Dan's business card:

Dances with Snakes

Dan Lundy and I spoke at the December booksigning party and discovered that we both liked hiking in the mountains behind LA, so we said let's get together for a hike. Finally, on July 1, we did.

What a great hike it was. I brought a couple of other friends, Alfonso and young James. The plan was to take the tram up to the top of the ski lift, then hike to the summit of Mt. Baldy, highest peak in the San Gabriels. But when we got to the ski lift we ended up just hanging out for half an hour . . . nothing was moving. After awhile, the guy came and said they couldn't run because of a dispute with the forest service.

Dan checked his map, and we decided to try Icehouse Canyon, a little further down the mountain. The hike follows a mountain stream, still flowing strongly, then climbs about 3.5 miles to the saddle at 7600'.

The weather was perfect, the conversation and scenery were superb. But best of all were the snakes.

Before we saw any, we talked about them. Dan's a snake man. He loves them and knows about them: Their Latin names, their ranges, their habits, their moods.

We saw four snakes on that hike, more than I've ever seen on one hike. And with this one, a three-foot Southern Pacific Rattler, you would have to say that we communed. It was so cool!

It was just after we started down. Some guys were standing on the trail, watching it. We went down for a closer look. It never got alarmed, just slowly slithered down the hill.

Dan got a stick, lifted it slightly, let it glide over his hand. What a thing to see.

Alfonso videotaped it. I grabbed these pictures off the tape.

Later, Alfonso, James and I watched the video. We agreed that Dan has a mountain name: Dances with Snakes.

Peter Rashkin