Today was our first attempt ever to find a Geocache. Here in Central Arizona, we are used rattlesnakes, but we usually see them and almost never hear them. Today as I and my two sons, ages 11 and 4, were climbing up the mountain, we were being extremely cautious about both snakes and cholla cactus. We were on a steep, rocky slope, and as I took a step, I must have startled a very large and invisible snake. I don't think he was even nearby (at least that's what I have to keep telling myself), but the sound was very loud and he kept up rattling for a long time. For safety's sake, we did not continue up the mountain today. My heart was in my throat for quite sometime afterwards.