I never worried until last August when I darn near stepped on the biggest rattler i.v ever seen between reeds gap and maupin. I still dont worry... unless I have my kids or dogs
At the age of 10, while playing along a riverbank barefoot, I stepped on a Water Moccasin; rather than attacking, it just scooted away. However, since that moment, I've had problems with fear of snakebite. Never been bitten and am aware it's an irrational fear, still bothers me though while hiking in some areas.Originally Posted by FreeGoldRush
humor is the gadfly on the corpse of tragedy
I almost stepped on a copperhead on the Approach Trail in May.I was plodding along quite nicely and about a step and a half away when the stick I was looking at moved and suddenly turned into a snake!The thought occurred to me that I really don't know what I would have done had he bitten me.So,what's the consensus on what to do?
I already know "Stay Calm" but other than walk out is there anything else to do?It's my understanding that tourniquets and cutting and sucking the wound are mostly the stuff of Cowboy Westerns now.
he lost me at "poisonous rattlesnakes."
I've seen dozens of poisonous snakes when hiking but the only one that ever bit me was in my own back yard -- and even then he didn't really mean me any harm.
The first time I saw him, I was stooped over the giant philodendron in my flower garden pulling weeds when I looked down and discovered a small copperhead coiled peacefully in the middle of a leaf about six inches from my bare belly. By the time I got back with a hoe he was gone.
A week later I was pulling weeds again (you wouldn't believe how fast they grow in Houston!), and felt a sudden sting on my hand, like a jolt of electricity. I searched but couldn't find what had bit me. It didn't feel like any insect bite I'd ever had, but it didn't seem serious so I just went back to pulling weeds. I didn't make the connection to the copperhead until later, when my hand swole up with a big red circle around the bite, where I could see two tiny fang marks. I looked it up on the internet, and apparently most copperhead bites are harmless because they prefer to save their venom for their prey. But there is always a little venom on the fangs, so you still get a reaction. My hand was swollen for about a week and the joints in that arm were achy, but otherwise, no damage.
The last time I saw him, I found him warming himself on the sidewalk to the barn when I went out to put the chickens to bed. This time he was still there when I got back with the hoe, and that was the end of the copperhead. He was a pretty thing and I hated to kill him after he'd cut me slack on the bite, but I couldn't have him running around my property when the grandkids come over.
My neighbor was bitten by a coral snake last year when he was cutting brush. Now that's a serious bite. He was laid up for a couple of weeks because none of the hospitols stock anti-venin anymore.
I think you're way more likely to get bit at home than on the trail.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the nation's most visited National Park.
Last time I saw a report on injury/death statistics, the park service claimed that no one has ever died from a snake bite in the park since its inception.
You have several strategies---
** Buy lightweight Turtle Skin snake gaiters for hiking/backpacking. Expensive but then so is the $180,000 hospital bill.
** Get a PLB like ACR ResQLink and use it when needed.
** Hike more slowly and never listen to music on earbuds. Go Slow and Stop Often.
I take several packages of benadryl too---just for the heck of it.
The article says "Don't try to chase the snake off the trail. . ." But I often do this for several reasons. One is because it's directly on the trail and I can't go around (steep hillside). Second, it may be close to a parking lot and I don't want idiot humans to see it and kill it. It's illegal anyway to kill rattlesnakes in wilderness areas.
"They tend to be by water" is oh so true. My best pit viper story comes from a trip on the BMT/State Line Ridge when I dumped the pack and went to get water at Round Top Mt spring. I squatted by the pool and furiously pumped a couple liters and stood up and noticed my friend Johnny watching the whole transaction. Didn't notice him at all until the end.
Here's the snake I chased out of Big Fat Gap in a deadend parking area---
Trip 191 (280)-XL.jpg
We have well established that dying is not the concern. I'd like to know some data on the non-death experiences.
So is taking Benadryl advised after a snake bite? Anything? Help will likely take forever to arrive. My current strategy is to attempt to walk out. Any modifications to this strategy?
https://www.backpacker.com/gear/benadryl-for-snakebites
Also, I read somewhere that 50% of venomous snake bites are "dry"....no venom. Wash the wound to prevent infection.
Last edited by DownYonder; 08-09-2018 at 18:35.
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Travel not for the destination, but for the joy of the journey.
yet again, a double post
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Travel not for the destination, but for the joy of the journey.
Here is an older thread on the same subject.
https://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/sho...alachian-Trail
A rattlesnake tried to bite my girlfriend on the BMT in GSMNP last June. She had been finding all sorts of interesting things in the weeds along the sides of the trail, mice, salamanders, turtles etc. I heard " hey honey, what's this" from behind me and turned just in time to see a blur of brown come out of the weeds at her leg. Somehow, she managed to scream, jump backwards and crack a 5 foot timber rattler in the side of the head with her hiking pole at the same time. We got lucky on that one but it convinced me that its time to get PLB. If she had been bitten the only thing I know to do would have been to get her down to lakeshore, keep the bite below heart level and try to walk the shoreline searching for a cell phone signal or passing boat. It was pouring the rain at the time so a boater would have probably been hard to find.
Met a thru-hiker on my PCT section hike two years ago who was bit by a rattler. She was helicoptered off the trail and spent a few days in the hospital. She then got back on the trail and hiked to Canada.
She had True-Grit
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
So is a rattlesnake bite a reason to hit the SOS button on the InReach?? Once again, what does one do? There seems to be no answer. The ATC addresses this in their FAQ only by saying that most snakes are not venomous.
My current best answer remains: Walk out while dialing 911.
i would say whether you hit the SOS on an InReach for a snake bite is more a question of where you are.
On the PCT you could easily be multiple days of hiking away from help.
On the AT should you hit the panic button 5 miles from a busy road crossing? no, probably not.
If "hold my beer and watch this" is a common phrase in a social group, chances of snake bite appear to be far higher within that demographic than the general population.
I have only stepped on one snake and he did not bite me.It was a king snake in my driveway that had wrapped around the axle on my garbage can.That's why I was not expecting or looking for a snake encounter.Nobody had to tell me what that "hose" was that I just stepped on and I got off him at warp speed too.So far I have avoided the poisonous ones but I am always looking for them.
During my 2011 thru-hike, a hiker was tagged on the ankle by a copperhead while filling up at a water source behind a shelter (in VA). He remained calm and called emergency services. He wrote about it in the shelter log while waiting 2-3 hours for them to arrive and assist him to the nearest road. It ended his thru-hike after 1400 miles because the swelling and bruising took 30 days to reduce down to a normal level. He was pretty bummed, but I think he attempted again the next year.
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