laugh as you will, we never let things go to waste so do partake.

its clean fairly-tasteless white meat so tastes like how you cooked it. ie: if fried, its simply tastes like the type of oil and/or breadcrumbs used.

there isn't a whole lots of meat on even a 40-incher, but still worth doing. almost all usable meat is on the back-strap. meat on the ribs is so thin as not to be worth hassling with, even on big one.

for survival, it's a easy catch, fast to clean and wonderful fuel.

A lot of good information in this thread.

Rattlers can strike about 2/3rds of their body length unless they're coiled up. When they're coiled up they can strike three times their body length. It's hard to figure how long they are when they're coiled up, so give them a super-wide berth.

Don't put any part of your body into any place you can't see. Check your shoes and clothes carefully. Make sure there isn't the slightest path for them to enter a warmer place at night, like your tent or your sleeping bag.

I strongly recommend an avoidance strategy with any snake not positively identified as harmless.

Put some form of Y On the end of your walking stick so if need be you do have something you can pin it down with.

Seconder on the walking stick. They serve as an extention of your walking circle. You don't even have to use it to poke around, just the process of waving it and it hitting the ground is enough to make snakes wary. It gives you a bit of a comfort zone.

2ndly, keep your camera handy. I missed taking a photo of a 4-5' rattler and simply got the smaller 3' rattler in the lense because the bigger snake was faster than I.

Georgian Bay is nice area. I kayaked around Killarney area some years ago. The sandstone & granite rock reminded me a lot of sand dunes, esp. at dusk.

I always use a hiking staff during snake season, which is most of the time in the desert where I live. The advantage of the hiking staff is it will vibrate the ground ahead of you when you plant it and it can be used as a stick to move a snake out of your path, if necessary.

Most people that are bitten by rattlesnakes are fooling around with them. Bad idea. Another thing to think about, they can get into low branches of trees and get higher up. They rarely do that except when irratated at something, like someone messing with them.

Best advice, is look ahead where you're walking and under and around rocks, logs and brush. Avoid any snakes you may see, do not mess with them.

Have a safe and fun trip!

Provided you follow the precautions ably outlined here, rattlesnakes are an insignificant hazard. In more than twenty-five years of SAR in southern Arizona, guess how many snake bite cases we handled? Zero, none, nada, zip. We did deal with one victim who was startled by a sudden encounter with a snake and fell...

I attended a presentation on snake bites by a Tucson physician who identified two varieties of victims - 1)small children playing around the house. These were bad because of the small size of the victims and the frequency of bites around the face and head. 2) males 17 to 25 years old who were deliberately hunting and handling snakes, often coupled with alcohol consumption as well.

I agree that a hiking staff or stick, as well as caution, in brush or rocky areas will work well. Pay attention to seasons and temperatures. On hot sunny days, snakes will seek shade. On cold days they will seek sunny areas. If you become familiar with conditions, you will be able to predict their presence and activity level rather well.

Occasionally, circumstances have required me to kill the snake, but in general I am reluctant to do so. All snakes do a great service by keeping rodent populations in check - you could profitably debate the proposition that snakes have preserved about as many lives as they have ended simply by limiting rodent populations and the fatal diseases (like hanta virus) the rodents vector to humans.

All in all, rattlesnakes are a fairly insignificant, albeit spectacular, hazard.

Still, it took me a couple of years after moving to the Channel Islands, where there are no rattlesnakes, to relax and crash through brush with wild abandon.

A trick we teach kids out here in the desert is to watch for cow patties. It might be from a cow, or it might be a coiled up rattler. Be safe jac.

Les is right about the cottonmouth. They'll come come right after you like an ambulance chasing lawyer. No offense to any lawyers who frequent these pages . One night in the mid 1980's I had a group of students out in the desert to teach them Stalking techniques and I was walking point. When I came to the three strand fence where we would cross and change into uniforms I heard that scary rattle. I froze, said some bad words and swung my gear bag down low in front of me and backed off. We moved down a ways to cross. The snake didn't strike my bag, BUT I suddenly realized how small it was and the scant protection it offered me.

Corn snakes are pretty. Horned toads are good to keep bugs down in the house. As are pet preying mantises.

They are Bob. Especially with garlic salt and pepper. Most snake are good eating. But not as good as a batch of frog legs.