In early May 2007, Karen Schik and Tom Lewanski, Friends of the Mississippi River’s core land conservation team, went to the Sand Coulee near Hastings to meet with a herpetologist (lizard and amphibian expert) who would be conducting a “herp survey” in the coulee later in the month.

Karen continues with the story:

Now, Tom and I have been working at the coulee for about five years. Never had either of us seen so much as a garter snake. Jeff McClere (pictured) shows up. Jeff works for the DNR doing herpetological surveys. We start to walk down the trail. We’ve been in the coulee a total of about two and a half minutes when Jeff happens to turn around, then takes off running. At that point I realized the “stick” back down the path is not a stick. Check out this handsome bull snake — He’s about 4 to 5 years old. They get much larger.