Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Snakes and Dogs

Oh summertime. How I despise the with your poison ivy, ticks, bugs, spiders, humidity and snakes. You force me to pavement on some days, as I feel sure to encounter a 15' rattle snake in a field of poison ivy surrounded by ticks while stuck in a giant web at 100% humidity.

I stepped on my second snake yesterday. First time was a king snake. Very large and very harmless. Yesterday was a copperhead. Luckily this one was very small and very harmless. It was about a foot long and the thickness of a pencil. It did not seem happy to have been stepped on. It had some stones; it didn't run from me, it stood up to me, hissed, held its ground. I relented and backed off, surely only feeding its ego.

I also got chased by a dog yesterday. A lab that was only a couple of months old. It was fierce. I ran past the family on the trail, they were walking with the dog, without a leash. It decided I was more fun than the family. I had my headphones on, so I didn't hear them yelling at me to stop. The dog didn't care they were yelling. I had that weird feeling I was being followed after about 30 seconds. I turned around and saw the dog, happy as a clam, running after me. The family nowhere in sight. Oops. I grabbed the dog and returned it to the rightful owners.

Oh summertime.

2 comments:

Sam said...

I know what you mean. I rode 45 miles on my bike with a white-spotted jumping spider planted on my bike computer. Creepy.

Anonymous said...

It's still better than freezing to death when the temps drop below 60 degrees. Great run Friday/Saturday, btw. More!