Well…politics is rife with the normal repub crap of giving corporations and the rich more tax cuts while they take the food out of the mouths of the unemployed and poor…but, that is not what I want to talk about right now…I have been concerned about the lack of butterflies and grasshoppers on the trail this year when there were clouds of them last year…well…at least the grasshoppers have finally come back…and in almost as large as the ones from last year…it was really funny this morning when, for almost the entire run, they were swarming and hopping as I rode by with may of them hitching a ride on my t-shirt…pretty neat but much later than last year…the swarms were present last year in July and August…I wonder if it will have an effect on next years swarm with them being so late…one other thing…saw the biggest garter snake in my life yesterday trying to cross the trail…must have been 2 feet long and a good inch or more in diameter…and really, really slow…I could have just reached down and picked it up….cool stuff…