When City Folk Hike
Any avid hikers out there? If so, I apologize in advance for the hiking ignorance of this post. My family and I have no idea what hiking entails and yet we decided to take one while vacationing in the mountains. The hike we chose to take, however, would be mocked at by true hikers. In fact, we chose the trail marked “easy” and yet we still encountered some trouble along the way. From the kids obsessing over insects to one of them getting bit by a snake, this adventure will be one that my city folk family never forgets.
A Little Bit of Background
Just to give a little bit of background on my family, we are what some would consider “city people.” My parents grew up in Atlanta, my grandparents pastored a church in Atlanta, and my dad even worked as a business man in the heart of Atlanta before shifting gears to the family business of pastoring. Then my parents also raised my brother and I in the burbs, so city and suburbs are most of what we know. My sister-in-law also grew up in the suburbs, but her family was much more outdoorsy than ours, so she at least had some background knowledge. My husband, however, grew up in the country and spent all of his time outside. Unfortunately, he was not on this adventure with us so his background was of no help at the time. Granted, my family has had wonderful opportunities to travel the world, see different cultures, and experience different things we normally wouldn’t back at home. But those experiences are not our norm, thus choosing to take a hike in our home state was also not our norm.
Journey to the Creek
Before even starting on the hike, we had to drive to it’s location. My dad, mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and I all piled up in the car. My sweet son and husband stayed home for nap time and I am SO grateful we didn’t take a 16 month old on this journey. The twists and turns of the car ride alone made me nauseous and so ready to walk through the woods in the Georgia summer heat (sarcasm inserted).
The trail we chose to take led to a creek. The kids were so excited to walk on the trail then get to play in the creek, so we happily got out of the car and embarked on our journey through the woods. The trail was pleasant for a while. We enjoyed walking together and looking at all things nature, of course not knowing what any plant was and guessing what might be poison ivy (leaves of three?). My 8 year old niece and 5 year old nephew became engrossed with every insect they saw, wanting to hold it and making sure we all saw it. Then my nephew started to obsess over each and every mushroom along the way. He quickly turned into a mushroom collector, stopping to pick up and examine each one. My husband informed me later that picking wild mushrooms can be quite dangerous. Apparently there are poisonous ones? My sis-in-law said she loved picking them as a kid, so I guess it depends where you are. Nevertheless, my nephew he had so many mushrooms that he started to pass them out to us then asked my dad to carry them all in his pocket. Such a smart boy.
After a while, the trail stopped being a pleasant group walk and turned into a more single file walk over narrow bridges and mountain side ledges. However, it was quite humorous watching each other and of course the children loved every step. But it all paid off when we finally arrived at the creek, or at least we thought it would.
The Creek - A Snake’s Home
When we saw the creek in sight, the kids were overjoyed and my mom and I were grateful to see a bench! My mom had never walked so fast in her life than when she saw that bench. My dad stood on top of the little waterfall rock and put his arms victoriously in the air, while my brother and his family quickly took off their shoes to get in the creek. Then they began to climb on the rocks and step into the water.
As soon as my mom and I sat down on the bench, she said we needed to take a selfie so of course I obliged. However, as we were vainly taking our own picture, we heard my niece scream. She immediately pulled her foot out of the water and yelled that a crab had pinched her. We knew that crabs don’t live in creeks but our city brains couldn’t even think of anything else that might live in a creek.
Although her toe started bleeding and wouldn’t stop, my niece still had great spirits and we were all still in positive moods. But then, my dad and I got into the water and started searching for something sharp that might have cut her. My dad even stuck his arm and hand all under the rock but we couldn’t find the culprit. A couple of minutes later, however, the culprit showed its face. Literally. Because the culprit was a living thing with a face and fangs.
While my niece sat on the rock and waited for the blood to stop, my dad was in the water with my nephew when I heard him start asking, “Hey do you see that under the rock? What is that? Is that a head?” Of course I came closer to see what it was while my mom stayed put on the bench. It was hard to see at first, but its head slowly came inching out from underneath the rock. Once we were able to see its full head and long body curved under the waterfall, even our city folk selves knew what it was. A snake.
We immediately jumped out of the water and told the family that there was a snake under the rock (where my dad had also been running his hand under). My sweet niece who had been so strong started crying. All of the adults also wanted to cry or freak out but we had to hold it together in order to not traumatize the kids even more. We took some pictures of the snake as best we could in order to find out what kind of snake it was. I remembered learning somewhere that triangular heads were poisonous and thankfully this snake’s head was round, but we were still shaken and uncertain.
Unfortunately, there was no way to drive a car to this location in the woods, so we were stuck having to walk back with a snake bitten child. My brother put my niece on his back and hightailed it back down the trail while the rest of us followed. My dad, however, stayed behind to see if he could see the snake any better. And sure enough, once we all left the snake started coming out more and more. He said he could finally see its long neck which clarified it was definitely a snake.
As we all made our way back down the long trail, the once pleasant walk had now turned into what felt like a race. We all offered to take turns carrying my niece, but my brother’s adrenaline kicked in and he carried her the whole way back. While he was leading the way, my Dad caught up to him but my mom could not walk any faster so I stayed with her in the caboose. In fact her exact words were, “I could walk faster but I can’t walk faster.” True words spoken from a true city gal. Meanwhile, my nephew wanted to continue to stop to look at insects and mushrooms as we all tried to book it back. So eventually my sister-in-law had to put him on her back in order to catch up with her daughter who had just been bitten by a snake. It was all a bit chaotic to say the least.
The After Effects
Once we finally made it back to the car, we packed ourselves in and took off. My niece was happy and laughing by this point, saying her toe barely hurt. But we took a good look at it and saw where the fang marks were and how her toe had started swelling a little. As we made our way back, plans were made to drop all of us off at the house while my brother and sister-in-law took my niece to an urgent care. Unfortunately, the nearest one was almost an hour away, but thankfully, we found out there were paramedics on staff in our area. When the paramedics looked over the bite, they were surprisingly not worried at all. They said it wasn’t poisonous and to just put some alcohol on it, then sent her on her way. That was all.
Quite anticlimactic, but oh so relieving! What a miracle it was for these city folk to have had such a frightening experience only to find out all is well. Things could have really gone bad, but God is so good. In fact, when they got back from the paramedics, my niece was ready to move on to the next adventure and wanted to go to the huge rock slide. Such a strong girl to be bitten by a snake then immediately want to keep playing! And I have got to say that the rock slide was a pretty great way to end such a wild day.
Our hiking experience was definitely one for the books. God knew these city folk would need as much help and protection as possible. Thankful is an understatement! But we will always remember the summer of the unforgettable hike!
Share with me!
Anyone love to hike? Or have snake stories? Any advice for this city folk crew?