Funny story: All of yesterday people were telling us "watch out for rattles", "the rattles are out", "You'll see 10 a day!" So naturally, all we wanted to do today was see some rattle snakes! Between 1 and 2 miles in, we saw a big group of people in one area, and were informed there was a big rattlesnake up ahead, and that everyone was waiting it out until in moved off path. After we arrived, a man named "Potential 178", (still trying to figure out what his trail name means), gave us the run-down on snakes. Here's a couple highlights:
1. Rattlers feel tremors in the ground from hikers, coil up, and then give you the warning rattle.
2. Rattlers can only strike once they are in the coiled position.
3. Rattlers can only strike the length of their body (no 5 foot snakes flying 15 ft through the air, whew!)
4. 80% of rattle snake bites don't involve any venom. This is because they need 12-24 hours for the venom to refill. (Most learned rattles will save their venom for prey they intend to eat, not human's they are trying to avoid)
5. Baby rattlers however are the most dangerous because they haven't learned this yet, and when they feel threatened they will most likely use all their venom when striking. (I've also heard that baby rattlesnakes can't use their rattles until they grow bigger, meaning no warning rattle, but this has not been confirmed.)
So after Rattlesnakes 101, we headed down the path hoping to catch our first glimpse of the rattle but it had already moved on! We moved on as well, but didn't see a rattle all day! Better luck tomorrow... (I think Claire might not share my rattle enthusiasm, and could be just fine without seeing any at all :)
So, like I said earlier, today was a scorcher! Claire and I both left started out the morning with 6 liters of water each! Although that added 13.2 lbs of water to each of our packs, we're definitely glad we did! We took many short breaks throughout the day, and took a nice, leisurely pace.
A lot people try to reach lake Morena (mile 20) on their first day. Many of these hikers over-exert themselves, use more water then they have due to extreme heat and their rapid pace, and then need to rest and recover for a few days, while all us "turtles" pass them by :)
We saw many many beautiful flowers today, the desert is more gorgeous than either of us had imagined. This area is very hilly with many gigantic boulders strewn about, glittering with different minerals and quartz like stones.
Although we saw no snakes today, we did see our share of poison oak. Towards the end of our hiking, around 5pm, Claire and I were on the lookout for a good campsite. Our feet were burning and we could feel a couple blisters coming in hot! We didn't see any sites for a few miles. Once we finally came across a small one on the side of the trail, and I had it in my mind that this would be home for the night, we were faced with a lot of this:
Deciding that we'd rather be sore for one day then rashy for a week, we continued on a few more miles to Hauser Creek (but not so much a creek because there's no water here), where we are now camping with 6 or 7 other hikers. (We started on a popular day). Helicopters periodically fly directly over the campsite, but after such a long day in the sun I'm sure we'll sleep sound with no problem!
Some other pics from today:
Claire taking it all in.
Bees for days!
Tall Yucca plant almost twice my height!
Thanks for reading!
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