Friday, May 21, 2021

A Surprise While Hiking

Yesterday, on what felt like a perfect day in terms of the weather, my son and I went for a short and easy hike. He has an ongoing knee injury, and has been trying to recover from the latest time that he re-aggravated it, which was last month. So while we have not been doing very tough or rugged, challenging hikes, we still try and get to the woods for some fresh air, exercise, and to reconnect with the natural world, and get a bit of peace and quiet.

It was a perfect day, weatherwise. Pleasantly warm during the day, but with a slight breeze to cool you off. The evenings are a bit cool, which is how I personally prefer it. The days are neither too warm nor cool, and the evenings and nights are cool, sometimes even bordering on chilly. To me, that is as close to perfection, in terms of the weather, as you can get. Beautiful!

So we went on this hike, and we got a bit of a surprise while hiking with my son yesterday. We were sitting on the rocks where we usually sit, relaxing next to the lake, when my son suddenly asked, "What's that?"

He was looking to something that was moving around in the water maybe twenty to thirty meters from us, and moving more or less in our direction.

As it turns out, it was a snake, swimming in the water, with it's head often poking up above the water. A few years ago, my girlfriend and I went to New Hope, Pennsylvania, and saw a snake swimming in the Delaware River. I could not get my phone out on time to get it on video, which I regretted. Also, I wished that my son was with us to see it.

Well, this time, I managed to get it on video, and he was there to see it. A wonderful surprise, and a privilege, really. Part of the blessing aspect of living in this part of New Jersey, where there are still plenty of woods and greenery, and some wildlife. Every single time that I see a snake or a bear or an eagle or a fox or some other animals that you do not get to see every day, it is a reminder of what a blessing it is to see things that not everybody gets to see. This was the first snake that I saw this year for me, and it was particularly unique to see it swimming in the water, and to get it on camera, to boot.

Below are the links to the Youtube videos that I uploaded them to:


Snake swimming in the water video 1:

https://youtu.be/tdiqKva3I64


Snake swimming in the water video 2:

https://youtu.be/HG554KwJcyc

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