030825

One year in the mid-60s in Central Virginia there was a drought. The ittle creek below our house dried up and left a series of isolated pools of water no more than an inch or so deep, sitting on damp sediment like spilled milk on a washcloth. My best friend Darrell and I hiked down the creek and found box turtles, evidently drawn to the pebbly creek bed because it was the only place they could find water. We picked up all the ones we found, seven of them, which is about all we could carry. We took them to my house, put them on the ground by the front porch and took pictures of them with my Brownie camera. Then, we let them go. Did we carry them back down to the creek bed? I am ashamed to say that we did not. We left them to fend for themselves. looking back on the whole thing, I'm a little worried about them. I hope they made it to the water. I never saw them dead, so perhaps they made that incredible journey successfully (~1000 ft; 305 m).