The first night in CA Ethan and I went to a few spots around Palm
Springs, and at 1:30 AM while driving up a particularly Long Canyon,
we rolled up on our first snake of the night... a nice looking male
Rosy boa.
The next day we went to the San Gabriels, to a place we could
potentially see both mountain kings, and rosy boas. I was disappointed
to find out that the gate to the road we were hoping to drive up was
closed after a few miles, cutting us off from going above 2000 feet.
After a ~4 mile hike, we decided to head down the mountain, and check
some eastern riverside county localities. However, as we came down the
mountain and around a very cliffy bend we saw a very large snake
stretched out in the left lane. I still couldn't tell what it was when
Ethan yelled "It's a rosy!". It was indeed a very old and war-torn
female San Gabes rosy boa.
We met several of my good friends at the Annual Rosy boa Club and a
few of them gave snakes to both Ethan and I. During the rest of the
trip we hit a whole array of localities (12 I can count off the top of
my head) and we saw a variety of snakes. 1 kingsnake, 3 long nosed, 1
glossy, and 1 Western Diamondback.
Just spending some time with an old friend in some of the most
beautiful areas I've seen made it a very wonderful weekend.
...Of course, it doesn't hurt that we both went home with a few rosy boas.
I added quite a few animals to my collections that weekend, including:
-An adult female Long Canyon rosy boa. She is quite old, but still has lots of life left in her.
-An adilt male Long Canyon rosy. He is one of the better looking Long Canyons I've ever seen. Nice orange.
-A juvinile female hypomelanistic Long Canyon.
-An adult male Yucca valley with really nice orange and tan.
-An adult male Morongo valley that has a really cool brown on tan look. My 4 uear old daughter calls it "bacon".
-An adult male Limburg strain albino. He had a previous injury that left him with only one good eye.
-A huge adult female Nichols road. She is really big and could be gravid.
-An Arizona mountain kingsnake (male 2007 F-2, gardner canyon). I am giving this one to a friend.
I hope to take some new pics of my current collection soon.
Several of my females are now getting REALLY BIG, and could even give birth next month.
There are several other females that I don't think took this year, but should be good and ready by next spring.
