The Cottonmouth juggernaut kept rolling on. Along the banks of the ditch, every few feet we spotted another snake, out basking in the afternoon sun. Some were out in the open, and others were half-tucked under rocks, logs, or the bank itself. We continued counting, and it became a game of sorts - how many would we see? How many could we see?

Jim made a side foray along a smaller ditch and came up with a sub-adult Broadband, which he ended up going into the ditch after. It was the largest Nerodia of the day, and a nice looking snake. Where, we wondered, were all the adult water snakes? Surely we would have seen a few today.

We had reached the spot where the deep woods closed in over the ditch, and with the low light of the afternoon, decided to head back the other way. While waiting for Jim to return his confluens, Jeff and I watched Moccasin Number Fifty cross the road a few feet away.

Getting back to where we parked, we spent the remaining hour of light poking around the banks of the Mingo River, and turned up more Cottonmouths along the way. As before they were tucked in little open spots, grabbing as much of the fading sun as possible.

We found and photographed two trapjaws hidden in thick vegetation along the bank. As I sat nearby, with my feet dangling over the edge, a large, heavy-bodied black snake came boiling out of the bank to my left, and crossed right over my feet, slipping into water. Needless to say I was startled!  Too late I jumped to my feet, uttering a string of language to make a sailor blush. Of course, after it had passed over my shoes I realized it was an adult Yellowbellied Water Snake and not a Cottonmouth.  Jeff and Jim had a good chuckle at my expense, at any rate.

Sundown was coming and it was time for us to think about moving on and catching some supper. On the way out of the refuge we stopped to rescue one more neonate Broadband out on the blacktop. Our day was then complete, and our Cottonmouth tally stood at fifty seven. Had we gotten an earlier start, and not wasted an hour or so looking for a campsite, our total might have been a lot higher, but hey, we had no complaints, really.