Anyone else here have a fear of snakes? I am very afraid of them to the point where I start hyperventilating when I see one. This is obviously a problem when it comes to hiking and backpacking because I see them fairly often, especially in the Springtime it seems. For example last week up in Big Sur I saw four including two rattlers. The rattlers were right on the side of the trail in the tall grass where I couldn't see them until I was right on them and they started rattling. Rest of the trip I was in a state of semi constant fear while hiking. Does anyone have this problem? Anyone have any tips on how to get over this?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/expert.q.a/08/10/snakes.phobias.raison/index.html

You would not be alone in your fear. It would be some sort of behavioral therapy to de-sensitize a person from the fear I think.

Edited by jshann on 05/06/2012 14:52:31 MDT.

If you see one on or right next to the trail, the best thing to do is get a long stick and push them off the trail. Just for the safety of others.

That's part of the reason these tarp setups freak me out--a friend of mine got bit in the face by a rattlesnake while sleeping once in the desert (although where I live it's mosquitos). Luckily no venom.

Tarp/Tent - Zpack's Hexamid with a full net bottom. No snakes, scorpions, red ants, etc. Sleep in peace...

....end drift...

Edited by greg23 on 05/06/2012 15:30:31 MDT.

"That's part of the reason these tarp setups freak me out--a friend of mine got bit in the face by a rattlesnake while sleeping once in the desert (although where I live it's mosquitos). Luckily no venom."

The military is really big on the poncho pitched as a tarp, affectionately known as a 'hootch'.
After pitching hootches all over Ft Campbell, Ky and Ft. Benning, Ga, and cowboy camping all over the middle east, I got tired of swatting things that crawl off me in the dark and bought a UL tent with a floor and net walls.

Edit: the above doesn't really address the OP. After the time spent in training areas of Southeastern US Army bases, and even at Ft. Carson, Co I'm acutely aware of snakes during the day. I definitely watch my feet in grass. At night, not so much. You don't have anything they want other than the mouse chewing a hole in your pack for the M&M's. They'll leave you alone.

Edited by COHiker on 05/06/2012 15:52:01 MDT.

> the best thing to do is get a long stick and push them off the trail.
Freaking h e l l! That is the best way to get bitten!

Just go around them and leave them alone. They don't want to mess with you, but will naturally try to defend themselves if attacked. So don't hassle them!

Cheers

In North America, we have learned that rattlesnake meat tastes like chicken.

What say the Aussies and their brown snakes?

I had one close call with a copperhead when I was a kid, so I developed a healthy respect for these serpents. In military training, we had one class on poisonous snakes, and it ended with snake hors d'oeuvres. We learned which snakes to jump over and which ones to step around.

As a backpacker, I know where to be on the lookout for them. When I see one, it is no big deal, so I shoot a photo. When I see the second one on the same day, I start to wonder. When I see the third one, I get concerned.

--B.G.--

When I was a kid taking a climbing class in some "snakey" desert mountains, the instructors said stomp your feet when approaching a snakey hideout (tall grass, etc..) to warn them. Of course that didn't help with the urban legend of climbing up a ledge just to have a rattler look you square in the face. Really most of my encounters have been on suburban jogging trails in American cities,when they are out sunning after a rain; 1 wilderness encounter with a basking Diamondback that wouldn't back off the trail. Though my mother-in-law got a baby rattler caught under a bedroom end table since she would leave her porch door open for pets. No big deal but then again, i wasn't there. Hope this helps.

(ed: substitution)

Edited by hknewman on 05/06/2012 17:41:32 MDT.

"That's part of the reason these tarp setups freak me out--a friend of mine got bit in the face by a rattlesnake while sleeping once in the desert"

That is terrifying.

I was taking a mountain medicine class one time, and the military physician/instructor got to the part about rattlesnake bite treatment. He stated his understanding of victim statistics: that the typical victim was a 15-25 year old male, and the bite spot was on the hand or forearm. Also, he said that alcohol was involved in a high percentage of the cases. I think there is a message there.

How can you tell if a rattlesnake is old enough to drink alcohol?

