Note from a friend of mine
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Close Encounters -
It was a bit warm in the South Bay today, so James and I went for a nice cool walk along the bay levees near Twin Creeks. The plan was to make a large loop so we end up back where we started but our map is more of a sketch than an actual map.
We walked along trying to get around to the other side of the impenetrable wetlands where the car is parked. In the distance, we can see bikes riding along the levee in the direction we need to go, so there should be a way to get there, but the levee we are on is not exactly heading that way, and then we see a side path that looks like it is a viable shortcut to the levee we need to be on. It looks fairly well travelled with bike tracks and footprints, so off we go.
We walked along the new path, enjoying the cool breeze and the various birds and the approaching sunset, and the path starts to get a bit narrower. Then it starts to run through intermittent patches of some very tall, sturdy, dry grass-type of plant (never a botanist around when you need one). And the patches of the tall grassy plant get taller, and thicker, and the path gets narrower. I'm in the lead walking along and I noticethat the grass has the occasional spider web, and ick, every once in a while I walk through one, but I 'm not seeing any spiders, so it's cool.
We get to a clear section of trail, and we can see that the other levee is close and it sure looks like our trail intersects it. The intersection appears to be just beyond a long stretch of the grassy plant. The trail gets even narrower as it goes through this patch, and the grass is even taller and thicker, but there are still bike tracks and footprints on the trail, so we push onward.
I walk a few paces into the grass - now taller than I am - and there I see it, right at eye level - a large black spider hanging on the grass! I stopped dead in my tracks, and I notice another large black spider just on the opposite side of the trail, and a few more beyond it, and one in the grass right next to my shoulder! I think I teleported behind James, because the next thing he knew he had point and I had him in a death grip from the back, and I don't remember going past him.
We immediately retreated to the clear area on the path, and we carefully examined the pathway ahead. It was full of spiders, big black spiders with very round abdomens with red hourglass markings. We darn near wandered into a black widow colony. I had no idea they hunted in grass like that!
James patiently waited while I had an attack of the heebie-jeebies, and then we turned around and went back the way we came, a bit more cautiously through the tall grass this time, although we didn't see any more black widows.
Makes me wonder, though. What happened to the people that left the bike tracks and footprints on the trail? After all, the spider colony grass is *very* thick and *very* tall....
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You're not alone Kirra, a lot of people have that kind of reaction.
_________________ The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin
"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones
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