Guess who's awake? Rattlesnakes!

[continental drifter]

Had a scary encounter today at Ramapo along the Halifax trail. Heading back after placing a new cache and I heard a loud buzzing sound.It was so loud that I thought a bug was buzzing near my ear so I trotted to my left thinking I was getting away froma flying bug but I was actually heading right to a very large and very angry rattlesnake coiled by the side of trail.I guess he saw me coming and wanted to make his presence known.Unfortunatly my ears have been blocked up so it seemed like the sound was coming from my right when it was really on my left so I walked right to him before I saw him and jumped out of my skin and ran.Thats about as close as I ever want to be to one of those. So beware!

Edited April 28, 2009 by continental drifter

[+ramapo]

That rattle gives you quite a rush, doesn't it? I've had a couple of close encounters. Those rattles really do work! I'm glad there are enough rattlers out there that we run across them in our travels. Best practice is to keep your eyes on continuous scan mode but that takes a lot of discipline to maintain.

[+Packanack]

Here is a thought to keep you awake tonight. In some areas of the country where rattlers have been hunted, they have stopped rattling as a means to survival, their rattles gave them away--so they evolved into rattlers that don't rattle. Cool how they did that, now picture yourself climbing a sunny rocky outcrop to find a BrianSnat cache. Yup they are up there waiting for you.

[+MountainRacer]

I got freaked out by one today off the green trail, east of the Ramapo Reservation. I'd never heard them before; it was a lot louder and more intimidating than I'd expected. It's probably the most effective way of communicating "stay the heck away" without pointing a gun at someone. Gets the ol' heart in gear!

[polskikrol]

Have only seen Eastern Ribbon snakes so far this season.

[+Packanack]

Eastern Ribbon Snake ????

 

You are not from these parts now are you???

 

Hereabouts we call them Garter Snakes I know cause I had to look up Eastern Ribbon Snake.

[+briansnat]

I got freaked out by one today off the green trail, east of the Ramapo Reservation. I'd never heard them before; it was a lot louder and more intimidating than I'd expected. It's probably the most effective way of communicating "stay the heck away" without pointing a gun at someone. Gets the ol' heart in gear!

 

I know exactly what you mean. It's an impressive sound. My only exposure to the sound had been from movies and TV. Hearing one in person is quite another thing. First time I heard one in real life was while backpacking in the Catskills. I ran the 100 yard dash in about 4.4 with a 30 lb pack on. My partner ran farther and faster.

[+PaulThBrit]

I too heard a rattlesnake while hiking on the Orange trail between Skyline Drive and Glen Gray on Sunday. He was close by the trail in some rocks but I didn't poke around to get a picture.

 

Funny story. So last September I went up to get the Micro-Wave cache along the pipeline in Ramapo. I couldn't fund it but right there at ground zero I saw this which I later found out to be a juvenile Copperhead. The green tail being the sign of a juvenile.

 

 

 

So a couple of weeks ago I decided that my caching skills have improved and I'd go and have another search for the cache. I found it in two minutes, put my pack on and walked no more than 20 paces and I saw this snake - I believe it's a Rat Snake. It's the biggest I have seen and seems content to 'freeze' while I slowly backed off and took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

I guess the rocks up there at the tower make an ideal snake habitat so beware!

 

Paul

[+MountainRacer]

Maybe the radiation makes them that big!

[+briansnat]

Funny story. So last September I went up to get the Micro-Wave cache along the pipeline in Ramapo. I couldn't fund it but right there at ground zero I saw this which I later found out to be a juvenile Copperhead. The green tail being the sign of a juvenile.

 

I've never seen a copperhead in the Ramapos. I've encountered them around Split Rock though.

 

I think rattlesnakes have made a major comeback in the area. I've been hiking in northern NJ since I was a teenager and never saw one. First I even heard of one in NJ was about 12 years ago in a hiking Usenet group where someone mentioned seeing one near McMillan Reservoir. In the past 5 years or so sightings seem quite common. I've encountered about a half dozen. I think they are still considered to be endangered in NJ, but I don't believe that is the case anymore. I'm no biologist but the empirical evidence tells me that they are doing quite well these days.

[+tadpole379]

I have come across quite a few rattlers while hiking in Harriman and in the Ramapo Reservation areas. When I was a new cacher I had a close encounter with the biggest one I have seen since deep in Harriman near Waterboys now archived Water Tank cache. I now always hike with someone for the long trail hikes.

This is a small one I saw on the Red Dot Trail in Harriman near Cats Elbow.

 

I saw this one while hiking with Walkin Ed, also in Harriman near Silvermine.

Edited May 6, 2009 by tadpole379

[+trowel32]

Saw this one on the Terrace Pond North trail two days ago (sorry not a great picture). The rattle was very low-pitched sounding compared to others we have heard. Further along on the trail we ran into a hiker who asked if we saw a rattlesnake...he said that part of its rattle broke off and that was why it sounded funny (his rattle does look kind of stubby).

We saw another one further along on the trail before we got to Terrace Pond. Be careful when looking for caches in rocky areas

[+2kings&3boys]

The rattlesnakes are so bad in Amarillo Tx where I live, that we have run into 4 of them in town. We have to kill then so the kids don't get bitten. I have even started carring a gun when I go into the brush caching.