Snakes!

[spencer c]

Being from New England and all of my backpacking experience being around here I’ve very happily avoided snake territory but with my first trip to Utah coming up (yay!!) it looks like I’ll be right in rattlesnake country (boo).

I know they’re more scared of me than I am of them, the rarity of death by them and all those stats but they scare me. This will be a solo trip to grand staircase to coyote gulch and reflection canyon. I’ve heard to back away if you hear the rattle, wait then stomp when reaproaching and hope that it’s gone basically. Is there anything else to know? How loud is the rattle and will I hear it? I’ve also heard that they like to hide under packs or crawl in shoes. Is there any good way to avoid this, assume keep shoes in tent but just how scared should I be approaching my pack? Should I not keep it right next to my tent?

 

Thanks for all all the help!

[Lester Moore]

Maybe it was just luck, but I’ve only encountered a hand full of rattlers hiking in UT multiple times each year and in the CO foothills a few times each week for 20 years. The closest call was in the CO foothills, missing a coiled rattler on a dirt road by inches while trail running. Who knows how many were passed without noticing, just off the side of a trial. As with all rare back-country threats, I try to maintain an attitude of awareness in higher risk areas. While backpacking or camping, I do like keeping my shoes in the tent in lower elevation areas or in the dessert if it’s not winter, for snakes and scorpions.

[Matt]

If you happen upon a rattlesnake unknowingly, the rattle is loud and unmistakable.  It sounds like you imagine.  But that doesn’t even matter.  There is something remaining in your caveman brain that will automatically interpret the rattle as belonging to a rattlesnake, and then that same grey matter will tell your legs to start pumping.  And all before you can process it, trust me.  There is very little conscious thought involved when you stumble upon an active rattlesnake.  You’re four feet down the trail before you realized what just happened.

If you see a rattlesnake from a slight distance, you will get a clear sense of where you need to go to avoid it.  Just give it a wide berth. No stomping required.  They are not aggressive unless you give them reason to be.

Rattlesnakes are large, most times, very large.  Other than a baby, they wouldn’t fit in a tiny shoe, and I doubt they would take much comfort or safety holing up under an empty pack.  Mother nature provides much more suitable accommodations for them.  That being said, I still would bring everything inside the tent at night.  There are many other nocturnal creatures who would love to chew on all your sweaty, salty gear while you sleep.  And even worse, they carry it off before munching down. Sadly, been there.  Done that.

Rattlesnakes are beautiful!  So damn primal.  And if you are lucky enough to see one, trust me, you will be thankful for the experience.

Happy Trails.

 

[Matthew / BPL]

What Matt said.

The rattle is unmistakeable and you will have an involuntary reaction. Mine is to jump straight up and scream like a little girl. It’s totally emasculating and sounds particularly odd in my case because my normal voice is deep so it comes out really weird. I wish I could be cool about it but apparently that is not possible.

I’ve never tried stomping my feet or anything like that. I back up and they slither away and then I pass giving wide berth.

I don’t think you have to worry about a snake in your shoes. They tend to fill up with too many spiders and scorpions…

[Ben H.]

Well, I moved to California 17 years ago and was excited to see my first rattler…. I’m still waiting…  My only backpacking trip to New England (Harriman SP), I stepped around a tree and saw this copperhead coiled up just underneath my foot.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I live in Southern California and backpack throughout the SW.  I rarely see rattlesnakes, but when you do, it is a real treat.  Most of the ones that I have seen have been in the morning as they are trying to warm up a bit.  Do as others have said, store things off the ground.  Keep in mind that you are worried about snake, be wary of the little rattlesnakes not the big one as the big ones know how to control their venom dosage.  The little ones tend to give it to you all at once.  My 2 cents.

[Brad Rogers]

@bzhayes

Yes, Copperheads are the ones that worry me, not Rattlesnakes.  They don’t give you a warning and are generally very aggressive.

 

[Steofan M]

Here’s some good-to-keep-in-mind info.

[Jenny A]

Sounds like a great trip, lucky you!

I have seen enough rattlers to last a lifetime when I was working as a geologist in the western U.S., primarily in the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada.  I never even came close to being bitten, even when I was walking down a slabby scree field and stepped on a rock that buzzed – as others have said, you will not have the luxury of thinking about what just happened, you will be several feet down the trail.  Then there was the morning I sat down on a rock to make some notes, and when I turned around a few minutes later a small rattler had crawled into the shade provided by my body.  That one still gives me the shivers, but it didn’t bite, poor little guy. There must be some primal part of our brains that thousands of years of city life has not managed to erase, because your reptilian brain will kick in and keep you safe.

Don’t step over rocks or logs when you can’t see what’s on the other side.  Don’t put your hands into cracks or onto ledges if you can’t see what might be taking some shade or soaking up sun.  Wet or damp areas provide food and moisture for the bugs and small rodents that snakes eat, so exercise caution near water sources.  And don’t worry too much, you will be lucky to see one.  Rodents and birds are more likely to cause problems than rattlers.

[David Thomas]

Don’t worry about rattlesnakes around your shoes, but shake them out before putting them on each morning.  Both to get the trail crumbs out, but also because scorpions sometimes crawl in.  I always give my boots and sleeping bag a shake when south of Canada and in hundreds of nights only had two incidents: two scorpions at once in my sleeping bag (Lake Chabot Regional Park near Oakland California) and one scorpion in my shoe (near the green-sand at South Point, Big Island, Hawaii).

Every time I’ve encountered rattlesnakes, including times I was trying to capture them, they always headed the other way until I had them cornered.

