Snakes

[dukedomain]

Saw one more snake today on 129 between Robbinsville and Deals Gap.  Black snake, all coiled up on the shoulder of the road.  This was a long snake, coiled up he must have been 8 inches high.

[RoadStarRaider]

[SLK]

While still living in the lower 48 the largest snake I encountered and killed was a 8 ft timber rattle, he had been eating very well.

[Biker Cowboy]

I actually did just exactly that. Last spring we were camped near Lone Pine in California. A good friend had got bad sick so I was riding over to check on him. He lived in Turlock. Maybe 100 miles as the crow flies, but I had to ride like 350 to get down around the end of the mountains by Lake Isabella and come back up.

I saw a road on the map going NW from Lake Isabella that looked like it would be a good ride. Turned out to be a sandy son of a bitch! there were two clear tracks on the pavement, maybe 8 or 10 inches wide... the rest was sand. I guess they'd had a late storm or something and they'd sanded the road heavy as hell or something...

Annnnnny way... That's a twisty sucker too! 15 mph switchbacks that you better not be goin' faster than that on a Raider or your exhaust pipe is gonna lift your back rubber clear off the ground. 

So... I start around this left hand switchback focused hard on keeping the bike inside that narrow bit of clear pavement or my kiester is gonna get scraped and sandy!

Can you feel it coming? I'm looking close and then there it is... the S.O.B. was near as big around as my wrist.... and maybe four foot long? HOLY CRAPPY CAROLINA!!!! I was maybe 3/4 through the bend and leaned pretty good but still only goin like 15. I couldn't stand it up or I'm POW! into the bar ditch. There was no room with that damned sandy road to go tighter or wider... I couldn't brake or... well you know... 

All I could do was hold my line in that narrow line of clean asphalt and cry MOMMA MOMMA MOMMMMMMMMAAAAAA!

So... the front tire rolls up on that hissing belly crawlin' low life... and... the snake started squirming... and the tire started squirming... and I remember hearing this sort of a cross between a wooshing sound and a sucking sound... Buuuut... I didn't go down... I managed to ride it out and get on down the road to a wide spot where I could pull off.

But... I couldn't GET off... 

I was still sitting there 15 minutes later when a California state trooper rolled by. He asked if I was OK... I asked him if he had a tire iron I could borrow.

"A tire iron?" he asks. "You're on a motorcycle"

Oh, it's not for the bike I replied. It's for the seat of my scooter. I ran over a snake a few miles back and now that damned seat is sucked about 12" up my ass!

Gospel Freaking Truth boys. I have no idea how I kept the bike up... and DIDN'T have a heart attack. I'll take on 17 rabid, knife wielding, A-Rab tough nuts with bad attitudes and me with nuthin but my shining personality... but throw a bee or a snake into the deal and my liver does a fine imitation of one of those wigglin' hula girls you stick on your dashboard...

It was ugly... finally had to hook a tow rope to his bumper to jerk that seat hard enough to pull it free 

[SLK]

Biker Cowboy, I know that had to be a bad experience but you got me laughing.  had it been me there would not have been that problem of braking loose from the bike, they would have had to,bring a crew to clean up the toxic waste, the clothes and the raider would have had to be decontaminated or just incinerated in a sterile environment containment furnace.

[Capt_Zoom]

 

I've always found it amusing how some folks are so afraid of snakes.  Some of the biggest people around get all squirrel around a baby Gater Snake.  I've never had much of a problem with snakes as long as I knew what they were or what was indigenous to the area.  I've ran into rattlers golfing but other than that and being bit by a northern water snake as a kid they haven't really bothered me if I didn't bother them.  Heck I used to chase my sister around the house with snakes.  What did bother me was that in Australia they seem to be everywhere and they hide up in your vehicles.  My family there had a brown snake (worlds second most venomous) living in the vents of their car at one point.  You'd walk out their door in the morning and you might be met by a brown or taipan sunning itself on the front walk ( I guess I'll use the back door  ).

[SLK]

I've always found it amusing how some folks are so afraid of snakes.  Some of the biggest people around get all squirrel around a baby Gater Snake.  I've never had much of a problem with snakes as long as I knew what they were or what was indigenous to the area.  I've ran into rattlers golfing but other than that and being bit by a northern water snake as a kid they haven't really bothered me if I didn't bother them.  Heck I used to chase my sister around the house with snakes.  What did bother me was that in Australia they seem to be everywhere and they hide up in your vehicles.  My family there had a brown snake (worlds second most venomous) living in the vents of their car at one point.  You'd walk out their door in the morning and you might be met by a brown or taipan sunning itself on the front walk ( I guess I'll use the back door  ).

