photos and rambling about running!

[ilanarama]

I decided that my post yesterday was so boring that I really needed to bring the camera along on my next trail run. Which was this morning. And I saw wildlife! (You know, in addition to the usual spectacular desert scenery, blah blah blah, don't you wish you lived here?)

I came running around a curve on the Meadow Loop (this is in the Horse Gulch trail system, for you locals) and saw an OMGSNAKE sunning itself on the trail. I yelled, "EEEEK!" The snake, however, did not bat an eye, or whatever it is snakes do. (And it did not rattle at me - because it was not that kind of a snake - but if it had, I would have been out of there so fast, you can bet.) In fact, at first I thought that maybe it had been run over by a mountain bike - then I saw it flicker its tongue. So I took some pictures of it until it got annoyed and slithered off.



Other photos from this morning's run:

Comments

[libitina]

Eee! Snake! You stopped running for those pictures, then?

[ilanarama]

I did! The last two pictures I was running with the camera in my hand and just paused briefly, but for the others I stopped and took the camera out of my waistpack. It was an "easy" run (as per my training schedule) so I didn't feel as though I was harming anything by taking a photo break.

[sara]

Yes, they're pretty, but no I don't wish I lived there (heat and I don't get along, which is why I've been steadily troping northward since childhood at a rate of roughly 50 miles/year. At this rate I will be Canadian about 2020.)

[ilanarama]

Hee! It's actually not that hot here, although it is hotter than where you are, I imagine - we are supposed to hit highs of 90 degrees by late this week. What we lack in latitude we make up for in elevation, so we rarely see temperatures in the 90s and only once has it topped 100 in recorded history (about 120 years).

Hmm, looking at my move trend I fail to discern much of a pattern. Maybe it's westward, in which case I will be in the Pacific Ocean shortly.

[sara]

We got up to the 90s over the weekend, and everyone dragged around town and looked sour (it does that once or twice a summer). But we're back to 70s and slightly overcast today, which is more my thing. *GRIN*

There's a good bit of continent left to me, so it should work out all right....

[ilanarama]

I like the 70s, but not the overcast. Mmm, Colorado sun. Although I admit to missing the lavish greenery of more rainy climes.

Snake & Scenery

[(Anonymous)]

Great pictures Ilana. That looks like a king snake I have seen them before in the Gulch. They sort of resemble rattlers but are not mean. We should do a trail run together sometime. Way to be prepared with the camera.
See ya, Marjorie

[blnchflr]

Snakes are great - I met a viper (one of Denmark's all of two! types of snake) the other week, and was also very excited :o)

[ilanarama]

Aw, only two types of snake? You are deprived! I like snakes, actually. Much better than spiders. :-)

[blnchflr]

Yeah, we have vipers and grass snakes, and then we have slow worms, which are lizards, but very snakelike, and extremely pretty and cute, and I see them semi-regularly, and want to pick them up and coo at them, but it'd probably scare them, so I don't :o)