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Myself and a friend were staying at the Wild Horse Station in the Christmas mountains in August. I always hunt the River Road because the vegetaion and rocks come closer to the road at night. More eye candy for the overall experience. In the Christmas you can just see wide shoulders of dirt, and they are much harder to collect there. We usually head to the river about 8:15 P.M. We were running a little late as we had just gone visiting friends in Alpine. The killer was that the chicken was cooking way slow on the grill and the coals were hard to start. It was 9:20 when we came down from the cabin. The river road was cloudy and there was lightning striking to the West and South. I was thinking that maybe it would stir some movement. It was hot at 91 degree's at the cabin. Not worth making a few passes here with that temperature. I hit the pavement, floored the gas, went about 30 feet and hit the brakes. I had just swerved to miss an alterna in my lane. I got out, ran back 20 feet and picked up the alterna, and then proceeded to do the alterna dance as the snake was biting me. It felt good to be bitten. My first Christmas mountain and I was not even hunting the Christmas mountains that night. Hunted the river road until 6:30 A.M. and myself and noone else found another alterna. The temps got perfect (84 all night) and we saw at least 50+ snakes that night. Had a great time with a lot of good friends. Even without the alterna it was a success..Ric Blair
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So Ric...what exact night was this because we had heard that you left several nights before we got down on sat. and that weather pattern changed drastically. No one in the time period that we were down saw anything like 50 snakes in one night even with all of .......well you can read my report on here. We heard it came from a close proximity of the wildhorse motel. Anyway, congrats on the alterna.

Chambo

That was on Wednesday night before you got there. Friday night we saw 3 snakes all night and hunted until 3:00 in the morning with the highlight being a copperhead right at Lajitas. Thursday we saw 36 snakes. We caught the snake on Wednesday night. We saw 3 rattlesnakes in just about 10 minutes on 2 passes of the Christmas mountains after catching the snake, and at least 5 on the way to the river road. It hit 84 degrees at about 12:30 and stayed there untill about 5:15. We got in at 6:30 in the morning. We saw noone else out that late. When we got back we saw other cars parked that had gooten in earlier. We saw 3 leps that night. At least 20 night snakes, we found 2 emory's, one with an abherrant pattern. Many hatchling atrox. Longnose and glossy's. It was 2 very fun and interesting nights. Most of the people I talked to were seeing plenty of snakes. There was not the wagon train that was there when you got there. A friend of mine told me there were way too many hunters when you were there. Also, as it say's in my post we exited wildhorse, turned onto the pavement and caught the snake. Everyone teels me, including Norm Nunley that wildhorse is part of the Christmas range. I can be to the south cut in about 2 minutes from wildhorse. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks for responding....Ric Blair

It's there on the raised topo-map in the office of the Wildhorse as well as my not raised topo map. AND the same view is reported by the county appraiser in the pink house just past the not-in-business cafe/RV/gas station on 118. The Wildhorse and south and north for what number of miles I don't know, but it seems 2 mile > ? ( Fraser likes to argue this point ) IS THE WILDHORSE MTS. So to be political correct....but then some have reported that all of the range from so many miles south to north of Wildhorse and including the Wildhorse range are in a sub ( or whatever you would inject here ) or a part of the Xmas. I'm real sure that the owners of the Wildhorse Motel totally disagrees with this. I would say a debate is in order on this subject. Now Comon Ric.....the " wagon train " should of produced more sightings if anything. Or is that what you are getting at ? Like I said ,and of course i have seen this many times> some nights were ideal in pressure, humidity, wind, temp. We were down with several infra temp gauges. one for surface temp and one for air temp. Heck , as you probably know, the climate kept changing on River Road several times during some nights. Of course this also might of depended on how far one went out to. You know, the windmill, just before Panther, On what side of the Big Hill. Actaully one night we were finding more around lajitas out to the movie set and back.

Chambo ( the fact and number guy )

I was not there on the days you were, obviously. The quote "wagon Train" was not mine. It came from Norm Nunley per batem. He went to the river road one night and he told me there were about 14 cars. Again I am just passing on what I was told. I would have suspected the sightings of most snakes went down after I left. It seems best when the temperatures start out in the mid 90's and then drop to about 84 degree's. The one night the temperature stayed at 84 most of the night. I have caught them at 101 degree's and in the 70's (flukes in my opinion, just like the wild horse animal). But the majority were at about 84 degree's. If the temperature gets to about 80 degree's on the river the movement slows down immensely. I have hunted the River Road since 1981 and would spend 2 weeks in the summer and 2 in the fall. The 84 degee mark is by far the optimum temperature for movement. I have caught over 40 river roads. When the temperature hits 84 my eyes get bigger and my driving speed picks up. Enjoying the dialogue....Ric
P.S. Sometimes I wonder if all the lights and the vibrations from lots of vehicles might keep snakes from coming onto the road. I remember one night I did not see alot moving on the road. It needed some wind. A big factor also. Keith Carlson walked off the side of the road at panther canyon and was seeing lots of gecko's, a suboc and an alterna. I think they stay close to the rocks at the right temps and the winds help to disperse them. Also the threat of pending storms seems to shake them loose. You may already know most of this but other readers may like to hear it. Also, do you always hunt at the start of the new moon? I like to hunt when there is no moon most of the night. Starting about 12 days prior to the new moon. Even a sliver of a moon seems to slow things down from my experience. Long P.S., huh.

If Nunly was like driving that what ever tractor type thing some years ago out there, I would say he was catching his fumes and hallucinating. At no time and no where was there over 10 vehicles. In fact the most in one night on RR was a combined total of 7-8 with maybe one van hugging 118. AND on several nights only 3-4 of us. With the constant vibrations of vehicles, I have wondered if this would effect the close-in proximity of the almost to road shoulder cuts. Like the narrow area after Panther out towards the windmill and the area of Lajitas. But then again, and Joe Forks can verify this, there were some times that it certainly dodn't seem to have an effect. Who knows. Here is another observation that ( Ric and others before or after ) may not of witnessed. Very few snakes were taking advantage of the pavement heat. Almost all was moving and seemed just passing through and the road way was just an obstacle they were crossing and not staying on. Yes even though almost all alterna that I have found on road was always moving, but subocs, atroxes and other venomous not doing their thing on the pavement ? But let's not forget how many target snakes were seen.....even though no alterna............

Chambo ( the fact and number guy )

Hey Ric,

Long time... 85?

Anyway, Wildhorse Mountain is right there along the roadway right behind where you stayed. It's about 2.5 mi north of Willow Mountain which is also right along the roadway. Most folks consider them Mountains in the Christmas Mts. They would be the west edge of them. They run down to the north edge of Rough Run Wash. Most maps list the Christmas Mts. just to the NE of Wildhorse Spring. I lived there for quite a while and most everyone referred to the north & south cuts and Wildhorse station area as part of the Christmas Mts. I am familiar with Wildhose Mt, but not the Wildhorse Mts?

Cheers, Hugh

n/p