3rd May 2025

I have a bad habit of not seeing snakes in the path until I’m mid stride. We saw four snakes this morning. The first three were juvenile rattlers, which it turns out are more dangerous than their elders as they are yet able to regulate their venom. The fourth snake was a Striped Racer. This one was too quick for me to step over, darting into the bushes as I rounded the corner. Long and slim, black bodied with a yellow racing stripe down its side. 

I blame the beautiful views on this decent for my lack of concentration on the path in front. It really was a beautiful walk. San Jacinto mountain served as a back drop, standing tall overlooking the valley we descended. It’s snow-capped peak looked almost incomprehensible considering the intense heat we were experiencing at not even 10am. The path was lined with boulders and purple and yellow flowers. Sage and California lilacs filled the air with a scent that should be bottled and sold as perfume. 

At the bottom of the descent we got an Uber to Palm Springs. Half way down the trail we had got signal and found that some of our original trail family were zeroing herea. This propelled us down the mountain at record breaking speed. An hour later we were reunited with Drizzle and Chapstick, drinking Prosecco out of plastic cups sat at the poolside with pizza on its way.