The next morning was again a bit chilly, although clear and sunny. We had no specific destination today, and had time for a camp breakfast while things warmed up a bit. Our plan today was to drive around looking for suitable habitat - old houses, junk piles and the like. Not much of a plan - we'd prefer to have something more specific to tackle and not waste time driving around.

Eventually we found an interesting road that dipped down into an area of rocky bluffs. On the way we rescued three Eastern Box Turtles off the road, which always leaves me with a good feeling. Without us happening by, it could be the next car that runs over the turtle. All three were nice looking, and one I'd place in the 'gorgeous' category, despite a severely scarred hind end. Box turtles can endure some significant injuries and keep going.

We poked around the bluffs, a gorgeous area which looked like a very good spot for things like Rat Snakes and Copperheads, but could only turn up a few Dusky Salamanders. The cool overnight temperatures were keeping the reptiles under cover or under ground.

In the end we re-visited our streamside boardline, but did not turn up anything aside from some Ringnecks, along with some Longtails and Dusky Salamanders along the creek. I did manage to get a photograph of a Zebra Swallowtail, which I had never been able to do before - these butterflies rarely sit still for long. We checked the power cut again - the garter snakes were still there, but nothing new had moved in.

Without much success under our belts this day, we headed back to the campground for our last night there. Before I whipped up another camp stove dinner, we decided to make a beer run up the highway, which, aside from the beer, turned out to be a very good idea. We spotted a small pile of trash near an old foundation, kind of half-hidden from the road, and stopped to have a look.  We lifted a heavy section of plywood, and underneath were two snakes, an Eastern Milk Snake, and a Black King. The Milk was opaque, unfortunately, but the young adult King was quite handsome.

All this, and beer too! I commented on how our last-minute success changed the whole tone of the day, and raised our spirits.

It was too dark for getting good photos, so these two snakes would spend the night in our campground and get returned home the following morning.