Well…haven’t done a trail update in quite a while but today’s weather and the happenings out there have made one necessary…first off, what a fricking great day! I came back from the ride sweating through my shoes…oh, I’m burying the lead….okay, the snakes…first, on the run through the woods, I almost ran over an 18 inch Garter snake…just missed his head by about two inches and the thought entered my head “cool, first snake of the year” and it made me smile a bit….but then, up the trail a couple of miles, I was looking out about 30 yards or so and, since I had already seen one snake, thought there was another or a stick on the trail ahead….then, I noticed something big coming over my left shoulder, turned and saw a red-tailed hawk diving to skim over the ground at just a couple of feet of altitude and right next to me so close that I could see the feathers on it’s wingtips move…the hawk then stalled, hit what I thought was a stick, and carried another snake into the air; landing on one of the power poles that line the powerline trail. One of the coolest things I have seen in quite a while and it is such a huge cliche’ but it made me feel glad to be alive and there….