It's gone. It's as if a million voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. No, wait--that was Alderaan. But there is SOME truth to this statement...
I drove out to Sonora Wednesday night with the intent of checking out either 277 or 163, but y'all are well aware of the rain situation out there that evening--by the time I got in the area, the rain had stopped in the 163 area but it was still hanging out over the 277 area. Therefore, I continued to Ozona and turned south on 163.
The massive rain showers dropped the temps to 59 degrees by about 7 pm, but once the clouds cleared out, the sun was able to raise the temps "all the way" back up to 63 with its warm, glowing, warming glow. I figured it was hit or miss. Turns out it was a great night--if toads are your thing.
I encountered lots of standing water in numerous spots, and a fun little surprise was the lines of debris marking the high-water line crossing some of the lower spots in the road--come up on those at a good clip and they can really get your attention.
A couple of spots were fully inundated as I headed south; swift but shallow water (couple of inches) which I successfully negotiated in my econobox of a car. Then I came to Cully Crossing which was under several inches and had some spots where it looked like soft sand. I carefully made it across that spot, but when I got to Juno Crossing it was under 3+ feet of water (per the flood gauge). No-go, which hampered my further plans for the night (make it to Del Rio and beyond via 163).
Upon reaching Cully heading north, I noticed the "soft spot" I saw through the swift water was due to the road being GONE--a decent chunk of asphalt and associated substrate was totally washed away. I'm lucky I didn't cause a further cave-in!
I spent Thursday in the lower Rio Grande valley (looking for reticulated collared lizards). Thursday night I hit up 163 again, this time from the south. Officially, the road is closed.
Knowing I wasn't going to make it all the way to the interstate and having let BP know my intentions, I proceeding north on 163 at sunset. I saw rak and devilsnake05--nice meeting you guys.
Most of the road last night was dry, but Baker's Crossing was barely passable due again to swift yet fairly shallow water covering a good couple hundred feet stretch of the road. Jarrett Crossing is the stopping point heading north, as evidenced by the white pickup stuck smack dab in the middle, inundated up to the roof!
No snakes found, other than devilsnake05 finding a copperhead (I guess you were smart and quit before I did too!), and I saw one DOR Sonora at midnight-thirty this morning.
And I STILL haven't found any brevis! However, the target and highlight of the expedition was the Crotaphytus reticulatus; I found one female in breeding coloration west of McAllen.
Now I have to figure out if I can make a quick run to Val Verde sometime in the next week, but I have a lot of other stuff going on.
-----
Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet
