Last week the dogs and I put on our Bureau of Land Management volunteer hats and went out to the backcountry to check on the condition of a couple of Air Force helicopter landing zones. The Air Force has several of these in remote corners of public land to practice night time maneuvering.
This happens to be the center point of the landing zone.
A helicopter landing zone may not be all that exciting, but it is a good excuse to get out into the backcountry.
Since we had been to this particular area of the backcountry before, we were not expecting this trip to be full of surprises. And that’s okay, sometimes just getting out is good enough. And if you allow yourself to be in touch with your surroundings, there will always be something to make the trip worthwhile.
And this trip was no exception. As we walked along, we were frozen in our tracks by the startling “whisss” of a rattlesnake hissing rather than rattling. Not coiled, this snake was partially erect like a cobra about twenty feet in front of us.
Here’s the snake that we saw. As you can see it’s erect rather than coiled. If you look at the tail, you can see that it has black and white bands. It’s a Western Diamondback sometimes called a Coon- Tailed Rattlesnake.
With that much distance, we were in no danger and could take our time to watch it. But no matter how safe you are, there is nothing like the sudden “whisss” of a hiss or the whirling “whizz” of a rattle to pull your shoulders back and stop you in your tracks.
Yes, rattlesnakes are poisonous and are all around us, especially in the backcountry and urban edges. But they are not a reason to keep you from going out and enjoying the world around us. For most of us it is rare to meet a rattlesnake.
I walk in the backcountry on a regular basis and, until I recently moved, I lived on the urban edge in prime rattlesnake habitat. Yet I doubt if I see more than two or three rattlesnakes in a year. Some years I have seen none. When I spent six months hiking the Appalachian Trail, I only saw one rattlesnake and two copperheads. Rather than a moment of terror, a snake sighting is an opportunity.
With that being said, it does make sense to be careful. If you have ear buds, yank them out. Hearing what’s around you is more important than the song you’re listening to. And if you have hearing aids, wear them.
One time I went out with a friend who wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. While he was casually sitting on a log tying his bootlaces a rattlesnake was rattling his tail off less than ten feet away from him! When I caught up with my friend, he mentioned to me that he saw a snake earlier, and I yelled back, “he’s still here and right behind you; can’t you hear it rattling?” Once we got to a safe distance, he put in his hearing aids; lesson learned.
And if you hike with dogs, like I do, keep them close to you during snake season. Another friend of mine told me that his neighbor’s dog was bitten by a rattlesnake and it cost $1600 to treat the dog with anti-venom. I am seriously considering getting my dogs vaccinated against snake bite.
I do carry a venom extractor in my daypack, but I am not sure if I would ever use it. I have read too many conflicting reports on the value of using a venom extractor. The bottom line is that if you act sensibly, rattlesnakes should not be reason to stop you from getting out and exploring your surroundings.
After spending time with the snake, we continued our walk and did check out the helicopter landing zones. On our way back to the car, we noticed something far more dangerous than a rattlesnake; a totally unusable road that shows up on Google Maps or your car’s navigation device as a drivable road.
Hard to believe, but where we are standing is identified as road in Google Maps and in your car’s navigation device. If you look in the distance, you can see that the road at one time went up the side of the hill.
Here is a map of where the picture was taken. The same database that supplies roads to your car’s navigation device also supplied the roads for this map. Many of the roads in this map don’t exist anymore or are inaccessible because of the locked gate.
To begin with, many roads in the backcountry are problematic and should only be used during the day in good weather. Some roads have locked gates and cannot be used. And then there are other roads that are completely gone and haven’t seen a vehicle in decades.
Yet many of these roads show up in a map database as usable. And that is why you read stories in the newspaper about someone being stranded or dying in the backcountry because they trusted their car’s navigation device.
Just like you need to use good judgment when you see a rattlesnake; you also have to use good judgment when you drive on a dirt road in the backcountry. If you do use good judgment, you can have a great time and make amazing discoveries.
October 3, 2014 at 8:34 am
Great picture as always. The snake looks very fat like it just ate something pretty large. Lived around snakes growing up in Devore, Ca but never saw one upright like that. It sure blended in with the color, it took me a minute to find it.