--B.G.--

How can you tell if a rattlesnake is old enough to drink alcohol?

No I.D. eh ?

Snakes are one of the reasons why I use trekking poles. I can walk pretty close to one without freacking out (and we have some good ones here in Aussie) but try not to pet them.
I don't bother them, they don't bother me.
But , yes I do use a fully enclosed shelter, for bugs not snakes.
Franco

"No I.D. eh ?"

They have no pockets for carrying the I.D.

--B.G.--

"They have no pockets for carrying the I.D."

Rattlesnake to hiker: ID? We don't need no steenkeeng ID.

Yeah, all we could figure is the snake went for one of the mice we had seen around the site and missed. Totally bizarre. Her face swelled up really badly, but everything was fine in the end.

Edited by tekhna on 05/06/2012 18:50:04 MDT.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Just to clarify, although I am afraid of getting bit by a snake, I realize that doesn't happen in the vast majority of snake encounters and that they are afraid of me too. What scares me most is just seeing a snake or being in close proximity to one. When I'm hiking I know that most likely I won't get bit, but what terrifies me, thus taking some enjoyment out of hiking, is knowing that there may be a snake lying next to the trail up ahead. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the idea of a snake is more frightening to me than the chance of being bit by one. Hope that makes sense. Sounds like I need to find a way to overcome my fear.

Have a zoo or reptile house nearby? Good way to face your fear.

Here is a good one to avoid. The Green Mamba. Very deadly.



--B.G.--

Not seen very often in the USA though.

When I worked at a wilderness therapy camp we stayed in open sided tents and it was not uncommon for black rat snaks to come in looking for a place to stay warm or to chase mice.



We found this guy in my friend's boot.

My main worry with snakes is making sure I don't step on one. Never had a problem and I've been in some pretty snakey places.

"Not seen very often in the USA though."

It's not the ones that are seen that I worry about. It's the ones that I don't see.

--B.G.--

I'm with the OP...I can handle the snakes I know about, but the ones that surprise me are awful. I'm a big guy - 6 feet tall and pushing 275 pounds and when ANY snake surprises me on the trail I yell out and, from what my friends tell me, sound like a little girl.

I had one bad day on the West Rim Trail in Northern PA where I came across three snakes in the course of an hour. At that point I relinquished my lead and let someone else take over (and of course, there weren't any more snakes).

I have two suggestions:
- Let someone else lead
- Carry trekking poles (the click-click can often alert them that you're coming)

In any encounter with snakes I always feel like they come out the winner. That's a good thing in my mind - I move around them and let them keep their turf. I set up my hammock last spring and found, much to my dismay, a copperhead curled up about 15 feet away from my setup. He won - I found another "neighborhood."

a little fear can be a good thing, but as long as you watch where you step, you will be OK. You are not on any snakes food list( with the exception of a large constrictor)

The rattle is just the snakes way of saying "back off, you are too close to me, I want more space". And you should oblige.

Edited by livingontheroad on 05/06/2012 22:29:10 MDT.

Snakes are cool and they are very important in the food chain. Please respect all snakes.

Edited by Creachen on 05/06/2012 23:18:50 MDT.

Nice pic's Jay...... maybe you could give it to the kids like these people have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oh0v_DHFrw

Edited by Troiks on 05/06/2012 23:22:06 MDT.

A VERY long stick Roger. A few nudges and they should slither off.

luke!
you're definitely not alone in your fear!
the whole time i was on the AT i was secretly dying i'd never see one
however intriguing rattlers are to me, and snakes in general,
i didn't sleep a wink in shelters, and made certain my miles in PA
were logged before they came out to sun themselves.
(did see some black rat snakes but no rattlers)
here in the northeast, we simply don't "have" them...
meaning it's so rare and even so, they're typically small garter snakes
although if i'm caught by suprise, they do freak me out!
it truly distills to frequency of encounters...
if i saw them everyday, i'm certain i'd overcome this.
as for hyperventilating...
perhaps you could train yourself to remain calm with some breathing exercises
or burn a mantra into your head to prepare accordingly...
for example..."snakes are harmless" or "have no fear"
something of this nature?
what excatly about them freaks you out?
it's more the slithering action that i dislike.
eeeeks, gives me the willies just thinkin' 'bout it!

