Revisiting Clear Creek

The news is all about how it's going to be cloudy during the eclipse. Apparently the clouds are going to stretch the entire length of totality across the North American continent. This morning it was clear and warm.

Joann and Joy returned late the previous night. They started driving back from Iowa at 12:30 that afternoon and drove without stopping. I didn't hear them arrive.

I learned that Mike and Joann gave up their bedroom for us. They were sleeping in the living room on fold-out couches and mattresses while Curtis had one room, Joy had their bedroom, and Amanda and I were in the guest room.

Since Mike was sleeping in the living room and Joy and Joann got back late, we were the only ones up. I spent my time working on the computer while Amanda went out to look at birds.

When people finally got up, Joy, Amanda, Joann and I went on a walk to the Clear creek nature reserve. Along the way we saw a striped green snake (it may have been this) along the road that jumped into the bushes before we could catch it.

Along the trail we heard some heavy grunting in the bushes like a stag or a wild boar, and the bushes were moving as if stirred by some large creature, but we never caught a glimpse of what it was.

We were passed by a group of young women, and they asked if we wanted to see a snake because there was one just a ways back on the trail. Yes, was the answer, we were very interested to see a snake. One of the women said they were throwing little sticks at it to make it go off the trail.

A cottonmouth (water moccasin) was sitting in the leaf litter beside the trail. It had a viper's short fat body and a broad head. It seemed perfect unconcerned about me leaning in to take some close up pictures.

While watching the snake crawl off into the weeds, Amanda heard what she thought was an owl, and we turned back to try to catch up with it. We never found the source of the bird calls and ended up making the loop and returning home.

That evening we discussed our plans for viewing the total eclipse. Mike's warnings about bad traffic and the news of counties declaring states of emergency had us anticipating something out of mad max. We decided to get up at 6am and drive as far East as we could before the event. Everyone went to bed early.