So, now to devour the wordage in the title of my blog posting, "closed". Yes, no more hikes for me/us this year. So a friend of mine and all of our boys went up for a short hike on a fun day of no school. S. Stink asks as he starts to become motionless in the back seat of the car drive headed to the mountain, "Mom, are there snakes out here?" In which I reply, " Yes of course, but they are hibernating honey." So then and there he makes it very clear he doesn't want to see one... at all, and becomes cautious but confident from moms reassurance. That starts our hike. We are headed in to our trail not even 5 minutes and ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch as us girls look over and 2 feet away from my friends foot was a coiled up rattlesnake "ch-ching" away ready to strike. So we scream in sync (as hard as we can) and I ran as fast as I think we both could. The boys turn around and look at their probably pale mothers with their wide eyes wondering what on this God made mountain was going on. Thankfully they were a smidgen ahead of us. That was certainly the end of that distance though... at least for Stink. He was glued to the hip of mom sorting through each bush on our path along the trail. That was another moment when I am thankful for my blackberry as I pulled up the list of what to do when bitten by a snake and the number for poison control... just in case. So that was enough, enough for me to say season closed. 
