Beware of SNAKES !

More Greens. The fat one is gravid.

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Yesterday Courtney and I did a quick spin in Chino hills. Coming back from 4 corners I was in front. I swerved around a small rattle snake about 16 inches long which woke it up. It coiled. I yelled at Courtney to watch out. She couldn't see the snake due to the late afternoon sun and the snake being dirt colored. She began to hit the brakes but as she rolled past she lifted her legs and clipped the snake. I remember looking back and seeing the snake in the air just below axle high and that was it. Nothing happened. It didn't bite her. We saw 2 gardener snakes and the one rattler on yesterday's ride. Why is Chino Hills loaded with so many snakes?
 
Stkx66 said:
Yesterday Courtney and I did a quick spin in Chino hills. Coming back from 4 corners I was in front. I swerved around a small rattle snake about 16 inches long which woke it up. It coiled. I yelled at Courtney to watch out. She couldn't see the snake due to the late afternoon sun and the snake being dirt colored. She began to hit the brakes but as she rolled past she lifted her legs and clipped the snake. I remember looking back and seeing the snake in the air just below axle high and that was it. Nothing happened. It didn't bite her. We saw 2 gardener snakes and the one rattler on yesterday's ride. Why is Chino Hills loaded with so many snakes?
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I used to ride the Anaheim Hills side every other day and would see one on about half the rides this time of year.
 
buggravy said:
Wow, I didn't realize rattle snakes lived that long. I was going to make a comment earlier based on size. I hate seeing a life taken needlessly, but particularly one that's an outlier that is probably making strong contributions to the gene pool. Like the trophy trout on a stringer.
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Some species of snakes can live beyond 50 years. It takes a Reticulated Python or a Green Anaconda decades to reach 20 feet.
 
Stkx66 said:
Yesterday Courtney and I did a quick spin in Chino hills. Coming back from 4 corners I was in front. I swerved around a small rattle snake about 16 inches long which woke it up. It coiled. I yelled at Courtney to watch out. She couldn't see the snake due to the late afternoon sun and the snake being dirt colored. She began to hit the brakes but as she rolled past she lifted her legs and clipped the snake. I remember looking back and seeing the snake in the air just below axle high and that was it. Nothing happened. It didn't bite her. We saw 2 gardener snakes and the one rattler on yesterday's ride. Why is Chino Hills loaded with so many snakes?
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It's likely surrounded by developments, therefore land locking the wildlife in place. Furthermore, it must be a big enough area to sustain populations without constant human interaction, otherwise the population would slowly be wiped out.
 
SnakeCharmer said:
That one looks gravid. :thumbsup:
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Its always a great thing to keep the babies coming!! LOVE seeing snakes out on the trails... Such beautiful creatures.

So far i've seen zero on my rides this year. I need to get out more for many reasons...

Strongly agree that the snake above did not have to die. Very sad when that is the first reaction imo.
 
Dirtrider.... said:
Its always a great thing to keep the babies coming!! LOVE seeing snakes out on the trails... Such beautiful creatures.

So far i've seen zero on my rides this year. I need to get out more for many reasons...

Strongly agree that the snake above did not have to die. Very sad when that is the first reaction imo.
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I haven't seen many this year yet either but we did see this 18" SPR a week or so ago at one of our City Parks. I think I posted it elsewhere here, too.

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I've been eyeballing a trapped rattler for about a week now. It had gotten down into the flood control channel at our City Park and it was only a matter of time before some idiot threw a big rock on it's head from above. I was planning to climb down into the channel to scoop up the snake but the area is super busy with trail and park users and like most flood control channels, it is clearly posted that big fines and jail time come to those who are caught in there. We were going by there daily to see if it was still there. Meanwhile, I was concocting a means of rescuing it. And then I finally came up with a good solution. I connected about 18 feet of 1" sched 40 PVC and then I duct taped my fishing net to the end of it. I looked on the way home from the ride today and it was in the same area, coiled up and asleep. I lowered my uber-long handled net down and tapped the snake gently. In a daze, it crawled right into the net and I lifted it up and out of the channel. It barely rattled. I was expecting it to be furious like large rattlers usually are but this one is rather timid. I lowered it into a 5 gal bucket and snapped on a cover. I will take it up Whiting Woods a little later today for release. It's super fat, quite pretty for a rattler pushing 4 feet and still very timid. I feel good about this. I was really concerned for this beauty which has an impressive rattle, with well over 10 buttons. SnakeCharmer, who charmed a big 'ol rattler this afternoon, out...

