Beautiful baby King snake

All summer long as I hike along dirt trails surrounded by high weeds, I’m cautiously looking out for rattlesnakes. I’ve spotted them as early as March, both in 2014 and 2015; but this year I hadn’t seen one single snake of any type — until last Tuesday, when I was lucky enough to encounter this little guy at Negro Bar. When I tried to coax him off the trail (lest he be run over by somebody on a mountain bike), he coiled up and fiercely shook his tail at me before giving up and slithering off into the dry weeds.