Discussion: Wow

Anna is going to love hearing about this one!

I definitely thought of her while I was out there!

Even Anna doesn’t have enough hands to catch all those snakes simultaneously!

I didn't see any snakes.
Or ticks, thankfully!
But I totally lol'd at the image of the dog stepping on a snake, jumping, and stepping on another one! Wow.

That´s a lot of snakes in one go!
I think I´ve never seen a snake while orienteering and I´ve been a regular for over 50 years.
There was lots of talk about - and fear of - snakes when we were in Australia/Tasmania in 1988 but we never saw any (of which I´m quite pleased).
When it comes to ticks they just don´t seem to like me so I very seldom get any while they have a true feast on the dogs.

I've seen a few. Running down a trail at West Point, around a curve and there was a blacksnake right in front of me. Launched myself pretty high in the air to get over him. Then there was a time, also a long time ago when there were relays at French Creek. I had finished running and was hanging around at the finish and someone came running up, "There's a copperhead at the last control!" Well that was pretty interesting so I headed down to look. As I started to head down there the next breathless guy came up yelling, "No, it's a rattlesnake, a diamondback rattler!" Now I'm a bit skeptical. Copperhead? unlikely. Diamondback rattlesnake at French Creek? Really unlikely. Way out of their range. So I get down there and there is this poor milk snake, wishing he were someplace else. So I got a stick and shepherded him off into the woods a bit, out of harm's way.

Charlie, you're quite the herpetologist! Congrats for defusing the situation at the GO control....for both the sake of clueless orienteers, and the milk snake

From my years in the Boy Scouts:
Red and Yellow, kill a fellow
Red and Black, friend of Jack!

Australia has a reputation for snakes, but I've only seen 3 in 40 years of orienteering.