Pictures of Floating Caterpillars

When we were going to walk around the lake this weekend, we nearly ran into a caterpillar "floating in the air." We watched it for several minutes, and it constantly did this curious back and forth twisting motion. You can only imagine my extreme delight when I discovered that it was actually climbing up a silk thread (I don't know if it's actually silk, but it looked very much like it) and it was rolling it into a ball as it was going!!! Oh so amazing I'm not sure if I got any pictures good enough to capture the ball, but here are some (of a few different caterpillars.) There was a HUGE caterpillar colony in the general area. Amazing.

This guy was being let down by another caterpillar about 7 ft. above him. You see some steps in the background. And though I'm sure there are caterpillars in these last pictures, they are clearly not the subject... this is part of the trail around the lake--one of my favorite parts of it, and also a small view of the lake. I'm thinking, maybe a good fishing spot? I may try it out in the morning...