[Az-Geocaching] Rattlers are out!

[Jim Scotti]

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005, Michelle Chelby Geiss wrote:

> Thanks Jim!;)
> Ya, I don't let Lancer go much ahead of me while hiking...but I think 
> he'll be staying behind me from here on out.  And when I slinked by, 
> all I could think about was the baby on my back!  Kept my front facing 
> him at all times, keeping my body between snake and baby.  He didn't 
> look like he was going to move anytime soon:)  He had draped himself in 
> a bush to get the sun on the north side of a canyon.  He looked quite 
> comfy!

Yeah, that's one thing to keep in mind - the snake is going to be more afraid
of you than you are of him, so just keep your distance.  As long as you don't
surprise them, they probably aren't going to be too interested in striking at
you.  I think most snake bites are the result of some dolt disturbing the
snake in some way....

> Glad to know I'm not the only one who hasn't seen snake magic on the 
> trail...until today:)  I would tell people that and they wouldn't 
> believe me!

While I haven't seen a rattler on the trail, I did see a Gila Monster once -
now that was cool.  He was just crawling right across the trail as I
approached him, so I just stopped and watched him - he didn't seem to care
that a human was only about 6 feet away from him as he disappeared into the
desert.

Jim.

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/