Fri, May 20 2011 - (HAT): Jones Bridge: (H)ike (A)nd (T)rivia (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Jimmy, Laura Participants: Bill S, Mollie Taylor, Nora, Melanie, Jim, Dana B, Pepsi L, Chris H, Gary Hubert, Jimmy, Laura, Scott, Laura C, Linda, Sharon

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Write Up:
A sunny Friday evening settled in on us as we gathered at Jones Bridge (CRNRA) for a much needed after work hike. After our prefatorial introductions and overview of the planned route, Laura took off at her customary blistering D2 pace and came to an abrupt stop. She had finally encountered and seen a snake on hike. Once we were done waiting for our friendly neighborhood Copperhead to mosey its way across the left half of the path (it was by no means in a hurry), our journey resumed.

As we walked the outskirts of the park, we enjoyed further, less dangerous, animal encounters including two white tailed deer (a fixture at Jones Bridge), a hawk (likely the red shouldered variety), ground squirrels too numerous to count, and one of the resident herons as it posed for us on the opposite bank. A grand time was had by all and we welcomed two members, Linda and Melanie, to their first hikes.

Post-hike we had the largest gathering (14 AOC members -- 2 joined us just for the trivia) yet for the optional Trivia portion of the event. Mired in a tight battle up until the final question, we were unable to finish in the top three, but walked away with a greater understanding of the world (Dairy Queen outnumbers Baskin Robbins, there's a Grammy Hall of Fame, and Jim knows a lot about obscure 4-year college and university locations).

Thank you Chris for doing the write up and thank you Scott for providing the photo album.
-- Jimmy :)

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