By Fletcher Scott

I can still vividly remember an encounter I had with a venomous reptile back in my college days. I was felling an ash tree in a bottom along a creek. Chainsaw in hand, I walked around the tree, looking up and down the trunk for obvious signs of leaning one way or the other in order to determine where to drop it. Finally, I cranked my saw and started cutting. No sooner had the sawdust begun to fly when I noticed a movement between my feet. I immediately recognized the snake, which was half covered with sawdust and laying only inches from my hands and feet. I quickly stepped back to observe a large copperhead, coiled up and perfectly camouflaged beside the tree. How I managed to avoid stepping on it is a miracle. It certainly had an opportunity to bite, but didn’t. I’ve had several similar encounters since then. All this goes to reaffirm what I already believed about snakes, and that is, you walk past more than you realize.