M-fing snakes on a m-fing bog board

Crazy story of the state: Going into Great Barrington, MA, there’s about 100 feet of bog bridges (floating boards 6 inches wide used to help hikers not walk in a pond/swamp) right before the road. When I got to the bog boards, I discovered a snake sunning itself right on my “trail.” Normally, I go around the trail when I see a snake–but I couldn’t do that here because the only thing “around” the trail was the swamp (which was filled with more snakes). I pulled out a long reed and threw it towards the snake, and it finally slithered back into the water.
I thought I was home free, until I noticed yet another snake on the end of the board. I used another long water weed to move it off. In the end, I had to chase of 5 water snakes in 30 feet of trail. Every time they slithered off into the water, I ran across the board, hoping that it wouldn’t leap out of the water and get me.

I ran after I hit solid ground and when I got to the road, a car had stopped and asked me if I was all right. “I saw you running. Are you hurt?” the guy inside the truck said.

“Nope, just saw a bunch of snakes,” I said nonchalantly (though, really, my heart was beating super fast).

Snorkels don’t like Slitherers.
Hung out at the doll shop with Sensei and Windscreen–two hikers I’d been hoping to catch up with. We ended up hiking together, along with Hermes (who had just finished the CT state challenge)and getting super drenched in sweat. When the sky turned all dark and apocalyptic, , at first, we were concerned about the rain, but then realized we were soaking wet already. The darkness was weird, though, it hit all of a sudden. At 3 pm, it was as dark as it gets at 9… Also, weirdly lost my watch today.