Hey poisonous and deadly are still poisonous and deadly.  Like I said I have personally witnessed the damage they can do, I personally saw 4 people die and 1 was my cousin, and I saw the effects of a bite on the hand  where the antitoxin was delivered but still to late.  Funny thing is I would much rather face a charging grizzly bear than a poisonous snake,  and I have.  Give me the bear any day over the snake.  With a gun in my hand the bear is still more of danger cause he is harder to kill, but he is always easier to see and avoid.  When in bear country we have no front sight on the gun cause if we fail to kill the bear the gun barrel up the A** is much easier to bare.

[dukedomain]

I actually did just exactly that. Last spring we were camped near Lone Pine in California. A good friend had got bad sick so I was riding over to check on him. He lived in Turlock. Maybe 100 miles as the crow flies, but I had to ride like 350 to get down around the end of the mountains by Lake Isabella and come back up.

I saw a road on the map going NW from Lake Isabella that looked like it would be a good ride. Turned out to be a sandy son of a bitch! there were two clear tracks on the pavement, maybe 8 or 10 inches wide... the rest was sand. I guess they'd had a late storm or something and they'd sanded the road heavy as hell or something...

Annnnnny way... That's a twisty sucker too! 15 mph switchbacks that you better not be goin' faster than that on a Raider or your exhaust pipe is gonna lift your back rubber clear off the ground. 

So... I start around this left hand switchback focused hard on keeping the bike inside that narrow bit of clear pavement or my kiester is gonna get scraped and sandy!

Can you feel it coming? I'm looking close and then there it is... the S.O.B. was near as big around as my wrist.... and maybe four foot long? HOLY CRAPPY CAROLINA!!!! I was maybe 3/4 through the bend and leaned pretty good but still only goin like 15. I couldn't stand it up or I'm POW! into the bar ditch. There was no room with that damned sandy road to go tighter or wider... I couldn't brake or... well you know... 

All I could do was hold my line in that narrow line of clean asphalt and cry MOMMA MOMMA MOMMMMMMMMAAAAAA!

So... the front tire rolls up on that hissing belly crawlin' low life... and... the snake started squirming... and the tire started squirming... and I remember hearing this sort of a cross between a wooshing sound and a sucking sound... Buuuut... I didn't go down... I managed to ride it out and get on down the road to a wide spot where I could pull off.

But... I couldn't GET off... 

I was still sitting there 15 minutes later when a California state trooper rolled by. He asked if I was OK... I asked him if he had a tire iron I could borrow.

"A tire iron?" he asks. "You're on a motorcycle"

Oh, it's not for the bike I replied. It's for the seat of my scooter. I ran over a snake a few miles back and now that damned seat is sucked about 12" up my ass!

Gospel Freaking Truth boys. I have no idea how I kept the bike up... and DIDN'T have a heart attack. I'll take on 17 rabid, knife wielding, A-Rab tough nuts with bad attitudes and me with nuthin but my shining personality... but throw a bee or a snake into the deal and my liver does a fine imitation of one of those wigglin' hula girls you stick on your dashboard...

It was ugly... finally had to hook a tow rope to his bumper to jerk that seat hard enough to pull it free 

That's funny right there I don't care who you are!

[Capt_Zoom]

I've always found it amusing how some folks are so afraid of snakes.  Some of the biggest people around get all squirrel around a baby Gater Snake.  I've never had much of a problem with snakes as long as I knew what they were or what was indigenous to the area.  I've ran into rattlers golfing but other than that and being bit by a northern water snake as a kid they haven't really bothered me if I didn't bother them.  Heck I used to chase my sister around the house with snakes.  What did bother me was that in Australia they seem to be everywhere and they hide up in your vehicles.  My family there had a brown snake (worlds second most venomous) living in the vents of their car at one point.  You'd walk out their door in the morning and you might be met by a brown or taipan sunning itself on the front walk ( I guess I'll use the back door  ).

Hey poisonous and deadly are still poisonous and deadly.  Like I said I have personally witnessed the damage they can do, I personally saw 4 people die and 1 was my cousin, and I saw the effects of a bite on the hand  where the antitoxin was delivered but still to late.  Funny thing is I would much rather face a charging grizzly bear than a poisonous snake,  and I have.  Give me the bear any day over the snake.  With a gun in my hand the bear is still more of danger cause he is harder to kill, but he is always easier to see and avoid.  When in bear country we have no front sight on the gun cause if we fail to kill the bear the gun barrel up the A** is much easier to bare.

Been there done that with black bears.  And I agree...I'll take a bear before a poisonous snake any day.  Like you said the tissue damage from snake venom is astounding.  What bothered me about the aussy snakes is that you won't make it to a hospital.. You have less than 1hr with most of their snakes.  Where a healthy person can withstand a rattlesnake or watermaccasin venom for a half to full day.  Still going to get you in the end if you don't get anti-venom.