Matthew Blain

Rattlesnake

after the downhill dirt road adventure last weekend, i decided to explore some of the trails around here. los altos hills has a network of trails which are meant for residents to ride their horses on, or walk, or bicycle. they seem to try pretty hard not to advertise many of them, but i got a map and rode on a few. some were OK for bicycles. one was basically a plowed field on a steep slope littered with debris (not too much, but the occasional piece of rebar isn't that nice. nor are cacti. so i walked that bit.)

then i went to the arastradero open space preserve. pretty pleasant, the little bowls at the top are clearly set up for mountain bikes. having slick tires doesn't work very well--one section all i could do was wash out, since i didn't feel like going max speed and this is the opposite of the pacific northwest: all dust because it hasn't rained for months. maybe i'll get just front knobbies, or a front wheel w/knobbies--supposedly that's a reasonable combo. but then again, a suspension would be nice for this sort of thing too... nah, just a tire will do.

oh yeah... the title of this post? because i scared a rattler climbing out of the woods into a sunny area. not the first time i've seen a rattlesnake, but it's the first time i've really scared one--i just sprinted fast, and the snake did too, darting across the trail right behind me. don't know if that's the right reaction, but the runner behind me thanked me for scaring it out of the way when i mentioned it to her.