Our vacation was just about over and we needed to go to Walden Pond to swim a bit and befriend some garter snakes and ducks. The weather was still oppressively hot so a dunk into the pond would do us some good!
We left very early and pulled up to the Walden Pond lot at 8:15 AM... surely enough time to secure a good spot along the trail!
DENIED!!!
It was full and they weren't letting people in until after 11!!! Those Jimmy Buffet loving, nature sucking, Thoreau-ly disgusting SCUMBAGS!!!!!! We were furious!!! So we drove around the area.
From the road (no clue where we were...) we saw a trail map and a small parking lot. We pulled in. Some kindly hikers informed us that we were at Mount Misery in Linclon Mass. Sounded like a good place to end our mounting misery! Assured that there were ponds and a river, we bug-sprayed down and approached the trails. Yep- right away we saw an American Toad!
OK- I'm not going to go step by step because this place was FILTHY with frogs and toads! Bullfrogs, Green frogs, Wood frogs and American toads by the truckload! Take a look at these leggy lads!
Take a gander at this little anuran oddity- only one eye and, despite his size, still a pretty big (black) tail... Thank you, pollution!
Oh... and there were some sallys too...
Despite this, we still wanted to hop into some water (like this guy was going to do...)
So we hit the road for Ponk... where we knew we could at least stick our feet in...
We got to Ponkapoag in the mid-afternoon and went backwards, which is to say we went in the opposite direction of the dam. Figuring snakes would be well hidden from the heat, we just wanted to dunk ourselves!
We got over towards the camp area and flipped a few things. Some camper said he'd seen some water snakes around the dock area. So, I waded in and took a look around under the dock. Of course, the power hungry lifeguard yelled at me, saying if I hadn't paid my $2 in advance, no swimming for me. I was going to argue and tell her to fuck off but... what was the point.
We made our way towards a more private spot. Flipping revealed... a snake!! I decided to take a closer look...
Just as I thought... a beautiful garter snake!
I got musked a bit (and bit a bit) so when we got to our spot on the water, I cleaned off.
We waded into the pond (for FREE!!! Hahaha!) and I layed down and let the cool water wash over me. We lay in the shallow water, enjoying the refreshing coolness. Tiny sunfish were swimming up close to me and nibbling on the bubbles that were on my arms and legs. It tickled and it was very cute. Then one enterprising young sunfish BIT MY NIPPLE!! Youch! That startled the hell out of me! Nice chompers on that lil' fella!
After we dried off, Andrea noticed that we'd had company... a young garter snake was resting nearby. We got closer to take a picture and she bolted. She came back... then took off again.
She came back a third time and I figured I'd grab her so we could get a shot. I went around and into the water to get her from that side. When I grabbed her, she musked but I held her vent in the water! I won that one!
Then she went house. What a tenacious little girl! She was biting me, the air, my forehead... anything she could get! We think she was gravid, and maybe being a bit temperamental. She seemed like a good candidate for the nose-bite pic I've been hoping to get this year, but no dice...
She did make for one great photo-op... me biting a snake while it bites me!
At any rate, we let her go... she'd won the biting contest fair and square. Little did we know that my ass kicking by a 16" snake was witnessed by a shitload of Canadian geese (who tried to look nonchalant when I said "Whatta you lookin' at?"
This red squirrel also witnessed my defeat.
So, cooled off and with my dignity still intact, we, like the others who had enjoyed the day, headed for the car after a good day's hike.
