The place itself is amazing; dozens of boarded up brick buildings and plenty of flippable AC all around. We didn't find anything during the late morning flipping as it was already very hot but made a mental note to return on a cooler morning.
We took a trail that overlooked the river from about 50 yards up. It was a lovely view. We decided to go straight to a shaded path of splitting concrete and grass that ran through a wooded area. Andrea finally found a sweet spot and flipped a beautiful young Spotted Salamander.
Just a few feet away, she rolled over a log and we saw a beautiful Leadback.
We couldn't go too far, so we turned back at the end of that trail and headed back towards the grounds. Passing the river again, we stopped to admire the beauty.
Say, that looks like a basking spot way down yonder...
Sure enough, three Painted Turtles were up out there.
This guy made me think of the Peter Graves classic Beginning of the End.
Unfortunately, the road did hold some DORs... a long-squashed toad and a recently clipped DeKay's Snake. (We'd flipped some Deek skins earlier.) Sad.
It was almost noon, our meet-up time, but I really wanted to check out another shady path that appeared to go along the river, only much closer. I was rewarded with a look at three more Painters, this time not so distant, enjoying the sun.
What a setting. "Love that dirty water" indeed.
We went up and met our friends and talked and enjoyed the scenery while we waited for everyone to arrive. The institution grounds are quite lovely.
We enjoyed a long game and a long hang with some dear friends and made some new ones as well. Here is a glimpse of Andrea's croquet form...
I broke my ball. Talk about extreme.
The festivities broke up around 5 PM and we went back out to pick up where our hike had left off. Sadly, we were low on water. I only had a bottle of hot water that had been sitting in the car. Yeech. But our discomfort was forgotten when we saw this big Green Frog in the grass.
At another spot that went down near the water, we could see a snake cruising through the river, heading towards shore. Of course, we assumed it was a Water Snake, but...
This Garter reminded us that all snakes are good swimmers.
Looking back upriver from this vantage point, we could see some late-day Painters soaking it up.
Heading back to the main trail, Andrea spied this small American Toad making his way along the edge. Quite a looker.
We got to a mostly dried up culvert that looked like this...
It looked pretty good for Two-lines and it was! First flip.
Even though we were fatigued from playing in the sun all day, we made it to the end of the trail and took a breather before looping back. I took a few swigs of my hot water and it was nasty. I don't even like it with coffee or tea flavoring. This was just hot water. Still, it helped. Then... then we saw the Phoenix Toad, miraculously rising from the ashes! Or maybe just hopping through a spent fire-pit.
We were cooked by now and trudged out way back toward the parking lot. It had been a very full day and the shadows were getting long. I had just made it to the gravely parking area, within 15 feet ofthe car, when I looked down and saw this very much alive DeKay's Snake heading out for the evening.
I called out "Deek" and Andrea came running up to help move him on his way.
That little Northern Brown (for those of you who make fun of my old-school IDing) was a wonderful capper to an extremely fun day. Eight species at a brand new spot that shows a lot of promise and is just so damn cool. What does it say about me that I felt so much at home on the grounds of a mental hospital? Oh well.
As a little addendum, I went to our company party at my boss's house in Lexington on Tuesday afternoon. I'm lucky in that I work with my pal and herp-friend Ryan. We flipped this neonate Garter under my boss's steps. Bonus snake!
Ryan saw what was probably a Ribbon slip under a boulder out in the woods but we never got a photo of it.
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