If you are at all like me, you try and spend as much time as you can hiking in the Great Outdoors. Nature is a beautiful thing. There's nothing better than leaving the ills and stresses of urban life behind and heading out to the mountains for a little cross-country trek! It's liberating, it's cathartic, and it's spiritually refreshing. But it can also be downright dangerous!
Yes, as beautiful as nature can be, there are certain risks inherent to it. While there are many different things to worry about and look out for while out hiking in the Great Outdoors, I'm going to focus on one of the more common and sinister dangers: rattlesnakes!
Ah yes, the good ol' rattlesnake; those slithering, creepy, and venomous serpents that have been known to disrupt and/or end many a hiking trip. Nothing can dampen a perfectly fun and enjoyable day hike in the Great Outdoors quite like a bite from a rattler. It's bad enough that a hiker has to worry about insects, spiders, bees, and a whole host of other bothersome critters and varmints, but rattlesnakes too?
And yes, without going into a long treatise about how beneficial to the ecosystem and animal communities rattlesnakes are, and how they control the rodent populations, suffice it to say that rattlesnakes definitely have their place in nature. For the most part, they pretty much keep to themselves and rarely venture out into high traffic, heavily traversed areas. They can be beautiful to look at - from a safe distance of course - and they have as much right to exist as anything else.
Having said that, whenever a person is hiking in rattlesnake country - which is basically any forested, woodsy, rocky or rural area - it's best to use a little common sense and diligence to minimize the chances of encountering one.
Above all, if you are at all interested in health and longevity, and if you plan on completing a hike in the same condition that you started it in, please make sure that you do the following at all times: keep your eyes and ears open!
Yes, your greatest shields against encountering a rattlesnake and getting zapped are to use your two greatest weapons - your eyes and your ears! In other words, pay careful attention to where you are going, where you are stepping, and what is around you in the immediate vicinity; use your ears to detect any warning “rattles” which are a rattlesnake's way of announcing their presence.
Rattlesnakes have been known to get a little lazy from time to time and will occasionally splay themselves out right across a trail. Or, they may curl up and rest in places that might be dangerously close to where you might step. So, to minimize any unnecessary confrontations with a rattler, watch, watch, and watch where you are going. Scan the trail in front of you, to the side of you, and all around you. Never place your foot anyplace that you can't see it. And never step through tall grass or thick shrubbery of any kind - that's just asking for unnecessary trouble!
Your ears are just as important as your eyes in avoiding a rattlesnake mishap. Rattlesnakes, fortunately, have a handy little set of rattles at the end of their tails which serve as a warning sound for those in their vicinity. If you are hiking and you hear some strange rattling sounds - or what may be rattling sounds - stop for a moment and pay special attention to where the sounds are emanating from. You definitely don't want to walk in the direction of the sounds!
Although your two greatest weapons against avoiding contact with a rattlesnake are your eyes and ears, there's another precaution you can take to greatly decrease your chances of bumping into an angry or pissed off rattler.
If at all possible, and if you don't mind not hiking in certain times of the year, you can avoid hiking during months when rattlesnakes are active. Rattlesnakes favor warmer weather; after burrowing underground for the cold Fall and Winter, rattlesnakes awaken and start to get active during the Spring - usually around early-to-mid April. Rattlesnake season generally lasts until the early Fall - usually until late September to late October - when the temperatures start to drop low enough at which point they retreat underground.
Rattlesnakes are a reality that must be accounted for hiking in the Great Outdoors. Although dangerous and sometimes fatal, rattlesnakes can be kept at a safe distance and/or avoided altogether by using common sense and diligence!
