Two more cottonmouths came in close succession - a big adult on the road, and another snake up against the bluffs only seen by me, as the rest of the gang were on the road marveling at the big Moccasin, thick-bodied and over a yard in length.  Not the biggest I've seen here, but a good-sized one nonetheless.

You know you're dialed in when you can spot a Green Snake in the grass, and that's just what Jeff did.  A juvenile at that, eight inches in length at the most, in the green grass alongside the road.  Usually Green Snakes are spotted against a contrasting background - spotting one amongst the green is a heckuva find.

Dwarf American Toads are an occasional find along the road, and this day we found the largest specimen I've seen, and darker than most.  Usually Dwarfies seen here are golfball-sized or slightly larger, with a nice reddish-orange dorsal color.

As the weather turned a bit colder and a light drizzle began to fall, we searched the area around the spring, which usually yields a basking snake or two, but all we managed to turn up were several Green Treefrogs among the willows and swamp maples.  With a little careful searching one can usually discover a few of these green gems in the vegetation over the water's edge.

We turned around at the spring and hiked back as the light dimmed and the temperature began to fall. We took a side trip to visit a small concentration of Cave Salamanders; no trip here would be complete without checking up on these beautiful creatures in their rocky enclave.

Doug and Daniel had to head back home and bid us farewell. Tomorrow would be a full day's herping.  We headed into town for dinner, and on the way we rescued an adult Black Rat Snake off the road.  That gave us something to talk about when we hooked back up with everyone at Pizza Hut.  Jim, Laura and Austin were moteling it, so the campers in the party bid them good night and headed for the campground, where we hooked up with late arrivals Glen and Stacey.  It should be noted that campfire music was provided by the Shawnee Mountain Trio - Tracey on recorder, and Marty and Stacey trading off on the ukelele.  Life is good, as they say...