I encountered one last month while caching in FL on St George Island. The cache warned of snakes but I was walking along about a 10 foot wide sandy primitive path and stupidly looking down at my GPS instead of where I was walking. When I noticed the snake, it was about 2 feet in front of me with it's head about 2-3 feet off the ground in the strike position. I backed away and the 6-8 ft snake left. One more step and it would have bitten me. Never have been able to properly identify it. Now when I'm in high brush, I use a stick to whack my way through.