Freaky Friday 7.1.11

Today's Freaky Friday comes from yesterday's hike in the Smokies, on trails out of Elkmont. Nice weather, lots of people out and about along the Little River. We went out to the Goshen Gate Bridge and I waded in the river; we saw a mink running along the opposite bank. Met a large group of young backpackers headed for bc #23 then up to the AT today.

On the way back, we diverted onto Huskey Gap Trail over to bc#21 (the new one) to see if anybody was there (spotted at least 1 tent). Along the HGT we passed what I guess is a timber rattlesnake chillin at the edge of the trail.







It was motionless, it never rattled or showed aggression. It was determined to be best to encourage it away from the trail with a long branch.



It was a big fat beauty, and I didn't know they came so dark - that's the only reason I noticed it.... the blackness stood out in the brown terrain. Steve Irwin over there with the stick was in heaven and lamenting the fact that he couldn't bring this snake home. *eyetwitch*

Also here's a freaky fungus. I'm going to be classy and say it looks like a heart.

Freaky Friday

It has been an exceptionally long time since I blogged, not because I forgot about the blog or didn't have any ideas or adventures to share..... I just took a break. Sometimes it is good to step away from a thing for a while.
Today my blogifying resumes with a post I call "Freaky Friday" because I'm sharing a couple things that are, shall we say, odd.

While hiking yesterday on Old Settlers Trail in the National Park, we encountered 2 very interesting things:



An emerging plant (appears to be mayapple) pushes its way up through the soil and directly into the opening of an empty, sun bleached snail shell, lifting it off the ground. Amazing!







I have seen a lot of hand carved grave markers around the park, many are so old you can't read them anymore.
This is one is somewhat legible but the drawing is still perfect - a hand with index finger pointing up to Heaven. Fantastic!