It was a little cool this morning and very cloudy. With as warm as it has been, it was nice to have a change. It would be a good hiking day so I headed to Box Springs Mountain Park. I made it up to the spot where I took pictures of the sunset a couple of days ago. Thee grey sky was nothing like the vibrant sky of the sunset.
One thing I was noticing today was an abundance of black fuzzy caterpillars. They were climbing to the top of flowers or anything that they could find. I thought it would make them a target for birds. I did a little research and I believe they are the arachnis picta caterpillar for the Painted Tiger moth.
I was moving at a record pace for my hike I wanted to beat my last time of almost two hours and thirty two minutes for the 6.64 mile hike. I then came to someone sunning themselves in the middle of the trail. I quietly and slowly moved around him while taking pictures. You can click on the picture if you want the snake to get bigger.
I got the the other side and shot a little video. I then went to put my phone back in my pocket and my hiking poles struck each other making noise. The noise got the snakes hackles up. Then again, I do not think snakes have hackles much less armpits. Nonetheless, the snake was alarmed and took a defensive position. Some may say that it was an offensive position. However, I just think he wanted to be left alone.
As for my hike, I was just under two minutes longer than the week before. That is 6.64 miles in 1 hour and almost 34 minutes. I guess next time I will have to pick up the pace to allow me a little time to take pictures of the Fuzzy and not so Fuzzy.
