Snakes!

[jscott]

Totally agree with Tom on using hiking poles to probe. For many many years I did an early spring shakedown trip up to Merced Lake when there was still some degree of snow in places. If snakes were out they were in a foul mood. there’s a six mile section I came to call rattlesnake alley. I was buzzed twice and saw 8 or 9 others in the spring over the years–sometimes so early in the seasons that they were still barely moving. I hate snakes! I would wear long gaiters and definitely use my poles as probes and as potentially a weapon to ward off any strikes. Often trees were down over the trail and poles are good in this situation. I would also do my best to stay focused and gaze down the trail ahead looking for snakes–especially to the side of the trail. And since spring is the only time I would have a small fire, wood gathering was done with special care.

But for most of the year snakes were a non issue except for certain known areas, like down through the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.

[Todd T]

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.

I hike in rattler country a lot, and it makes perfect sense to me.  Most any trip in any wooded area involves many, many steps over smallish logs.  It’s very easy to just step over without looking, very easy to look if you just think about it.  Pounding/probing with a trekking pole is also highly recommended.  The only person I know (friend of a friend) who’s been rattler bit did the step-over without looking.

 

[AK Granola]

I do understand the *why* one should not step over logs and rocks, but it would make for a seriously slow hike if there is blowdown or if the trail is not maintained. Stop to check, walk, stop, walk, stop – and if you have to use all fours to get over a big fallen tree, you’re just not going to see what’s on the other side. I guess my lack of understanding is based on where I hike now, where no one maintains trails, much. And no snakes.

[Tom K]

“And no snakes.”

The key difference.  You folks have bigger problems to worry about, where tapping one on the snout with a puny trekking pole is probably not good policy.  ;0)  I don’t worry about it when navigating blowdown here on the West Side of the Cascades either.  But in snake country, going slower is by far the wiser choice.  A rattler bite is a serious injury, practically guaranteed to ruin your whole hiking season if the bite is not dry.

[Tom K]

“And yes, snakes do coil up in sheltered spots in the sun.”

Those critters should be genetically modified to grow rattles, a great big set of them, just so there’s no chance of not being heard.  You can tell just by looking at them that they’re baaaad news.

[Roger Caffin]

You can tell just by looking at them that they’re baaaad news.
Well, yes, maybe, but be fair: some of our snakes are not really venemous. This fellow is quite harmless:

He’s a Diamond Python, crawling around in the garden beside our verandah.

Cheers

[Tom K]

“This fellow is quite harmless:”

Yeah, sure.  Give ’em a set of rattles anyway, if only for the sake of the tourons.  I can see it now:  Some lady steps out on the veranda of her Air BnB rental, wine glass in hand, to find that thing wrapped around her little Tiffany.  Oooh boy, hell to pay down at City Hall.  ;0)

Cheers

[Ben H.]

Is “not really venomous” for an Australian snake mean you walk 15 steps before you drop dead?

[Roger Caffin]

Let’s divide snakes into three classes:
* venemous and potentially fatal to humans (we have lots of these)
* venemous but not fatal to humans (lots, possibly fatal to a small mammal)
* non-venemous (lots too)

The non-venemous ones are such as pythons: they kill by constricting and crushing and then swallowing. They target small animals, where ‘small’ is relative to their size. A very big python could eat a dog or a goat.

Cheers
PS: we also have some ‘nice’ spiders.

[spencer c]

Karen- I think I’m imagining the same thing of it being some slow going hiking if I have to check over every down tree, rock etc thats in the trail. If I had to do that in the whites I don’t think I’d get anywhere. So far in my imagination I’m going to be scared to death anytime I need to get rocks to stake out my tent or any time I’m not in my tent at night just enjoying the stars…

[Todd T]

I must be missing something. A hike with, say, 100 logs to step or climb over would take maybe 100 seconds longer to hike if I looked before stepping over each and every one. What in world are y’all hiking over?

[Tom K]

“* venemous but not fatal to humans (lots, possibly fatal to a small mammal)”

If they have hemotoxic components in their venom, you may wish you were dead by the time all is said and done.

[Roger Caffin]

I never said there would be no discomfort, did I?

Cheers

[Graham F]

Hell fire Roger don’t bring the Funnel Web into it!

Keep it in NSW where it belongs (and don’t remind me they are migrating south I am NOT listeningggg)!

Eastern Browns -ferocious buggers and Tigers and Redbacks are enough for me

 

[Monte Masterson]

Rattlesnakes like to sun themselves on trails after cool nights. They’re of course cold blooded animals and sun bathing brings them up to operating temperature. Off trail is usually covered with brush or grass so the trail is often the sunny spot. Rattlesnakes also hiss very loudly when ready to strike. If you don’t step on one or get within 2 feet of them, they won’t bite.

A lot of viper bites are from people sticking their hands around rock ledges and in other areas where they can’t see what might be hidden.

As far as rattlesnakes crawling under your pack or into your shoes….highly unlikely. Reminds me of the one I’ve heard many times about how rattlesnakes like to crawl up in your sleeping bag with you at night in order to get warm, lol. Truth is that they don’t want anything to do with you. I’ve cowboy camped out in the Sonoran Desert hundreds of nights and I’ve never even thought about snakes. I did get freaked one morning when I saw a tarantula on my sleeping bag though.

