<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Maya(1).jpg" style="width: 125px; height: 180px; float: right;" />My name is Maya, and once upon a time... I wasn&rsquo;t at Au Sable. Like most people my age, I was busy being a student and had a mountain of work to get through. For the better part of my last two years at college, I spent my life curled up in the science building trying to make sense of chemistry or genetics. My time playing outside was limited to labs or when I was recruited to help set minnow traps&hellip;. or during moments of rebellion when outside influence overruled my duty to schoolwork.&nbsp; In short, I was not afforded much outside/nature time.</p>
<p>
	Then I graduated and took yet another class; Herpetology. Here we learned about many interesting critters, one of which was the hognose snake.&nbsp; These are super cool beasts that allegedly puff at you and flatten their necks to look scary, sometimes even faking an elaborate death complete with lots of feces and twitching (I do not condone provoking them to this point!). Sadly, we never found a hognose in herpetology and it seems that I have been too busy since to spend much time looking for one, but now that I am at Au Sable this may change.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Sign.jpg" style="float: left; width: 200px; height: 150px;" />You see, for the first time in a very long while I have found time to be alone in the woods. No homework hanging over my head. No campers running away from me (I spent the summer working at a camp geared towards improving social skills in troubled adolescents). To make life better, Au Sable is located on a lake and has access to a really snazzy library, and this is where I learned that hognose snakes are native to Michigan! Without hesitation, I made it my goal to find one of these guys.</p>
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	Training week commenced and we learned all about environmental education, how to teach, and had a crash course in the material we would have to instruct. Soon, we were teaching swarms of third graders and having a blast doing so, but our workday typically ended in early afternoon, thus leaving the rest of my evenings to accomplish Operation Hognose.&nbsp; My quest has taken me all over Au Sable&rsquo;s property, high and low &ndash; up in trees and under logs, even out on the North Country trail. &nbsp;It had even leaked into the field trips we took during our training.</p>
<p>
	Regrettably, this epic hunt has yet to yield a hognose.&nbsp; Although, I did see a stuffed one in a visitor center&mdash;and pointed it out excitedly to a random lady next to me (she was less than enthusiastic). &nbsp;Sadly, as the days grow colder, it seems like this nifty reptilian will elude me. However, in my roving&rsquo;s I&rsquo;ve gotten to spend a lot of much needed time outside and have stumbled upon many other amazing things besides Hognose Snakes.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Michigan Nancy.jpg" style="float: right; width: 100px; height: 75px;" />Aside from a tremendous amount of breath-taking scenery, I&rsquo;ve found plenty of garter, water, and ribbon snakes, as well as redback salamanders.&nbsp; We also found a spotted salamander crossing the road and dubbed it Michigan Nancy.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Spider.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 113px; float: left;" />While admittedly snakes are my favorite, there have been many other exciting beasts popping up here and there.&nbsp; Within my first week, I found these two beautiful shiny black spiders that had reddish dotted markings on their abdomens...my research tells me that they were probably a variation of black widow (in retrospect, poking/holding them may have been unwise &ndash; lesson learned).&nbsp; And here is a picture (on left) of a creepy-huge guy that launched itself out from a hole in a log&hellip;terrifying.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Cecropia.jpg" style="float: right; width: 150px; height: 113px;" />Other highlights include turning over a log only to discover a large praying mantis millimeters away from being squished by my fingers. I had never seen one in the wild before, so, that was incredibly exciting&hellip; And here is another fun critter (on right), the <em>Hyalophora cecropia</em> caterpillar, which will one day become a mega-big cecropia moth.</p>
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	Of course this is just a fraction of the things that I&rsquo;ve stumbled upon in my wanderings!&nbsp; Even though my quest for a hognose lingers on, I have gotten to see so many other amazing sights that for now I&rsquo;m content in not completing Operation Hognose. It&rsquo;s been incredibly satisfying to just be able to disappear in the woods without the guilt of looming homework.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Turtle.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 75px; float: right;" />Oh &ndash; I almost forgot! Here&rsquo;s a picture of some painted turtles (on right). I like to chat with them&hellip;usually it&rsquo;s a pretty one-sided conversation.</p>
