Different trails, different Experience,dangerous encounter while Mountain biking

[Giulianna23]

A 3 day mountain biking in Texas:
The first day (Friday) we both have flats at about 4 miles of riding.

The second day (Saturday) when we were getting to know the trails better and starting to get comfortable riding a totally different type of trail we got interrupted by a call from my aunt wanting me to go pick her dog from the Vet so we just rode about 3 fun miles. Then went home and notice my sons rear tire was going flat and located a huge thorn beside several small ones on both tires.

Last day (Sunday) Finally we get to almost do the whole 8 mile trail. we had all the time of the world and even planning on doing a second loop and then I had the most dangerous encounter I ever had in my whole life!... A rattlesnake right in front of me, right there that I couldn't even stop and almost ran over, I had to manouver around and to the side. I don't know how I got away from her and fortunately my son is way slower rider than me and was coming about 30 seconds behind me so I had time to yell at him to stop and turn back. That thing was HUGE!!. We just did 6 miles and couldn't complete the trail. That snake scared the crap out of me , but Big Time!...
We had a lot of fun despite that freaking snake.

How do you people from Texas deal with this situations?... I will be back to visit my aunt sometime in the future but I don't know if I want to go back to that trail. It was really fun..I loved it...but just thinking about having to deal with a rattlesanke again makes me think twice about it. Is it ussual to encounter them on this type of trails?

[thekarens]

Not sure where you were, but the short answer is, "yes." My partner has unintentionally squished one snake of unknown species and almost squished a cotton mouth.

Where we ride they like to come onto the trail to sun. All you can do is try to look ahead.

On the flip side there have been many many rides with no snake sightings.

[Giulianna23]

Not sure where you were, but the short answer is, "yes." My partner has unintentionally squished one snake of unknown species and almost squished a cotton mouth.

Where we ride they like to come onto the trail to sun. All you can do is try to look ahead.

On the flip side there have been many many rides with no snake sightings.

Thats in Lubbock Texas.

I was aware of the terrain ,flora and fauna. I even told my son from the very first day to look ahead just in case...but never thought I was going to see one of those soo darn close. I am glad I didn't tell my son to go in front like sometimes I do.

Another thing is that we got a lot of thorns in our tires and a few flats . Had to get some self seal tubes to be able to keep the tires rolling. Do you guys use a specific kind of tubes or liners to prevent continuos flats?...

My son enjoying the trails

She made sure I remember not to mess with Texas

Me having a blast!

My lovely bike

[thekarens]

Lubbock terrain is a little different from Houston. I run tubeless.

Love the pics!