Reaching the southern turnaround without any further excitement, we headed back northwards to pick up Steve and Ken.  Coming around a bend on high grade, we saw a large snake on the passenger side, about a foot into the road off the shoulder.  As we passed, we could tell it was a rattlesnake!  It seemed to take forever to bring the Blazer to a halt, and before it stopped I was out and running back to the snake, suddenly realizing that in my excitement I had left my snake hook in the vehicle.  I shouted to Rick to bring snake hooks and a bag as he struggled to get the Blazer completely off the road, and I looked around for a branch or something to contain the snake, a large Northern Blacktail!

The snake was alarmed at my presence and tried to crawl away.  Suddenly I heard the sound of an engine and saw headlights reflecting off the rock cut.  The vehicle came around the curve in the road, and what looked to me like an armored bank truck was bearing down on the Blacktail and yours truly.  Rick was still out of reach by the truck, so without thinking about it, I kicked the rattler off the road with the side of my boot; not the smartest thing I've ever done, but necessary in my mind.  As the truck roared by I was amazed to see it was a Schwan's Ice Cream Truck!  I was used to seeing these large refrigerated trucks back in Illinois, but was certainly surprised to be nearly run over by one in the middle of Nowhere, west Texas.  We later figured out that Schwan's does a lot of business with isolated stores, gas stations and ranches out this way, so our encounter was not the surreal event it seemed to be at first.  At any rate, we had saved the rattlesnake from Death By Ice Cream Truck.

Safely off on the shoulder now, we soon had Mister Blacktail in custody.  The wind was blowing too hard to guide the snake into an open bag, so out of necessity I pinned it down with a hook and picked up the rattler, something I prefer not to do if it can be avoided.  Large fangs viewed by flashlight are both exciting and sobering; Rick held the bag open, and I dropped the rattler into the bag tail first.

As we picked up Ken and Steve from their rock cut work, I nonchalantly advised them to "be careful back in the cargo area - there's a Blacktail in a bag back there" and then shared grins with Rick at the ensuing excitement.  The remainder of the evening's road cruising was uneventful, and far past midnight we headed back to camp.  Our first night's work was productive beyond our expectations, and now we had a big day in front of us - a morning hike in the canyon, and some snakes to photograph!