I think my issue with snakes is the "surprise" factor. You're hiking along and you go to take your next step and there, right where you're about to put your foot, is a snake.

They're the only critters, perhaps other than small frogs and salamanders, that you can step on before they get out of your way. I almost kicked a porcupine last year on the Mid State Trail in PA (I walked right past him and it was the guy behind me who saw him), but generally everything else is pretty quick to scamper off the trail.

I respect snakes and really appreciate it when they let me know that they're there. I was hiking up a rocky slab last summer and heard the distinct buzz buzz of a rattler about 10 feet in front of me. I thanked him (literally) and gave his location a wide berth while he moved from the rock he was using as a lounge chair and disappeared. I was fine in this instance - no shriek was necessary - because he let me know he was there before I even saw him.

The other thing, and this will probably sound stupid, is that I was less worried about getting bitten by a snake when I wore more traditional hiking boots (as if they wouldn't strike above the boot). With my trail runners not only is more of my ankle "exposed" but I'm pretty sure a bite would go right through the mesh.

I don't have it: fear of their presence or existence, but I sure understand it. I have friends that are petrified of snakes in any location, ie stores, a handler's hands, the zoo.. and who modify their outdoor behavior to avoid where they think snakes are. I have one who wouldn't even drive to a mountain resort "because there are snakes there".

Well, yes, but they're not roaming the streets eating people. At least, not that often.

I suggest, if you want to be outdoors, learn up, expose yourself to them and adopt some behaviors such as walking stick/trekking poles and enclosed tents so that you can walk and sleep in some greater peace.

In SoCal, there are plenty of rattlers, depending on season and weather, and those are the one to be bothered by. We've got plenty of non-poisonous snakes that are cool to see and won't savagely drop down onto your neck from overhanging sagebrush like the dreaded Western Furry Rattlesnake I like to tell my Scouts about, and there are plenty of rattlers you may see on trail. If they're on trail and gentle, distant suggestions will usually result in them leaving. However, if you or others need to pass by and the snake doesn't move on or coils and strikes at you, then a *long* stick or tossed pebbles can often move the critter. However, tossed pebbles, tossed trail sand or even the stick can make Senor Snake mighty angry, so be smart and then take the time to get him "really" off-trail, not just into the weeds...

On a trail called Sycamore Cyn, near Malibu, we crossed 14 rattlesnake snakes in trail one morning, over 3.5 miles.

I used to drive up and down a steep access road north of Los Angeles (Browns Cyn) and would see, literally, dozens of rattlers on the asphalt every day. They'd be aggressive and would occasionally strike at the car or truck -- you'd hear the thunk as they hit the rocker panel. Once, one got stuck in the sidewall of my bias-ply tire for a revolution! I have to admit, we went out of our way to run the bastards over most of the time, as we also had to hike that road. Hat bands and appetizers.

Let the bunnies live. They're cute.

Most snakes will leave you alone if not cornered or provoked. Some folks have reported aggressive water moccasins but that is not my experience, and I've seen plenty. A prod with a stick or trekking pole is definitely provocation. That said, keeping crawling things, and snakes particularly, away from me at night is one reason I always use a floored tent even in the Southwest in the summer.

A doctor friend told me that a majority of venomous snakebites in the US are on the hand, which suggests to me that stupidity, bravado, or alcohol is often involved. Ordinary precautions - care in snaky locations, walking around them, allowing them to move away, snakeproof boots when necessary - and there's little reason to worry. A little fear is a good thing.

Good ol' snake chaps? Just don't pick a snake up and these would go a long way.


http://tinyurl.com/86hyvfo

My first hiking partner was deathly afraid of snakes. He wanted to go hiking with me, but that fear kept him from doing so for a long time. Not sure how he finally overcame it enough to come with me, but we hiked together for several years.

