Great Hike, Surreal Lunch

The other day I went to the Pound Ridge Reservation for a hike with my grandson. He enjoys finding reptiles and amphibians.  We had to drive as there is no way to take mass transit or walk to the park.

The Pound Ridge Reservation is north of Stamford and the drive will take about 30 minutes. The reservation is a wonderful place to hike. It is big almost 5,000 acres. There are miles of trails. The high point in the reservation is nine hundred feet and Lookout Point is over six hundred feet up with a majestic view to the west.

There is an abundance of wildlife in the reservation. We saw toads, newts, birds, fish and heard frogs on our hike. We also saw signs warning us about bears. Our goal that day was to find the holy grail of creatures a Copperhead snake.

I have been going to the reservation all my life and I have always been told there are copperhead snakes there. Copperhead snakes are venomous. However, if you are bitten by one, they will only make you feel extremely sick I have been told. Anyway, I have never seen one in all my years of going.

This time we were going to Lookout Point. We had a ranger last year told us there are Copperheads at Lookout Point. Our goal was to find a Copperhead.

We went first to the river. There was a class working the river, so we decided to walk to the next bridge, look for turtles, and fish there. On the walk we spotted

toads. Eleven of them to be precise. We get to the bridge and look down on the river. No turtles. I turn to look at the other side and there sunning on the bridge rail is a Copperhead snake. What a beautiful sight. Finally, after all these years we spotted the snake.

We decided to still go to Overlook Point and try our luck there. We also wanted to go the Leatherman’s Cave which is close by to the point.

On the walk to the Point, we spotted two newts. The heavy rain the day before brought the newts out.

Reaching Overlook Point there are a group of young children with counselors there, having lunch.

The counselor comes up to us and says there is a Copperhead snake on the rock. She asks if we want to see it. Of course, we do. There it is again just beautiful. We wanted to have lunch at the bench, but the snake is two feet from the bench.

We move slightly to the right and sit on a rock to eat lunch only seven feet from the snake.

It was so surreal eating lunch and having a poisonous snake so close and just staring at us. Most snakes when they see a human just vanish. This Copperhead just stared at us the entire lunch. My grandson said he will never forget this lunch. Neither will I.

After lunch we head back to our car with a stop at the Leatherman’s Cave. There are beautiful rock outcroppings along the walk.

All together we walked almost five miles with many stops.

I highly recommend the Pound Ridge Reservation. They have three-sided camp buildings that you can stay the night in if you want to explore nature even more.

The trails are mostly in heavy forest. Even with hot temperatures it was pleasant walking on the trails.