It pays to keep your eyes open and your wits about you out there, folks.

Last week I almost placed my hand down right in front of Mr. Slither over there on the left, but I hesitated a moment to have a look around first. I was a good 4 hours on 4WD roads away from any kind of medical attention.

Good heavens, Sotto. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just to look at that pic and imagine being in that situation so far from help.

Maybe it was intuition that kept your hand away.

Whatever it was - luck, sixth sense or an angel on your shoulder - good to hear you avoided harm.

Or maybe it was evolution. Good for you.

Way to hesitate. I always read that climbing on rock and such was the "classic" way of getting bit, but that proves it! Glad you avoided it - even if not fatal, it would have been miserable to get you treated.

My DGF, btw, shuddered and had a mini-spaz just reading this post. She's a snake-a-phobe.

good job of finding some good survival food. Where were you. that looks like an enteresting cave. food and shelter in the same spot WOW.

Word of the Day: Herpetophobic

Use it sometime today. Most will think it is an aversion to a particular family of diseases.

Sotto: Glad you made it out puncture-free.

another reason i like living in the Frozen North!!!

Beautiful picture! I worry less about snakes than two legged animals, but I have some bias because I've been around snakes all my life. There is evidence that many strikes at humans are "dry bites" and not full loads of venom:
http://www.whmentors.org/saf/snakes.html

We came upon this one while we were hiking in NJ two years ago:


It was pretty calm (on a fairly cool day) and was sitting in the middle of the trail. I was wearing my hiking sandals! I am very aware of where I step. We took our pictures and it never moved.

This one was on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia at the site of the October 1978 Navy fighter jet crash into Bald Knob:

He was considerably more tweaked.

At any rate, they worry me much less than other dangers like falling (which I believe is the #1 cause of backcountry accidents).

- Andy

Those are what's best know as Targets of Opportunity" here in Texas.

AKA: LUNCH!

We find a lot of snakes in the radio and electrical cabinets of cell sites. Imagine opening a large refrigerator size cabinet to find one's self eye-to-eye with one of those critters... Happens about twice a month.

Good situational awareness.