Off The Record
‘What A Beast!’ Huge Snake Found By Hiker Near South Carolina Creek
A hiker spotted a big snake in Florence’s Jeffries Creek Park.
If Indiana Jones saw that, he would have sprinted the other way.
Recently, a hiker at Jeffries Creek Park in Florence encountered a quite huge snake.
“This guy was huge!” In a Facebook post she shared with the South Carolina Hiking group, Meredith Langley exclaimed about the snakelike thing she had just seen.
It didn’t escape Langley’s attention how perfectly the snake mixed in with its natural habitat.
“This was a good teaching opportunity and example for my own kids who forget not to run ahead of me on trails!” Langley wrote in her post.
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources biologist Greg Lucas identified it as a brown water snake (Nerodia genus), which is not poisonous.
Lucas noted that the water snakes he described have thick, muscular bodies, making them look larger than they actually are. Water snakes reach their full size between 30 and 60 inches, he said.
Langley said she and her kids encounter copperhead snakes on the weekly hikes they do in the area. She also mentioned that water snakes and water moccasins frequent the region.
When fully extended, the snake Langley witnessed was at least four feet long, according to her estimates. She went on to say that the creature had “wholly unafraid of us.”
“It watched me with stillness and reserve, and without aggression or fear. That told me that this creature knew with certainty that it was capable of defending itself if needed, but it need not exert that energy unnecessarily,” Langley said.
After saying that she was grateful for the opportunity to witness the creature, she sneakily left it in peace.
“That area is its home, not ours, and my children and I maintain that respect and reverence anytime we are out in nature,” Langley said.
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