We have numerous snakes in the neighborhood, including these guys:








The second one is an amelanistic (no black pigment) corn snake that was my daughter's only wish for her 12th birthday.

To the OP, I think asking around for some help in overcoming your phobia would be a good idea. If it really interferes with an important part of your life (hiking), that would be warranted. Good luck.

@ Ken: I love the cucumber copperhead!

This is one of several snakes I spotted on a coastal walk recently.

It is a tiger snake and it can kill you with one bite, however as expected when I moved closer he just slithered away.
He lives not far from that water tank .
One of my mates does not like them so I told him about it the next day..
(our tents were at least 20 yards from it )
I was having a full body wash when it came to have a drink but I had my camera (short zoom..) because there were warnings in the group shelter about snakes.
Franco
Actualy I did tell the other two guys because they also used that tank...

Edited by Franco on 05/07/2012 16:32:36 MDT.

This is the #1 reason I switched to Hammock Camping. My hammock weights 18oz. It gets you off the ground from snakes that want the body heat, mice, bugs and wet ground if it rains. Small tarp over it if needed to block the rain. The only bad thing is in bear country you could be a human pinata.

I did this on my own for mild claustrophobia when I started caving and got over it. I talked to a very good psychologist about my son's more severe phobia of fire drills.

Here's the routine: Stay calm. Don't take it far enough or fast enough to get anxious. If you do, back off.

Find some level of exposure (across the room?, in a cage?, 50 yards away in the zoo or pet store?) that is NOT fearful for you. Hang out there, do whatever is calming for you (yoga, conscious breathing, read a book, get a massage, whatever works for you).

You will be desensitizing yourself.

Wash, rinse, repeat at that level of exposure. Get closer only if you're calm about it. Go for repetitions, lots of duration and repetitions. Slowly increase your exposure while shifting into that calm mode you've practiced.

With time, you can beat down most phobias as much as you want. Often, once to a tolerable level, people stop practicing, but even then the beneficial effects can be long-term.

Edited by DavidinKenai on 05/09/2012 17:20:16 MDT.

Of the world's ten most venomous snakes, guess how many live in Australia?
All ten.
Doesn't seem to worry our walkers though. We just let them be. No, we do NOT pick any of them up.


Mainland Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus, Vize Spur, April 2012

Very pretty fellow I think. Yes, potentially fatal. We walked around him and he ignored us. But I did get some good photos!

Actually, it may have been 'her' as Sue thinks she saw a baby one nearby. Also pretty.

Cheers

Edited by rcaffin on 05/09/2012 18:31:58 MDT.

I can never tell if the snakes I am looking at are male or females but also don't ask.
Don't ask, don't tell..


A funny one was a river walk I used to do.
That involved walking in the river off and on because of the overgrown sides and or steep sides.
(Lerderdurg Gorge)
Anyway at some point I was made aware that there were snakes (brown snakes) in the water, never knew that they could or would swim.
And fair enough on a nice hot day (about 100f) there they were in the ,shallow, water with me...
Franco
(the one in the pic is probably a male. They curl up like that when courting, the female just lays there waiting for something to happen. Or at least that is the way they seem to behave to me.... Very common snake )

Thanks for all the helpful feedback! Lots of great tips on getting over my fear and it helps to know there are others out there that have this same problem when hiking. I have to admit all the snake picture scare the hell out of me, but I'm forcing myself to look at them. Gotta start somewhere right?

absolutely, look at the pics, look at the snakes calmly and try to think of them as beautiful, pacific animals that will make you no harm if they have the choice. It's the way to re-program your mind.

They ARE beautiful!
And silky smooth too.

Cheers

This is about creativity, but for those of you fearing snakes it has an interesting message.

Start at 2:50

Edited by greg23 on 05/18/2012 13:48:15 MDT.

Ah, TED. One of my all time favorite websites. Thanks for the link! The entire presentation was fabulous.

" What scares me most is just seeing a snake or being in close proximity to one."

Stay away from the Capitol......

Luke,

I know how you feel. I don't know that I have a phobia but there is no doubt seeing one terrifies me enough to paralyze me.

