One Day (and Night) In South Georgia

[RevMojo]

So BW and I are back from camping, and I've had my well needed nap...figured it was time to report on events and findings

You'll have to wait a day or so for pix, but as long as they turn out, we should have some good ones.

We stayed at General Coffee State Park, in deep south Georgia. Upon arriving and setting up camp, my son Dylan immediately found 2 Gopher Tortoise holes, one of which was occupied at the moment by a large male. Later it turned out that both holes also had gravid females. We finished setting up camp, and went for a short hike. We found 1 small fence lizard. We followed this by a long drive down a dirt road. I got tired of driving, so we let Dylan take over (oh, OK, I worked the pedals). He had a ball. We checked out a couple of abandonded buildings and a tin-field, but only found 1 skink. It was waaayyyy too hot. Probably 100 if not more... So yadda yadda yadda, campfire, hot dogs...getting dark. We went to a place BW knows right near the FL border (that's all I can say about where, I've been sworn to secrecy). Here I learned several important things:

1) In the field, should your party and another party come across a pygmy rattler in the road at the same time, "Get off my snake, B*tch!" is a perfectly acceptable greeting. He must of been talking to BW
2) Road cruising is largely a matter of luck. We and Marty Snipes (quoted above) were cruising the same triangular area in opposite directions. They found 5 pygimies (4 if you dont count the one we should have had if we hadnt been more concerned about saying hi than immediately grabbing the snake), we found found 1 anery pygmy and 1 banded watersnake, both DOR
3) Toads, upon seeing a car, will hold still and hope you have the decency to go around them. Frogs are suicidal idiots
4) 3 hours of staring at blacktop in the dark at 15 MPH will cause optical illusions and hallucinations for the next 6 hours
5) Armadillos are faster than you think.
6) If you say, "Look, pigs!" the herpers will look around furiously at the ground for rattlers while the family of Wild Pigs runs off.

So road cruising was pretty uneventful...we got back to camp, made a fire, and taught Dylan the fine art of S'mores while we did a mercy killing on a 12-pack of Budweiser. Other important lessons taught by the fire: swearing, belching, why I wear blue sunglasses, and how to feed and tend a fire.

Somewhere around Dark O'clock in the morning, we went hiking up the Gopher Tortoise road. After sticking his head in about 12 holes (literally...all the way in), we did discover 1 more Gopher Tortoise and a Coachwhip. Also say lots of snake slides going into the tortoise holes. Or maybe it was coming out, cuz we didnt see any in there. Back to camp and to sleep for a few hours.

By the time I woke up, around 10 or so, Brian was already fully feeling the effects of Heat Exhaustion. We decided to scrap the rest of the day, and just head back home. While packing the tent, we found a broadhead skink. After the car was loaded, BW went to go throw away the trash, and on the way back came across a good sized Gray Ratsnake. It should be noted, for the sake of the pictures that follow, that it was hotter than #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& all day saturday, and although it did drop down to the mid 80's overnite (sleeping in a pool of your own sweat sux), it was a blast furnace again by 10:30. As for the farmer tan, he'll have to explain that himself.

Anyway, that about sums it up...we had a ball, found a few herps, and lived to tell about it. Gotta call that a good trip. We'll get pix up as soon as possible

	Anerythristic A recessive genetic mutation in which the animal is void of red pigment.

[Ed_r]

See what happens when Bret doesn't go.lol I hope you swore Dylan to secrecy on the events of the weekend, punishable by a swift kick if dad get in trouble.lol Sound like it was a fairly good time.
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[StaticKaos]

haha thats funny as #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& man, really sounds like you guys had a lot of fun.. ah i want a pigmy really bad but i think my dad would kill me before the snake ever had a chance 2 do it!

PS: how do you spell pigmy? ive seen it pygmy also
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[scarlettrose2006]

sounds like you had a blast....literally....hehe.
Yep, was hot alright, i spend the day ....(and part of the night, under moonshine) floating around the pool...nothing like swimming in the pool on those hot steamy Georgia nights.
There were record highs this weekend, and i was wondering how you guys were holding up...[img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
I'm glad you found/seen a few reptiles and sounds like you had a lot of fun, despite the heat.
One of these days i'll go fieldherping, too....supposed to be a LOT of snakes, and other reptiles around here.
Lucy
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[RevMojo]

Ed: you better believe he was sworn to secrecy. Explained that he was getting to do a lot of fun things that he normally wouldn't get to, but that if he wanted to do em again, he couldnt tell mommy about it. He had a ball...we stopped a few times while road cruising to let him catch toads. I think he was probably the last one of us to get to sleep too (unless you count the naps he took everytime we drove more than 1/2 hr) sometime around 5 am.

Other valuable lessons:
those little spray bottle fan thingy's, that seem like a joke, are a lifesaver.
No matter how much ice you keep adding to the cooler of grape koolaid, it still stays the same purple color
When roadcruising, keep the hook by the door, and take off your seatbelt
Check out critical gear before leaving so that you dont discover at 1 am that the lantern needs a new mantle. But hey, just gave us an excuse to build a bigger fire...

I'll probably be while before I take another trip...I'd like to try and set up a few for next year though. It'd be cool to try and time them around the meteor showers. Before the moon came up there were sooo many stars out. I saw 2 shooting stars (I know, I know...what kinda herper is looking up:P [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]). Maybe with nearly a year's planning, we can get a few more of us out there...
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[bensnacks]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> (oh,Ok, I worked the petals.) </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

lol What were you driving a tulip.?? [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img]

Sounds like a blast none the less ,pity about the
heat and looking forward to hearing about the next one.

[img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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[RevMojo]

good catch Ben...thank goodness for the edit feature..


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All right, where are the pics!? I'm jonesing...
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[RevMojo]

Be patient J. Got em developed, but just moved, and right now my office is where everything that doesnt have some other place yet is. As soon as I get everything set up in there, I'll scan em and post em...got some good pix too. I'll get em up ASAP
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[Seany]

Sounds like a great trip... too bad there's not much too see on Long Island [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img] maybe someday. Can't wait too see the pics though.
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