[Paddlewise] Cottonmouths

I just had to tell my cottonmouth story.  I was leading an overnight
paddle down Ouiska Chitto creek( sometimes bastardized to Whiskey
Chitto) in central Louisiana.  This is a lovely, sandy bottomed creek
that runs through a lot of wild land and finally ends up merging into
the Calcisieu River.

I had my 9 year old nephew as a partner.  As we were pulling our canoe
over a log, we looked back and saw the water roil and up came a loop of
a big snake. Then it went under and the next view we had was of the
snake's mouth holding onto a catfish about a foot long who was
struggling mightily to get away.  My nephew got real scared but I told
him,  " Don't worry about that old snake - he has his mouth full" .  I
grabbed my Pentex with the 200 mm lens and went back and framed several
exquisite shots."  I even had one where the loop of the snake made a
frame with the head and fish in the center.  Finally the water quieted
and we went on.  The next weekend I was in a wilderness area and found a
pair of anoles mating.  I was now really excited because, at the time, I
competed in international photography competitions.  I just knew I had 2
winners on the same roll of film.  Then my film ran out and I opened the
camera to discover that I had NO film.  And I've never seen that sight
since.  So keep that film in the camera.

My other snake story happened on the Sabine Bayou, the only National
Wild and Scenic Water in Louisiana.  We were doing our annual clean-up
which mostly consisted of cleaning up eddies of trash and sawing a
passageway for canoes through downed trees by just cutting out a piece
and leaving the rest.

We had a pair of guys with us from the Forest Service who were in a John
boat.  I came around a bend to find them on the bank, chopping our the
transom.  "Why are you guys doing that", I asked.  Because a snake
dropped into our boat and this is the only place he can be and we're not
getting back into it until we find him", they replied.  They never found
him so I suspect the snake bailed out so fast they missed the exit.  So
I do remind people on my trips to look before paddling under tree limbs.

Marilyn Kircus
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************