IBWOH's: Richard Ezell, Christopher Carlisle.
Summary: An initial visit for photos with the Ancient of Days, followed by a circuitous hiking survey of the spider-infested lands immediately around Hutson Lake, soon became one of the most challenging days in the field this year.
As noted in a prior post, Brian Carlisle and I had discovered the Ancient near an old logging road that eventually led us quickly out of the forest and back to the main road into the WMA. We had come upon the road as we made our way out of the pathless woods along the Pascagoula River. At the time, we were only concerned with getting back to our vehicle, but upon later reflection I became curious where the old logging road might lead, thinking perhaps it snaked around the southern end of Hutson Lake to meet with one of the other roads we had hiked that day. So, leaving the Ancient to his dawn ruminations, Richard and I continued south down the logging road, which is presently (along with the surrounding bottomland) laced with the thick, strong filaments of innumerable banana spider webs. Soon enough we spotted an end of Hutson, which forms a reverse-C, its ends pointing directly west, towards the River. As for the Road, it withered and faded into nothing; but the hog-rutted woods were easily traversed, and we made our way eastward cross-country, keeping the lake to our left. I soon began to recognize the trees standing off the shore opposite, from the survey Brian and I had taken from the Lindsey.
As I had expected, we found our return blocked a mere 100 yards from the road by a deep-channeled slough, which I remembered feeds into Hutson Lake from the east. I surmised that it, like most sloughs in the area, was short enough to allow a quick detour around it. However, though it is in most places less than 30 yards wide, it nevertheless snakes back at least half a mile into some thick woods. Eventually, with no end to the slough in sight, we attempted several exploratory efforts to cross the channel itself. All our efforts were foiled by deep water, even though we were able to (incredibly) actually walk upon the thick mats of aquatic vegetation that kept us from sinking too deep into the mire.
A cottonmouth that lay coiled up on some of the floating vegetation took us both by surprise. Richard happened to be ahead of me, and he leaped back with a yell, losing his footing in the process and thus getting pretty well soaked. My turn came a little later, when I stepped off into the muddy water during one of our many attempts to cross the slough, and found myself in the deep channel; I would have probably gone under, if not for Richard's outstretched hand. The dunking ruined my cell phone, and I believe my camera as well; it is still drying out, but I fear it may be done for.
Eventually we found ourselves back where we started, on the wrong side of the slough from the road. The slough, instead of running in a straight line as I had imagined, makes its own reverse-C that shadows Hutson Lake to the south-east, forcing us in a long loop back into familiar woods on the south end of Hutson. So, exhausted, pressed for time, and already completely soaked, we simply waded through the chest-deep brown water to the other side, and emptied out our boots. Again. A couple of hundred yards up the road, we dumped our waterlogged equipment into the bed of the truck and left.
Conclusions: You can't cheat the Swamp, pilgrim. And Richard's binoculars appear to have a liquid carrying capacity of about 1.25 cups.
We found what I believe to be a hog rubbing on a tree, which had the telltale coating of dirt; a sweet gum which showed heavy scaling near the base, which I believe to have been the work of a bear; many beaver-gnawed boles in the vicinity of the lake; and a sweet gum with healed scaling higher up, which I could not get a very good look at. No kents, double-knocks, or interesting cavities. Just a possum, and a cottonmouth, and more spiders than in all of Mirkwood.
(Hat tip to Richard for his contribution to this post's title.)
Summary: An initial visit for photos with the Ancient of Days, followed by a circuitous hiking survey of the spider-infested lands immediately around Hutson Lake, soon became one of the most challenging days in the field this year.
As noted in a prior post, Brian Carlisle and I had discovered the Ancient near an old logging road that eventually led us quickly out of the forest and back to the main road into the WMA. We had come upon the road as we made our way out of the pathless woods along the Pascagoula River. At the time, we were only concerned with getting back to our vehicle, but upon later reflection I became curious where the old logging road might lead, thinking perhaps it snaked around the southern end of Hutson Lake to meet with one of the other roads we had hiked that day. So, leaving the Ancient to his dawn ruminations, Richard and I continued south down the logging road, which is presently (along with the surrounding bottomland) laced with the thick, strong filaments of innumerable banana spider webs. Soon enough we spotted an end of Hutson, which forms a reverse-C, its ends pointing directly west, towards the River. As for the Road, it withered and faded into nothing; but the hog-rutted woods were easily traversed, and we made our way eastward cross-country, keeping the lake to our left. I soon began to recognize the trees standing off the shore opposite, from the survey Brian and I had taken from the Lindsey.
As I had expected, we found our return blocked a mere 100 yards from the road by a deep-channeled slough, which I remembered feeds into Hutson Lake from the east. I surmised that it, like most sloughs in the area, was short enough to allow a quick detour around it. However, though it is in most places less than 30 yards wide, it nevertheless snakes back at least half a mile into some thick woods. Eventually, with no end to the slough in sight, we attempted several exploratory efforts to cross the channel itself. All our efforts were foiled by deep water, even though we were able to (incredibly) actually walk upon the thick mats of aquatic vegetation that kept us from sinking too deep into the mire.
A cottonmouth that lay coiled up on some of the floating vegetation took us both by surprise. Richard happened to be ahead of me, and he leaped back with a yell, losing his footing in the process and thus getting pretty well soaked. My turn came a little later, when I stepped off into the muddy water during one of our many attempts to cross the slough, and found myself in the deep channel; I would have probably gone under, if not for Richard's outstretched hand. The dunking ruined my cell phone, and I believe my camera as well; it is still drying out, but I fear it may be done for.
Eventually we found ourselves back where we started, on the wrong side of the slough from the road. The slough, instead of running in a straight line as I had imagined, makes its own reverse-C that shadows Hutson Lake to the south-east, forcing us in a long loop back into familiar woods on the south end of Hutson. So, exhausted, pressed for time, and already completely soaked, we simply waded through the chest-deep brown water to the other side, and emptied out our boots. Again. A couple of hundred yards up the road, we dumped our waterlogged equipment into the bed of the truck and left.
Conclusions: You can't cheat the Swamp, pilgrim. And Richard's binoculars appear to have a liquid carrying capacity of about 1.25 cups.
We found what I believe to be a hog rubbing on a tree, which had the telltale coating of dirt; a sweet gum which showed heavy scaling near the base, which I believe to have been the work of a bear; many beaver-gnawed boles in the vicinity of the lake; and a sweet gum with healed scaling higher up, which I could not get a very good look at. No kents, double-knocks, or interesting cavities. Just a possum, and a cottonmouth, and more spiders than in all of Mirkwood.
(Hat tip to Richard for his contribution to this post's title.)
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