Scot - once your recon yields some results and you nabsome pictures up there, shoot me a few of them - I'd like to see some of the terrain up there. Man, I hate snakes. This spring, it gotparticularly one afternoon inearly April- and I managed to step on a big black snake that must've woke up early, and was sunning in a field where I was shed hunting. He was not pleased, and taggedme right in the boots. He won the battle, but I won the war. Still not sure how a guy manages to step on a snake while SHED hunting (where all you do is stare at the ground)but I did it. []

I tend to stay away from the venomous snake areas - used to scout and pick a lot of ginsengaround snake-infested ledges and have come across enoughtimber rattlers and copperheadsto realize that I'm probably overdue for a bite.