black rat snake

So after dinner last night I decided to take a walk at the abandoned golf course near my house. The course has been closed for more than 20 years but the city maintains parts of it for walking trails. Not more than 15 feet from a golf cart path I spot what looked like a black irrigation hose. As I got closer I see it is a large black rat snake! Just what I was hoping to find! As I got very close the snake never tried to move away-he just watched me. I estimate his length at close to 6 feet. (My corn is just a couple inches shy of 5 feet but this guy looked about a foot longer.) I admired him for a long time. This is the first black rat this size I've seen around here. I'll be going back to the golf course more often.