Rattle Snake Etiquette

I enjoy a good hard run. I have always maintained that it will cure a cold, the flu, whooping cough, Liberalism, and many other common maladies.

Sick? Go for a good hard run. A good run of five or so miles gets the old heart rate up and flushes your system of toxins more quickly than a bike ride, unless the bike ride is a six per cent six mile climb at 3,000 feet. When you get oxygen debt, you get close to God, which in itself is therapeutic.

Trouble is, a bike ride takes time if you don't have a life sucking mountain near by. I have no time, and no life sucking mountain.

So I do the good hard run when I am sick, or when I need an attitude adjustment.

Around here in the South OC, there is a great trail that runs from Cook's Corner in the foot hills to the Top of The World on the coast. I run or ride parts of it at least three times a week.

There are side benefits to running the trail. Little blessings from God, I call them. The first time I ran it, I saw an odd looking dog jogging down the trail ahead of me. It had a short tail and orange and black fur. When it ducked off the train and into the brush, I realized it was a bobcat, not a dog. Funny, though, how its gait was just like a dog's.

Another time, I rounded a curve and came across a red tailed hawk, wings spread, feinting at a coiled rattler. The hawk no doubt was timing the snake's strikes, and would hit it on a recoil when it got the timing right.

Trouble is, I was already in both animals' fight or flight zone. The hawk took off, the snake uncoiled and slithered into the brush, and I cursed my lack of a helmet cam.

One little blessing I always enjoy, I mean besides the murders of crows, the buzzards overhead, and the rabbits and squirrels running for cover every few yards, is the mothers and fathers I see jogging with the strollers that are holding their babies. OK, I enjoy seeing the mothers more than the fathers, but what says 'daddy' more than a father willing to take a baby for a jog?

My last run there, I started around 0730 to avoid the social riders and runners who think the paved two lane trail is there so they can run or ride 47 abreast and scare the hell out of solo runners who they meet on curves. I don't know why there aren't more head on crashes. Anyway, I run about a quarter mile on the paved trail, then take a dirt path that circles down by the creek and up over a hump that must be 30 or 40 yards of 11% or 12% grade. I was coming up on the dirt trail when I came upon one of the treats God always has for me.

There was a young woman jogging behind her stroller and she had a dog running with her, a double blessing. I passed her just as the dirt trail came up and as I ran up the little hill at the trail's start I heard some, I don't know, was it yelling? behind me.

I didn't think anyone would be hailing me, more likely it was a group carrying on as if they were driving with a cell phone at their ears, so I kept on.

The dirt trail runs parallel to Aliso Creek, then loops around and ends up rejoining the paved trail at its far end. I always take the paved trail back, using it more as a cool down run than the more rigorous dirt trail. About half way back to the start, I again came across the mom with babe and dog.

As I passed her, I again heard something, only this time I could make out "Rattlesnake" as one of the words. I turned around and could tell it was the woman, and since no one else was around, I figured she was talking to me.

"Pardon?" I said.

"You took the snake trail," she said. "I used to go that way, but I saw way too many snakes."

No wonder she ran with the dog.

"Did you see any?" she said.

"No," I said, "Not today. But, you shouldn't be afraid of them. They are way more afraid of you than you are of them. Besides, you probably saw corn snakes rather than rattlers," I told her. "Look for their tracks. The rattler makes a very pronounced 'S' trail, the corn snake's track is a lazy 'S', more like a slight squiggle in a line than an 'S'."

"Are corn snakes dangerous?" she asked.

"Naw, no poison, and they eat rattlers.... So, well, don't let them keep you from a good jog," I said.

"OK, thanks," she said. "I didn't know all that."

"Oh, you're welcome," I said. "God bless you for being a mom and taking your baby with you. Have a great run."

I took off again, a little faster, a little more energetic.

Personally, I think I got the blessing.....