Album The members of backcountrypost.com

What kind of music? Grunge? Campfire singalong? :dance:

Awesome photo, BTW.
 
Last edited:
I gave a pint of blood yesterday so today's hike had to be something short and sweet so that I wouldn't end belly-up on a slope somewhere. So I did a quick hike up Mount Van Cott this morning. We got little snow last night in the foothills and there was a bit of chill in the air this morning. At the top, I showed off my Backcountrypost Credentials with my BCP T-shirt.

So I am curious, if someone receives a pint of Scatman blood, do they suddenly have the desire to wear a kilt? Or perhaps have a craving for Bangers and Mash? :D

No out of sorts grizzlies to report on this one @Rockskipper . :)

01b.jpg
Mount Van Cott

02.jpg
Five deer guided me to the top.

01.jpg
Good guides too

03.jpg
BCP for the normal folks in the house

04.jpg
BCP for the bodybuilders in the house

05.jpg
BCP for the Greek/Roman Gods in the house

05b.jpg
For those of us that don't like to show their faces (including myself).

06.jpg
And last but not least, BCP for the ballerinas in the house
 
Last edited:
I think the guy who gets the pint of Scatblood will probably become a mosquito magnet, which won't bode well with the desire to wear a kilt. Poor bloke.

And I think you invented a new use for the hiking pole - to help stabilize ballet poses.
 
Rockskipper said:
I think the guy who gets the pint of Scatblood will probably become a mosquito magnet, which won't bode well with the desire to wear a kilt. Poor bloke.

And I think you invented a new use for the hiking pole - to help stabilize ballet poses.
Click to expand...


Poor bloke indeed. They my also run out and buy a Yellowstone Map and then inexplicably find themselves hiking through a bog. :scatman: Quite frankly, I'm surprised that ARUP still lets me donate blood.

It does look like the hiking stick is stabilizing me. I had the hiking stick there so that my camera could focus on something close to where I was going to stand. I started off focusing on my day pack, but it ended up cutting the top of my head out of the picture because I had to point my camera closer to the ground. I could barley hold that last pose for eight seconds without falling over. :)

07.jpg
This guy needs help! :help:
 
Scatman under arrest for various shenanigans and other Irish trickery, on Beacon Hill about 11:50 am Mountain Time. A great day for a hike here in Salt Lake City.

IMG_5336.JPG

Saved this little fellow from getting stepped on as he could not get out of the trail. I picked him up and carried him to an off-trail safe location. My good deed for the day has been completed. :)
IMG_5276.JPG

I took a route off of Mount Wire that I had never done before. I followed the ridge along the left side of the Imaged down.
IMG_5384.JPG
 
Last edited:
scatman said:
Scatman under arrest for various shenanigans and other Irish trickery, on Beacon Hill about 11:50 am Mountain Time. A great day for a hike hear in Salt Lake City.

View attachment 70800

Saved this little fellow from getting stepped on as he could not get out of the trail. I picked him up and carried him to an off-trail safe location. My good deed for the day has been completed. :)
View attachment 70801

I took a route off of Mount Wire that I had never done before. I followed the ridge along the left side of the Imaged down.
View attachment 70802
Click to expand...

Uh.... @scatman -you picked it up? What's the name of that snake?
Nice day in Salt Lake City. It's blustery and cold here, but colors are finally turning, I should post a picture too.
 
scatman said:
Scatman under arrest for various shenanigans and other Irish trickery, on Beacon Hill about 11:50 am Mountain Time. A great day for a hike hear in Salt Lake City.

View attachment 70800

Saved this little fellow from getting stepped on as he could not get out of the trail. I picked him up and carried him to an off-trail safe location. My good deed for the day has been completed. :)
View attachment 70801

I took a route off of Mount Wire that I had never done before. I followed the ridge along the left side of the Imaged down.
View attachment 70802
Click to expand...

Bonus points for the serpentine assist [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Titans said:
Uh.... @scatman -you picked it up? What's the name of that snake?
Nice day in Salt Lake City. It's blustery and cold here, but colors are finally turning, I should post a picture too.
Click to expand...