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Has anyone heard of someone actually being bit by snake?
I've seen at least one hundred in the past 20 years mtbkin but never even attacked....
Just wondering...
Only person I heard get bit was rock climber at Joshua.. put his hand up and wham...
 
konakc said:
Has anyone heard of someone actually being bit by snake?
I've seen at least one hundred in the past 20 years mtbkin but never even attacked....
Just wondering...
Only person I heard get bit was rock climber at Joshua.. put his hand up and wham...
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Yes, one of my daughter's high school teachers was bitten by a baby. He lives up against the wilds and he had a bad habit of leaving his shoes on the garage floor. I guess you can imagine what happened in the recent past when he went out there and put on his shoes. He got treatment quickly and has no permanent damage. I heard that he has seen another rattler on his property since that bite.
 
konakc said:
Has anyone heard of someone actually being bit by snake?
I've seen at least one hundred in the past 20 years mtbkin but never even attacked....
Just wondering...
Only person I heard get bit was rock climber at Joshua.. put his hand up and wham...
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My brother in law got tagged about 10 years ago. He was wearing shorts and flip flops and was filling a bird feeder when he felt a tingle and looked down to see the small snake chomping on his foot. He got a free helicopter ride transferred to three different hospitals till they found one with enough anti venom. His foot still tingles and feels numb to this day.
 
With all the rattlers I’ve handled in my life, it’s a wonder I haven’t been tagged myself. I came really close to it in my teens. I was holding one in my hands and the damned thing somehow backed out of my hand. These days, I let the snake hook do the handling.
 
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Several years ago on Stagecoach I was very lucky...

The story...

Today was a good day
My Wife accepted a cool new job
I got my major project approved at work
And I got to ride LCWP on a beautiful summer evening with a friend

But the day almost took a serious turn for the worse…

I was riding up South Stagecoach in LCWP and approaching the couple big switchbacks. The first switchback is the toughest and now is a bit loose, rutting and rocky. I explained to my friend that you need to attack it an power through. So I middle-chain-ringed-it and powered into it. Just as I was almost at the exit point on the wide / uphill side of the turn, I was surprised by an extremely loud “BBZZZZZZZZZZZ”. Instantly recognizable… RATTLESNAKE. I looked down just in time to see Big Red he was right there on the uphill shelf and I saw him in a flash take a very serious and determined strike at me, full extension, mouth open, fangs out, turn sidewise so I was looking through the jaws and could see some of the white underbelly…I got a little closer look than I wanted or needed, funny how saw all that in an instant. He struck right near my back tire right behind my right thigh that just happen to be in the forward portion of the stroke. I did not panic yelled “RATTLER STOP” to my buddy and finished powering through turn … with a little extra boost.

He was big and pissed, and continued to rattle…it had quite an effect on Sul… first time he has seen one in the wild…and Red was pretty impressive and LOUD. We waited for quite some time at a distant then he slowly worked himself off into the bushes … stopping and rattling on the way. When we came back by on the decent 10 min later…he buzzed again.

I was pretty calm through the whole episode, however It did sink in a little later on the ride…had a little trouble staying focused so rode easy. I know it probably would not have been life threatening…but would have really ruined my day/week/months.

Told My Wife, she how knows the danger, but still not the best / easy conversation.
But we had a great day…funny how it could have turned on a switchback.


Note about thigh high...
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Didn't @hill^billy get a dry bite from a snake similarly perched on the uphill shelf of a trail?

Haven't had any close calls personally but I ran into a guy who had just had an experience like @bvader but on a straight section of trail, not a bench cut. By the time I got there a few mins later the snake was gone.


A friend of mine had a crash trying to stop for a rattler laying on a trail once, went OTB and both he and the bike landed on the snake. Fortunately it was sunning itself and wasn't active. It didn't really move til he had scrambled out of striking distance. Can't imagine how scary that was!
 
The hike up Whiting Woods fire road for the release about killed me after the "socially paced" ride earlier in the day. The snake remained mellow to the last. It never rattled. When I pulled the cover off the bucket at the chosen release location, it was calmly coiled up and looking up at me. I tilted the bucket and it didn't move. I tilted the bucket more and it slide partially out but tried to crawl back in! I had to use my snake hook to get it out. It quickly moved into a dense bush where it bedded down and that was that.

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evdog said:
Didn't @hill^billy get a dry bite from a snake similarly perched on the uphill shelf of a trail?

Haven't had any close calls personally but I ran into a guy who had just had an experience like @bvader but on a straight section of trail, not a bench cut. By the time I got there a few mins later the snake was gone.


A friend of mine had a crash trying to stop for a rattler laying on a trail once, went OTB and both he and the bike landed on the snake. Fortunately it was sunning itself and wasn't active. It didn't really move til he had scrambled out of striking distance. Can't imagine how scary that was!
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Did I? Most don’t believe it?
 
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