Last Hike

We went for our last hike of the season today.  The reason it is our last hike is because the Snakes Are Out.  Actually we quit hiking a couple of weeks ago but some of the hikers wanted to see if they could see a real live rattlesnake.  We really didn’t want to have any confrontation with snakes so we decided to hike the higher altitude in hopes it would be cooler and the snaked wouldn’t be out.

Well we didn’t get very far into the hike when I (not knowingly) stepped over this guy.

 

Yep a real live Diamond Back Rattlesnake.  I didn’t even know I stepped over him until the guy following me said snake!  He was about to place his walking stick when he realized he was about to place it right in the middle of this guy.  I turned and spotted him right away and noticed he was looking right at the guy behind me.  I said, “You might want to step back”.  It didn’t take long before the rest of the hikers were surrounding the snakes to get a look.  He was pretty lethargic since it is early in the season and they are just warming up.  Even after tossing a few rocks at him he barely lifted his head to see where they were coming from.  Never did rattle.  I didn’t really want to excite him too much in fear that he would try to retreat and since we had him surrounded there was no were to go besides through one of us.  At this point the hikers decided they saw what they came for and were ready to get out of there.