As I pulled into the Mount Falcon parking lot last night after work, I noticed a TV news crew interviewing some people.  It was starting to rain and they were quickly wrapping things up.  When I passed by while starting my run, I overheard the park ranger being interviewed say “it’s important to stay calm and not panic” or something to that effect.  That’s all of the words I caught, but I immediately figured they were most likely talking about a snake bite.

I finished my first loop and came back to the parking lot to refuel and found the parking lot nearly empty, no more sign of cameras or people.  As I started my second trip up the mountain the news helicopter showed up and hovered over me for several minutes.  I assumed they were splitting off from their normal rush hour traffic watching and gathering some additional footage for the spot being filmed earlier.  Turns out that was the case.

A lady had been bitten by a rattlesnake in the park that morning and had hiked out a mile and a half to get help.  They were interviewing some other people and also the ranger for the story.  Turns out I got 4 seconds of coverage!  Yee haw.  No matter that I’m all of about 3 pixels high and the camera is pulling back in the shot…  Hey, it was the opening story!

Video here.

My part starts at 54 seconds into the clip.  I’m wearing a white shirt and am just rounding the apex of the switchback on the right side of the screen, heading towards the camera.

Get out your magnifying glass!

Squint!

The hikers in the opening shot were one switchback above me, I passed them soon after the helicopter left.  Scene stealers.  I should have been running faster!