there* oops
there* oops
was top ropin in NC one time, was suppose to set up belay on a ledge when I got there and belay my partner up. got up top and there was a 5-6 foot rattler sunning on the granite. biggest one I have every seen. Thankfully I didnt startle it. He was about 10-12 feet away and never moved. I set up belay anyways, but was certainly keeping watch on him more than my partner!
Here are some of the snakes I've seen while out backpacking---
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/keywor...2521&k=4HBZTc4
Saw only one timber rattler on my thru hike. It was somewhere in PA and was solid black. Evidently, PA is near the northern range of this reptile and they turn dark to absorb all of the available heat.
When I was a kid growing up in Northern Pennsylvania, my father took me to the rattlesnake roundup in Morris, PA a few times. Morris is up near Wellsboro and Pine Creek Gorge. Seeing all those rattlers in one spot was awesome. Plus it was like a little festival with food and games. I assume it still happens...(google, here I come)
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictiona...esnake+Roundup - Apparently it does still happen but not the hundreds of snakes that I remember as a kid.
Hiking from Rattlesnake Mountain to Mohican Outdoor Center yesterday, I didn't see any rattlesnakes but I did seen someone with "snake gaiters". Thoughts on these? I think I make enough noise with my trekking poles that I scare most wildlife away! Did see a porcupine. Must have been deaf!
There's a present for you guys in the Creative Corner
"Maybe life isn't about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it."
I've seen them in PA 4 times, one time one started crawling towards us when we were trying to go around it. Took a lot of thrown rocks to get him to turn around and move off. I'm one of those that would much prefer to never ever see or hear one. Lived in AZ where they'd hang out on your front doorstep in the summer. The last one we came across I didn't see but the person hiking right behind me said that I nearly put my trailing heel down on it and she almost stepped right onto it. All I heard was a blood curdling shriek and then "Oh God oh God oh God oh God" as I leapt straight up and ran as fast as could up the trail for about 50 feet before turning around to find out what was wrong! Then she told me. It was stretched across the trail and slowly crawling into the undergrowth. When the trail is rocky or there's a lot of tall grass, fallen trees, any place where they like to hide, I use my hiking poles to smack the ground, bang on the rocks, smack the fallen trees, whatever noise I can make to get them to crawl away or stay hidden.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
FYI, Timber Rattlers currently range up through the lower halves of New Hampshire and Vermont, and historically have been found above the Canadian border. I have seen them in MA and CT.
Their color can be highly variable, containing black, green, tan, brown, yellow, and gray.
I've seen them in Pa. before. Once two large ones on the same rock. Everything I've read indicates that you have a good chance that they won't waste their venom on something they can't eat. Mess around poking them and you deserve what you get.
"The difficult can be done immediately, the impossible takes a little longer"
There are snake roots and root snakes, make sure that you know the difference before you step on one.
76 HawkMtn w/Rangers
14 LHHT
15 Girard/Quebec/LostTurkey/Saylor/Tuscarora/BlackForest
16 Kennerdell/Cranberry-Otter/DollyS/WRim-NCT
17 BearR
18-19,22 AT NOBO 1562.2
22 Hadrian's Wall
23 Cotswold Way