Idyllwild, Big Bear City, Agua Dulce, Three Points and the Mojave desert.
Two days later ascending above the Chihuahua Valley. Head down, brain in neutral and beating up a hot scrubby trail dreaming of frosted cans of Speights, I came to a sudden halt as I spotted a small
black snake.
It had a long cream stripe running down either side of it’s body and lay motionless in the dust at the side of the trail.
Maybe this lack of mobility was just a clever trick to get me within striking range.
I stamped my foot, it didn't move. I spoke to it, it didn’t show the slightest interest.
Hmm, I thought, it must have croaked. Here was my chance to examine a lifeless snake at close quarters.
I stood next to it and prior to picking it up, gave it a last minute nudge with my boot.
Kazow! It took off like a Cruise missile.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that my newly acquired irregular heartbeat had chosen that very second to miss a beat anyhow, it would have missed one then. I’d never imagined anything
without legs could move that fast across the ground!
Thankfully it shot off horizontally and not vertically up my shorts, or my journey could have ended then and there from cardiac arrest.
I checked out some books at a later date and I think it was a Whipsnake or Striped Racer - Well named I thought.
I continued on along the eastern slopes of Bucksnort mountain to camp for the night under a stand of Coulter pines on Combs Peak.
It wasn’t the perfect campsite, as there
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Taking a break in the Mojave desert........