I almost stepped on one in spooky canyon not long ago. The walls were no more than a foot apart in the area so there was nowhere to go. I stood there for five long minutes. My buddy stepped right over it no problem. I was so terrified I chimneyed the canyon walls until I was 15 ft up then moved along. I didnt come down until I couldn't see it anymore lol.

The idea of saving weight on my shelter is great but much like you, I would not get much sleep. I believe in going light so long as it does not ruin the experience and the spirit of being in the backcountry. If i cant enjoy it then what's the point? This is my line. Everyone is different and must dial in what works best for them

Full disclosure: I sleep sound in my msr ZOID 1. This just means I really look closely at the rest of my gear for weight savings. I've slept where I could visibly see 5 or 6 deadly scorpions crawling within feet of me no problem. Ive stepped over a steaming pile of bear scat in AK in early spring while staring down a fresh tunnel 6 ft wide through a dense berry patch no prob- but snakes..nope. Hahaa.

Not allowing your fear to stop you from doing that which you love most- that's conquering your fear. Now, just dial in your system. You've got it

Hi Luke,

I just got back from the Pine Valley area of Ventana three weeks ago. We were on a Boy Scout hike.

I agree with you about the snakes there. I came across five on the overnight route, with two actively rattling at me. No doubt many more were near and just left me alone. It would have been a mess to be bitten there, as it was quite a hike back without cell access. Th bad part is the trails are narrow and the grass is tall up to the trail edge.

I'll think twice before going there with young scouts again in the spring, not sure it is worth the risk to them.

Thanks, Steve

Just take along a California Mountain Kingsnake on a leash. They kill and eat rattlesnakes, yet they are harmless to humans.

--B.G.--

I think snakes behind glass are quite beautiful and the 'safe' ones brought out at kids’ parties are pretty amazing, but in the bush they give me shivers. As Roger pointed out, all ten of world's ten most venomous snakes live in Australia. That's a very good reason for behaving with a healthy respect for them here and staying well out their way.

My first encounter in the wild, when I was a teenager, was a huge snake dropping out of a tree between my brother and a family friend. The screams were loud, and both boys ran away from the snake and each other. The memory still gives me goosebumps.

Since then, I've been lucky and not seen a single snake in a few decades. Either that or I am a very noisy walker and I scare them away!! Anyway, I saw another snake in the wild a few months ago in Tasmania. I was walking along watching my footing when something moved. I yelped (ok, it was probably a screech!). It slid away from me pretty quickly so by the time I grabbed my camera and zoomed I couldn’t get a shot which would help identify it. It looked pretty small at the time, thin and probably 1-2 feet long. My first thought was that it was a baby snake, but then I remembered taht one of the three Tasmanian snakes only grows to that size. Irrespective, all Tasmanian snakes are venomous.



I'll stay well away from any snake I see, but people have been bitten in some interesting places when taken by surprise. (I'll say no more, use your imagination!) I don't think my fear of them will ever go away. We ended up getting a PLB (120g=42oz) to improve our chances of getting proper treatment and reduce our fear of the consequences of being bitten.

I have wondered what it would be like to walk in a place with snakes that are not venomous. Would I still jump if I saw one?

PS. Franco, I think I would have preferred not to have known about brown snakes swimming in a place I like walking :-( We went there last summer.

Out here in the Mojave Desert I worry mainly about the Mojave Green Rattlesnake because not only does it have BOTH hemotoxin and neurotoxin venom (umlike other rattlers with only hemotoxin)but it is an aggressive snake that may decide to chase you.
(Must have some South American Fer de Lance aggressive genes in it.)

Here in Western Australia snakes are just part of the experience. I saw only 8 snakes (all tiger snakes) on my Bibbulmun end to end last year. This guy was the fattest. The upper body was very olive green near Pemberton while I am used to them being more black.
I am very cautious with snakes but my only fear is treading on them unseen, especially on a midnight toilet call as they are active on warm nights.
Like Franco I will always use a tent that is fully enclosed because of bugs (our spiders and ants are nasty too) but snakes alone would still keep in a fully screened tent as I have heard too many stories of them seeking body heat during the night.

