SNAKES ALIVE!

After a long hiatus from geocaching, the GeoKidz and I finally had a chance to jump back into our favorite game/sport/obsession this weekend! Saturday, we attended the monthly meeting of the Georgia Geocacher’s Association, which was held this month at Little Mulberry Park in Dacula.

The feature presentation this month was given by Dr. Mark Patterson of the Georgia herpetological Society, with assistance from his slithery friends, the snakes.  Not just any snakes, mind you… but snakes that are native to and prevelent in our backyards (literally) here in Gwinnett and Walton counties.  He brought out some really beautiful critters, such as the black rat snake, the red rat snake (a/k/a “corn snakes”), the pine snake and even a small copperhead. (Don’t worry, the copperhead was kept in a sturdy plexiglass box the entire time!)

Photo Courtesy of The Georgia Geocacher's Association (www.ggaonline.org)

Dr. Patterson provided a wealth of information about these species.  He discussed their habitats, what they feed on (mostly rats and mice, so they are actually good to have around. Since we now live in a very old farmhouse in a big ole meadow… I’m good with that. 😉 ), and what to do if you encounter a snake (screaming and running may be understandable, but unless it’s venomous, don’t kill it!).  Did you know that one lone rat snake can curtail the rat/mouse population in its immediate area by over 19,000 rodents a year???? Before you aim that gun, think of all 19,000 of those mice moving into your home in the absence of their crowd-controlling predator!

Dr. Patterson also discussed what to do if you are bitten by a venomous snake.  First, don’t panic and run.  Panicking and running will increase your heart rate and your adrenaline production – both of which will only serve to speed up the spread of the venom throughout your body. Definitely not what you want to happen!  Call 911 and do your best to stay calm.  Do not apply a tourniquet, and do not do the old “cutting into the wound and sucking out the poison” routine you’ve heard about your whole life.  All that does is make you bleed more and introduce a whole slew of new germs into your wound, greatly increasing your chances of infection.

The good news, according to Dr. Patterson, is that an extremely small number of people actually die each year from snake bits.  I cannot recall the exact statistics, but the number is actually quite miniscule.  So, the good news is that if you get bit, chances are you will make it just fine, so long as you seek prompt medical attention.  Folks who have a much higher risk of complications from snake bites are the very young, the very old, and people with fragile immune systems.  (Side note to any EMS folks out there…feel free to chime in on this in the comments and correct, add to, or otherwise expound on this info. You know WAY more than I do about this stuff!!!)

All in all, it was a fantastic meeting.  The GeoKidz and I had a great time.  We also kicked butt in the raffle following the snake presentation. GeoKid2 won a key chain for his collection, and I won a nifty little tote bag with the Georgia Geocacher’s Association logo on the front.  We also met many other geocachers, some of whom we’ve “met” online discussing caches and events, but never in person.

After the meeting, the GeoKids and I went out in search of geocaches.  It’s been too many months since we’d done so, and were just itching to get back into it. 🙂 We found one on Saturday, and then three on Sunday afternoon… including that pesky one hidden at the Oasis Bowling alley that we’ve searched for over the course of at least six months! And yes…we’d walked right past it a trillion times and somehow missed it. Till yesterday! Ha!

Sunday afternoon, we also went to Tribble Mill Park, which is a veritable gold mine of geocaches. We finished finding the last two of a series of caches honoring John Wayne: The Good (which we found on 01/02/11), The Bad, and The Ugly.  The kids really enjoyed searching these out.  As we walked back to the car, my eight-year-old GeoKid said very seriously, “I love nature.  It’s all beautiful and stuff!”

And that’s what it’s all about. 🙂

Happy hunting, everyone!