When hiking along So Cal creeks, be prepared to meet this guy (Southern Pacific Rattlesnake). He and I had a short eyeball today.

That's fairly camouflaged. When I was a kid, I almost stepped on a snake that looked exactly like that. If you're hiking and that sucker is on the trail, it's highly unlikely that you'll see it until you're right over it. In fact, when I was hiking, the two guys in front of me stepped over the rattler, and the snake decided to wake up as I came up on it... scary feeling.

Did you shoot it? If, what type of gun and ammo did you use?

We parted on friendly terms. He didn't bother me, so I didn't bother him.

It always freaks me out a little bit when this happens. Suddenly your level of alertness goes up about 10 fold and your speed of travel goes down to about 1/10th what it was.

I often carry my Benjamin Sheridan .22 CO2 pellet pistol on these kinds of hikes. There's homes within a mile of this spot.

Hey Sotto,That looks like Cross Creek Cyn. in Malibu,Am I close?

Ha ha. You are close! ;-) A little bit further south of there.

You know I was gonna' say Tuna cyn.1st,lol!

Wow! Glad you didn't step on it.

By the way - that pellet gun looks similar to my 22/45 bull barrel.

Wow he's a big one. And here I thought it was too cold for them to be out on days like today. Crap, gotta remind myself to be more careful. Thanks for the photos.

I'm also guessing You were looking for Crawdads,To be used as feeders for Tiger Oscars/Red Devils/Red-throat Tetras,etc. Crosscreek & Malibu Cyn up near Tapia Park,Has lots of Crawdads!

It's the Model EB22. Very similar to your 22/45 rimfire without the noise (or the horsepower). And very rust resistant.