[pct-l] Snakes

[abiegen at cox.net]

Kathy Walter <kathywalter at me.com>
wrote:

>A follow up question on PCT snakes: if you are hiking with a partner, would the lead hiker be the one to spot and startle the snakes? If Dan >took the lead in snake regions and if his partner stayed reasonably close behind, wouldn't Dan be the one coming nose-to-nose with most >snakes? Of course, this plan would mean they'd have to use the buddy system for bathroom breaks...

I've led many Sierra Club hikes and seen many snakes including quite a few rattlers. This is what I have seen when a group goes past a rattlesnake:

The first person doesn't even know they passed the snake.
The second person gets hissed at.
The third person gets rattled at.
And the fourth person gets bit.

Actually the fourth person has never gotten bit because by the time the rattle starts everyone stops passing the snake. The moral of this story is that rattlesnakes give you plenty of warning that they are there. They don't want to get stepped on or injured and they do go through the steps I mentioned - unless someone else has passed by recently and you are coming in at step 3.

I do have a friend who was bitten by a rattler but he was climbing up a stream bed and reached up to a rock where he didn't see a rattler laying. On the trail you are very safe if you are alert and can hear.

TrailHacker
--
"When my feet hurt, I can't think straight"
Abraham Lincoln