First Rattlesnake

From Helen:



Notes from before and after the stream.
Thank you trail angel who left these!

It was bound to happen sometime in all this hot weather... Mark and Jay and I were blithely hiking down the tame Virginia trails, keeping an eye out for our campsite at Piney River. As the gurgling stream came within earshot, we saw a white sheet of notebook paper under a rock in the middle of the trail. "Rattlesnake!" the note shouted, "Be Careful! Between the rocks, before you get to the stream. 4:15 PM. 5/28/11." We stopped and exchanged cautious glances; we were coming through at 4:45 PM.

Mark was leading our line, and he stepped slowly toward the rocks of the stream. All seemed well, till suddenly Mark leapt to his left, away from some stones in the edge of Piney River. "There it is!" he chuckled,

"I just saw it from the corner of my eye as I passed it." I moved to a safe distance on the left of the trail and peered between the rocks. The snake was coiled around some branches, dark pattern of a rattler just visible, ribbon of tongue smelling us every few seconds as he faced the trail. He had a large diameter, as if he'd just eaten something. We eased around the rocks and across the water one at a time, keeping one eye on the snake and one on our footing.



Rattlesnake - picture taken from safe distance; cropped later.



We could see across the stream that the same person had left a note for hikers coming the other way. The campsite was empty, and we decided to stay in spite of the snake. Gigantic boulders framed the tentsites, and there was plenty of room to spread out. We had our cold-prep dinner rehydrating and tents up in no time. Jay and Mark went back across the stream to take pictures and see if the snake had left. (The perks of backpacking with 2 brave men!) By early dusk the rattler had gone to bed and so did we.