04 April 2014
Seminole Canyon State Park to Del Rio, TX
43 miles (Total Miles = 1,273)

Let’s talk about our snake count, since I know that’s a topic my mother will love (sorry Mom) and one that has to be discussed when in snake country (can’t bury our heads in the sand). But before we reveal the actual count, let’s harken back to about two weeks ago when touring the Gila National Monument, where we were informed that the snakes start coming out of hibernation in late March. Um, excuse me Mr. Ranger but it’s already the 23rd of March so how much later can it get and was that a rattle I heard behind your left heel? So the stage is now set – it’s snake time, people.

Okay, so the count. It’s really not all that bad, when you factor in the number of days that have passed (10’ish) since the nasty buggers started coming out of their holes or nests or dens or whatever creepy places they call home that they really should just stay in all year round if the world was truly a happy place. The count is 2. That’s only 1 snake sighting every 5 days, which adds up to way too many sightings over the next 31 days. But there is a silver lining – one of the sighted snakes was dead. (Snake lovers are welcome to read someone else’s blog.)

As for the other sighting? Today was the lucky day. Gina, ahead of me on a sweeping downhill, startled the serpent from his sunny spot along the highway shoulder, leaving me with the pleasure of watching its 2-foot-plus long body slither away, all the while yelling “snake snake snake ergh ugh ack” because that’ll scare ’em off too. Good thing he headed for the grass instead of the double yellow or there would have been a lot more yelling as I rolled on through and none of it would have been fit for print. Instead, all I could have talked about today was how we spent the morning on a ranger-led hike in Seminole Canyon, biked to Del Rio, treated ourselves to WalMart and Dairy Queen, and then checked into the Best Western with Candy for the evening. Tonight we are tent, sand and snake-free. Although my dreams might now not be.