SideshowBob
<font color=green>Oil Can aficionado<br><font colo
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2001
- Messages
- 3,585
To be honest... SSB is pretty happy to be alive (and almost well) to tell this tale of my high-adventure afternoon. Not sure why these things seem to happen to me (does SSB ask for it? haha!) but when involved in one, everytime I start LOL and hope to survive to tell of it here.... (sick puppy, eh?) 
After relaxing, fun time with the kiddos yesterday and for a few hours today... SSB was heading back to apartment... and decided to go hiking at the Lake Tibet-Butler Preserve when seeing that the gates were open. Have been there probably dozens of times over the last year or so... just love it!
Hiked along all of my normal trails, including "Pine Circle", "Fallen Log Crossing", "Tarflower Loop", "Osprey Outlook", "Screech Owl Trail"... and was about to go... when decided to try again to make it around a very innocent sounding "Palmetto Passage" trail... a 3 mile or so loop around the whole Preserve. There are always warning signs up that seasonally parts of the trail are covered with water... and every time that I have tried, have only made it about a 1/2 mile or so before too wet to go on. Today, decided to try to approach from the other side! As they say in the Guiness commercial... SSB thought "BRILLIANT!". {not}
Motoring along for about a mile or so... having a GREAT time... see a big Jack Rabbit, Owl, Frogs... all kinds of nice little animals. After that it started to get a lot more sketchy... with spider webs everywhere... was contantaly having to peel them off of my face and body... but still fun. Felt like a "boy" again...
Then... starts to get REALLY thick... and also a bit wetter. One WAY cool area of rotting Palm Logs, covered overhead by TON Of Palm trees... very, very cool. Keep going forward, as SSB is determined to get all the way around. Finally get to big areas of sitting water (brackish) and have to go around, and keep almost getting lost (was not sure if on path anymore). Then, hit a brick wall... as big area of water, and no way to get around. Hrrmmmm....this is the point of the story when SSB wishes that he had turned around.... but er, um... didn't.
Noticed some big logs to side, so SSB starts tossing them into the water to try to build a ramp to get over the deep water. Fashion a nice walking stick to take with me to keep my balance.
* Let me pause for a moment to let you know that it is EASTER, and there is one person besides me in the whole Preserve, and I am certain that they are ready to close the gate and go home... and I am at least a mile and a half from them.
So.... start out walking over the logs... first one OK, and doing fine in transition to second... UNTIL... it rolls, and I go tumbling off into dark water well over my knees.... and THEN..... a fricking SNAKE ... a BIG snake starts swimming through the water... and I can't tell if coming at me, or away from me as I was thrashing water and mud to try to get out. I take my stick and start beating it wildly into the water shouting our something that I hoped was Parceltongue (HP credit)... but I am sure sounded more like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!! I am covered in mud and stinking water but do get to the side. And not more sign of the snake. I am NOT going back through the water... so keep going forward where there is no trail.
I keep on for about another 20 minutes or so, and FINALLY find some old path from an earlier trail, and follow that for 1/2 hour or so... and finally find my way back out. I was laughing so hard .. but have to admit that my heart still racing right now thinking about it all. I saw the ranger stareing at me when I walked past the gatehouse to my car, but was NOT stopping to tell my story... :O Luckily, had towels in my trunk, as SSB smelled pretty terrible, and was soaked.
The moral of the story is, that when two roads diverge in a yellow wood... sometimes it is NOT wise to take the one that looks less travelled by....!!!
Hope that everyone had a great Easter.
After relaxing, fun time with the kiddos yesterday and for a few hours today... SSB was heading back to apartment... and decided to go hiking at the Lake Tibet-Butler Preserve when seeing that the gates were open. Have been there probably dozens of times over the last year or so... just love it!
Hiked along all of my normal trails, including "Pine Circle", "Fallen Log Crossing", "Tarflower Loop", "Osprey Outlook", "Screech Owl Trail"... and was about to go... when decided to try again to make it around a very innocent sounding "Palmetto Passage" trail... a 3 mile or so loop around the whole Preserve. There are always warning signs up that seasonally parts of the trail are covered with water... and every time that I have tried, have only made it about a 1/2 mile or so before too wet to go on. Today, decided to try to approach from the other side! As they say in the Guiness commercial... SSB thought "BRILLIANT!". {not}
Motoring along for about a mile or so... having a GREAT time... see a big Jack Rabbit, Owl, Frogs... all kinds of nice little animals. After that it started to get a lot more sketchy... with spider webs everywhere... was contantaly having to peel them off of my face and body... but still fun. Felt like a "boy" again...
Then... starts to get REALLY thick... and also a bit wetter. One WAY cool area of rotting Palm Logs, covered overhead by TON Of Palm trees... very, very cool. Keep going forward, as SSB is determined to get all the way around. Finally get to big areas of sitting water (brackish) and have to go around, and keep almost getting lost (was not sure if on path anymore). Then, hit a brick wall... as big area of water, and no way to get around. Hrrmmmm....this is the point of the story when SSB wishes that he had turned around.... but er, um... didn't.
Noticed some big logs to side, so SSB starts tossing them into the water to try to build a ramp to get over the deep water. Fashion a nice walking stick to take with me to keep my balance.
* Let me pause for a moment to let you know that it is EASTER, and there is one person besides me in the whole Preserve, and I am certain that they are ready to close the gate and go home... and I am at least a mile and a half from them.
So.... start out walking over the logs... first one OK, and doing fine in transition to second... UNTIL... it rolls, and I go tumbling off into dark water well over my knees.... and THEN..... a fricking SNAKE ... a BIG snake starts swimming through the water... and I can't tell if coming at me, or away from me as I was thrashing water and mud to try to get out. I take my stick and start beating it wildly into the water shouting our something that I hoped was Parceltongue (HP credit)... but I am sure sounded more like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!! I am covered in mud and stinking water but do get to the side. And not more sign of the snake. I am NOT going back through the water... so keep going forward where there is no trail.
I keep on for about another 20 minutes or so, and FINALLY find some old path from an earlier trail, and follow that for 1/2 hour or so... and finally find my way back out. I was laughing so hard .. but have to admit that my heart still racing right now thinking about it all. I saw the ranger stareing at me when I walked past the gatehouse to my car, but was NOT stopping to tell my story... :O Luckily, had towels in my trunk, as SSB smelled pretty terrible, and was soaked.
The moral of the story is, that when two roads diverge in a yellow wood... sometimes it is NOT wise to take the one that looks less travelled by....!!!
Hope that everyone had a great Easter.
