I almost stepped on a snake.
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You guys are too brave. After rolling over a snake on the MUP, I rode away as fast as I could.
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I am pretty sure I have rolled over a rattlesnake on some doubletrack in the dark in the rain, but it all happened so fast that neither of us knew what happened.
I wish I had gotten closer to the rattlesnake I posted above. The range of their strike is relatively small, no reason to take a picture from 20 feet away.
I wish I had gotten closer to the rattlesnake I posted above. The range of their strike is relatively small, no reason to take a picture from 20 feet away.
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One time I was taking the one MUP I ever ride on (parellels a freeway I can't ride on), and I saw a rider on the opposite side, stopped. As I stopped across from him, I saw why - there was a 2 foot long snake, may have been a juvenile rattlesnake, stretched across the path. I pulled out my frame Zefal frame pump, flipped the lever out, pulled the plunger out to maximum extension, got the lever under the middle of the snake, lifted it and tossed it gently into the bushes.
Try THAT with a CO2 inflater!
Try THAT with a CO2 inflater!
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While out mtn biking in Thailand I have come across a lot of snakes. They are almost always boas/pythons and usually it is later in the day. They come out to get the warmth on a paved road or crossing from one banana plantation to another. Most times we would come cruising around a corner in rural areas and before you have time to do anything you have rode right over the snake. I've only had a few snakes actually get inside my house in Bangkok. Only one was poisonous. Sure don't like it.
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I can do it, but I would end up with wet shorts.
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I encountered a snake once, during a fast descent.
At first I thought there was some kind of stick or branch on the road and avoided it. But I thought I caught some movement from the corner of my eye when I passed it, so I turned my head around to look and saw that the snake had reared its head. But since this was a long descent, I just kept going!
At first I thought there was some kind of stick or branch on the road and avoided it. But I thought I caught some movement from the corner of my eye when I passed it, so I turned my head around to look and saw that the snake had reared its head. But since this was a long descent, I just kept going!
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Alo makes a thread about something not bike related that he almost did, but didn’t, then disappears. AlanO shows up and brings the thread back on course by relating the non-cycling activity to an extracurricular bike maneuver. I smell something. It reeks of conspiracy. Certainly some sort of piracy. Ahoy, mateys.
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I hadn't even considered that it might have been asleep when I encountered a rattler on the trail that didn't move when I approached on mountain bike. Usually they feel the vibration of 200lb coming at them at about 15 mph and leave nothing more than a squiggly line in the dirt by the time I get there, but this guy was being stubborn! So I had the brilliant idea to toss a rock a couple feet in front of it to spook it into the brush. My aim was so bad that I clocked the poor thing square on the head and that got it mad, rushing off the trail while rattling... and starting all the rest of its den in on the rattling! Just to make sure, can you see the pic if I post it this way?
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I hadn't even considered that it might have been asleep when I encountered a rattler on the trail that didn't move when I approached on mountain bike. Usually they feel the vibration of 200lb coming at them at about 15 mph and leave nothing more than a squiggly line in the dirt by the time I get there, but this guy was being stubborn! So I had the brilliant idea to toss a rock a couple feet in front of it to spook it into the brush. My aim was so bad that I clocked the poor thing square on the head and that got it mad, rushing off the trail while rattling... and starting all the rest of its den in on the rattling! Just to make sure, can you see the pic if I post it this way?
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Alo makes a thread about something not bike related that he almost did, but didn’t, then disappears. AlanO shows up and brings the thread back on course by relating the non-cycling activity to an extracurricular bike maneuver. I smell something. It reeks of conspiracy. Certainly some sort of piracy. Ahoy, mateys.
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My 3 snake stories:
- One time my wife & I were traveling somewhere, think it was west Texas. We were going to go for a hike so we pulled our car into a remote parking area & sat there a few minutes getting things together, but when I opened the car door there was a semi-coiled snake 2-3 feet off my door, just laying there waiting to bite into my foot. Glad I looked down instead of just jumping out. Change of plans that day. Sometimes getting bitten is too inconvenient.
- In Western Australia we were going snorkeling in the Ningaloo area (pretty far northwest). I'd heard there were poisonous snakes in the area, but didn't know much about them. I had heard you should avoid getting too close to bushes where they sometimes lay under. On the way to the beach there was an old sign that said snakes are in the area so only walk on designated foot paths (better visibility). But sometimes I choose stupid so I chose to take the direct route thru the bush. I walked slowly, I looked for holes, I kept a wide berth around bushes, I asked myself why do I do this. Just as I made my way to the top of the sand dune that ran parallel to the beach I spotted snake tracks in the sand. Big tracks. Huge tracks. 8 inches wide (though I think the sand makes them look wider than they are), tons of tracks back and forth, some I could still see the detailed imprint from its skin. It was their highway, but I didn't see any. Wouldn't want to meet one so far from civilization.
