The cool thing about this trip was I was figuring I was skunked as far as snakes and was heading back to where I had parked (about a 4 mile hike) when the skinks really starting coming out. I had also decided to hit up some stagnant water ponds down off the trail and was pulling up tree bark when I found the garter. So, at that point I was happy and just marching along the trail taking pictures of the skinks I could get to sit still. Came past a telephone pole and there was the big ol' scarred ratsnake. He was just frozen there and I got the photos and carefully laid my snake hook next to him for some size relevance. He even let me pet him a bit before he turned and headed down the side of the road. Okay...NOW I was really happy...BIG ratsnake, garter snake....then a few hundred yards later I spot the other ratsnake's nose peeking out. He allowed me to photograph him but when I tried to get him out of the bushes he booked it. When I got back to the parking lot, there were a couple of deputies looking down at the water with binocs. I asked them if there was anything interesting and they said yeah, watersnakes...Climbed down the side of a cliff to try to get closer but the water was too fast, too deep and no rocks to get there. More snakes farther up the stream as well. Finally found a spot to cross over and made it all the way to the one in the tree (the others had disappeared the minute I got within 50 ft. and the one in the tree hit the water the minute I brought my camera up. Got a few of him swimming but that was it. They are Fast! So, it turned out to be a snake bonanza! Can't wait to go back again...
