6/22/07
My good friend Colby Wright and I just returned home from a quick trip out west. We left Houston around 9:30 or so that morning and headed west through San Antonio into Del Rio. We grabbed a few supplies in Del Rio and continued west into Sanderson. Shortly after 7:00 we checked into the Outback Oasis and spent a little time visiting with Roy, Ruth, Tom Eisele and his wife. With the sun setting we rushed out west of town where we decided to walk roadside cuts for most of the night. Soon after arriving we were joined by my good friend Rob Klockman from Del Rio.
Within an hour, the first snake of the night was observed; a nice trans-pecos ratsnake (
Bogertophis s. subocularis) that Rob found crawling on top of the cut.
While the guys were getting a few quick pictures, I started out at the end of the cut making my way up to the top. Around 10:45 and not 5 minutes after the ratsnake was found, I observed a super nice male medium blair’s phase graybanded kingsnake (
Lampropeltis alterna) slowly crawling around some boulders. Although finding them on the roads and by shining the cuts is nice nothing beats finding one while walking.
We continued on and were soon stopped by two game wardens while walking the bottom of the cut. The questions and exchange of words between the wardens was brief. They wanted to make their presence known and for us to be aware that they were now enforcing the new law. They were very polite, not giving us any kind of warning and making it an overall nice situation. They said goodbye to us and then talked to Rob who was further down the cut. They were equally as nice to him. With that over with, we continued to comb the cut for most of the night. It wasn’t but an hour later when the warden showed up again. Again he was polite, asking the same questions as before but seemed real determined to catch us doing something that would violate the new law.
He left and again we pressed on. A short time passed and Rob observed another large trans-pecos ratsnake (
Bogertophis s. subocularis) crawling at the base of the cut. We took a few pictures and it went on its way. We walked the entire cut a few more times and then decided to head in for the night.
6/23/07
We got up, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed west of Sanderson into Marathon and then south into Black Gap. There we met up with a friend who was giving us access to an 11,000 acre ranch just north up the road from the Stillwell’s store on FM 2627. Around noon, we walked a bit of the property to see if it was worth exploring that night. It looked good so we killed as much time as we could, driving over to Study Butte for lunch, through Terlingua over to Pepper’s Hill and back over to Black Gap down to La Linda, Mexico.
Just west of Pepper's Hill, FM 170
Inaccessible bridge to La Linda, Mexico
Ghost Town in La Linda, Mexico
A little later we arrived back at the ranch and walked a few hours before sundown.
The ranch on FM 2627
End of part 1
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