As you know I live in an old, rather remote town in Utah. A big majority of my neighbors are Mormons and a while back I made friends with the local missionaries. They know I'm a hopeless cause, but once in a while they stop by to hang out and just BS about stuff. Sometimes car restoration, 3d modelling, politics, economics, and sometimes we'd chatted about the pack goats. One of them was completing his 2 years shortly and so before he left I suggested they go on one of my short hikes with the goats on an off-day. They thought it'd be fun.
It turned out to be a rather hot day. Even though we left early.... sheesh.
So I said as we entered the rock-walled wash, "Gotta watch for rattle snakes in here. They hang out under the ledges." Within about 60 seconds, while I was showing a particularly interesting overhang, we hear what could be a cicada buzzing. "Is that a snake... nah... I dont see one." I said. Little Dude was on top of the overhang and Amelia went under it for shade. Not a good thing in case it broke off... But then one of the guys said "Oh there IS a snake over there." And sure enough a small rattle snake was balled-up in an overhang on the other side. Its little tail sounded too high pitch but when you looked at it it sure didn't seem like a cicada anymore. Fortunately it was not under the same overhang Amelia was at.
I was a little paranoid about every flat rock in the riverbed that I stepped over until we got out of the wash. You dont see many snakes in the open, so that wash (the coolest part of the usual hike) is something I may avoid for the next couple months. Snakes in the shade are probably worse than snakes sunning themselves. Sheesh I don't even know. I wish I had a snake-wise dog to scout the area ahead.
We visted the rock garden. This is a new area I hadn't noticed before. Bacchus' horns are looking somehow more impressive than in real life in this picture.
We stopped by my late friend's final resting place (Where his ashes were spread) and I sang his theme song. We made up the song while joking around riding horses 15 years ago. "....rootin'est, tootin'est, shootin'est..... tootin'est gun-slinger in the Weeeeeessssttttt." I stop by every few weeks and say "Hi!".
The hike went well but we were pretty over-heated by the end. I figure one of the guys is probably in intensive care with life-threatening sunburns or something right now LOL.
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