Boeing 737-800 (N200NV)

I've climbed The Snake many times, but 25 of those climbs were for the purpose of getting aviation pics of aircraft arriving at, or departing from, RNO. This was the 25th time I've made a "spotting" climb. And of those 25 "spotting" climbs, five are the most memorable. Last year, I captured President Trump arriving in Air Force One. Three years ago, I was here and clicked Air Force Two departing with VP Pence. Several years ago, I snapped a departing USMC Hercules and it was only at that moment that I realized that particular Herc had participated in the unsuccessful, and disasterous, Iranian hostage rescue mission ... the one I had captured had been the Herc that had extracted the rescue team members from the desert after the helicopter and the other Hercules had collided and exploded. Another memorable time spotting from here was two years ago. I was up on The Snake for several hours, and I photographed numerous arrivals. While still up there, I was approached by a man who was definitely NOT dressed in clothes appropriate for climbing a mountain. He was wearing dress style jeans, a collared shirt, and regular street shoes. He came up to me and told me that his son, his wife, and he had been passengers on a Southwest that had flown past Rattlesnake while landing and that his son, looking out the window, had seen a person standing at the top part of the mountain taking a picture ... so his son had waved. And he wanted to know if I would send the picture to him. I was stunned. The guy got off the plane, left the airport, drove around to Rattlesnake, and climbed it in street shoes while his wife and son waited in their car, just to ask me to send a photo to his son! He and I tried to look at my camera's screen to see if we could see his son in the window of the 737 but at that time of day the daylight was so bright we could not see the pics on the camera screen. So I assured him I would look when I got home and reviewed my photos. And I did. And I could see someone waving from a window seat exactly where the dad had said his aisle was in the cabin. I could not specifically see that it was a boy but there was a face and a hand. So I sent them the pics (there were three in sequence). And the dad replied that it was indeed his son. And my 5th most memorable spotting climb was the one last week when I took this picture. Right after I caught this AA landing, a Southwest was on approach. As I prepared to snap the Southwest, something landed about 10 feet away from me. When I looked, it was a small owl. It was watching me with big wide round yellow eyes. It was probably thinking, ""Who" the heck are you and what the heck are you doing standing here? Don't you know there are rattlesnakes around here, bozo?" I was able to get three perfect snaps of it before it flew away. So although climbing The Snake takes a bit of time and energy, those 5 experiences will keep me going up there again.

5* Gary, for the story and the emailed WHO :) Thank you!

Hi, Dave. I sent that pic of the little owl to all on my aviation photo e/m list. Everyone got a kick out of seeing it. TY back at you. (Wave) G

Great story and pic. Sounds like you're having way too much fun ;)
Had owls nesting in our yard a few years ago. Got lots of photos.

You timed this perfectly Gary! Great shot and perspective in this photo!

Great shot and cool stories, Gary! Thanks!

"Who" the heck are you.. LOL...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Priceless..great stories and clicks..!! No one will ever top the Gman Toppers 5x 25= the Best!