Snake encounter, that was closer than I’d like.
 

So I live in Tucson, and we have a “few” snakes here.
I was out riding my mountain bike this morning on some local trails near my house, and I encountered a snake crossing the trail. When I saw it, and my front tire was almost on it already, my thought was please be a bull snake, then I saw the rattles on its tail.
Now most of the time, they just slither off the path into the brush. Not this one, he hustled to the side and coiled up to strike, and we were close. All I could do is lift my leg as high as I could as I went by.
I don’t know if he struck or not, but I’m here to post about it.

I. Hate. Snakes.

I will get nightmares from reading this post.

Rattlesnakes are jerks, they'll take time out of their busy day to threaten you. It probably makes sense from the perspective of them surviving. Spray them with a little water and they generally leave. Not necessarily in the direction that you want though.

We have eastern timber rattlers. Some of them are a beautiful yellow color. We also have non-poisonous snakes that are exactly the same color. You can tell the difference because the non-poisonous snakes will run, the rattlesnakes won't.

I lived in Central Pa. for decades before I saw a rattler. I was just in denial, they are everywhere. The local ski area has things to do in the summer, and they have a rattlesnake patrol every morning. Some guy wielding a grabber arm riding around on a 4 wheeler with a trash can on the front. He was particularly looking under the parked cars the last time I saw him. If you want to have nightmares, you can look in the trash can for free.

My brother lives in Tuscon. His wife was bitten by a rattler while hiking some years ago and she has scars on her ankle to prove it.

Lots of rattlers in the hills here. Used to get them in the yard where I lived before I moved here. Sometimes the fire dep't. would come and get them an relocate them.
One time there was one under my neighbor's van and he had a 22 loaded with snake shot which he unloaded on the poor snake. It echoed through that narrow canyon and sounded like a cannon.

I see them on the trails and if they are in the way usually a pebble or 2 tossed their way will get them to slither away. One time I did that and the snake became super aggressive. I gave him all the time he wanted.

My cat killed a couple gopher snakes at the old house and I was always worried he would get bitten by a rattler. There was a dead one in the shared driveway and I was out there when he saw it. He started toward it and I yelled "NO" and he stopped. A friend lost a cat to a rattler. His cat killed the snake but was bitten in the fight.

There are places here that train dogs to avoid snakes.

What about the shape of their heads? You probably don't have time to examine them but venomous snakes have "pits" behind the jaw.

HTFU

Almost ran over it. Went back for a photo.

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Rode past a copperhead yesterday. For venomous snakes, copperheads are pretty chill. Their preferred defense is lying still on the warm concrete pretending to be a stick.

My wife made me put the stick down....I wanted to poke it....

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Could be worse.
I read that Anacondas will ambush prey from a tree canopy launching themselves on unsuspecting victims below.
I would not want to be mountain biking in the Amazon. Cougars are bad enough!

I was riding out in the everglades once, I dodged a couple of alligators, which in general are pretty docile, however, I ran over what I initially thought was just a shadow on the road, as it was pretty early in the morning and still somewhat dark, but was a 3.5 to 4 ft cottonmouth, but in my mind will always be 25 ft long and 2 ft thick. It was the thickest cottonmouth I have ever seen in my life. They are damn aggressive and I am not a fan of them.

Yet another reason I'm happy to be out of the desert SW. I mean, you don't even want to step off the road to pee out there. Jeepers.

I also have a pretty good story about a tarantula on my shoulder. I didn’t think I could still move that quickly. :lol:

Back in October. An Aussie woman rode up and was, like, “Pfft!”. She found a stick and pushed it off the trail.

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Man thats a healthy looking snake...

Round here they hit um with pepper spray so they learn ta stay off the trail. I guess it works?

Snake!

"Rachael, go into this dip fast so you can carry your momentum through to the uphill on the other side! Push it! Faster! That a girl! I'm right behind you!"BBBZZZZTTTT!

"Hey, Dad! How did you get up there? And when did you learn to FLY!?"

"That buzz you just heard was a snake and I'm not coming down until I find out where it is!"

Ah, yes. The western diamondback. As in snake. As in rattlesnake. With fangs. Growing up out on the plains of eastern Colorado, you learn early on that when you hear that distinctive buzz, you jump into the air and you don't come down until you find out where the snake is. Even if it means flying for weeks at a time. Whole towns have been known to walk around 6 feet in air and not because they are overly happy! And if you did happen to find out where it was there was only one response - kill it!

