Snakes

 Brett has a little snake hunting trip he does every year, apparently. This year, Jann wanted to go too. Just to see.

We had to get there early, so the snakes wouldn't be active yet. So we woke up at 4:30, and got to Brett's at 6:00. We met some friends of Brett, and drove to Spencer, and further east, to some private land. Left the cars, and biked in some of the way.

At the end of our bike trip.

Hiking parallel to Rattlesnake Ridge.

East fork Rattlesnake Creek.

At this point, Brett pointed up. We needed to hike to the top.

It took me a while. My back was killing me, so walking was not easy. Climbing was worse. It got steep. They waited.

Brett poked around until rocks started rattling.

Fishing out the first snake.

Brett would pin the head, and someone else cut it off. It was still pretty chilly, so the snakes were not fast.

Headless snake.

Brett's friend Matt offers it to Jann to hold.

She finally did. They poked around at the top of the ridge for a while, and then hiked down a bit to see if they could find more.

I stayed up top to rest, and found this...

...which Matt had planted as a joke.

Anyway, turns out that as the day warmed up, the snakes started pouring out of every nook and rock. They started to get so feisty that Brett finally said they should get out. Turns out that the place the snakes were most active was the same place we hiked up just a little earlier.

One hour's worth of hunting.

Who wants to go next year?