's my theory why:

The snake laid its eggs in that knothole and was protecting them. Or they had already hatched hence where the little one came from.

And here are some facts about snakes: If the snake lays eggs, the eggs are called a "clutch". If the snake gives live birth, the babies are called a "brood". Newly hatched snake eggs are called "hatchlings" while the individual live birth snake babies are called "snakelets".

 Since the larger snake wasn't moving a muscle I'm guessing they were ready to defend something. Regardless of whether I could have done business on it with my chainsaw, I'm not that kind of guy, so I left the job incomplete. I feel bad. At least cars can pass by.

Click on the photo to get a better view and you can see the snake still sitting at the knot. I could have swept up the debris but with cars occasionally approaching I didn't want to take any more time blocking the road. Of course, the guardrail took a drubbing, too.

I'll leave the completion of the job to the parks department. It shouldn't take long EXCEPT for the snake factor.

I've got to leave you this week with what else but, Frank Zappa's tune, Baby Snakes!