It was a snake all right and I did a lot of screeching and jumping around. My wife stuck her hand in the hole first but couldn't reach far enough. I knew the cache was in there so I reached further. I felt something hard, and something soft. I pulled out the something soft. Snakes don't bother my wife and I once sat on a hot tin roof in underwear for two hours watching a snake down below me so that when my wife got home from work she could transport it 10 miles away. I sent a picture of the snake to the cache owner and he said it was a Eastern Smooth Earth snake (Virginia Valeriae) which is very rare and very harmless. I don't consider something that can cause a heart attack without venom harmless though.