Jane levitated -- that's the best way to describe it -- turning 180-degrees in mid-air and vaulted back down the trail, touching down only twice before crashing into me.

The lady had only the sketchiest of outdoors education before falling in love with and marrying her Jim Bridger wannabe. Then motherhood at a too-early age snuck up on us.

The point here is that my 19-year-old wife, at this point in her life, was very, very much an outdoors novice. That's why, as we left our car, I told her I'd heard this was rattlesnake country. "I've never seen one during either of the other times I've been here, honey. But be aware."

It's entirely possible that my advice had not yet sank in when she paused to get her breath at the block from the windthrown fir. But when she placed her hand on the log, it all came flooding back.

For his part, the cross-hatched snake had slithered to this choice trailside location and coiled, raising his fangs, preparing to strike at the first juicy morsel to hop along the trail. (Later, I made fun of Jane because she apparently failed the rattlesnake's "juicy-enough" test) The rattler was of course hidden from any animal ascending the trail. Neither did he have to peer around the log to know something approached since the heat-sensors, called "pits," on each side of his face told him as much about his prey as he needed to know prior to engagement.

Venomous snakes with movable fangs and heat-sensing pits are called, "pit vipers." Rattlesnakes mate in the spring in warmer climates, or in the fall in colder regions. Females may retain sperm within their oviducts for a considerable time and bear successive litters without additional matings. Gestation is usually five to seven months and can be influenced by climate.

All rattlesnakes bear their young live, averaging from eight to fifteen at a time. Females may reproduce every year, but in colder regions they may bear young only once every two years. They reach sexual maturity at about three years and have lived in captivity for over twenty.

That first time out, Jane proved so effective at rattlesnake detection that I gave her a lifetime appointment to serve as our family's CDRD (Chief Designated Reptile Decoy).

Over the years she's proven very effective in performing her duties, such as the one hidden in marsh grass on the Charlie Russell Game Range; the one she discovered shaded under the same boulder where I sat to eat my lunch.

Despite all my best efforts to teach co-existence, Jane still persists in dancing each time castenets start rattling at ankle-level!

 

Next week? Another walk on the wild side.