Yesterday in the space of two hours I saw two rattlesnakes while hiking.
It was barely ten A.M. as I scrambled up and over the boulders that huge the shores of my favorite creek/ relaxation destination. I was concentrating more on the super heavy back pack that I had on my shoulders (That was not balanced correctly at all thanks to the inner tubes and bow up air pump that I had shoved half assed into it) when from the nest of stinging nettle and rocks to my immediate left I heard a loud and unmistakable rattle.
The snake was less than five feet away from me making its way under a boulder. Luckily for me and my hiking buddy it really had no interest in us. At this early morning hour I was not even thinking to grab the camera out of my pack and get a picture. That snake sounded angry; I just wanted to get the hell out of his way.
We layed out in the sun for a little bit here at Deep Creek (We decided we were done hiking for the moment after the rattle snake incident) before deciding to hike back up the road and over to Aztec Falls and see if the water was deep enough to swim and float over there.
The hike to Aztec was extremely hot; at least to me. I am such a wuss in the heat. It was 87 degrees and I was dying in the heat. Luckily the hike to Aztec is pretty short; about a mile. We were scrambling over boulders again to the little beach area that sits below the waterfall when lowering myself down a rocky bluff, I jumped down the last little bit and almost landed on a baby rattlesnake. This one didn’t rattle. He was probably to young to have a rattle yet.
That was a little scary, as I almost landed on the poor little guy.
All this rattlesnake shenanigans remind me of a conversation I had with coworkers the other day.
My coworkers were mountain biking over off the Highway 38 a few weeks ago at a very low elevation, at about three thousand feet, near Lock Eleven. The lower altitude means it will be a lot hotter and a lot more rattlesnakes.
My coworkers were telling me how they had come upon two rattlesnakes wrapped up together in the middle of the road and they had no idea why.
Seriously?
Obviously the rattle snakes were making baby rattle snakes.
I told them this.
And seriously my coworker B said
“rattlesnakes have sex?”
I said
“Um yes. Every creature procreates. How do you think baby rattlesnakes are made?”
This was a real conversation I had with adults; seriously.