Across California: Mojave Rattlesnake

Finally got good connection after two days. We are heading west by northwest across flower fields. Desert candles are now in bloom on inflated stems. We found our water cache of eight gallons set by Tom some days ago exactly on GPS target.

A big sonic boom just scared the socks off me. We are just south of the China Lake Naval Weapons center.

We encountered a Mojave green rattlesnake. Tom startled it but did not see it. Madeleine heard it, but its rattle is too high pitched and faint for Tom or me to hear. Mojaves have both a neurotoxin and a hemotoxIn, so they are doubly dangerous.

Madeleine in flower:

Here we find the water cache:

 

-- Cal French

Cal, 74, a member of the Sierra Club for 42 years, is trekking 530 miles to highlight the threatened natural corridors between the Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean. Cal sits on the Sierra Club Santa Lucia Chapter Board. He is blogging from a BlackBerry.