This is my first time posting here but many of you have seen me in the mountains, flipping over large rocks to find centipedes, scorpions and the like underneath. These are my treasures, I have no interest in looking for gold in volcanic tuff. One of the big clues that I was getting close to finding the largest and most vibrant centipede of North America was finding this ancient petroglyph :
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I know I'm on the right track because of this warning sign of thousands of years ago. It is the only myriapod in the area with significant venom to merit such signage. I followed the creek bed from here. The animal stays close to underground water and is mostly subterranean. I walked a few miles checking under boulders. I thought I saw a huge beast flying through the sky at one point, I hid to avoid detection. Only a naked girl with a hang-glider. I hate skinny girls. She did not see me but I certainly saw too much of her. I came upon a cave but it seemed too dry and no centipedes. It was caved in at the bottom. I took the steps back up. Further along the wash I found a nice rock to flip, this one probably 500lbs. I know what you're thinking, that I am lying about being able to overturn such a boulder, but it is not so much about strength but leverage and momentum, namely standing on top, rocking and pulling and also I have been described as a "hairless gorilla". Under there were no bugs of interest but you guesses it, a hole that looked like a natural crevasse leading down. It had a cool damp smell and I knew there were giant centipedes and not to mention Paraphrynus and other species of interest inside. I suspected this hole connected to the other side of the caved in cave I found. I put on my headlamp and squeezed into the opening, had a moment of panic that I could not back out of this if it did not open enough for me to turn around and I was by myself. I slid down like a snake and it finally opened into a larger tunnel where I could crawl. I had to leave my pack upside and I had one Prringles container to capture one Giant Centipede or several smaller items. I came to a larger tunnel that went left or right. I could almost stand up but I was panting for oxygen. I tried to slow my heart down and relax. Stay calm and you can breath longer. There was a chamber up ahead, it looked odd to me and when I touched it, it was made of rubber. More specifically, Spruce Gum. It was not really a chamber I found, but a vessel lodged into a chamber. It had what looked like air tubes going up from the top. Both sides were torn open from the inside and the tunnel was wider on the other side, wider than the vessel itself. There were bones of various animals and a pile of shiny black stones. They were not like obsidian, but kind of purple. My air was running out, in fact I was nearly blacking out and starting to hear voices. I walked back to the light and started sucking air out of the small tunnel that went up and put my arms up in it first and then wormed my way back to the surface. I took a short nap and woke up thinking I had almost died and did not collect a single specimen. I tipped the boulder back over the hole and walked back to the car. I feel bad I left a Pringels can donw in the tunnel, please throw it away for me if you find it.
So that is where they developed the expression "Here's mud in yer eye"??