- Maybe my most interesting encounter was when my wife & I were going to a beach on the Japanese island of Ishigaki, west of Okinawa. We parked our car, and just before getting on the beach was a big sign that showed pictures of the deadly creatures that can be found there throughout the year. I looked the sign over pretty well. Then we walked onto the beach and down to the waterline. We hadn't even reached the waterline yet when I look out & see something making a V pattern in the water...and it's heading directly toward us...it's not veering off...it's traveling pretty fast...what the hell is it? It's a snake. Cool, never seen one in the water before, except we're here to snorkel. Then I remembered seeing a snake on the watch out for board so I was looking intensely & filming with my phone. Then it dawned on me that at some point this thing is not turning away! It got to within 2-3 feet from the sand, we stepped back and then it made a turn to head back out to deeper water. I'm convinced it looked just like the one on the board. I suppose it saw us from far off & was curious. There were only two other people at the beach at the time, an Australian father and daughter snorkeling directly in the line the snake took after turning away from us. I yelled a warning out to them a couple times, but they ignored or didn't hear me. Finally concluded they're Australian, they grow up mindful of deadly creatures nearly every day so we watched them for a while to see if anything happened, then went snorkeling.
- One time my wife & I were traveling somewhere, think it was west Texas. We were going to go for a hike so we pulled our car into a remote parking area & sat there a few minutes getting things together, but when I opened the car door there was a semi-coiled snake 2-3 feet off my door, just laying there waiting to bite into my foot. Glad I looked down instead of just jumping out. Change of plans that day. Sometimes getting bitten is too inconvenient.
- In Western Australia we were going snorkeling in the Ningaloo area (pretty far northwest). I'd heard there were poisonous snakes in the area, but didn't know much about them. I had heard you should avoid getting too close to bushes where they sometimes lay under. On the way to the beach there was an old sign that said snakes are in the area so only walk on designated foot paths (better visibility). But sometimes I choose stupid so I chose to take the direct route thru the bush. I walked slowly, I looked for holes, I kept a wide berth around bushes, I asked myself why do I do this. Just as I made my way to the top of the sand dune that ran parallel to the beach I spotted snake tracks in the sand. Big tracks. Huge tracks. 8 inches wide (though I think the sand makes them look wider than they are), tons of tracks back and forth, some I could still see the detailed imprint from its skin. It was their highway, but I didn't see any. Wouldn't want to meet one so far from civilization.
- Maybe my most interesting encounter was when my wife & I were going to a beach on the Japanese island of Ishigaki, west of Okinawa. We parked our car, and just before getting on the beach was a big sign that showed pictures of the deadly creatures that can be found there throughout the year. I looked the sign over pretty well. Then we walked onto the beach and down to the waterline. We hadn't even reached the waterline yet when I look out & see something making a V pattern in the water...and it's heading directly toward us...it's not veering off...it's traveling pretty fast...what the hell is it? It's a snake. Cool, never seen one in the water before, except we're here to snorkel. Then I remembered seeing a snake on the watch out for board so I was looking intensely & filming with my phone. Then it dawned on me that at some point this thing is not turning away! It got to within 2-3 feet from the sand, we stepped back and then it made a turn to head back out to deeper water. I'm convinced it looked just like the one on the board. I suppose it saw us from far off & was curious. There were only two other people at the beach at the time, an Australian father and daughter snorkeling directly in the line the snake took after turning away from us. I yelled a warning out to them a couple times, but they ignored or didn't hear me. Finally concluded they're Australian, they grow up mindful of deadly creatures nearly every day so we watched them for a while to see if anything happened, then went snorkeling.
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My 3 snake stories:
- One time my wife & I were traveling somewhere, think it was west Texas. We were going to go for a hike so we pulled our car into a remote parking area & sat there a few minutes getting things together, but when I opened the car door there was a semi-coiled snake 2-3 feet off my door, just laying there waiting to bite into my foot. Glad I looked down instead of just jumping out. Change of plans that day. Sometimes getting bitten is too inconvenient.
- In Western Australia we were going snorkeling in the Ningaloo area (pretty far northwest). I'd heard there were poisonous snakes in the area, but didn't know much about them. I had heard you should avoid getting too close to bushes where they sometimes lay under. On the way to the beach there was an old sign that said snakes are in the area so only walk on designated foot paths (better visibility). But sometimes I choose stupid so I chose to take the direct route thru the bush. I walked slowly, I looked for holes, I kept a wide berth around bushes, I asked myself why do I do this. Just as I made my way to the top of the sand dune that ran parallel to the beach I spotted snake tracks in the sand. Big tracks. Huge tracks. 8 inches wide (though I think the sand makes them look wider than they are), tons of tracks back and forth, some I could still see the detailed imprint from its skin. It was their highway, but I didn't see any. Wouldn't want to meet one so far from civilization.
