I wasn't going to do this, but SNAKES!

I know you are all tired of reading about these weekend walks. I told myself I wasn't going to make a post this time and spare you more pictures of the great outdoors.

But then I looked at the pictures and decided I just had to do it. Sorry.

Mrs Notthat, Coach Luap, and myself went for a 13 mile hike at Windy Hill Park.

There were bunnies! Lots of bunnies!

The bunny hunter! Note the fog-looking stuff over my shoulder.

A little bit further up the trail and we were deep into that fog-looking stuff, which is officially called the "marine layer" (four syllables that are another way to say "fog").

These were growing along the trail. They look like small chayote (Spanish for "maiming gourd"). It was all I could do to keep Mrs Notthat from picking these and making them into dinner.

The marine layer finally started burning off and the sun came out.

Walking down a single-track path bordered with lots of wildflowers.

I've got no idea what this is, but it was really cool looking.

A butterfly. There were lots of these once the sun came out.

Here is the first snake I came across - a garter snake with glowing eyes doing its best to hide from the camera.

Mrs Notthat trying very hard not to get muddy. She had been on this trail last weekend and it had been dry. We had a bit of rain during the week though, so now this part of the trail was properly muddy. Yay for me (I walked this part of the trail, about a half mile stretch, twice since it was so cool).

And then, as we were heading to the finish line, there were a couple of women with a dog that had hit a blockage in the trail. A five foot long vicious-looking blockage in the trail. Mrs Notthat went to nudge it with one of her walking sticks, which the death snake then lunged at and tried to kill. When that didn't work, the snake reluctantly slithered off into the grass. The two women with the dog thanked the brave Mrs Notthat, glared at Coach Luap and I (who were hiding behind them), and we all headed on down the trail.

Only to be told by some old guy coming the other way that he had just shooed a rattlesnake off the trail.

Near the parking lot we met up with a ranger who told us that our snake was a fairly harmless gopher snake. He also said that a rattlesnake can only strike at a distance of about half it's body length.

Which I guess means all well equipped walkers should carry a tape measure. Or have brave Mrs Notthat along.

That's it - move along...