sssssssnakes

It's not a typical hike unless I see a snake. Today I saw four. (And I see no good reason to pass this information along to my mother, trust me.) Usually I see snakes in time to stop and stamp my foot or toss a pebble behind them to send them on their merry way. Today, I almost stepped on one, but at that point I was close enough to see the whites of its eyes (okay, the shape of its eyes) and I knew it wasn't venomous. I'm not very savvy when it comes to identifying snakes, and as long as they don't drop out of a tree on me, I usually don't panic.

Since I'm heading to South Dakota soon, I guess I ought to pack the snake gaiters. But I'll be darned if I'm going to wear them on daily hikes when I want to be wearing shorts.

There's only one venomous snake native to South Dakota -- the prairie rattlesnake -- and they're not even supposed to be native to Kingsbury County, but that doesn't mean they didn't move in like the Germans and Dutch, who aren't native to Kingsbury County either.
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:43 PM