Did three of the more technical trails there: 5 oaks, Rockit and Lynx. With filming I was there almost 6 hours! FUN! 
Along the way I met a rather interesting “local”, got comments from a “dumbstruck” mtber, and a few bails at the end. I always appreciate your comments, whether positive or otherwise! 
im a wuss.
id never pick up any snake. maybe a grass snake.
Haha, it was only a gopher snake and most are pretty docile and easy to handle. I know all the snake breeds and which ones are poisonous, and have also “rescued” plenty of rattlers by putting them back, deep into the brush.
I love animals in general, and just didn’t want to see it run over since there were so many mtbers there that day. Besides, trails would quickly become overrun with rats & mice without snakes to eat them!
lol, my only encounter with a rattlesnake was when i was riding this trail, and at the last second i noticed it stretched out across the trail, and i fell backward right on my tailbone and then got up real quick and ran back a few feet, lol. shoulda had it video, it would have been funny.
when i turned back around it was slitherin away. never rattled though, so i guess it never thought i was a threat.
Ouch! Yeah sometimes they don’t rattle; usually when it’s cold and they haven’t warmed up or aren’t fully awake yet, or are too young to have sufficient rattles to make much noise, if at all.
The babies are also harder to spot, and can easily be more dangerous since they cannot control their venom output like adults, which can lead to them releasing much more venom than an adult. Adults will only bite when they sense they are threatened, cornered or to catch prey. They instinctively want to save their venom and use it only when necessary.
Btw, Gopher snakes will often mimic rattlesnakes by vibrating their tails against dry brush, in an effort to ward off potential threats from people and other animals. Unfortunately, some very heartless people will kill—or try to kill–what they suspect is a rattlesnake (or any snake for that matter) out of pure ignorance or some kind of twisted satisfaction that they are somehow doing something good, or just for “sport”. Often they are just sick S.O.B.'s. Sometimes they get bitten in the process and learn a good lesson. Serves them right! 
I love snakes. Thank you for not running over it and moving it to safer ground.
How do you get to the top of where you are riding? Is there a fire road or do you ride up the way you ride down? It looks like fun but I wouldn’t be able to ride up most of those rough ascents.
Many trails there are done mostly for DH, and are either shuttled or hiked up, since there is a great deal of bumpy, technical rock gardens.
I don’t really like shuttling and would rather hike-a-bike up and ride down, as I did here. I started at the top of 5 oaks, after a short ride up from the car, then after an exhilarating DH ride to the bottom, rode a short, mostly flat section to the base of Rockit. Then I hiked up most of it, sessioned the fun sections near the top, then rode back up to cholla, and dropped into Lynx, than Coyote canyon back to my start point.