[spencer c]

Thank you everyone for the reassurance, still uneasy about snakes but makes me feel better. Shoes will be kept in the tent for sure it sounds like and then just be careful grabbing my pack in the AM if there’s no room for it in the tent. When you all say I’ll be feet down the trail before I know it do you mean past the snake or back where I came from? Sorry for sounding naive, just new to the whole snake thing. Since bears won’t be a issue there do you all keep your food and scented items in your tent with you?

[peter t]

And just to join in the fun, I’d add that the rattle does not always sound like it does in cowboy movies, all desert dry crispy and sharp… in cool wet climates / grass it can sound softer, more fast buzzing than rattling ( they get moist like everything else ). Watch those comfy rock ledge seats with shady holes underneath -:)

 

 

[David Thomas]

I’ve always jumped away from the snake, when it surprised me, usually back the way I’d come.

Rodents and possibly ravens will be more of an issue than anything else.  Chew-proof bags are available or (check if) the campsites might have food lockers.  A bear canister works great for rodents but is overkill in cost and weight.  I recommend those large tins that Danish cookies or flavored popcorn come in.  They’re $1 at a thrift store and completely rodent-proof.  Since it’s not bear country, keeping your food with you inside the tent decreases the chance rodents will get to it, but increases the damage if they do.  A pack with food odors left outside (and occasionally when stored inside) can get gnawed through.  This is more of a problem at frequently used campsites – they develop a large rodent population due to all those extra calories backpackers have brought in and they quickly learn how to steal it.

[James Marco]

There are a very few in NY. Lake George area and Little Falls both have a few. Along the Southern Tier/Finger lakes there are few. Copperheads are more prevalent in the Hudson Valley but they are there and in the Catskills. In my time in the ADK’s, I have only come across a single dark one coiled up in a rocky area. He was silent, no rattle, though he was trying. They don’t always rattle. He hissed at me, though. Yes, I jumped back…as bad as a female grouse with chicks. Their rattles are composed of dried skin and when it is damp or wet, they are near silent. Out west, they are much dryer and will make a much louder noise, I have been told. No guarantee.

They generally do not fit in shoes, small ones might. But, shake out your shoes anyway …scorpions, other bugs.

[Kevin Babione]

Not to put the fear back in you, but rattlesnakes are rattling less.

[Matt]

I like Peter’s explanation of the sound … it’s definitely a loud, very fast, “buzzing”.  Millions of years of evolution have ensured that you won’t mistake the sound for anything other than what it is intended to be – an alarm to get the heck away!

When I am surprised by a rattle at my feet, I always unconsciously leap forward as if I was wearing pogo sticks.  No thought involved whatsoever.  Pure instinct.

I keep everything in my tent – food, toiletries, gear, etc.  I believe leaving anything on the ground outside just makes things easier for the varmints.  The more effort you cause, the more likely they are to look somewhere else for their meal.

[Matt]

Stories like the one Kevin references are out there, but I just can’t believe them.  To my point, the expert quoted in the story is a snake wrangler, not exactly a peer-reviewed scientific study (though I’m sure someone will find one :).

I find it very hard to believe, that man killed enough snakes in the last few hundred years to alter millions of years of evolution.  Sounds incredibly anecdotal to me.

[jscott]

the good thing about Western rattlers is that they’re big enough so you can use one as a tourniquet after if bites you. Umm, you should kill it first however.

[David Thomas]

I can imagine humans effecting rattlesnake evolution in the last 14,000 or 500 years.

But our fear and seemingly instinctive reaction to them isn’t inherited. I have no Native American ancestors. Most of us don’t. But rattlesnakes are endemic to the Americas, so our Eurasian and African ancestors never had to deal with them.

I suspect, like that “you’ve seen 15,000 people shot on TV” statistic, we’ve seen many hundreds of rattlesnakes rattling on nature shows, westerns, commercials, etc.

[Jeff M.]

I hate snakes!  I’ve lived in southern CA and Utah my entire life.  I’ve only seen two and have never really “run into” one before on the trail (that situation still haunts my dreams every Spring).  One, someone else ran into and kindly let me know it was there.  The other was under an abandoned wooden platform at boy scout camp.  The smart 12 year olds we were, we had been jumping on it, and decided to lift it up.  The snake let us know it wasn’t happy we had been jumping on its home.

[Todd T]

Not to put the fear back in you, but rattlesnakes are rattling less.

Interesting. I’m skeptical, but it’s interesting.

[jscott]

Or maybe the rattlesnake expert is losing his hearing…?

[AK Granola]

I’ve never understood the advice to not step over rocks or logs unless you can see the other side. You can never see the other side! At least if they’re sufficiently large that you’re climbing. Maybe just tap the object with a trekking pole? I don’t know, not someone who has done many long hikes in snake country. But that advice was always confusing.

[Tom K]

“Maybe just tap the object with a trekking pole? I don’t know, not someone who has done many long hikes in snake country. But that advice was always confusing.”

Excellent idea.  When in snake country, I always have my trekking poles deployed, even on level terrain.  I use them to probe in front and to the side of the trail, if I am on trail, in areas a snake might find comfortable.  Same goes for off trail.  This goes double in the evening, at night, or in the early morning.  The idea is to provoke a rattle before coming in strike range, allowing both the snake and me to avoid any unpleasantness.  Especially me.  No matter what people say about rattlesnake bites rarely being poisonous, their bite can cause serious, lasting tissue damage that can leave a person disfigured, and potentially physically impaired, for the rest of their life.

[Roger Caffin]

I’ve never understood the advice to not step over rocks or logs unless you can see the other side.
If there is a large venemous snake coiled up in the sun on the other side of the log and you step over onto it, bad things could happen. And yes, snakes do coil up in sheltered spots in the sun.

Cheers

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