So the wife and family members seemed obsessed with snakes on the trail (and bears). Not being in the demographic of 14-27 year old males who get 99% of the snake bites I am not too concerned but need to answer family questions (and some of my own).
- Identifying a poisonous snake ~ I am not real keen on getting close enough to identify them, a snake is a snake.
- First aid following a snake bite ~ what should I do? What if I do not know if the snake bite was poisonous?
- Rescue ~ is a snake bite a reason to press the SOS button on my Garmin?
- Bite range ~ how far away do I need to be from a snake to be outside it's bite/strike range?
- Avoiding snakes ~ where to avoid so that I won't be surprised by a snake?
- Sleeping companions(*) ~ I have been sleeping under a tarp in a bivy. Will I have snakes crawling in for warmth?
(*) So my dad was stationed in the Utah desert while in the Army. He would tell stories about guard duty. If on guard duty you were not looking for the Commies, you had a shovel to scoop the snakes off the top of the troops in sleeping bags. Probably a BS story but still lingers in the back of my mind.