Believe me, awakening to a snake on your chest is a shocking experience. It happened to me while fighting a wildland fire in Eastern Montana. Cowboy camping was always the plan, that is if we slept at all.

I woke up grabbed the darn thing and chucked it as hard as I could while 90% asleep. The next morning I asked the guys bedded down near me if I had thrown the snake on them. Much to my relief I hadn't.

I have seen countless rattlesnakes and Copperheads and was even unsuccessfully (for the Copperhead anyhow) struck by a copperhead. It left fang marks but didn't inject venom. I respect snakes but don't fear them. Then on the other hand, living in Australia would be a whole different story. Of course, my only experience with snakes in Australia came courtesy of the late Steve Irwin.

Edited by aviddk on 05/25/2012 17:16:00 MDT.

If you don't like snakes, tramp New Zealand :-)

We've swum with sea snakes in Fiji, (poisonous, but don't bite) and even seen a snake in the wilds of Turkey.
We tramped in Australia seven times now and seen multiple snakes each time, but as Roger says, if you leave them alone.... (Possibly with the exception of the Tiger snake).

Mind you, a red belly black did take exception to me taking his photo.

Funniest thing I ever say was in a beach car park south of Perth. A Brown, about two metres long was being hassled by two magpies. He had his head down, and was running away, (well- slithering), as fast as he could go. We certainly did not get in his way!

I thought about this thread while I was hiking this past weekend near my house.

As I was heading up a narrow steep ridge I could look ahead and see a couple hacking away at low plants next to the trail. Even though I knew what they were doing I had to ask anyway. The woman said they were clearing the trail where it was a bit too thick (as is her Korean accent). I have seen them over the years. She always goes through the story that she was on the trail and saw a snake on the trail and had stepped right over it without even knowing. Her son saw it. Then she motioned up above where the ridge was about 8 feet above the trail. She said she saw snakes up there too. She said it as if there were a whole cluster of them and they were going to drop on them. They carry golf clubs and hack away as they hike.

They do recognize me but she almost always tells the story. Now that I think about it, I heard that story for the first time maybe 4 years ago. That snake has really got a lot out of that encounter.

I have seen snakes up there so I know they are there. Last summer I had a rattler move away from me when it "heard" me coming. It was winding through a bush rattling all the way. Actually, if I were more comfortable with venomous snakes I could have grabbed it from behind since it was in a vulnerable position moving that way. I left it where it was.

I am ambivalent about snakes coupled with a healthy respect for them.

All snakes are VERY beneficial to the ecosystem.

Amen!!!

I live in Fla and in the past year and a half I have been trying to get outdoors and hike and bike ride . I have seen a wide variety of snakes. I give them a wide breath. But do stop to admire them from afar. I have seen a moccasin, black snakes, water snakes, green snakes, a Pygmy rattler, a coral snake, several regular rattlers, ring necked snakes, and others that scurried off before I could tell what they were. I bought a snake I'D chart to carry with me after I started seeing so many. All I can say is that I would NEVER go hiking off trail here in central Fla. The thought scares me. I just envision stepping right on one.

I lived in florida for 6 years and never saw an alligator out of captivity. In the past year and half, I have seen over one hundred in the wild. One of the bike trails goes over a bridge over a swampy river....I always see a large alligator there. The only one that has ever reacted to me was a small one...I scared it. There is a preserve near town that has a ton of them....along with a lot of beautiful birds.

Actually, I think snakes scare me more than alligators. I do think snakes are beautiful and are unfairly maligned.....but the do scare me. Lol!

Scariest snake for me was a huge puff adder in Serengeti National park last year that crossed the rd in front of our truck. It seemed like it was 1/2 the width of the rd. kind of cured my desire to hike in the Serengeti!!!!

Edited by Helintexas on 06/11/2012 20:44:49 MDT.

Or Ireland.

Or Alaska (one garter snake in far SE Alaska near Ketchikan).

Or Hawaii (one worm-like, non-poisonous snake).

Or Antarcticia.

