I have been seeing black rat snakes more regularly on the C&O canal towpath ever since I started bicycling there – which is only more recently. I think I see more snakes when biking just because I cover a lot more distance on the trail than when on foot. The black rat snake is actually a very common denizen of the woods in these parts. They are easily recognizable from the color and the white patch underneath. They can grow quite long. They are supposed to be quite harmless but I have not tried to find out if this is true! They get their name because they eat rats and other small creatures.
I had seen only one black rat snake on the trail this year until yesterday, which is somewhat unusual for a biking season. But that changed yesterday. There was something about the morning that seemed to bring them out into the open in larger numbers.
I am usually on the lookout for anything black that lies across the trail when I ride. Many are the times that I have been fooled into thinking that a fallen branch from a tree lying across the trail looked like a snake! And when you are on a bicycle, the distance between you and the “snake” tends to vanish very quickly. You do not want to ride over the snake.
But I did see a real snake a few miles into the ride yesterday. At first I could not make out which direction is was headed in. A closer look revealed that it was beginning to cross the trail.
I think I disturbed it enough that it might have changed its mind about crossing the trail.
I did not have time to take a picture the second time I ran across a snake. There were two old ladies approaching from the other direction on their bikes, and the black snake was in the middle of the trail. I stopped and noted that there was a snake in front of them. They had not noticed it, and they did not understand me the first time I pointed out the snake. Luckily, they grasped what I was saying in time to avoid riding over the reptile. I think it was sufficiently disturbed by the traffic all around it. “You scared the darned thing”, I said to the women as they rode off behind me. Not very polite… (In any case, I crossed paths with the women once again on my way back and we exchanged pleasantries. No issues…)
As if these encounters were not enough, I saw yet another black rat snake by the side of the trail further along in the ride! This time I stopped for pictures.
In all cases yesterday, the snakes actually stayed quite still while I approached them on the bike, and while I was scrambling around with my camera. This was in contrast with what happened the one time I saw one of these snakes earlier this year, when it was making haste across the trail to slither away into the grass.
I did not not see any more snakes on the way back from Whites Ferry, which was my destination for the morning.
This is also the week that I am trying to jump start my running routine once again in order to get my regular exercise. This is the first time after the Pittsburgh to Cumberland bike ride. The once-a-week bike rides that I have been up to recently have not been doing too much for me. I either need to bike more or add something different into the mix.
I am learning a few more things about the body in the quest to adapt my exercise routines. The last time I shifted from biking to running (after my bike ride in 2016), I felt so much discomfort that I thought I was having an episode similar to the ones I had had in 2008 that led to the discovery of CAD. This year, for the first time, I had a wristwatch that kept a track of the heartbeat while running. It turned out that my heartbeat went up quite significantly the moment I started jogging, and it went up to a rate much higher than what it is when I am biking. Pushing the muscles in any part of the body, even the heart, out of its usual comfort zone for the first time in a while is bound to create a reaction of some kind. Best not to overdo it. I expect that this discomfort will go away if I stick to the running routine. In fact, I did not feel it once I had warmed up. I also found myself quite rusty with regards to the running routine itself, tripping over the roots of trees that lie across the trail in the woods much more frequently than I am used to doing. It is easy to lose touch with things.
Splattered Brains 