death X2

this weekend, I spent my time counting rare trees along the blue river in Oklahoma. The activity seems wquite easy when you are stiign at your desk or even when you are driving to the site. when you get to the site, i realized that it was going to be alot more difficult than imagined. these trees grow at the very edge of the river, sometimes 98% of the tree aboveground biomass is located above water. Additionally, there is dense undergrowth all along the rivers edge, a heaven for all things nasty and deadly. So, it was just a matter  of time unitl i stumbled across a fat ass cottenmouth. we were both startled by the sight of another and simultaneously jumped in the air. Unfortunately the snake jumped across the front of my body while showing me her?his wonderfully cotton colored inner mouth. I got away with a minor heart attach but thankfully unbitten. I watched the snake scurry off into its hole at the base of a rock. FUN