CK 1 as a boy

The California Kingsnake

I remember as a boy the first time I ever laid eyes on a live California Kingsnake, from that day on I was never the same. I had already found a love for reptiles and would spend hours upon hours at the ditch, an irrigation canal that ran straight through the 17 acre goat farm in Northern California that I was raised on. Garter snakes and “Blue bellies” Western Fence Lizards were my prey. Although I had seen many Gartersnakes on the banks of the ditch, very few ever found there way into my eager hands.

The ditch was surrounded by Blackberry bushes and the snakes knew just how far to leave there spiny fortress to be able to jet back into them without capture. One day while sneaking around a Blackberry patch in pursuit of another Gartersnake I noticed something different, something I had only seen in books. Black and white, not striped but banded . I had read about this snake many times. The king of all snakes and pictures starting flashing into my head. Pictures I had seen of this snake wrapped around and eating a Rattlesnake. My heart was pounding with excitement when I realized I was actually looking at a California Kingsnake. I thought to myself, "maybe I should go get my dad".

I had seen a Rattlesnake a couple weeks back crawl under my granddads chicken coop. I laid on my belly and watched it slither around for a bit before I decided to run and get my dad. My dad my uncle and my Grandpa hurriedly came down to the chicken coop and tipped it on end while my Grandfather would use a rake to scoop out the snake. I could not believe my eyes. I was only gone for a matter of minutes. The snake was gone nowhere in sight. We looked for a good ten minutes while my uncle accused me of being a story teller. My uncle teased me for months pointing at sticks or any object on the ground and saying “watch out Rattlesnake” then laughing. Haha real funny!

My Dad Steve Stephenson tailing a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake

I did not want this snake to be gone as well, so I decided I can catch this snake on my own. I remember laying there what seemed like an eternity, playing out scenarios in my head of how this was going to play out and none of them ended with me the victor. Finally I decided to pounce, leaping through the air I came down right on top of it, almost crushing it with my body. Both hands now grasping the most amazing animal in the world. I pushed my self up with my elbows and stumbled to my feet. Running as fast as I could towards the house screaming “DAD, DAD”

When I got close to the house I saw my father hurrying down the stairs to eagerly examine another stinky Garter Snake. But no, it was a different musky fecal bath I was wearing on my shirt that day, it was the start of an obsession. One that is still with me today.

Me with a Cal King in Yolo Co. California

Me with a Eastern Kingsnake in South Carolina

Now for me the California Kingsnake is an addiction, one that rivals any other addiction. I obsess about Kingsnakes every waking minute. Like other addictions it consumes my every waking moments, and thoughts. My education was severely effected, my younger years I could not focus an any subject, my mind would wonder and every subject turned into a Cal King day dream, which resulted into me having to repeat the seventh grade. My high school days were not much different. During spring and early summer I was stranger to my seat and most teachers thought i was a bad kid. Here I was out in nature looking for reptiles, and my teachers thought I was out in the streets looking for or doing drugs! I never graduated from high school because of my addiction/love of the hunt and seek for Cal Kings. Teachers that didn’t take the time to get to know the real me thought I was a stoner, a loser, a lost cause. Other teachers that knew me a little better, knew it was spring time and that was actually cutting school to go out looking for snakes

A grip of Cal Kings found on the during a flood

My youngest son Bryce and my beautiful wife Tiffany holding a few Cal Kings

If I didn’t have such an amazing and understanding wife standing by me, understanding my obsession. I don’t know where I would be in life. If she were like so many other women, she would have long been gone and on to the next marriage, abandoning me to my lifelong hunt, and loneliness. Instead we are 26 years into a wonderful marriage. Raising a family with 2 strong boys who also have a love for the outdoors. My youngest son was able to recite almost every California endemic snake species by their Latin names. But luckily the sickness was not hereditary and they like most people think I am a Cal King psycho.

At times especially during Spring and summer I see "Cal Kings" in the strangest of places; in patterns on walls, pillow cases, bedspreads, garbage cans, in my refrigerator, the produce isle at the store and even one of my wife’s necklace's will make my heart race and skip a beat when I glance at its alternating pattern! I especially see them as objects on the road late at night and even during the day I will have to turn around and go back to ease my O.C.D.
During herp season I hardly sleep, I lay down and my mind becomes a Cal King slide show other times my internal Google earth will not shut off. I have to turn the light on and read until I fall face first asleep into a slobbery book. There have been times I jerked and elbowed my wife in bed because I was flipping AC....... I am a Junkie, and Cal Kings are my drug of choice!

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