My mom only had one super power and that was her ability to kill rattlesnakes - large or small. In Fowler, where I grew up, they call her the Terror. She would be walking down the road, just an innocent looking Annt Bee type of lady carrying a small hand bag and wearing one of those silly pill box hats. She'd hear that buzz and out would come a full-sized, razor-sharp shovel and the snake's head would be separated from its shoulders - so to speak - faster than a French King's! And then she would leave the snake where it lay as a warning to all the other rattlesnakes of the world. Very effective!

Now I can jump into the sky and never come down when I'm around a rattlesnake, much to the amazement of all my friends and acquaintances. It's even more impressive when I have a bike attached to my feet and I just hanging around still on the bike. I've never shared my mother's blood lust when it comes killing rattler's since I figure that I'm invading its home and it's just doing snaky things. But being a guy, I have the typical guy response to anything that is dangerous - I get a stick and I poke it! Or throw rocks at it.

I got a stick and standing there like the moron that I am with my daughter on the banks of the Purgatory River poking a poisonous snake with a stick - a poisonous snake that is already mad because I almost ran over it, I thought this is really dumb when "BBBZZZZTTTT!" and we're both standing 6 feet off the ground. That's when I realized we had just the answer - we need a longer stick!

Wow, that sounds like a scary encounter, @Wileyrat! Glad you’re safe and able to share the story!

Adventures in Retirement: Adrenaline version.

As I was riding down a trail in the Soapstone Prairie near Fort Collins, CO near the end of the day, I happened to hear that dreaded BZZZT! but it was really short. After yelling an explicative, I stopped and went back to find this guy. I wish to thank the gods of photography for telephoto lenses.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cb4bf8c8c.jpeg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7d54ec81d.jpeg


He was certainly pissed off. I suspect that he may have even struck at me given the shortness of the BZZZT! He would have if I got any closer for the picture. If I hadn't been moving at about 15mph, he would probably connected. I even checked my leg to make sure.

I grew up near Boston. We had the eastern timber rattlers. My dad taught us to always give them opportunity to leave. I never saw one but our neighbor regularly chased off his resident one when he shot target practice into the rocks where it hung out.

Years later, at the hike of my brother's wedding party, we went up Mt Holyoke near Amherst. Passed a large picnic table shaped rock. Heard the rattle. We stopped. It crossed the path between me and my brother, the groom, rattling away. We just held still and watched him slide 2' from each of us. Black but that head gave it away. (Never mind the rattle.) 4' long and well fed.

We just thanked that creator that it went between us, not some of the more excitable members of our party.

My next bike accessory purchase will be a holster.

I stayed in Florida for a year and some. I was told to watch for pygmy rattlers when trimming shrubs and cleaning beds out. I'd seen a long black snake crossing the drive before. One evening after bringing the trash cans back to the garage, I removed the lid to put the evenings trash in. Down my legs slid the black snake, across my feet, and out the door. He had been coiled around the inner ridge of the cover

Snakes are just out eating mice and voles and such, and just want to be left alone. No reason to do them any harm. They can only strike about half their body length, so you can get closer to them than most of us feel comfortable with. The real trick is stretching them out so you can tell how long their body is.

The rattlesnakes around here give you plenty of warning. It's kind of interesting to see one.

We have quite a few venomous snakes here in Tallahassee. On my morning ride that is most often Cotton Mouths, but when I go to other riding areas it is more often eastern diamondbacks. We have others as well, but those are the most common. They kind of creep me out, but mostly I just leave them alone and try not to run them over. We have gators too.

Stomp on the ground a few paces as you walk into any questionable area. They'll feel it and will move along away from it. This has worked for me with snakes, and for skunks as well.
I carried a bear bell (more for the hogs though) in Florida and would loft and bounce the front wheel to make it ring, when I'd approach and ride by turf torn areas

Here in the south they call them cane brake rattlers. When I lived in the mid atlantic region I remember an incident that involved three timber rattlers. One the light tan color, one the dark almost black color, and one the light tan with the back 1/3 or so the almost black color. My young brother in law and I were backpacking in the Ramseys Draft Wilderness when he heard the buzz of a rattlesnake. He was stepping toward it trying to find out what was making the sound. I told him stop and take a couple steps back because there was a rattlesnake. He started backing up right toward another rattlesnake! I spotted it just in time and got him to stop and take a couple steps forward and stay put long enough to survey the area. Sure enough there was a third rattlesnake right where he would have gone next. We watched them a while and one went over the the other and they were both in one coil with two heads and two rattles sticking up.

We hiked a long way before I could convince him to pitch camp that day and we both thought about snakes any time we stepped over a log or anywhere we couldn't see for the rest of the trip.