In 2025, our annual camping trip had been moved from Hurricane campground (where we have been going for over 40 years) to Stony Fork campground because a recent hurricane had damaged Hurricane campground to the point they had to close it in order to do some rebuilding.
The weekend was good! Great friends reuniting for the first time in a year. Continuing the tradition of more than 40 years of coming together in late July for a long weekend of relaxing, catching up and just being together.
2025 was a good group. Ben, Kevin, Mark, Jim, Mike and Sharon and Allan and Anne, and my daughter Jody and I.
Jody and I traveled together and shared a campsite. As we were breaking camp on July 27th, Jody had started taking down my tent. All of a sudden she said “Ouch! Ouch! I hope that was a wasp!” as she hopped on one foot over to the picnic table. She brought her leg up across her knee. As I was walking toward her I said “please be only one mark.” When I got to her I clearly saw the telltale two marks of a snake bite. I said, “That’s a snake bite, you get in the car, I’ll get a picture.” I took a couple of pictures because the snake was still in the folds of my tent. (FYI a picture is great but medical professionals really need a picture of the head to positively identify the type of snake)
I drove to the campground host’s site, knocked on her camper door (woke her up) and told her we had a snake bite. I showed her the picture, she confidently said, “That’s a copperhead.” I asked where the hospital was, she told me and we were off.
It was too early for church and the roads were clear. Luckily, the hospital was only about 15 minutes away. Within 15 minutes of the snake bite, we were in the hospital. As we were driving and tears were streaming down my daughter’s cheeks, she said, “You should probably call dad.” Once we were at the hospital and settled into the waiting room, I called Jim(my ex. who was also on the camping trip) but his phone was turned off-he was on vacation. So I left a message. I called my buddy Ben, (whose wife was in touch with him) hoping his phone was on. I got his voicemail. So I left Ben a message. I probably called both of them a second time and again left messages; “Jody had been bitten by a copperhead, we’re at the hospital.” As we were sitting in the waiting room I received a text from my ex saying “We’re on our way” Jody and I panicked. “We” was a very vague term and Jody didn’t want the whole crew at the hospital, mostly because the jokes would be brutal and she really didn’t want an audience. As it turned out, “we” was just Jim being driven by Kevin.
Because I didn’t have a good picture of the head of the snake the Dr.s were hesitant to positively identify it. Also, this was the first venomous snake bite at this hospital in at least 15 years! I was shocked that the doctors really didn’t know much about snake bites. (or venomous snake identification) The only one there who seemed to know anything about snakes was a tech who was terrified of them. It turned out that the hospital didn’t have any copperhead anti-venom on hand. They did however have rattle snake anti-venom.
They observed my daughter for five hours before deciding to give her the rattlesnake anti-venom. This meant an overnight stay. The doctor explained the difference between copperhead and rattlesnake anti-venoms. He said it was like using a wrench that fit the nut exactly or using an adjustable wrench. Having grown up in a hardware store, this explanation made perfect sense to me. The standard dose of anti-venom is 10 vials (at some ridiculous cost per vial.) What they do is give you a little anti-venom and observe you to see if you have a reaction. If you don’t react, they give you the remainder of the dose-but still observe you.
When Jim, and Kevin arrived at the hospital I asked Jim if he was good to stay so I could go finish breaking camp. He was. I returned to the campground. Kevin asked if I wanted some help and I gladly accepted. I had a feeling the snake was still there and sure enough he was. Kevin came to the site armed with a full size axe. We found the snake in the folds of the tent and long story short, the snake will never bite another person.
Jody was off work for two weeks (she actually was working from home) and then had scheduled a week of vacation. After her three weeks away from work she returned. The guys in the office had gotten her a plant. Not a snake plant because she already had one of those, but a plant with a 3-d printed snake alongside it! They were afraid she wouldn’t take it well but she took it in stride (even if she was still limping a little)
We were back at Hurricane Campground in 2026 for our camping trip and I’m happy to say we had no interactions with any kind of wildlife this year. Jody however still has pain in her ankle if she spends too much time on her feet.
