6/25/04
I just returned home from another washed out yet successful venture out west. On this outing I brought along my brother, Alfredo, who had never been out to west Texas but had always wanted to see “God’s Country” for himself. We left Houston around 10:30 and made our way west through San Antonio. It had rained in the Houston area for more than a week so we were really anticipating some nice clear Chihuahuan desert skies. But, as we expected, the rain seemed to follow us past San Antonio and into Uvalde. Once in Uvalde, we took a detour and headed north to Camp Wood. We were to meet up with my good friends Troy Hibbitts and his wife Marla at their father’s property. I brought along a snake for Troy that our friend Dave Doherty had done surgery on and some supplies that they needed for their saltwater fish tanks. We spent the afternoon looking through the snake collection, being entertained by their 4-year-old daughter, and enjoying some deer steaks that Marla had prepared for us. Thanks again Marla! Dinner was great! Evening came and we said our good-byes before heading back down towards Del Rio for a night of hunting.
As we arrived in town we were greeted with ugly massive thunderstorms. We made our way to the Regency Hotel were we checked the weather channel in the lobby. The rain seemed to be surrounding us and my plan to hunt U.S. Hwy 277 that night was slowly being washed away. Frustrated, we decided to try our luck further west and head towards Comstock. The rain continued as we drove north up Hwy 163. As we neared the S-curves, the rained died down. Although skeptical about what the night had in store we continued on. We cruised past Baker’s Crossing making our way up to the 5 miles north turn around spot. On our way back we ran into Mike Welker from Florida. We chatted for a second before moving on. He had seen a bull snake earlier that evening but nothing since. We turned around just north of the river crossing and walked a few cuts before we deciding to shine. At 11:09, 2 minutes into burning cuts, I spotted a small dark colored snake perched on a ledge some 15 feet off the ground. I did a double take as I realized it was indeed an alterna!!
I jumped from the car and worked my way up the rocks slowly not to spook the little beauty. I took a moment to admire the snake before I gently reached out for it. Like having a flashback to when I caught my first alterna in 2001 I came down off the rocks in total jubilation. Only this time it was not an alterna phase but a beautiful 14” light phase blairs, and a female at that! Still indulged in the “alterna rush”, we bagged the little jewel and pressed on. Working our way back towards Comstock to hunt along Hwy 90 we ran into Jason Penny. He too had only seen one snake that evening. Much thanks to Jason for taking the time to photograph our alterna. Once on Hwy 90, we drove east and west from Comstock to the Pecos River in hopes of maybe finding an annulata whipping across the still wet pavement. We didn’t see another snake the rest of the night and retired to the picnic area west of the Pecos.
6/26/04
When morning came we drove back to Del Rio and checked into the Regency. Late that afternoon, we had lunch and prepared for another night of hunting. We drove up to U.S. Hwy 277 before dark and walked several roadside cuts. Since the ground was still very wet and water could be seen running off the tops of several cuts, we headed up further north. We ran into Troy and Marla again while walking the S. picnic cuts. They had not seen anything either and were also making their way up north trying to avoid the saturated ground. We hunted until 2:00 in the morning, and with all the rain the night before came also the cold temperatures. It was 68 degrees by midnight and slowly dropping. With that, we headed back to the hotel.
6/27/04
We left for Houston a few hours after getting back to the hotel. We did not see any other snakes traveling home but was given a fine welcome back with more rain. Overall we had a great trip. Although I was upset that my brother was unable to see any other snakes, he says that just being out here was a wonderful experience and seeing the joy when I caught that alterna will definitely bring him back again. Now he knows why we are so crazy about those beautiful little snakes!!
Nathan
