It is a small Gopher Snake (some refer to it as a Bull Snake). It was about twelve inches long and a tad smaller in the middle as my little finger. It was lucky I didn't step on it The trail at this point is steep sided and at first I just tried to shoo it on with my hand. Every time it tried to makes its way up the trail embankment though, it would slip back down into the middle of it. The first part of the Mount Wire Trail is a popular one and can be crowded. 90% (maybe more) of the hikers are headed to a location called the "Living Room" where someone has made rock furniture out of the red rock and one can sit and look out over the valley to the west. The rest of us, take a right at the intersection and head up towards the summit of Mount Wire. As I realized that he could not make it out of the trail at this location, I heard a large group heading down from the Living Room, so I picked him up and carried him a little ways up the trail, then headed off-trail and let him go.
Here's a funny story for you. Back in 2011, my son and I were doing a reconnaissance hike out near the Great Salt Lake. We were walking along a dirt road when my son almost stepped on a very large Gopher Snake. It was stretched out across the road and not moving. I told Hugh II, "You need to watch where you are going son." He responded, "It's not alive dad." I said, "Oh yes it is." He did not believe me though. So I reached down and started stroking its back and after maybe ten seconds of doing this, he started to stick his tongue in and out. I said to Hugh, "Watch this!" (Famous last words!) And I put my hand down behind his head and tried to pick him up and get him off the road. As soon as I touched him he turned (extremely quickly I might add) and bit me on the finger. A Gopher Snake tends to act very much like a Rattle Snake when disturbed and this one coiled up and shook his tail violently at me. Though Gopher Snakes aren't poisonous, his bite did draw blood and I had a devil of a time getting the bite marks to stop bleeding. The rest of the hike, I pretty much had to hold my arm up in the air to keep my finger from bleeding. I'm sure I was quite a sight. When it bit me, my son started laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. He still gets a chuckle out of it today if one of us brings it up. Clearly, I didn't learn my lesson.
You can make out the trail that heads to the Living Room, along the opposite ridge of where I came down from.
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