Trail Heaven
This morning, I managed 8 trail miles in the McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve:
This is the view from the Gateway Loop Saddle south into the mountain range.
It is beautiful - a very nice set of trails, well maintained and organized, with signs at every intersection telling you the way to all the other trail intersections in all directions, how far away it is, and sometimes what elevation that intersection will be at.
I have every intention of doing a lot more runs up in this huge park - some of the trails go all the way over the mountains to the McDowell Mountain Park on the Foutain Hills side, which is where the Pemberton 50K takes place. (I was dumb enough to do this run back in 2007) and that should certainly do for long-run fodder - up and over Bell Mountain Pass.
This morning, I ran into - well, actually, I hopped over - this little guy:
This actually is a diamondback - a small one, about two feet long - but for some reason he wasn't rattling. Maybe it's because he was all spread out - since he wasn't coiled up, and couldn't strike, maybe he didn't want to advertise his presence. (Actually, I coudn't even SEE any rattles. I wonder if he lost 'em?)
Seeing of of these guys causes you to see cornersnakes for the rest of the run - "cornersnakes" are those roots, sticks, or exposed rocks that look like snakes out of the corner of your eye.
I'll be back up here, but I don't know when - this morning's 8 miles felt like 12, because there were a LOT of hills (I reckon the "McDowell Mountain" in the name should have clued me in on that) and I just did 15 dreadmiles on Saturday, during which I did 4 hill repeats at 10% grade of a half-mile each, with half-mile rests. So running this today was ill-advised.
But fun!
Are you sure that's not a bull snake? We had a resident one on our old property, so I got to know their markings pretty well. The one you saw sure reminds me of this - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/midwinter-az/DSCN0327.jpg
I've seen teeny tiny diamondbacks before and even the ones under a foot long have the strong black & white bands on their tails, and a couple of nascent rattles. I'm no herpetologist, of course - just an armchair observer :)
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I've heard people refer to these as bull snakes. I would have classified it as a Sonoran Gopher Snake. But it's definitely not a rattler... if you zoom in on the head, it lacks the characteristic triangular shape of a viper's head.
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Funny - that's what I thought, and that's also what Kristi said. But an Arizonan told me that that was a picture of a diamondback : )
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The view is pretty....not so crazy about the snake! Dave does want to keep ugleebabee but he needs some help because he's still having trouble posting. Any suggestions?
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