Does anyone know where in Seattle to buy snake boots, and whether or not there's any difference (other than extra protection) between Justin's snake boots and regular cowboy boots? In other words, will their snake boots fit under my pants legs like regular cowboy boots so no one will know what a coward I am unless I get drunk and tell them?

If you are looking at making a purchase, I would prefer to go with snakeproof gaiters, rather than a specialized pair of rather clunky boots. Personally, I wouldn't bother with either unless I were in serious rattler country.

Here ya go: http://www.turtleskin.com/Hunting-Pants.aspx

Know one need know that you've got a "little something extra" underneath.



HJ

You gotta understand, I am a complete wuss. It's laughable, and I'm the first one to laugh at myself about this. But I figure a pair of snake boots is cheaper than a shrink. Ideally, I'd like to find some whose tops will fit underneath the Wranglers I wear.

Laugh. Call me a total fraud, from the cowboy hat right down to the boots. Say what you will, but do they make snake boots whose diameter isn't any bigger than a pair of regular cowboy boots? I see all kinds of places selling 'em online, but how about in or near Seattle, so I can go try 'em on first?

By the way, how do I know when I'm in serious rattler country, as opposed to when they're just kiddin' around?

p.s.: It gets better. Other than a couple-a dead ones on the highway, I've never even come across one up close. But I think that will be changing, because I'm going to be spending a lot more time east of the Cascades.

Speaking as one who has spent time on the psychiatric couch, $20 - $40 worth of gear can do more good than the medication my doctor prescribes.

Jeanette Isabelle

Maybe I should go the other way and try to make friends with them, like that guy who decided to commune with the grizzlies in Alaska. Wow, there's a plan! I mean, they'd never bite a mellow guy like me right on the face or anything, at least not while I was holding him, stroking his triangular little head, and singing, We Are The World. Right?

Thanks for the ideas. When I was out there last fall, I was clomping around like Frankenstein, and a couple months ago I went to R.E.I. and got a collapsible metal walking stick. Made in Germany, so if those snakes are serious then so am I.

The rock piles are a bit of an issue, because one thing we've been doing is a lot of rock picking (as in about a ton so far) for the garden up here. This is where we've been going. The rocks are unreal.

The boots are just a security blanket until I've run into a few of 'em. I'm not even going to start in on the cougars ...

i remember a lecture i once attended given by a venomous snake expert from usc, and i could possibly come up with the scientific reference for the following: statistically, a snake bite victim is a male, under the age of 25, has tattoos, is bitten on the hand or fingers, and has a blood alcohol content that would get you arrested if driving. as i recall, that's what he said.

remember, the snake will sense you by vibration but will strike at the heat it senses - it will strike at the threat with some accuracy. it'll go for your legs or higher. not your foot-level boot.

in your case, i'll make a stretch here and assume you wear pants with your cowboy boots. the snake's fangs may or may not even pierce the pant fabric - denim is pretty dense material. even if it does pierce the material, it's unlikely the fangs would then pierce your cowboy boot.

if you still have a concern, i agree that gaiters, commonly found in hiking stores, are your answer. impenetrable. and they go on and come off easily.

in my case, the snakes have all seen me and let me know about it by making noise before i ever saw them. and that's how i learned to fly. but that's another story.

Seems to me most of the 'snake boots' were pretty costly. A low cost alternative might be the snake-proof, snake resistant if you tread the fine print. (The large print giveth, the small print taketh away.)

A friend got a set and claims they have saved him. He is a surveyor's helper and time pressures don't allow the sorts of normal behaviors that limit the chances of a bite. He doesn't get to skirt the palmetto thickets that are several feet deep in composting fronds. Thickets that are prime habitat for mice and snakes. He is expected to charge in armed with a machete, for clearing branches out of the way of the beam, and a reflector on a pole.

What he got was a set of OD green plastic gaiters that cover from instep to just below the knee. He claims they had worked but readily admits that while he has seen many snakes, and a few had clearly struck out in his general direction, he has never felt or seen a snake actually bite the gaiters and, even though they are now worn and scratched, there are no marks on them that are clearly a result of a snake bite.

I suspect that the main benefit has been peace of mind. A worthy enough goal and outcome. In that particular case the $20 they cost was likely worth it.

Of course most of us don't have a job that requires us to hardheadedly stomp through prime snake habitat at a near run. Most of the rest of us get by quite well using common sense, taking a little time, poking a walking stick into the rough spots, and generally just being careful.

I read about a rescue climber in canyon territory out west claim similar protective devices were a good investment. Evidently in the rush to get down to people needing rescue he does a lot of stepping off blindly into dark spots where snakes tend to congregate. He claimed that the devices had saved him being bit. More than once snakes had bit the boots/armor, I forget what form the protection took, and he had to manually disengage the fangs.

I think most people can get along without such things but there may be jobs and situations that justify the extra trouble. If I was going to buy protection I would lean more toward the armor gaiters/leggings as they seem to sell for less and allow you to use your normal boots and just supplement them with leggings when the situation call for it.

they just want to be left alone. and i do leave them alone. i'll go out of my way to stay out of their way.


highly overrated. says here

* In California, from 1986 through 1998, exactly two people died from mountain lion attacks, whereas in one year alone, over 4,000 people died in traffic accidents, including 800 pedestrians. This means that your car or someone else's car is ~2,000 times more likely to kill you than is a mountain lion. (A Detailed Calculation gives the ratio as between 1,150 and 4,300.)

* Over 300 people have been killed by domestic dogs in the U.S. between 1979 and the late 1990s. This means that your family dog or your neighbor's dog is ten times more likely to kill you than is a mountain lion and hundreds of time more likely than is a coyote.

if you are lucky enough to see one - you are lucky. i've known many rangers who have spent their careers outdoors and never saw one. they are solitary creatures. and typically you'll never see the one that gets you! cats pounce. consider a rear view mirror.