Rattlesnakes! (Read 515 times)

My little 3 mile lunch time run yesterday was at my local cross country course (if you ran in high school on the San Francisco peninsula, then you've run Crystal Springs CC Course many times) and near the end of the first mile I passed a snake on the side of the trail. This is very unusual as I only have ever seen one other snake on the course. Rabbits, deer, quail, lizards, and once a coyote - but rarely snakes. Well it was charcoal gray with white bands near the end and light colored rattle at the end. It thought I might have been mistaken, but warned a hiker a little further on anyway. At about 2.5 miles on the course, I saw another one - no mistaking the rattle this time with identical coloring. Then a couple hundred yards later there was another one stretched across the trail - I had to go off trail to get around this one. What's the dang deal here? The smallest was about 2 feet long, the others were about 3 feet.

Well at least you see them first. I have a nasty habit of standing on them and THEN noticing they are there. But then I like snakes and are not afraid of them at all. I am going to assume the weather has really warmed up there and you have had a LOT of rain etc. That means lots of food for mice and field rats which means a high survival rate for them which means the snakes are out in force taking advantage of the situation. So be careful on your runs. If you run after dark keep in mind that as the night cools down the snakes will seek out the paved trails and other like places that hold the heat of the day to stay warm. If you hear the buzz..................... FREEZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Locate the snake and then SLOWLY back away and keep your movements steady and smooth. If you jerk away you WILL provke a strike. And they are shockingly fast on the strike. OH and they ONLY strike from a coiled position. AND they can see your heat signature even in total darkness. The big thing to remember is that the snake wants to stay away from you as much or more than you want to keep away from him and unless you do somthing really stupid are not in any danger. Being CALM is KEY. And I hope none of this scared you off trails!!! Now had you said SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!! Well lets just say Albert got it wrong!!!!!! You CAN reach speeds faster than light!!!

I saw a snake today on my run along the Coyote Creek levee in Milpitas. I like to pick up trash along the trail to toss in the next trash can - not such a good idea today. I was passing under the 237 overpass and noticed what I thought was a ribbon laying on the ground. So I go cross over to pick it up. Now, I'm in shadow because of the overpass and I'm wearing sunglasses so I couldn't really see that well. Got within about 2 feet of it before I realized it was a snake that I was about to pick up. Course it was only a little 2 ft grass snake. I left him to his business.