deep in spiritual warfare while meditating

Or, just riding along. One is the other.

I said to J, "We should go ride".
"That's a great idea!", he replied.

So we did. We hunted up the access trail some more off of Parker Flats Cut-off, with great success. At a certain point I noticed a lot of military trenching and some interesting looking flat spots, so we got off and walked along the ridge for a while. Well off trail, we saw an interesting looking structure (i.e. not another collapsing shithouse left over from Fort Ord's training days) and headed towards it. J kept juking around me to be in front. Just beside the structure were several sheets of old plywood. I cannot resist picking these up, as they are prime snake hideouts, so I was eyeing it closely. A few inches from the far corner lay a fat puddle of rattlesnake.

I grabbed J by the shoulders and pointed it out to him. Then I lifted him up onto my own shoulders so he could watch from a safe spot.



I'm really kicking myself for forgetting a camera today. We did not shoot that video, but the landscape is similar to ours, and the snake remains the same. The puddle of snake was a Pacific Northern Rattlesnake ( crotalus oregonus). It's head was clearly visible in the centre, and it's rattle off to the left. I picked up a stick and gently poked at it in hopes of getting it to open up so we could really get a look, but dropped the stick. There was no way I was reaching closer to pick it up, so we contented ourselfs with tossing finger sized twigs at the snake. (J was actually lobbying heavily to leave right away) The rattler obliged and raised his head 3" or so from the ground and quickly slithered under the plywood, rattling the whole while we remained. As the snake slid over, a second snake was revealed to have been lying beneath!

So we tossed twigs at this one, too (Gently- we have no desire to hurt any animal) and he also obliged us by shaking his butt. I told J to hush his fussing and listen to that sound. Remember it.

I've ridden out there extensively for 9 years and this was the first time I've seen a rattler, let alone two.

School starts tomorrow. That was J's last ride of the summer...