Given the attention grabbing title, I’ll lead with some spoilers. Yes, we saw a snake. Yes, Wesley almost stepped on it. No, it did not bite us. With that out of the way, I’ll start from the beginning. The kids have had a listless summer vacation thus far and I had the week of Independence Day off from work. These two factors resulted in my decision to require they join me on a hike that Friday. There was much protesting, whining, and complaining but they eventually relented and agreed when I reminded them that I control the internet access for the entire house. As an aside, to the new Moms and Dads out there; Do NOT give up control of the router. Take the time to learn how it works, how to control it, and how to block certain devices based on IP/MAC address. Eventually it will be your only leverage.
So with the threat of restricted internet access, they capitulated and agreed to be dragged along. We didn’t get to the trail until about 1pm and it was a fairly warm day, high 80’s and sunny. We parked at the Southern most roadside parking along Randolph Ave. The plan was to take care of the two dew-drop shaped trail loops between Hawk Hill and the Great Cedar Swamp that junction off from #3072; with hopefully a few extra trails for good measure. The grumpy-teen-o-meter was near max levels so the kids were vacillating regularly between several different modes. Penny focused mainly on the ‘my brother is the most annoying human being on the planet’ mode, with occasional visits to ‘gleefully impish’ and ‘detached introvert’. Wesley divided his time evenly between ‘random unplanned thoughts about life, the universe, and everything; spoken aloud without filter’ mode and ‘ask Penny lots of questions about why they are so annoyed at me’ mode. These modes created some pretty tense moments during the trek, but in between the various schisms, there was plenty of actual good moments and loving interactions. Gotta take the good with the bad I guess.
Aside from the disgruntled teens, the hike itself had a few challenges. We overshot the Southern connecting trail between Laurel Path and Braintree Pass Path and had to double-back after we bumped into I-93. We had no problem finding the connecting path at the bottom of Branch Path, but the turn onto Streamside Edge Path was not clearly marked and there was some hunting to find where it branched off as the connecting path continued on well past the junction even though it wasn’t officially marked on trail map. Credit goes to Wesley for spotting that path through the overgrown foliage. By this time, the kids were done with their outdoor adventuring and made it clear that there would be a violent uprising if the pursuit of a few extra trails after these two loops wasn’t swiftly abandoned. I too was suffering in the late afternoon heat so I begrudgingly agreed. Around this time is when we encountered Mr. Snake, quite accidentally. There was much arguing about who was actually navigating our adventure and who got to hold onto my printed map with section marks. I was well ahead of the exhausted teens on the trail when Wesley let lose with genuinely shocked expletive. We all quickly turned around to see a handsome gray and brown spotted snake. It had probably been enjoying a nice sunbath on the open trail but it had now curved up its front portion into a tense S-shape while it’s tail was rattling around in the leaves. We gave it plenty of room as it weaved its way into the underbrush while we were able to snap a few pics and a quick video. Some post-hike Googling with our pictures let us identify it as an Eastern Milk Snake; completely harmless to the point where they are often kept as pets. They do a good job of faking that they are rattlesnakes when threatened by shaking their tails rapidly along the ground or leaves, but they are non-venomous and only grow to about three feet long, which was roughly the size of the one we almost trampled on.
After the snake scare and the teen uprising, we headed back to the car after a roughly 5 mile hike. Average for me, but the kids acted like they had scaled Everest. In a genius move of parental planning, I insisted we all grab our swimsuits and towels so we could cap off the trip with a dip in Houghton’s Pond. Even this plan was met with some reluctance, but once they both got in the water, tempers and bodies both cooled off effectively. In fact, this post-hike dip felt so good that I plan to route as many mid-Summer hikes as I can with start/stop points at Houghton’s pond to allow for this pleasant cool off. The announced closure of the bathhouse prompted us to dry off and head home.
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