Due to the high elevation and thin atmosphere we had several cases of High-Altitude Herping Sickness (HAHS) which resulted in some unusual behavior from certain VHS members. The first person to show symptoms of this sickness was Jason, who without warning fell to the ground and giggled intensely. All efforts to stop Jason from giggling failed, including Paul's attempt to knock him out with a swift kick to the head. The decision was made to let Jason alone and perhaps at some point he would giggle himself out.

Next we had Mike who is normally one of our most well-mannered, highly sophisticated and refined members suffer the effects of (HAHS). At first Mike's symptoms where somewhat mild and were manifested as confusion on how to properly use/hold a snake hook. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning for Mike.

Susan had a similar snake hook problem. She lost her snake hook on Saturday morning and was still searching for it as everyone left on Sunday afternoon. If anyone finds Susan's hook please let her know.

Mike's condition worsened and by mid-morning he declared himself "Mushroom Mike - King of all Pinesnakes" and commenced eating handful after handful of any and all mushrooms he could find. This concerned us greatly as many native mushroom are poisonous. Much to our delight only some of the mushrooms his Majesty consumed appeared to be moderately toxic. As a result the Pinesnake King spent much of this survey perched upon his throne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some 10 hours after getting the HAHS giggles, Jason remained on the forest floor giggling. Paul seem sure that all Jason needed to snap him out of his giggle loop were additional kicks to the head. After several right-footed kicks, Paul decided that he was using the wrong foot and then gave Jason three left-footed skull kicks. That seemed to do the trick and Jason sprung back to normal (Well, normal for Jason anyway).

The 2008 HerpBlitz Crew