[jscott]

Oh I hear they like to lay their eggs in sleeping bags and the next time you crawl in a dozen little snakes devour you for sustenance.

[Roger Caffin]

Eastern Browns -ferocious buggers and Tigers and Redbacks are enough for me
My wife was swimming in a small lake in SW Tassie many years ago. She emerged very fast when she realised that there were several Tiger snakes swimming near her.

We live on a farm, and we do see redbacks at times. They like living under rocks and sheet metal. A quick thumb in a leather glove handles them – not a problem.

Cheers

[dirtbag]

When traveling in groups of 3s.. dont be the 3rd person!!

The first person will alarm the snake.  The second person will annoy the snake and the 3rd person will get bit by the snake!! 😂🤣

[Anonymous]

The Aussies with their, “That’s not a snake, this is a snake.” one ups.

To be fair though, justifiably earned.

[Tipi Walter]

In the Southeast where I do all my backpacking—in the mountains of TN/NC and Georgia . . . well . . . rattlesnakes are plentiful as are copperheads.  Or is it rattleheads and coppermouths????

In the last 20 years I’ve seen over 2 dozen of these pit vipers but luckily I like the reptilian guys and it’s always a special part of the day when I see one (versus not seeing it and stepping on it).

I’ve seen a rattlesnake jump in the air to get off a trail as I came up on it suddenly.  I’ve seen a rattler sunning himself atop a big hemlock blowdown trunk as I had to cross over in a straddle.  The weirdest encounter was backpacking on the BMT and dumping my pack on State Line Ridge and going down the ridge a hundred feet to a water spring for liquids.

I spent a good 15 minutes squatting next to this pool and pumping away with my Hiker filter.  When I stood up to put the filter in its stuff sack I saw Jimmy sitting nearby watching my every move.  Didn’t even notice him.

“Keep Your Eyeballs Open and Your Butt Cheeks Clenched.”  This is my hiking mantra.

Check out all the snakes I’ve seen on my recent backpacking trips—

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/keyword/snakes/

[Brad Rogers]

Tipi in my experience Rattlesnakes (at least here in the southeast) are not very aggressive.  They also give plenty of warning so I give them a wide berth and snap some photos.  Copperheads are what scare me, as they are silent and known to be more aggressive.  I’ve only seen four copperheads on the trail, but they give me the creeps on the trail, rattlesnakes not so much.

[Todd T]

I spent a good 15 minutes squatting next to this pool and pumping away with my Hiker filter.  When I stood up to put the filter in its stuff sack I saw Jimmy sitting nearby watching my every move.

I know the feeling.  In my case I’d been leaning against a tree just resting and looking at the view for 5 or 10 minutes when I finally recognized this guy maybe 4 feet from me.

[Gary Dunckel]

My weirdest snake encounter (aside from the countless bull snakes I would step on while surveying in the tall grass next to the Kootenai River in NW Montana – those suckers aren’t poisonous, but they have an aggressive attitude and will repeatedly strike your ankle above your boot top until you get off it), was in Malaysia’s Taman Negara Nat’l Park in 1986.

I hired a local guide to take me 5 miles into one of the planet’s wildest rain forests to, you know, see what I could see. He mentioned that there might be more snakes per square meter there than anywhere else, and lots of hidden wildlife as well. After our dinner we retired to our tent and had a nice sleep. Well, until the great rain came about 4 AM. Man, it came down, dropping probably 3-4 inches of torrential rain over several hours. Then I heard birds chirping, even though the rain was still happening. Jahil, my guide, said that it wasn’t raining high in the canopy where the birds were, but it took over an hour for the canopy to stop dripping. While we laid in the tent waiting for the dripping to stop, we saw a HUGE python checking out our campsite. This guy was likely 15 feet long stretched out. It decided to see what our tent was all about, and it tried to stick its head into an opening in the crappy door zipper. With it’s 5″ head inside the tent, Jahil popped it with his middle finger, and it backed out of the tent and went on its way. But that sucker wasn’t a snake – it was a dragon without legs! We knew that pythons won’t bite a human, or try to eat one, but that encounter was enough snakeness to last me lifetime.

[Phong D]

I’m already the slowest hiker I know.  I’d be one mile per 3 hours if I had to check every large rock for rattlers!

Once in So Cal I encountered 6 rattlers in a week of hiking.  The only thing I can add to what has already been mentioned, don’t listen to head phones in rattler country!  Long distance hiking often draws me to listening to music, but in the hot desert area’s I either have one ear open or not at all.  Sounds obvious but as the miles pass easily you can get careless.  I also heard the small ones are more deadly too.  One time a girl ran back scream there was a giant Pink rattler.  I laughed until I saw it!

[HkNewman]

Thing about American rattlesnakes is almost all the bites occur on the hands of young males (statistics and observations of an ER doc from southern NV, mostly Vegas, I recently spoke with).

For some reason, young American males start to think the alcohol they drank enhances “ninja-quick” moves.    C’mere snakey- you ain’t so …

Also the adults can rotate in their skin for those handling rattlers academically/professionally … usually for measuring or milking venom for anti-venin (the latter working superbly according to the doc).

Most other times with rattlers, there’s “close calls” but at least the adult ones know a wet bite is a waste of venom.  Still the more agitated they get, the more venom gets secreted.

[Author]

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