- Maybe my most interesting encounter was when my wife & I were going to a beach on the Japanese island of Ishigaki, west of Okinawa. We parked our car, and just before getting on the beach was a big sign that showed pictures of the deadly creatures that can be found there throughout the year. I looked the sign over pretty well. Then we walked onto the beach and down to the waterline. We hadn't even reached the waterline yet when I look out & see something making a V pattern in the water...and it's heading directly toward us...it's not veering off...it's traveling pretty fast...what the hell is it? It's a snake. Cool, never seen one in the water before, except we're here to snorkel. Then I remembered seeing a snake on the watch out for board so I was looking intensely & filming with my phone. Then it dawned on me that at some point this thing is not turning away! It got to within 2-3 feet from the sand, we stepped back and then it made a turn to head back out to deeper water. I'm convinced it looked just like the one on the board. I suppose it saw us from far off & was curious. There were only two other people at the beach at the time, an Australian father and daughter snorkeling directly in the line the snake took after turning away from us. I yelled a warning out to them a couple times, but they ignored or didn't hear me. Finally concluded they're Australian, they grow up mindful of deadly creatures nearly every day so we watched them for a while to see if anything happened, then went snorkeling.
- One time my wife & I were traveling somewhere, think it was west Texas. We were going to go for a hike so we pulled our car into a remote parking area & sat there a few minutes getting things together, but when I opened the car door there was a semi-coiled snake 2-3 feet off my door, just laying there waiting to bite into my foot. Glad I looked down instead of just jumping out. Change of plans that day. Sometimes getting bitten is too inconvenient.
- In Western Australia we were going snorkeling in the Ningaloo area (pretty far northwest). I'd heard there were poisonous snakes in the area, but didn't know much about them. I had heard you should avoid getting too close to bushes where they sometimes lay under. On the way to the beach there was an old sign that said snakes are in the area so only walk on designated foot paths (better visibility). But sometimes I choose stupid so I chose to take the direct route thru the bush. I walked slowly, I looked for holes, I kept a wide berth around bushes, I asked myself why do I do this. Just as I made my way to the top of the sand dune that ran parallel to the beach I spotted snake tracks in the sand. Big tracks. Huge tracks. 8 inches wide (though I think the sand makes them look wider than they are), tons of tracks back and forth, some I could still see the detailed imprint from its skin. It was their highway, but I didn't see any. Wouldn't want to meet one so far from civilization.
- Maybe my most interesting encounter was when my wife & I were going to a beach on the Japanese island of Ishigaki, west of Okinawa. We parked our car, and just before getting on the beach was a big sign that showed pictures of the deadly creatures that can be found there throughout the year. I looked the sign over pretty well. Then we walked onto the beach and down to the waterline. We hadn't even reached the waterline yet when I look out & see something making a V pattern in the water...and it's heading directly toward us...it's not veering off...it's traveling pretty fast...what the hell is it? It's a snake. Cool, never seen one in the water before, except we're here to snorkel. Then I remembered seeing a snake on the watch out for board so I was looking intensely & filming with my phone. Then it dawned on me that at some point this thing is not turning away! It got to within 2-3 feet from the sand, we stepped back and then it made a turn to head back out to deeper water. I'm convinced it looked just like the one on the board. I suppose it saw us from far off & was curious. There were only two other people at the beach at the time, an Australian father and daughter snorkeling directly in the line the snake took after turning away from us. I yelled a warning out to them a couple times, but they ignored or didn't hear me. Finally concluded they're Australian, they grow up mindful of deadly creatures nearly every day so we watched them for a while to see if anything happened, then went snorkeling.
Here's a still taken from my Fly6 of a Dugite I had to bunny hop over as it came out of long grass right in front of me.
Luckily I was standing up on the pedals riding up hill which made it easier to hop over. It did strike at me but missed. They are poisonous and plentiful throughout Perth West Australia. This is the sixth time I have had to swerve or stop to miss these.
I have it recorded but am unable to upload a mp4 attachment.
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Wow! Sympathies to the Australians who hop over venomous snakes! Here we just have to avoid dogs & drunks, though one time I was riding in the country after midnight and came withing a few feet of running broad side into the side of a huge bull elk standing in the middle of the road wondering what I was. His back must have been 5-6 feet off the ground. Australian biker versus cassowary might make for an interesting video too. Don't see cyclist vs cassowary, but there's cyclists vs ostrich:
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Wow! Sympathies to the Australians who hop over venomous snakes! Here we just have to avoid dogs & drunks, though one time I was riding in the country after midnight and came withing a few feet of running broad side into the side of a huge bull elk standing in the middle of the road wondering what I was. His back must have been 5-6 feet off the ground. Australian biker versus cassowary might make for an interesting video too. Don't see cyclist vs cassowary, but there's cyclists vs ostrich:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotWv4MCxNI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotWv4MCxNI
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That joke has made the rounds with different characters, but the same punchline. I heard it many years ago as the Lone Ranger and Tonto with Tonto delivering the punchline.
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