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. :eek:


You can make out the trail that heads to the Living Room, along the opposite ridge of where I came down from.
IMG_5381.JPG
 
Titans said:
Uh.... @scatman -you picked it up? What's the name of that snake?
Click to expand...

Aren't all gopher snakes named Eddie? At least that's what we thought when we were kids. "Look, there's Eddie!"

(I think my Irish uncle, Eddie Murphy, told us that. He also told me I could have Nelie's first foal when she had one. I later learned that Nellie was around 30.)

And congrats, Scatster, you're the first person I've ever known of who's been bit by a gopher snake. :tongue:
 
scatman said:
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. :eek:


You can make out the trail that heads to the Living Room, along the opposite ridge of where I came down from.
View attachment 70806
Click to expand...

Oh my.... @scatman - that's some story! I can't believe you are still picking up snakes...by the way, these snake pictures and stories are not good for my sleep tonight. The Gopher snake looked bigger than 12" in the picture. We had Bull snakes and Rattle snakes in the open space and also our backyard west of Denver. Luckily I never saw them... but Rick saw a big Bull snake come out from a stone wall we had just a few feet from the patio door. We had rattlesnakes further up on the property. One day I saw Rick and a friend venture out in sandals to the back of the property and I said "let's see how long it takes them to get back from there".... seconds later I saw them both jumping up an down and then running back after they first heard and then saw a big rattlesnake. I was told Bull snakes are good - they keep the rattle snakes away... True or? (@Rockskipper ?)
On a reef on "Little Cayman Island" they had a few "tame" Groupers. Usually we touched nothing under water.... but these 2 groupers would come right up to us to get stroked. They were especially thrilled if you helped them hunt some squirrel fish, apparently tasty to groupers....
 
I've always heard that bullsnakes keep rattlers away, but I don't know if it's true, but I do know they keep mice away. :)

Cool story about the groupers (now I have to go look up what they are).

Yikes! They make snakes look cuddly:

250px-Epinephelus_malabaricus.jpg
 
Last edited:
Titans said:
Oh my.... @scatman - that's some story! I can't believe you are still picking up snakes...by the way, these snake pictures and stories are not good for my sleep tonight. The Gopher snake looked bigger than 12" in the picture. We had Bull snakes and Rattle snakes in the open space and also our backyard west of Denver. Luckily I never saw them... but Rick saw a big Bull snake come out from a stone wall we had just a few feet from the patio door. We had rattlesnakes further up on the property. One day I saw Rick and a friend venture out in sandals to the back of the property and I said "let's see how long it takes them to get back from there".... seconds later I saw them both jumping up an down and then running back after they first heard and then saw a big rattlesnake. I was told Bull snakes are good - they keep the rattle snakes away... True or? (@Rockskipper ?)
On a reef on "Little Cayman Island" they had a few "tame" Groupers. Usually we touched nothing under water.... but these 2 groupers would come right up to us to get stroked. They were especially thrilled if you helped them hunt some squirrel fish, apparently tasty to groupers....
Click to expand...


Great story Titan! I'm with @Rockskipper on this one, I think I'd rather handle a snake.
 
Rockskipper said:
Aren't all gopher snakes named Eddie? At least that's what we thought when we were kids. "Look, there's Eddie!"

(I think my Irish uncle, Eddie Murphy, told us that. He also told me I could have Nelie's first foal when she had one. I later learned that Nellie was around 30.)

And congrats, Scatster, you're the first person I've ever known of who's been bit by a gopher snake. :tongue:
Click to expand...

Well, I can tell you that your cousin Eddie packed a whale of a punch - or in this case a bite. It was a big snake @Rockskipper . BIG! :frantic:

When you say first, do you mean like the first person on the moon or maybe the first person to free solo El Capitan? Does that mean I am famous? :dance:

Speaking of El Capitan, I saw Free Solo yesterday afternoon and it was quite the show. My palms were sweating and I could hardly watch Alex's ascent without any ropes. Particularly a couple of trouble spots where he had slipped while roped in during his training runs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top