Outdoors

TheReyiew Wednesday, March 27,1991 — Atl

It was early moming but already
the sun was beating down upon the
Mojave Desert of southern Cali-
formia, raising the temperature
sharply from the decided! cool of
the night before.

In the distance, a chain of
desert-blue mountains rested upon
a horizon, beginning to shimmer
with visible heat waves.

Close at hand, the varied sparse

cover of mesquite, rabbit brush,
yellow flowered creosote bush,
grey sage and silver needled cholla
dotted the fine yellow sand.

The strident calls of cactus

wrens and curved bill thrashers
punctuated the the otherwise quiet
air.
It was good to be back on the
desert again, hiking along with
light packs, wondering what we
might tum up. Mary was on Cloud
Nine.

“Do you really think it was fair
to lie to that man back there?”
Mary asked.

“Sure, we made his day.”

A bit earlier, we had just parked
our van by the roadside and were
about to strike out when a big
black limo pulled up and the
driver rolled down his window.

We were dressed for the desert.
Faded blue jeans, slouch hats,
Sweat-stained, that we’d used for
years, our old desert boots with
grey socks splaying out of the

a Uppers.

I hadn’t shaved for two weeks
and I’d forgotten to see the barber
before we left B.C. Mary’s frayed
shirt tail was hanging out and she
had a faded thing around her neck
in case the sand started blowing.
License plates of the limo said
New York.

“You wouldn’t happen to be
desert rats?’ the driver asked
hopefully, I thought. He was
squinting in the strong sunlight.

“Damn right,” I said, spitting at
an imaginary lizard running by.

“Say, I have always wanted to
see a real desert rat,” he said.
“Mind if I take your pitcher?”

| “Hell, no. But if you'd like to

hike two, three miles back of that
hill there, you could git us with our
burros and prospectin’ stuff.” He
didn’t look the hiking type.

“Not necessary at all,” he said.

“I'm not interested in tangling
with those diamond back rattlers
I've read about. But I’d like to take
your pitcher.”

“Shoot ’er, then,” I said, screw-
ing up my face real good. He shot
“er, rolled up the window; and
drove off. :

- “You're incurable,”” Mary said.

We did see a snake that day, And
much more. We were making our
way up a sandy wash with some
vegetation along both sides when
Mary sang out, “Look at that pale
snake coiled up there!”’

It’s light color made it a sidew-
imder, We could see the upright
scales above the eyes and a few
Tattles on the tip of the tail.

“Lets move around to the other
side and maybe he’ll move off over
that clear patch of sand. I’d like to

NS

SIDEWINDER SNAKE

A SPECIAL SUNDAY 6

JOIN US FOR...

see the way they move sideways
again, rather than forward.”

We did that and in a few minutes
the snake dropped its head and tail
and began to cross the open area
towards the mesquite on the other
side. His locomotor pattern was
certainly unique in the Animal
Kingdom.

Only two short sections of the
sidewinder’s body were in contact
with the earth as he moved, a piece
maybe a quarter of the way back of
the head and the other about the
same distance forward of the tail-
tip.

Head, tail and the loop in the
centre area were held high. Resting
on the rear point of contact, he
threw the forward point to the side
and then rested on it while moving
the hind point sideways.

CY HAMPSON photo

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Spinning yarns with a desert at se syscive joe ase

on the front contact point. In this
way he left two parallel trails in the
sand and finally vanished beneath
a stand of mesquite.

“Boy, that was exciting!’’ Mary
said. “I wonder why they move

like that.”

“Maybe because the sand is so
very fine that they can’t pile it up
to push against, the way other
snakes do. I’ve read that sidewin-
ders only occur in areas where the
sand is very fine.”

Pit a big bounce

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7111 West Saanich Rd. 652-2131 Brentwood Bay

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