Snake Anyone?

So this memorial day was a little different for me! Typically, I stay at my parents house, sleep in, wake up and eat a good breakfast, visit graves, have a bbq at the Welch residence and then do whatever tickles my fancy.

Well this year I decided to spend the day in Ogden. My friend Ryan asked if I wanted to go for a hike seems neither of us had to work. So of course I was excited to take a break and enjoy the day!

As we started hiking neither of us really knew where we were going but knew which peak we wanted to make it to the top of. Ryan is what you could consider somewhat of a 'mountaineer' :) he's just good at life. Anyway, I say that because as we were hiking the only way up was to bolder up some cliffs. I'm not very good at this and he is! I like to think of myself as a brave little chica but while I was bouldering I had to keep saying to myself, "I'm not afraid of heights, just DON'T look down!"

Making my way up to the top of a cliff that was about 15 to 20 feet with Ryan right behind me, I was still convincing myself that I'm not afraid of heights and that it didn't bother me that if I slipped I could be seriously injured or dead :) I was reaching the top and as I pulled myself up honestly no exaggeration (which I know I tend to do) one foot away, yes, that is correct ONE FOOT away from my FACE was indeed a rattle snake!!! Calmly I came down a little bit, turned to Ryan and said "Um... there's a snake." He of course had to see it for himself. So with a little maneuvering he was able to climb up a bit and see the snake with his own eyes! "Yeah, you weren't kidding!" He said. "That's definitely a snake!"

Keep in mind we are hanging on a cliff! We can't just jump down and of course the dang snake made it so we couldn't just climb up either! We're a little stuck! At first we think maybe throwing something up there will make the snake move but thank goodness our common sense kicked in! And it occurred to us that the snake would probably strike us. The last thing I wanted other than to fall off of the cliff was to have a rattle snake latched onto my face!

We end up strategically climbing back down the cliff and making our way up a different route which included more bouldering, finding hawk eggs, walking across tracks of a very large kitty cat, catching lizards, stepping on cactus and many other surprises. We were hiking for about two more hours after our snake incident and had finally made it to the top peak. We stayed there for a bit admiring the beautiful view and the awesome weather we were blessed with then started to make our way down. We figured the figured the safest way down would be back where the snake was. (I know that seems crazy and ridiculous but it truly was the safest way down.) So, going back down the mountain we are hoping that our dear snake friend is gone. But no, he is definitely there to greet us! Ryan decided to get a big stick that was about 8 feet long and try to flick the snake off of the mountain. This was a little more tricky than it sounds. I guess for some reason he didn't want to get flicked off?! :) Finally Ryan was able to get the snake off and we were able to make the climb down.

When we got to the bottom we saw the snake looking a little mangled. We both felt bad just leaving it there to suffer so we went over to put it our of it's misery. Ryan got a big rock and with the stick he coaxed the snake into moving away from the cliff. With the stick he was able to hold down the snake. He had me take over holding the snake down. So, imagine with me... here I am doing my best to hold this rattle snake down with a stick while it is HISSING and RATTLING at me moving it's body trying to STRikE over and over while Ryan is trying to get the snake straightened out to kill it! Um... YIKES! I'm yelling "AH, hurry up! Just kill it! AH, hurry!" Finally he slams the rock on its head and kills it! Phew!

He takes a sharp rock and saws the head off while I'm holding the body down with a stick, blood and snake guts are all over and the body is still squirming! Enough to make a girl gag! We get the body propped up on a stick I fling the body to wrap it around the stick and spray blood all over Ryan. (Whoops!) Yes, we carried the snake body down the mountain and picked up some cactus for later too.

That is right friends... I would be able to survive in the wilderness! I've proven myself! We took the snake and cactus to Ryan's house and had ourselves a little memorial day bbq! Gross, revolting, disgusting... I know! We skinned and gutted our snake, plucked and peeled the cactus and grilled it all up! Lets just say I did not have much of an appetite, ESPECIALLY after we found a slimy furry mouse digesting inside the snake!

Just for the record snake is not all that great and neither is cactus!