Close Calls With a Ratler

“i was in the mountains neer marklyvile ( I hope i spelled it right?)going to this waterfall ( i cant remember the name) on the first day i reach camp (about 12 miles) trying out a two tarp tent thingy I leave for 45 min. to scout around. I come back enter my tent thingy. I shoulda looked before I entered i start to sit down on my sleeping bad and i was greeted by a huge rattle quite at home on my bag.

I neerly jump out of my pants much less needed a change...

i ran 20 yards away to figure out what to do.

i thew my walking stick at him--mised. He leaves a nice impresion on it before finaly deciding to leave.

I slept little that night

i would like to hear your close incounters of the scaled kind.”

“When I was ridgerunning on the AT in MA, I was hiking on part of the trail not known to have rattlers, a section fairly near a residential neighborhood. It was late spring and there were still lots of brown leaves on the trail. Well, my hiking stick hit the trail about two feet in front of me, and this "pile of leaves" reared up, tongue flicking and tail rattling - an Eastern Diamondback about five feet long, all coiled up and ready to rock and roll. I backed up and stood there waiting for it to slither off, but obviously had no intention of moving, so I gave it a wide berth. Was even more hair-raising than the bears padding around my tent all night on Greylock earlier that year.”

“For some scary snake stuff, check out this link.”

“Wolf Ridge Trail, GSMNP, summertime, headed uptrail.
My left foot came with an inch of stepping on a timber rattlesnake. It was mostly under low vegetation at the edge of the trail. We both woke up in a hurry. His rattle started going and I leaped backward, my hiking stick swinging rapidly back and forth in front of me. With an imbankment on my left and a drop-off on the right, I was forced to move the snake. It curled up in the center of the trail. It took about 30 minutes to get it over the embankment, where it had to slide down about 10 to 12 feet. As it slide it appeared to be 6 to 7 feet long. I did not actually measure it.

I took a picture of it, but the film was destroyed when I was swept away in a stream a few weeks later, after three days of heavy rain. This location was at CS #62 on the Noland Creek Trail, where two creeks come together.”

“Growing up in Florida and spending a lot of time outdoors there, I should have seen many rattlers as they are all over the place in the north central part of the state. However, the first rattler I saw in the wild was a couple of years ago in Rockland County, NY, when a four foot Timberland Rattler (endangered species, by the way) was stretched out across the trail. I watched him as he slowly made his way to the shrubs alongside the path, then once he was clear I walked on by. It was pretty cool!”

“I love how nice this bunch of folks are to snakes,.. lol,.. yep, that`s what I do too when I run up on `em.

I put out a latter type treestand in a clearcut late one evening so I could hunt there the next morning. Everything went well and I got a deer just a little after first light with my bow. A friend wanted to hunt there so I took him out to show him where the stand was and while walking to the stand we find 6 rattelers just getting to the stand. Somehow after that he didn`t want to hunt that stand at all and I lost my love for it too. We decide to carry the stand back out another way and we only see two more snakes going out.

I know a good spot if any of you want to put up a treestand!LOL”

“I almost steped on a big Rattler in Talladega NF once. He just blended in with the leaves.Just before I put my foot down I saw him and jumped 6 feet up and to the right. He never Rattled or nothin.”

“Last fall, hiking the Quehanna trail in PA, I almost stepped on a timber rattlesnake. I never saw him in the trail since I was hiking fast and he just moved aside a little to avoid my foot fall. He rattled a few seconds and just tried to hide in the bushes next to the trail. The area was rocky and perfect for rattlers.”

“On a day hike my son stepped over a small rattlesnake in a State Park once. That isn't near as creepy as finding one in your sleeping bag.”

“I was hiking down a trail after dark in Az. suddenly all you could hear was the rattler hair raising not being able to see it I backed up really slow till it sounded much farther away then walked wide around the sound thank God he kept rattling so I could judge where he was”

“Hiking in Citico last September I came upon 2 timber rattlers in one day. First was in the morning when he was still stiff with chill, but the second was in the afternoon and he quickly moved into strike mode. Good thing I was with a couple of more experienced locals who spotted him right away. I probably wouldn't have noticed him until being right up on him.”

“We lived in the northern Florida panhandle for a few years when I was a kid. During our time there I saw timber rattlers, pygmy rattlers, coral, copperhead, cottonmouth and non venomous snakes in our neighborhood.

One night we were playing flashlight tag in the back yard, and I ducked behind a bush to hide.

As I put my hand on the ground and something cool wrapped around my wrist. At first I thought it was one of those large rubber rings, to a yard ring toss game that flipped over my wrist, but instantaneously I knew that was wrong.

Our dachsund was going crazy, my brother had to hold it back while I sat frozen, for a few seconds that seemed like eternity, until it slowly crawled off. Then I ran like a bat out of hell into the house.”

