Two big snakes
We went for a long hike yesterday in Umstead Park. We walked in the middle of the day, and it was humid and hot, around 90 degrees.
We walked the Company Mill trail, a beautiful 6 mile walk through the woods. It took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes.
We saw two large snakes, larger than I've ever seen in the wild before. Both of them were around 3 feet long (90 centimeters).
The first one we heard before we saw it, a couple of feet away from the trail in the bushes when we were near a creek. It was brown and patterned. We're no snake experts but after looking at pictures later it might have been a hognose, northern water snake or a copperhead. We respectfully kept our distance.
Just a few minutes later we saw a similar sized snake, but completely black. That was almost certainly a black rat snake. It quickly moved away and crossed the trail behind us.
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Re: Two big snakes
Yikes.... they don't have to do a lot to scare me.
But better see them in Umstead, then in my back yard ;-)
The copperhead is known for its diamond shaped pattern.
A few weeks ago we encounterd a black one too.
Now know that shuffling sound, and that scares me mega when I go out for
walks now. Hear shuffling every where.....
Re: Two big snakes
It was probably a copperhead, which are common around here. I used to see them occasionally on the trail behind the Raritan office.
Re: Two big snakes
Hi,
Liked the story I as have been in Umstead Park walking around for hours without seeing a single snake. I went however to another place close to Umstead (closer to Durham) where I saw what I though was a Plainbelly Water snake. It looks a lot like the one on the photo. Saw that at www.watersnake.net they have that and other Water snakes described.