The Easter Egg: Hike with Chris at Silver Lake County Park

The Saturday before Easter I met Chris for a short hike at Silver Lake County Park. We'd been to the park before, but in winter when it was snow covered. Now it was awakening with spring. And if it wasn't fully awake, it became so once it saw Chris in his colorful glory. On seeing his purple and pink attire, I told him "You look like an Easter Egg" and people around us broke out laughing in agreement. 

The hike was a couple of miles, from the parking area to the Visitor's Center, along the marshy edge of the lake over boardwalk and on drier, firmer trails. Its a little refuge of green amid the sprawl of Bristol and Levittown. 

My friend Chris, who was a Boy Scout before he grew to looking like he ate a Boy Scout, was in talkative form. With me that's his usual state. I didn't expect his Doctor Doolittle routine with the fauna at Silver Lake. Here he's trying to lure a Canada Goose into a discussion on goodness knows what. The goose isn't silly and isn't buying the come-on. 

Then there was the snake. Chris is amazing agile for a man his size, and when he spotted a small garter slithering in the grass he had to grab it.

Chris claims he was taking the creature's photograph. I maintain Chris was hungry and was using the mobile app for My Fitness Pal to look up the calorie content. Finding it too low, he set the creature free. We had lunch afterward at a local diner without a snake to spoil his appetite.