It's that time of year again...

And once again, it's time for my annual public service announcement. Things are nice a green, but some of that stuff you don't want to touch. "Leaves of three, let it be." I went on a hike last week in Marshall Canyon and came across a lot of very healthy poison oak. The angle is poor in this shot, but those leaves are as big as my hand. I've seen bigger, but not by much. 

As I was walking I encountered another hiker and mentioned about the healthiness of the poison oak and he nodded. I walked up to where I wanted to go that day and then turned around and headed back to my car. The man was still there, apparently taking a nice break on his hike. As I passed he asked me whether I could point out poison oak to him. It was pretty much everywhere, intermingled with some berry bushes, so I was able to show him the difference between the two since berry bushes also have leaves of three, but also have thorns. Yeah, you never stop being a teacher I guess, but I'm happy he asked.

Also, if you're out on the trail, be ever observant for our slithery friends as well. I went looking for a geocache this morning where the cache was hidden in a large rock pile and the only hint said, "in a hole." I found a two foot long stick (probably not long enough) and probed several holes and looked around for while before calling it. The extra find is not worth it in my opinion. So I headed down the trail, got about half way down and turned a corner and there's a snake lying right in the middle of the trail. I wasn't close enough to it and fortunately, it was a small gopher snake, but it could just as easily have been a rattlesnake. The weather's warmer and they're out and about. Be careful out there my friends.