Martin: Daniel celebrating his 17th birthday early before we leave at my sister-in-law's. His actual birthday is the day we arrive in Spain. Going to see if the airline will spring a birthday surprise.
Me: This morning Bob, Anna & I hiked to Windgate Pass. 7.5 mile round trip hike in north Scottsdale.
3 miles into our hike Anna screamed and jumped on top of me. A King Snake (black and white rings) was crossing the trail and we all nearly stepped on it. We saw it slither away (no photo).
A quarter mile further, I screamed and jumped on Bob. A Patchnose snake (small & thin snake with a stripe down his back) crossed the path (no photo). Just glad it wasn't a Rattlesnake!
Then Bob screamed when he nearly stepped on this… A Rattlesnake! Bob's foot was 3 inches from this Speckled Rattlesnake. Ugh! :-( Even when Bob tried to point him out to Anna & I we couldn't see him right away. His camouflage was scary good. At this point we were all beside ourselves & hardly wanted to hike any further (but we did). BTW - a hiker came by when we were looking at the Rattlesnake and guided him off the trail with a stick. :-/
We made it to the top of Windgate Pass & ate our snacks (while we talked snakes).
On our hike down we were extremely cautious, constantly looking at the trail for snakes.
A half mile down a hiker pointed out this Sonoran Gopher Snake on the side of the trail. Yet another YIKES! I HATE snakes (so does Anna). Bob is not so fond either - though he said Rattlesnakes are the only ones he doesn't like. Hmmm.
Near the end of our trek we see…yep…a snake! This time a Coachwhip snake which is small & skinny. UGH. On a positive note: Isn't this a picture perfect cactus!?! :-)
Today we saw FIVE snakes in 7.5 miles. An average of 1 snake per 1.5 miles. That's a record & one record that I do not want to break in the future.
I HATE SNAKES....good thing I wasn't with you guys today. You really know your snakes...I don't know one from another....boy 1 snake for 1.5 miles...don't try and break this record!
ReplyDeleteMartin - Birthday surprise in Spain would be great!
It was really crazy, Karen! We are generally not concerned when hiking but after seeing the first two on the trail we started freaking out a bit. Especially since the Rattlesnake was so difficult to see. YIKES! We were lucky Bob didn't step on him and get bit. We knew 3 of the snakes but looked up on-line the two smaller ones to find out what they were. Interesting.
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