Hello from (adjective) Utah! :)

[Zephyr]

I've been out here for about a day now... The area I'm staying at is in the mountains. I have scoured the tops of the highest peaks (Hey, 1,500 more feet up than this is pretty high!) and checked the local lake: NO SNAKES.
I am so ANGRY.
My Uncle says he saw a racer a week or two ago; there are boards, rocks, and etc on his and the adjacent property. I checked as much as I could before I was chased off. (Not by humans... DAMN WASPS. D< )
Tomorrow we head to the mountain streams, and I'm going another 2,000 feet up to a pine forest. Note, most of this is just feet from his house. :P
Don, I don't know how you find snakes here. It's all too hostile! XD
((In case you're wondering, we're at... Maybe 3,000-4,000 feet up in the mountains already!))

[Loren]

Sounds like fun to me! You know, I have been all over my home state looking for herps, with some very sucessful trips and some where I pretty much got skunked- but one thing I have learned is that you need to be able to enjoy the hunt either way. Make sure you take the time to enjoy those mountains(and hopefully a lack of people, particularly the stupid ones), whether or not you see any snakes. :)
Of coarse it will be alot cooler if you do find some snakes!

[Snake lover 3-25]

make sure you yake lots and lots of pics!!!!!!:D

[ssssnakeluvr]

yea, it can be a pain to find stuff here sometimes...gotta look in the canyons and around the streams. I just got a trio from central Utah near Orangeville (story and photos to come later)

[drache]

don't give up Kyle - good herping to you
and like Loren said - enjoy the place either way

[anji1971]

Yes, it does sound like a beautiful place!
Take lots of pictures for the Nature Photography thread!:)

[Lori P]

I'm still thinking of all the adjectives he could possibly mean... "wonderful, sunny, gorgeous, happy, windy..." :D:D

[ssssnakeluvr]

I'm still thinking of all the adjectives he could possibly mean... "wonderful, sunny, gorgeous, happy, windy..." :D:D
don't forget HOT!!!!!! :eek:

[Garter_Gertie]

Stunning, fabulous, different, gods' country, exciting, enticing. best-kept-secret...

[Lori P]

Hmph, hot... I'm in Va. where it's 100 degrees with 200% humidity. You can't scare me. LOLOL (Or maybe it just feels like 200% humidity!!)

[ssssnakeluvr]

LOL!!! yes, it's a dry heat here....get teh occasional humididty....small storm rolls thru, dumps a lot of rain for a few minutes and clears of....then we get humidity...for a little while anyway!

[Lori P]

I actually really enjoy the heat. On the rare times the humidity is down here, I can stay out forever in it. But that humidity just zaps ya... we were out all day yesterday fixing fences and omg, I felt like I'd been run over by a truck by the end of it. And I was just teasing you Don, hot is hot no matter what!!!

Back on subject, I do wish you luck seeing some snakes, Kyle! I want to see pics!!!

[Zephyr]

Yes.
YES.
YES!!!
LAst week we struck snakey gold! A few miles down the mountain and near a stream next to a golf course I rounded up my first T. e. vagrans! Don, I dunno what kinda snakes you've been finding, but these guys all had fluorescent stripes. I rounded up about 10 of them, snapped pics and let them go. A day or two later we left for San Diego; checked out some tidepools and rocks *Damn those line shore crabs...* And on the edge of Cataloma peninsula thing I ran into some odd little lizards. I caught two babies and missed a whole bunch more including adults; not sure on the species. I missed pics though. x.x
Anyways, the next day we prepped for tuna fishing 60 miles off the coast. I caught a sea bass and some other odd fish with a stick, a hook, and a line from the coast minutes before we left.
Then after a day on the boat, I landed my first tuna! To any of you who have never caught your first tuna... Make sure you don't mention it. 30 seconds after I pulled the sucker in they deckhands grabbed a knife, cut the thing open, pulled out the heart... I think you can fill in the blanks as to what I did. lol
The good news is I'm a bonafied tuna fisherman now. :P
So yesterday we got back to Utah, I climbed the mountain across from the house and claimed it for a friend. :)
Then today we went back to the spot where all the snakes were. I lost track of all the snakes I saw/caught! All with pics, of course. When I decided I'd caught enough, I said "One more and we'll leave." That one more came from a tree limbed a few inches from my face. I peeled the bark away and found 5 wandering garters tucked tight under it!
So, I let all of them go except for a pair; A male with a fluorescent stripe and lemon color all over and a female with a lighter stripe but distinct checkerds.
Also, I've been posting so little because most of the comps I've had access to have dialup. x.x
So pics and the whatnot when I get home, and make sure everything's still alive, on Tuesday! :)

[crzy_kevo]

wow congrats kyle sounds like a very productive trip

[jitami]

Sounds like your'e having a blast Kyle! Can't wait to see the pictures... and get an update on "my" babies :)

[anji1971]

Kyle, your trip sounds like so much fun! (barring the tuna heart incident........yuk.)
Looking forward to all those pics!:)

[drache]

Kyle, oooh - you lucky guy
that sounds fantastic
I guess the adjective has changed
can't wait to see the pics

[adamanteus]

Sounds like you're having fun, Kyle!

[ssssnakeluvr]

Cool!!! glad you are finding snakes!!!! did you get to see one of our lovely thunderstorms???? roll in when its 95 degrees out, dump rain for about 10 miinutes and leave...kicking the darn humidity up for a few hours.... other than the tuna incident it sounds like a lot of fun!!!!!!

[zooplan]

Very interessting news, Kyle.
It would be nice to remember all the new vocabulary tomorrow,
that I had to search for today.;)
So I´m excited for the photos, that need no translation:D

[Stefan-A]

Looking forward to seeing some pics of your adventures, Kyle. ;) :D

[Sid]

Your trip sounds like lots of fun, Kyle. Glad it has turned out nice.

[Zephyr]

As for right now... Just got home and checked my snakes and whatnot. Everything looks okay; I found a new food item that the garters in the pen like. (Anchovies and sardines! :) ) The only bad thing that has happened is... Seeing as not even my parents or friends would feed the roaches, they decided to start munching on the screening on their tanks... Hence a few have a escaped. x.x So tomorrow I've got to do an overhaul of all my roach tanks. D':
Also, my parents mixed my two butler's litters. x.x
But oh well. Other than that, every one's looking pretty good.

[anji1971]

Ahhhh, parents.
No matter how hard you try to train them, it just never quite works.;):D

[Zephyr]

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/3167/img0779lc8.jpg
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/2350/img0974fw8.jpg
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/5976/img0981bn9.jpg
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/3330/img0992gw9.jpg

And finally, the pair I kept. :)
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/350/img1002ro4.jpg

[count dewclaw]

Nice pair! Sounds like you had a great trip.

[adamanteus]

Nice snakes, Kyle. Quite different from most of the vagrans we see on the forum.

[reptileparadise]

Very nice finds!
I happy to see you're keeping two fairly young animals. :D

[Zephyr]

Very nice finds!
I happy to see you're keeping two fairly young animals. :DI did find two gravid females (one is pictured) and my uncle tried to get me to keep them, but I knew that if I took even one there'd be a drop in the number of snakes in the area. I knew how hard it was for me to find a suitable locale with snakes; I didn't want it to be even harder for some one else.

[GartersRock]

Cool! Those all look just like mine from Don!

[ssssnakeluvr]

yes, they look pretty much like typical vagrans from this area....