Landfill. The moon was out and providing some I figured it would be a good night to hit the trail. The whole body was dead from the start and never had any energy. Wasnt having a very good run with feeling worn out and kids pissing me off and my car dying and such so I was generally feeling sorry for myself when I had quite a wakeup call. The moon was giving enough light that there where shadows on the dirt road and I came upon one that looked like a large stick across the road. As my foot was on its way down this "stick" started rattling. Of course I tried to jump up but couldnt as I was already on my way down but as soon as my foot hit right next to that "stick" I sprang straight up in the air and twisted around so I was still facing it so see if it was going to strike. Thankfully I think I scared it just as much as it scared me and he wasnt in the mood to fight. The air was starting to cool off so he must have been stretched out on the trail trying to keep warm. I stopped to checked him out for a few minutes (thankfully I had my headlamp in my pocket so I was able to see him better once I turned it on) as he rattled and curled up. He wasnt huge but was still a good sized rattler. Would have been bad news had I been bitten as I was a good 2 miles or more from the nearest house. Finished going up toward the landfill then stopped and checked him out again as I came back by. The rest of the run I was pretty jumpy for some reason. | 