Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Snake bite

Just curious:
What is the herpetolevitation ratio between the nasty snakies that you have down in Oz and standard run-of-the-mill rattlers?

(For anyone that may not know, wagga is an Aussie.)

One helluva hobby brother! I liked the "I don't like getting bit" clarifier . . .

I see you're in Charlotte, not too far from me - ever play grabass with Eastern Diamondbacks, Copperheads or Cottonmouths?

In Oz, spectators necks get strained.

You will never see a bushwalker step over a log. We always step on top & check the other side for correct color & density of snakes.

Don't let Charlotte fool you. I am a native Californian, third-generation San Franciscan since the 1880s. However, I've been here in Charlotte for the past eight years. (This being said, my ancestors settled here in North Carolina back in the 1760s. After the Revolution, they moved to Greenville, SC, and in the early 1800s moved south of Atlanta. In 1859 my ancestor Pyle moved to northeast Texas, where my family is credited with founding and naming the town there...ATLANTA, Texas.)

I grew up in a military family (Marines and Air Force) that moved a lot--every one or two years. One of my homes was in the Florida panhandle, in Crestview on a 57-acre farm we rented. I ran into more venomous snakes there than anywhere since, including 5-ft. Eastern Diamondbacks (4 inches in diameter--very deadly), cottonmouths and copperheads, and unending numbers of ground rattlers. I'll guarantee you I played no games with them.

My father, two brothers and I ran into a rattler just west of Moraine Lake on the Chagoopa Plateau in the early 1960's. We were kind of surprised because it was approx. 9400ft. We were walking in that half-shade, half-sun zone, with lots of dead broken branches from the trees all around. Now, and forever more, whenever I walk into an area like this, my autonomic snake radar system turns on, especially on a hot summer day. Snakes blend in so well to this background that they are almost impossible to see. My mindset is: "I know there is a rattlesnake here."

Just to reminisce a little, my first rattlesnake experience is still clear in my memory bank after almost 59 years....I was in the 1st grade and on a fishing trip with my Dad at a place called Deep Creek, in Southern California. I'm not sure where that is but we were living in a place called Mentone, at the time. My Dad, as I remember, tried to chase it and kill it but he lost it when it slithered into a bush. It seemed to be a pretty fast critter. I don't remember anything else about that hike/fishing trip except that it was horribly traumatic waking up and leaving the warm comfort of a bed in the dark of morning.

Another rattler experience was when I was 14 years old and hiking from Camp Nelson to Whitney Portal. When we were in the Kern Canyon and passing Rattlesnake Creek.......yes, a rattler sounded his alarm. I think my Dad got this one. It seems in that era there was more of a killing attitude among "backwoods" types toward rattlers.

And then there's the Ruby Mountains hike near Elko....."herpetolevitation"....a great descriptive word!

herpetolevitation" that is what I did on my first sierra backpack trip in 1979. On the way down the drainage from marion lake I nearly stepped on one that was on the trail. The people I was with said I did a complete flip with a fully loaded backpack on my way to a spot several feet from him.

Re: Fla snakes, more poisonous snakes there than any other state

Well Wayne, if you spent time growing up in Florida and looked for snakes, you probably found the Coral. Presumably, since you're still around, you weren't bitten - I don't think antivenin was developed for the species till fairly recently. I lived in Savannah for a few years back in the early '80s and stumbled across one near the coast. It was very scary knowing that you're staring at almost guaranteed death or dismemberment (at best) with no antivenin available.

If you hike in the Carolinas, I'm sure you've had your run-ins with timber rattlers. They're as common as squirrels in the mountains. My one and only snakebite was by a timber rattler about 23 years ago (story here ), and I've had serious snake radar ever since. I've seen plenty of timber rattlers, copperheads and a few cottonmouths during my hiking jaunts in Georgia, but never an Eastern Diamondback. I hope to keep it that way since, between their size and venom toxicity, they're considered the most dangerous snake in North America. I think I read a while back that they've been weighed in as high as 25 pounds. If you want to handle, I would recommend Iron Man's armor.

I posted this somewhere about a year ago but it bears repeating.

My brother in law was going from Kibbie Lake cross country up to Many Island Lake in Yosemite and the route requires some scooting and crawling through some rock fall. He was well into the scooting under the rock fall when he heard the rattle go off very close by. Thinking he was about to get bit somewhere about the face or neck he horizontally herpilevitated out of the rockfall only to discover that the banging of his pack against the overhanging rocks had set off his electric toothbrush.

Electric toothbrush???
(To be enunciated very slowly, with a sense of amazement and more than a hint of disbelief.)
Brings to mind that old saying about not being able to choose one's relatives.

herpetolevitation, not herpilevitated. My word, my rules.

I have taken my electric toothbrush on an eleven day backpacking trip. See what you've done?

Very unworried, nonchalant Copperhead, about 3 feet in length. Taken by my wife yesterday at Misty Mountain near Cloudland Canyon in northwest Georgia. She was escorting a group of 10 year-old Girl Scouts on a hike when she spotted it.

The really scary thing is one of the other chaperones told everyone not to worry, the snake wasn't poisonous. Fortunately my wife knows her local pit vipers and kept the kids, including our daughter, well back.