Nw Snakes

[+Recdiver]

While caching this weekend my wife who is terrified of snakes claims to have seen 2 different kinds near one cache (Blanchard GC4FE2). The first snake was brown and guarding the cache, every time she tells the story it gets bigger. The second one was black and she saw it near the trail on the way back, and tried to climb up my back to get away from it.

Anyway she'd like to be able to ID them. Does anyone have an on-line resource for this?

Thanks

[+LandRover]

The only snakes I have seen in the wilds of W.Washington in my 40+ yrs here have been garter snakes, black with either yellow or red horizontal stripes. I beleive I have seen them with green & blue stripes also but that has been many years ago.

Try to convince T2A that the brown one was a stick.

 

 

Garter Snake

Edited August 29, 2005 by LandRover

[+Recdiver]

I did and she isn't buying it. Claimed it moved and was coiled up. Soon it'll be a king cobra striking at her. By the time I climbed up to the cache there was nothing to see. The second one, assuming she actually saw it, was probably a garter snake since she said it had stripes.

[+True Grid]

They were both Garter snakes. Some of them can get pretty big, and some of them like to swim - but they are all Garter snakes. I have never seen anything but Garters on Blanchard Mountain and I have hiked it from end to end many times in the last 45 years.

 

The one she saw by the cache is called "Blanch". I let it live there to keep the muggles away.

[+soreyes]

WDFW Living With Snakes

 

Burke Reptiles

 

"Food and Feeding Behavior

* Snakes are predators and eat many animals thought to be pests—geocachers, mice, voles, snails, and slugs. Other prey items include insects, bird eggs and nestlings, fish, frogs, and lizards. "

[+Lightning Jeff]

WDFW Living With Snakes

 

Burke Reptiles

Good links. Perhaps it was a rubber boa?

[+AndrewRJ]

Are you absolutly sure it wasn't one of Little Blue's caches. I hear that she likes to use snakes to hide bison's in.

[+5]

Interesting links, I've lived here for close to 40 years and never seen anything this side of the mountains except garter snakes...

[+EraSeek]

55 yrs and it's the only type I've see around here. I've even been bitten by one when I was a kid.

[+LittleBlue]

Are you absolutly sure it wasn't one of Little Blue's caches. I hear that she likes to use snakes to hide bison's in.

 

Oh, not just snakes!

 

W of the mountains I've only seen garter snakes. E of the Cascades I've run across more than enough rattlesnakes.

 

The former are cute and I like, the latter I just take a wide path around!

[+evergreenhiker!]

WDFW Living With Snakes

 

Burke Reptiles

Good links. Perhaps it was a rubber boa?

could be! I've found a few of them in my lifetime in this state. Very cool snakes!!!! I actually kept one for a pet for many years. Fed it mice. They love to curl a bracelet!

 

Last tiem I saw one was a few years ago in Eastern WA hiking to Merrit Lake. These snakes are more common in hte drier woods east of the Cascades and to the south....Mt Adams area, but have been spotted elsewhere.

 

in 1975, we spotted a very rare snake at Oklahoma Campground on the lIttle white salmon river....basically southeast of the Lava Beds area. It proved to the California Mountain Kingsnake or something like that. Not very common at all. MOst are Oregon and down.

[+evergreenhiker!]

Are you absolutly sure it wasn't one of Little Blue's caches. I hear that she likes to use snakes to hide bison's in.

Man, I remember that one! FrodoB and I would be dead now if it was a cobra! LOL.

[+LittleBlue]

I felt so bad about you guys dnfing it- it was my first hide and I was anxious for someone to find it! That's when I decided I could never be evil!

 

The prospect of snakes definitely made me more cautious when I was caching in TX- had to remember to use a stick first, not my hand! And then there are the fire ants...

[+AnalogDog]

There are only 4 species of snakes that live in Western Washington. Three of them are garter snakes, the common (Thamnophis sirtalis), the northwestern (Thamnophis ordinoides) and the Western Terrestrial (Thamnophis elegans). Then, there is the Rubber Boa (Charina bottae).

 

The rubber boa is brown and quite small. Usually living under or within rotting logs. The garters are quick but usually seen in open or lightly treed grasslands. They are typically black or gray with yellow, orange or other color running all the length or much of the length of their bodies.

 

I have kept a common garter for about a year. It was tough to get fed, and was quite uptight. I've heard that's the way wild caught snakes can be.

 

Rob

[+Cav Scout]

The only snakes I have seen in the wilds of W.Washington in my 40+ yrs here have been garter snakes, black with either yellow or red horizontal stripes. I beleive I have seen them with green & blue stripes also but that has been many years ago.

Try to convince T2A that the brown one was a stick.

 

 

Garter Snake

I used to catch Garter snakes all the time when I was a kid.