June 5th & the 12th/13th hikes!
Haven’t updated for awhile, sorry! And now Patti and I are just getting ready for our trip to Santa Barbara to hike Gaviota Peak this coming weekend, so kinda wanted to catch up before our next hike.
Well, back on June 5th Patti and I were hiking at El Moro. It was our first time in about a month, hiking all the way around the park, about 11+ miles. We just finished filling up our water bottles and more then half way done with the hike. I was a little bummed we already hiked 6 miles and we have yet to see a snake. Right after I thought that, there was a nice fat rattlesnake sunning its self on the trail. I ran up to it and took some pixs, I guess I was too close, coz I never got a really good picture of him, but one of the ones I did take is attached. Then we continued on, and we saw what looked like a stick coming out of the brush onto the trail, it was in fact another snake, this time a gopher snake. I was able to catch this guy, and of course Patti was screaming about keeping my distance from her, while I was holding the snake. She did snap a few good pixs. And about a mile after that snake... in the distance I saw a snake on the trail, it was moving back into the bush, so I ran and was able to catch him, and he was hissing, and even opened up his mouth. Took a few more photos and sat him back on the trail, and he took off so quickly that he kicked up a lot of dirt with his tail. So now I am excited that we went from seeing no snakes to seeing three in one day, I was wishing for a 4th, but knew that the part of the trail to the ranger’s station that we were on, wasn’t really snake friendly and in the past, we've never seen a snake on this part of the trail. As we’re making one of the final turns down hill towards the ranger's station there was another snake! This one was a garter snake, by the time we saw him, he was moving so fast and was out of sight before I could try and catch him or even take his picture, but it was fun just seeing a different type of snake up there. Four snakes in one day! It was a great hike!
Now the next weekend (June 12/13)…it was a little overcast on Saturday, we did the full hike around the park again. Didn’t really see anything, but quail and their baby chicks, and some bunnies, and that was about it, we did see some falcons flying in a group which was different. On Sunday the weather turned really nice, and again we did the full hike, Patti and I saw quail, a roadrunner and some hawks, no snakes! But we had fun. We love hiking near the beach, coz you get that ocean breeze which is so nice on a hot day.
In the morning we’re off to Santa Barbara! Here’s the trail we’re going on;http://www.santabarbarahikes.
Look for our SB update next week!
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