snake gaiters

Though I don't love wearing them, I definitely spent a good amount of time this spring and early summer in the desert in full leather boots and snake gaiters. It's usually that first day when I get rattled at by two snakes in an hour that I decide it's probably time to stop wearing trail runners, crew socks, and shorts!

Also, getting the snake search image in your head, and avoiding snakey habitat really helps (or at least mitigates!) the surprise interactions.

I wear trail runners, socks, and shorts. No gaiters. Haven't been bit in 50+ years of hiking.

…and should be on the show 'Amazing Stories'!! :)

No… Chances of snake bites are low if you pay attention and leave them alone.

I dressed the same as Nick this past weekend in Joshua Tree, and while we stumbled upon 3 rattlers in the first 48 hours, I only wished for gaiters to help keep out the 1.4 billion rocks that accumulated in my shoes.

We live in very "snakey" country (40 years) and hike with care, but we still worry as sometimes we are in very remote areas and a bite would be really bad news. The Mojave rattler is the most common here and they are aggressive. There are also some very rare banded and spotted rattlers here that are small, I've stepped over two thinking they were a stick. When bushwhacking we wear Rattlers Scale Tech snake gaiters, and they work really well even in the heat. Your going to have to wear a leather boot though, there are no gaiters that cover the foot.

I was backpacking near Yakima Washington many years ago and found a rattler near thigh level lounging in a sage brush plant, next to the brushy trail.

He wasn't aggressive but it scared me. Up to then I had only been looking for snakes on the ground…..not in the bushes next to me.

Well due to my time in the military I'm a bit hard of hearing and the watchful eye only catches so much. I too tend to spend time in remote areas when soloing so I can get to those most remote of fishing areas. I have ran into more than a few rattlers and have been struck twice when I was younger. The first time I got lucky they said it was a young snake and it released the venom in my second sock next to but not in the skin. The second one got me but amazingly I didn't have a significant reaction once I got out and had a doctor look at it he assume it was a dry bite but then sucked out a ton of venom/puss. Not sure what to make of that but it hurt like hell and felt like my foot and eventually my leg was on fire. But I didn't experience any rotting or extreme swelling like some do that I see pictures and video of. I don't care to experience that again, hence the question about gaiters……

The second one got me but amazingly I didn't have a significant reaction once I got out and had a doctor look at it he assume it was a dry bite but then sucked out a ton of venom/puss.

Adult rattle snakes can choose to inject or not to inject venom. A dry bite occurs when the snake injects little to no venom when biting. Venom is soluble in blood so within 1 hour the venom spreads throughout your body. The fact you had very little reaction indicates you probably didn't get any or very little venom. Any venom you got was probably long gone by the time you got to the doctor.

the puss is mainly dead immune cells. Puss is caused by the immune response to an infection. Reptile bites often leaves bacteria in the wound. And sometimes the resulting infection can be dangerous. fortunately antibiotics often work well for such infections.

It seems like the thing to do would be to find some standard gaiters that are as tall as you need. Then get some Kevlar remnants (don't ask me where). Sew the Kevlar pieces into the inside of the standard gaiters. That would act like an extra bulletproof layer to the standard nylon. This would be more flexible than leather.

I'll bet that snake fangs can't go all the way through all of that.

–B.G.–