Speaking of Trails...

[blndsnbrdr]

DH and I headed out for a short night hike on the trails tonight. It wasn't meant to be a night hike but we got distracted. The sun was just setting so we didn't have our headlamps on - just trucking along by the moon/stars/leftover sunlight. Shortly after stopping to listen to an owl I consciously stepped over what looked like a darker than usual branch/root. On second thought I turned around and turned on my headlamp to see this...



Yea - that is a rattlesnake just chilling in the trail. DH was ahead of me and had stepped over him too. The snake wasn't moving around or rattling so we snapped a few photos before we kept going...we had no choice but to keep going forward - he was stretched out on the trail between us and the car. 

Eventually we freaked ourselves out enough and turned back. He wasn't anywhere to be found on the way back, which almost made it worse because we were on high alert.

[Stingyshark]

uhm nope. Brave brave girl to be hiking at night!

[kams]

Oh my gosh, that would scare the absolute balls off of me. i'm glad you guys made your escape!

[shelbyann]

Yikes!!

[Wines Not Whines]

Holy crap!

[keweenawlove]

Wow. I can't believe you were able to stay still long enough to take a picture. I would have been running as fast as my legs could carry me in the other direction.

H ran into a rattlesnake while running once when he was living in Arizona. It was coiled up and rattling at him. He's already terrified of snakes. He said that may have been the fastest he's ever run. He ran on a treadmill for the last 6 weeks of living there because he didn't want to risk it again.

[blndsnbrdr]

Aug 26, 2013 8:23:36 GMT -5 keweenawlove said:

Wow. I can't believe you were able to stay still long enough to take a picture. I would have been running as fast as my legs could carry me in the other direction.

H ran into a rattlesnake while running once when he was living in Arizona. It was coiled up and rattling at him. He's already terrified of snakes. He said that may have been the fastest he's ever run. He ran on a treadmill for the last 6 weeks of living there because he didn't want to risk it again.

We either had to keep hiking or step over/around him again to get to the car - we hiked on in hopes that he would go away on our way back. He did. Thank goodness, I'm not sure what we would have done if he was still there!

I am buying a better headlamp and actually turning it on...but the trails are just too amazing at night to avoid them!

[Stingyshark]

totally not trying to one up you.. my cousins neighbor found this monster on his property yesterday.
It's a rattlesnake; they said it was(is) 6ft long. 

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[blndsnbrdr]

Aug 26, 2013 10:08:19 GMT -5 Stingyshark said:

totally not trying to one up you.. my cousins neighbor found this monster on his property yesterday.
It's a rattlesnake; they said it was(is) 6ft long. 

Oh my god. If I saw that on the trail I would shit myself and die on the spot. I'll take my little rattler, tyvm!

[aurora]

Aug 26, 2013 10:56:09 GMT -5 blndsnbrdr said:

Aug 26, 2013 10:08:19 GMT -5 Stingyshark said:

totally not trying to one up you.. my cousins neighbor found this monster on his property yesterday.
It's a rattlesnake; they said it was(is) 6ft long. 

Oh my god. If I saw that on the trail I would shit myself and die on the spot. I'll take my little rattler, tyvm!

I've heard that the little ones are actually more dangerous - they are more likely to give a full dose of venom with every bite, whereas the larger ones may not even use venom. 

In any case, I'm glad you were both safe!

[thom]

This all scares my little Midwest self to death. I hate snakes, and I don't even think we have any poisonous ones around here. Glad you are okay Heidi! And Jena, glad your cousin is ok. Eep.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Aug 26, 2013 11:49:45 GMT -5 aurora said:

Aug 26, 2013 10:56:09 GMT -5 blndsnbrdr said:

Oh my god. If I saw that on the trail I would shit myself and die on the spot. I'll take my little rattler, tyvm!

I've heard that the little ones are actually more dangerous - they are more likely to give a full dose of venom with every bite, whereas the larger ones may not even use venom. 

In any case, I'm glad you were both safe!

I think this applies more to babies/juveniles, at least around here.  What makes those *even more* fun is that their rattles aren't developed yet, so there could be absolutely no warning.

However, I'd take my chances with a juvenile over that big guy anytime.  How far can a 6' snake lunge?  I don't want to know.  Newpnewpnewp.

[sadlebred]

Ewww....I hate snakes.

[emilyj]

Aug 26, 2013 10:08:19 GMT -5 Stingyshark said:

totally not trying to one up you.. my cousins neighbor found this monster on his property yesterday.

I just screamed out loud at this picture.

Nopenopenopenopenopenope.

[labbie]

Oh my gosh- I would've freaked!

[nichelobe]

Wait - is that snow on the ground? I have lived my whole life believing that snakes go underground when it gets cold and so at that point I don't have to be scared completely shitless of finding one. This isn't true?!?!??!!
Please tell me you live in Australia and it's totally summer there and that's not snow and no snakes are going to get me. Please.

[texassmith]

How the heck did this post get dredged up? labbie ?

[labbie]

Nov 19, 2014 9:17:19 GMT -5 texassmith said:

How the heck did this post get dredged up? labbie ?

Okay- I just noticed the date on this and it's happened to me before when I go to the ProBoards site via a bookmark on IE. I'm on from my work computer so that's probably why it's so old.
Oops...

[nichelobe]

Oh thank god. So this really is a summer picture - I didn't notice the date.