I have been working on this for several hours, so I hope all of you will enjoy the following! My faithful snake hunting partner, AKA Eagle Eyes, but more properly known as Meridith, took out to GOD'S country on June 9. We stayed in San Antonio Friday night and hung out with the Herpers who were attending the venomous show in San Antonio. The show was very slow due to the time of year. We looked around and said our goodbyes.
We only saw 1 Suboc Saturday night June 9 at 10:58 p.m. and a few D.O.R's of different varieties after that. Jason with the Sheriff's dept. in Sanderson stopped us and asked to see my hunting license. FYI- Riding on the improved shoulder of the road is still an issue with them.
Sunday, June 10 was a complete bust as the weather made us head in early.
Monday, June 11 came our first alterna 2.8 miles West of Langtry. Meridith spotlighted this gorgeous male that was lengthwise on the cut and very low which made for an easy catch. She has been waiting to see an alterna in all it's glory stretched out on a cut like this so she was quite happy. We were able to photograph this animal in the famous "in situ" on the cut.
June 12, Tuesday, we hunted East of Snaderson to 349 and North to Meyers Canyon. On the way back toward Sanderson, the storm hit and shut us down for the night. I should have gone East toward Langtry. This was a stupid move going back toward Sanderson. We got nothng this night.
June 13, Wednesday was a bit more interesting! We decided to hunt East Sanderson but kept going toward Langtry. Around midnight, Meridith spotted an alterna very high on the cut and heading horizontally. It was very much out of my reach, and I pondered on how I was going to collect it. I decided I would try and climb the cut, and fell three times, only a few feet after starting. I am sure we can all relate to this. As I finally made it about 10 feet up the cut, Meridith proclaimed "it's heading up the cut!" I dropped to the ground and decided to run down to the end of the cut, and run up on top. What I did not realize until I almost had a heart attack was I had to run almost 1/2 mile to get above the snake on top of the cut! This was a wake up call. I guess I better start working out a little! 
As we were waiting for the snake to crawl up to where I had a chance of reaching it with my tongs, Gerry Merker, John Fraser and Mike Geiger showed up. They actually had a golf ball retriever and tried to assist in catching the alterna. Like a dumb as*, I left mine in Houston. I just never had to use it I guess. Gerry stepped on my cooler to get some height and made a grab at it. We did not know the snake had already found a hole and was in the process of crawling into it. The snake freaked out and this is the last we saw of it the rest of the night! We circled the cut for several hours but to no avail. It was gone! Gerry and the boys apologized and hauled as*! There we were, heart broken! This was only the 2nd alterna that has eluded my capture. It was a beautiful blairs phase as well. We hunted until 4:30 a.m. and that was all she wrote.
Thursday, June 14, we made a point of being in Langtry at sundown in hopes of seeing the one that got a way. I hung out on Langtry dirt road until dark, (seeing nothing). The road is being graded now and is in reparations from the rains and is really screwed up! Don't hunt it! We made multiple passes back and forth from Osman Canyon to 6 miles West of Langtry over and over again, but concentrating on the cut where we lost our gray band. At precisely 1:25 a.m., Meridith said STOP! GO BACK!! She saw something that had not been there before! Alot lower on the cut this time, and approx. 100 feet or less from where we lost our alterna the night before. How do we know???.............WE KNOW, LET ME TELL YOU! I bailed out of the car and began climbing the cut like spider man, not falling once! As I approached where the snake had been, Meridith says "IT'S 5 FEET TO THE LEFT NOW!" This did not make me too happy since I now had to climb back down the cut without breaking my legs, and re-position myself. I made a point this time to climb up the cut a few feet ahead of where I thought the snake would be. As I ascended approx. 12-15 feet up on the cut, meridith yelled "it's right above you!" I climbed a few more feet following the spotlight and walla! There it was. I felt like a harpe eagle clutching that snake and taking it down. There was no way in hell this snake was going to elude us again after acting as century guards for over four hours at this cut! I just jumped off the cut not even thinking about possibly getting a bamboo shoot enema upon landing on the rocky ground. Some of those plants down there are dangerous let me tell ya. All was good and immediately following our capture, Tom and Maureen Eisele drove up and added us into their movie hall of fame. Too bad they did not get a chance to film me crawling up the cut. It was a sight I am sure! The celebrating began, but we still hung around the area for a few more hours as this snake was a female. We hoped to find some males tracking her. She is 2 feet in length. We headed back to Sanderson and arrived back at 5:30 a.m. Gerry Merker, you are off the hook guy!! 
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Friday, June 15, we headed East again toward Langrty but hunting every cut out of Sanderson. When we arrived to 8.0 East of Sanderson, Meridith was spotting the cut, and I was watching a young male alterna crossong the shoulder in front of me. I said "check it out!" It's an alterna in the road! Just like one of my other catches, Rick Green (AKA Saddleman) showed up right as I was picking it up. Rick, I am beginning to think you are a good luck charm dude! I hope you and Melissa are doing well toward the BEND as we speak! We would see nothing else this night, but wish we would have been an hour earlier in coming back to Sanderson from Langtry as our friends Tom and Maureen cught two more alterna on the first cut out of Sanderson! I am only going to post one as the pic. of the alterna morph did not come out. Sorry! This made their fifth alterna of their trip! Congrats guys. I know you will go home with more.
Saturday, June 16, We decided to try our luck down on the imfamous River Road. As you all know, it has kicked my as* for 27 years. I guess I can take solitude in the fact that I do not hunt it every night religiously. I would only hunt it one night this trip. I saw more herpers this night than snakes. I only saw one snake that got away in the grass. I know it was not an alterna so it didn't really matter. This was all I saw the entire night on the River Road. My curse still remains. What the hell huh? Could I expect anything different? The answer is no! I was able to score a checkered garter right before the Terlingua Ranch road. Yippee! The big time!! This closed out the trip as we drive back to Houston spending all day driving on Sunday the 17th of June.
In closing, this was actually the best collecting trip for alterna I have ever had. Three in one trip breaks my old record of two (from 277 back in 2000). I am elated with this trip and I know everyone else is with theirs as I think every one I have met this past week has caught multiple alterna's or at least one! The gray bands are just pouring out of the cuts, especially in Sanderson! Sanderson ROCKS! and so do Ruth and Roy at the outback Oasis! You guys are so accomodating as generous, and you guys are a true treasure to the Sanderson community. Thank you so much again for all of your hospitality!
Meridith, I would only have two alterna in my possession (if that!) if it had not been for you. Steve Owens is very accurate when he calls you "eagle eyes". There is no way I could have seen that female up on the cut! Thanks a million darlin and just let me know when you want to try your hand at keeping another snake. They can be just as easy as keeping your sulcattas! . To see more pics in a few days from the trip, log on to my website. I'm out! Rock on herpers!
Wayne H. (www.snakeworld.com)