“In the Republic of Panama we have a small farm with an old, crude house (shack) with a dirt floor. One day my in-laws encountered a large boa in the yard near a small fence. He took a 22 and killed it. He was very small and not too strong and the two of them together could not move the snake. So they got a shovel and buried it right by the fence.

A few days later they encountered another boa about the same size in the house.
It was dark and he could not see good. So she aimed the 22 and he pulled the trigger. This boa, too, was too large for them to move. So he took a machete and cut it in half. They dragged the tail section to the fence and dug a hole and slid the thing into it. When they returned to the house, the front half of the boa was gone. They looked and looked until they heard a noise on the aluminium roof. The front half of the boa had climbed a tree and on to the roof! Somehow they got it down and completed the burial. The boa was probably familiar with the area and probably had been getting an occassional chicken from the tree. The chickens spent their nights in the tree.

In the same area I once almost stepped on a bushwacker ! I froze with my foot over it. The snake continued moving from under my foot into the brush along side of the part. Only then did I resume breathing. Bushwackers are bery poisonous.”

“brush along side of the path.”

“Climbing in the San Jacinto Wilderness about 28 years ago. A difficult pitch, required several overhanging mantles on a diagonal. I was mid-pull with my fingers aching and shaking when I heard that distinctive buzz. In a rock crevice not six inches from my chest was a rattler, coiled up and ready.



It is truly amazing how fast I made it up that face.”

“Ingredients:
One large rattlesnake
One medium to large alligator
One-fifth bottle of Scotch

1. Be VERY surprised by a VERY large rattlesnake.
2. Remove rattlesnake's head.
3. Drink 1/2 of the Scotch
4. Serve rattlesnake and it's head to the alligator you passed 100 yards back at the last slough.
5. Drink remaining Scotch.”

“nice storys”

“Hiking Grand Canyon for so many years I have encountered lots of snakes. Somehow I have always seen them before they got mad.

Several years ago I was hiking sans glasses--nearsighted. We were hiking out of Tanner and as I climbed up a 12 foot obstacle in the creek bed I noticed a huge coil of dirty rope in a crack. I climbed right on past but then the little light turned on in my head and I said to the boyfriend--is that a pink rattler down there? That was the biggest canyon rattler I have ever seen. It was the cool of the morning so he never moved a muscle.”

“Have encountered rattlers many times hiking on various trails in PA. Fortunately, they rattle in advance, providing a warning - though not always. The closest (and weirdest) encounters were:

1. Five of us stepped directly over one tightly coiled up, perfectly camoed in the Fall leaves right on a trail - directly underfoot. I was last in line and didn't see it until I had also stepped over. Jumped like a hillbilly who'd just been just shot in the ass with a BB gun. To this day I still can't comprehend how none of us stepped on it, and why the thing never reacted. Also causes me to wonder how many others I may have stepped over without ever knowing it.

2. Black Forest Trail, PA: My brother who was in front of me walked by one (again, tightly coiled up --- sleeping?) - almost directly under his feet. I saw it and froze only a couple of feet away. Called my brother back to check it out ...freaked him out. Again - no snake reaction. We quietly moved along - in an altered state of justified fear for awhile.

3. Solo hiking on the Mid State Trail, PA: Came upon one, about 6 feet long, stretched-out straight like a fat bulging stick (just finished eating?), right on the trail. Got a loooong stick and poked at it. Nothing. Poked again ...and again. Finally it just slowly mosied into the woods, seemingly with not a care in the world. Again, that one never rattled either.

What? ...Yes, I'm certain they were rattlesnakes. Seen too many of 'em to know better.”

“Hello, I am the lucky random girl that gets to spend the night with Jay, I mean Buddha Bear tonight. I had a HUGE snake sighting earlier, and, oh my, it looks like it's back again. Gotta go, be back in 6 hours!

--Random "lucky" hot chick”

“Want to see a rattler guarenteed??

Go to Buckskin Gulch, AZ

I ran into 5-6 of them on a hike (in a wash). Very nerve racking. A baby one lunged at my ankle, but I am too fast to be bit by a rattler snake.

Buddha Bear? You pick em at random? No wonder you're having so much trouble”

“i have snake proof boots.”

“As a kid climbing in the mountains above White Sands Misslile Range
I had a guys dog in a day pack to get it up the area we were climbing,I stuck my hand up to grab the ledge above and heard the rattle-dog went nuts-we worked our way around the ledge and looked down from above 6 or 8 were laying up in the sun.
We used to have to walk only in the streets on post after dark-everyone watered their lawns after dark-the snakes found the water.
The greens on the golf course looked like they had piles of sh*t first thing in the morning for the same reason.”

“ouch”