To paraphrase Samuel L Jackson in Snakes on a Plane -

"I have had it with these *&^%$#@ snakes on this *&^%$#@ trail!"

This morning's easy 4+ miles on trails in the Tonto National Shrubbery was interrupted briefly by Don Diamondback, who wanted to get in his comments about runners using HIS trail. But it seems that he was still a mite sleepy or cold, as he wasn't bothering to coil up or even rattle - he just laid there, sticking his tongue out at me.

The number of rattles indicates that this is a mature specimen of the species, but sticking out his tongue like that indicates that there's some arrested psychological development, in my learned opinion.

But that's all right with me. It's not like I'm going to send him to a therapist - I just wanted to get my miles in. I stood there and explained to Mr. Rattlesnake that, although he has fangs, I have oppossable thumbs - thus I'm not limited to a striking range that is half my length. I could head back to the house and rain down ICBMs on his scaly behind.

He wasn't impressed. He seemed to be of the opinion that "I'm a rattlesnake. Since you see that I'm a rattlesnake, I know that you'll back down first. All creatures avoid me once they know I'm here. You will too."

And the truth be told - he was right. I decided to walk around him, rather than wait for him to back up, as I realized that his attitude was so inflexible that we would sit there playing North Going Zax and South Going Zax until the cows came home.(Being married has many advantages. One of them is the ability to recognize, quickly and efficiently, when one has arrived at a stalemate - and, believe me, my mate can get staler than any of them when she wants to : )

I did my trot out into the desert, stopping just short of Chinaman's Hat, and enjoyed the run thoroughly. However, I have to admit that I saw quite a few cornersnakes during the next few miles (cornersnakes are the snakes that you see out of the corner of your eye right after you've seen a real rattlesnake. Roots, sticks, and wavy shadows can all turn into cornersnakes :)

But when I got back to the snake-spot, I was quite surprised to see his track, plain as day, across the trail:



...you can see it starting by the large rock in the upper left part of the picture; that's the rock that was beside Mr. Snakums when he stopped to debate property rights with me.

After seeing that, I found myself looking for snake tracks all the way back to the car. My Native American chromosomes were just tingling at the prospect of being able to track rattlesnakes - hey, if things get tough, I can always go make myself a snake sandwhiches (they taste just like chicken!)