A “Relaxing” Weekend – Pt. 3: Paranoid Hiking

[Part 1] [Part 2]

Trigger Warning: Here there be dragons. Or, at least, serpents. Elizabeth, you’ve been warned.

Having survived the Great Coax Caper and the Putrid Possum Pestilence, we were looking forward to a relaxing hike on the newly-christened Horseshoe Creek Trail with The Nephew, his wife, and their dog Sophie. (I briefly introduced the Trail in this novel-length post from last December.) So, at mid-morning on Saturday we caravanned up to the south trailhead, which is at the end of the winsomely-named Mausoleum Road.

You get to the trailhead by way of Mountain Dew Road, a steep and winding street that meanders through neighborhoods interspersed with the typical Texas Hill Country scrub woods. As we neared the Mausoleum Road turnoff, we encountered this lovely beast stretched out across the pavement:

I jumped out of the truck and cautiously (an understatement) approached the snake, and snapped a few photos. I estimate it was about 3-3 1/2′ in length, but what was most striking (pun intended) was the thickness of its body. Rattlers tend to be this way, but some who have seen this photo suggest that this one was either pregnant or had just eaten a large meal. In any event, this was not only the first rattlesnake we’ve seen in the four years we’ve been coming to Horseshoe Bay, but also one of the largest we’ve encountered, period. A closeup of the non-business end of the snake clearly shows nine rattles plus a button…not a record by any means, but still a pretty good noisemaker. (By the way, contrary to popular belief, you can’t judge the age of a rattlesnake by the number of rattles; they add one each time they shed their skin, but they might shed multiple times in a year.)

The snake paid us no mind, and didn’t move until we got back in the truck. At that point, I had to make a decision regarding its fate. Had it been in an absolute wilderness with no homes or public trails around, I probably would have let it go, but in this case it was (1) moving toward the trail we were about to hike, and (2) fairly close to a number of houses. So, I chose to inflict Death by Michelin on the serpent. I’m never happy about having to kill an animal, but this one had the obvious potential to do serious harm to humans and their pets.

We proceeded to the trailhead, determined to do the planned hike, but you can bet that the thought of encountering more of these rattlers was at the forefront of all our minds. Horseshoe Creek Trail is not particularly challenging, but at this time of the year, it’s covered with leaves and it passes over and through rocky terrain that provides perfect camouflage for snakes. I led the hike and didn’t really see much on the first leg other than the ground immediately in front of me, trying to make sure we weren’t stepping on anything hazardous to our health. Relaxing? Well, not really.

Fortunately, we didn’t come across another snake, but my singleminded attention to the ground almost resulted in an even worse encounter.

We came to a rise in the trail, a section that required stepping onto some rocks, and at the last second, I looked up just in time to see a Big. Honkin’. Spider (!) drop down at eye-level. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a classic case study in arachnophobia, and this freaked me out way more than that rattlesnake.

The spider had stretched its web completely across the trail, a distance of at least four feet, from a tree on one side to a bush on the other. Had I not seen it in time, I not only would have had a spider on my face, but I would have been wrapped in a web, and I think we all know what that leads to.

In my mind, every spider is named Shelob.

I may have screamed like a little girl, just the tiniest bit, but we did find an easy detour around this horror, and the rest of the hike was pleasantly uneventful. Here are a handful of photos take along the trail; click on the photos to see larger uncropped versions.

OK, there was one stretch of dry creek bed that contained a startling reminder that perhaps the snake we encountered earlier was just an infant, a mere worm compared to what might inhabit that rough terrain through which we were traipsing:

Is this the skeleton of a harmless deer…or is it more likely the remains of a prehistoric dinoserpent whose descendants still inhabit these hills? You’ll have to decide for yourself; I’m still on spider watch.