Savage Falls 5.5.18

  We (George, John, Don and Tom – here after known as the geezer hikers) met at the Durham St. parking lot at 8am and departed for the ranger station at Savage Gulf.  The weather was great for hiking – upper 60's with rain threatening but never appearing.  We departed on the trail at 8:40 on what was booked as a 10 mile south rim hike.  We settled on labeling it a 12 mile hike after we compared fit bit, GPS and park map write up of the hike.  Although it was a long hike, the elevation transition was minimal along the ridge trail.  The falls were all running at full splendor (they rivaled the falls along the Zambezi).  We visited several lookouts along the trail.  One lookout I labled the Mountain Goat lookout.  This lookout required some cautious traversing down a rocky decent to the lookout.  We continued to the lookout at the 5.8 mile mark and had lunch.  We then proceeded to exit the trail.  Along the exit, John, who was in the sweep position (unusual for John who normally occupies the lead position) calls out 'snake on the trail'.  I (Tom) dropped back and observed an 11 to 12 inch viper headed snake lying in the leaves along the trail.  John nor I being combat photographers, failed to take a picture of the critter.  We discussed the genus of the snake and decided it most likely was a copperhead.  After the deadly viper slowly slithered off, we continued on our perilous but rewarding hike.  We exited the trail at 2pm, tired but mentally refreshed.  Don said this would probably be his last hike of the season.   He is devoting his energies to bike riding during the warm summer months.  He already had an encounter with the pesky tick during his last hike on Tuesday.  If you would like to see some beautiful pictures including some short videos, click here.