"i was having a nightmare." "get used to it."
casa grande in the coming daylight.
last sunday morning, dad, jackson, and i decided to hike down to homer wilson's ranch and up the blue creek trail for a mile, or so. we had been in big bend national park for a few days, and this would be the final outing before heading for home.
on our first day we had hiked across terlingua creek into the mouth of santa elena canyon and up the canyon wall for a while. it is a pretty easy hike between the forbiddingly sheer and towering walls of the canyon. it is beautiful. the rio grande is etching its way through the canyon; and, in this remote location, it seems less like a border between nations than it is a source of life to the desert environment.
we hiked into the valley that houses blue creek on an overcast and cool morning. before we returned, we would be sprinkled with light drizzle. between the refreshing weather and the local environment, i was invigorated. after wandering around the remains of the ranch foreman's house, we found the trail up the creek. we had already seen a sign warning of the existence of bears in the vicinity. this caused a little concern because we had heard of some bear sightings in the area just days prior. as we had a group of three who would likely be talking much, i was not too worried. after all, jackson was one of the three, and he is physically incapable of silence, or even discretion. the second warning sign did cause me to be on high alert. it warned of mountain lions, and even suggested children not hike this path as the mountain lions can be aggressive, and a small child would be at greatest risk. sound advice; but not advice taken. we hiked about a mile up the path with me on the constant lookout. surely, it would be no trick at all for a mountain lion to remain unseen if that was his choice; but, i acted as if i would be able to detect his presence, nonetheless. the situation was not made any easier by jackson's lack of adequate compliance with the rules of the hike. he was to remain between dad and me, and close behind me. sometimes he did really well with these instructions. other times, not well at all. after a stressful hour of walking we returned to the "safety" of the ranch house.
all that remained was the innocuous switchback up the valley wall to the trailhead, and the car. walking on a two-foot-wide path between the scrub brush, we began talking about lions and bears (oh, my.) i turned my head to look behind me while talking for a few seconds. that was long enough for something ahead of me to create a noise i have never heard before. it sounded like a cricket, but it would have to have been the loudest cricket known to man. i snapped my head back around to see my right foot about one foot away from a three-foot-plus snake. its markings and color were familiar, so i checked its head. yep...diamond shaped. just to be sure, i looked at its tail. 7 or 8 rattles slithering to a stop. obviously, i stopped right where i was because the rattler was stretched out across the path. since i didn't want him to become unstretched in his effort to coil into striking position; i kicked a couple of sprays of gravel at him to get him moving again. it worked and he went off into the brush.
while i was kicking the gravel, i realized that jackson had seen the rattle snake and recognized it for what it was. he said to me, "stop it dad! you're freaking me out!" from that point forward, not only was he right between me and dad, he was right on my tail. in fact, he held my hand for most of the rest of the way to the car. like most of us do, once the adrenaline started to die down; he let us know how little he had been worried about the snake. in fact, we should have all stopped long enough to take a picture of it. while that might have been cool, i just wanted it to leave. i'm sure the snake reciprocated my feelings on the matter.
one thing for sure, it did get my attention.
i can't wait to go back.
last sunday morning, dad, jackson, and i decided to hike down to homer wilson's ranch and up the blue creek trail for a mile, or so. we had been in big bend national park for a few days, and this would be the final outing before heading for home.
on our first day we had hiked across terlingua creek into the mouth of santa elena canyon and up the canyon wall for a while. it is a pretty easy hike between the forbiddingly sheer and towering walls of the canyon. it is beautiful. the rio grande is etching its way through the canyon; and, in this remote location, it seems less like a border between nations than it is a source of life to the desert environment.
we hiked into the valley that houses blue creek on an overcast and cool morning. before we returned, we would be sprinkled with light drizzle. between the refreshing weather and the local environment, i was invigorated. after wandering around the remains of the ranch foreman's house, we found the trail up the creek. we had already seen a sign warning of the existence of bears in the vicinity. this caused a little concern because we had heard of some bear sightings in the area just days prior. as we had a group of three who would likely be talking much, i was not too worried. after all, jackson was one of the three, and he is physically incapable of silence, or even discretion. the second warning sign did cause me to be on high alert. it warned of mountain lions, and even suggested children not hike this path as the mountain lions can be aggressive, and a small child would be at greatest risk. sound advice; but not advice taken. we hiked about a mile up the path with me on the constant lookout. surely, it would be no trick at all for a mountain lion to remain unseen if that was his choice; but, i acted as if i would be able to detect his presence, nonetheless. the situation was not made any easier by jackson's lack of adequate compliance with the rules of the hike. he was to remain between dad and me, and close behind me. sometimes he did really well with these instructions. other times, not well at all. after a stressful hour of walking we returned to the "safety" of the ranch house.
all that remained was the innocuous switchback up the valley wall to the trailhead, and the car. walking on a two-foot-wide path between the scrub brush, we began talking about lions and bears (oh, my.) i turned my head to look behind me while talking for a few seconds. that was long enough for something ahead of me to create a noise i have never heard before. it sounded like a cricket, but it would have to have been the loudest cricket known to man. i snapped my head back around to see my right foot about one foot away from a three-foot-plus snake. its markings and color were familiar, so i checked its head. yep...diamond shaped. just to be sure, i looked at its tail. 7 or 8 rattles slithering to a stop. obviously, i stopped right where i was because the rattler was stretched out across the path. since i didn't want him to become unstretched in his effort to coil into striking position; i kicked a couple of sprays of gravel at him to get him moving again. it worked and he went off into the brush.
while i was kicking the gravel, i realized that jackson had seen the rattle snake and recognized it for what it was. he said to me, "stop it dad! you're freaking me out!" from that point forward, not only was he right between me and dad, he was right on my tail. in fact, he held my hand for most of the rest of the way to the car. like most of us do, once the adrenaline started to die down; he let us know how little he had been worried about the snake. in fact, we should have all stopped long enough to take a picture of it. while that might have been cool, i just wanted it to leave. i'm sure the snake reciprocated my feelings on the matter.
one thing for sure, it did get my attention.
i can't wait to go back.
posted by cm at 10/15/2006
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