trip: Black Top Mesa, AZ
author: joebartels
date: Aug 18 2001

We headed out on the Dutchman from First Water TH around 10:17pm to be exact. The theoretical goal was the top of Black Top Mesa five miles in. Snakes don't usually get to me... We must have passed a dozen rattlers buzzing aside the trail. Keep in mind it was pitch dark last night. We could see a very faint outline of Superstition Mountain due to the city lights. We took our lighting equipment usually used for mountain biking on South Mountain.

We came across a half foot cent/milli-pede right off the bat(more on the bat later, j/k) Evertime we'd pass a buzzin rattler my buddy would ask 'IS THAT A SNAKE' I replied... na.. just a locust(of the hearty varitety). After crossing some muddy creek crossing from the down pour the previous night we were closing in on Parker Pass. Then out of the blue my buddy following behind nearly jumped on me. I thought he tripped or something. Then he CALMLY says you just stepped on a snake man. I was like, ya right... Sure enough, looking back, there was a coiled up medium size snake, 3-4 feet long. We mutually agreed to get the fudge outta there!The temp was in the low nineties. It seemed warm until the wind kicked in, then it was ALMOST enjoyable.Although not the best adventure it's cool to see things on the flip side every now and then.