When you think about it, irrational fear of snakes makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Our ancestors who jumped away at the first sight of a snake had a marginally better chance of becoming our ancestors than those who waited to figure out whether it was dangerous. I admire snakes and like to watch and photograph them, but when I unexpectedly see one up close it's always very startling.

Funny story: Several years ago, on what turned out to be our last "heavy" backpacking trip, my wife and I walked around a smallish bog after making camp for the night. With about half a mile left to go and dusk setting I saw something odd in the shadows just off the trail. It looked black and perfectly round, maybe 8" - 12" diameter - almost like the end of a well pipe sticking just above the ground. I stepped closer and prodded it with my trekking pole; it was resilient. My wife caught up: "What did you find?" "I don't know, but it's pokey." She turned on her flashlight and it was a coiled rattlesnake. My immediate reaction was denial: No way I just poked a rattlesnake with a sharp stick. The rest of the way back to camp I had my flashlight on continuously, and was jumping at every noise and shadow.

Luke, keep in mind a few things about rattlers: number one, if you hear them rattling they are aware of you, and are simply asking you to leave them alone, and to note their presence. It is not a threat, it's an alert. Though they probably have different intensity of rattling which someone more clued in than me could probably understand in terms of fear and warning levels.

This would be one of the top reasons no hiker should ever hike with music player attached to their ears, you just lost the friendly warning seconds and might step right on the little guy, even though he really wanted to tell you not to do that. So if anyone ever gets bit by a rattler while using their mp3 player, blame yourself, not the snake, in nature creatures don't ignore their environment and tune it out with fake sounds.

I did talk to someone last year who noted that she'd seen some rattlers on the overgrown trails she'd been bushwhacking on up high in Big Sur, under the chaparral, but on the trail. So it pays to pay attention at all times.

One way to get to like snakes is to stop when you see a garter snake, they are small, friendly, and shy, and certainly aren't going to try biting you, and even if they did, it would probably just be sort of funny. Just watch them move, watch how their bodies create the motion, watch how elegant their forms are, how they can vanish into the underbrush. Those snakes are out now on the trails, I'm seeing them all the time hiking, and they are a great one to get used to the notion of a snake in the wild.

Also, as a mental exercise, and this is easy to do in Big Sur/Ventana, try to remember that the lizards you see doing their little pushups when you pass by them looking cool are the cousins of the snakes, well, maybe second cousins. Snakes just don't have the little legs, at least not visibly. Same for the salamanders and newts you might run across.

There's some good tips in this thread, using trekking poles is I think probably going to alert the snake you are coming, that sharp sort of tap is probably enough to either shake the ground or to let them hear you. I'd only move a snake out of the way if it was sunning itself right on the trail, and then only after asking it to move, which they will almost always do, they don't really want to deal with you either, shocking as that might be to our egos... But they might take a minute or two to decide to leave that prime sunning spot that they had discovered. Like Roger said, take some pictures, or just watch it, see how it moves and reacts, might learn something. Maybe if it's stubborn carefully suggest to it that it really needs to move, by moving the trekking pole tip closer to it.

Very cool shots of snake handling, but of course, most people shouldn't try that, but nice to see snakes get some love here, all the creatures should.

Edited by hhope on 06/12/2012 20:47:33 MDT.

Nice thread. Like anything else, fear is often rooted in a lack of knowledge. However over time, most hikers who encounter snakes on numerous occasions learn that they are not to be feared, but just respected. The trick is to enter the realm of numerous occasions without freaking out. Read as much as you can about snakes and it may help, but seeing them without incident and learning about them works wonders.

For an alternative method, you may want to consider this one, which is how I got over my fear of snakes quickly. When I was in the Air Force, some genius decided I needed to be trained by the Army. So one of the schools I was forced to go to was at Fort Carson, CO. I think it was a Recon course. Anyway, we had to work our way through a field with live machine gun fire over our heads, and as I moved from ditch to ditch, hole to hole, the place was invested with rattlers. My fear of snakes became insignificant compared to my fear of .50 caliber ammunition :)

Franco,

Devil's kitchen?