Californication

After the first, mellow and shy rain storms of fall the trails in the Bay Area and beyond are in excellent shape: not too sandy, not muddy, just the right amount of tackiness and screaming to be ridden. In addition to that: some nice fall colors and foliage (okay, not at all like back east, but still) and an assortment of interesting creatures that is coming out to enjoy the fresh moisture.

This slimy creature for instance, the aptly named banana slug. Big suckers, and they’re all over the place after some rain. Wikipedia says the second largest slug in the world. Great – you have to watch your step or you’re making a big mess. They’re quite useful though, as they’re decomposers, unlike other species that feed on your garden lettuce.

I had a more interesting encounter a little later:

meet Thamnophis Atratus Atratus, aka the Santa Cruz gartersnake, a fairly harmless water snake.
This was a rather calm fellow, as it was kind of eager to be photographed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 8:18 am and is filed under Bay Area, MTB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.