Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley

[East Side Hiker]

If I have my facts right, and I might not, I believe there's only about 50 rattlesnake bites a year in the U.S. And, in most cases of those bitten, alcohol was involved.

[quentinc]

Yup. Those damn snakes just can't handle liquor.

[Cloudy]

I've been through Simpson Meadow quite a few times and haven't seen a rattler yet. I don't doubt that they're there but the stars didn't align for a meeting - although I admit that I did have my one treasured encounter with a mountain lion in the Simpson Meadow area. I have however run into rattlers multiple times on the Bubbs Creek and Copper Creek trails. I was pounding downhill on the Copper Creek trail with a heavy pack, came around a corner and my very next step was going to be on a large rattler coiled up on the trail! Erk! Doh! I couldn't stop in time so I threw myself over the downhill edge of the trail and slid aways... Dodged the bullet on that one. The largest rattler that I have seen to date was in (of all places) Giant Forest.

[TehipiteTom]

Yup. Those damn snakes just can't handle liquor.

That's because they don't have opposable thumbs.

Or thumbs (or hands or arms) at all, for that matter.

[richlong8]

Domelands Wilderness is a great place to see rattlesnakes!

[texan]

Your right about Domeland Wilderenss and rattlesnakes. Another area is the Greenhorn Mountains which is close by. When I was kid we used to fish that area and I always saw rattlesnakes all the time.

Texan

[vandman]

I've been to Tehipite 3 times and have seen quite a few rattlesnakes. They give plenty of warning, so it wasn't a problem. The Monarch Wilderness just west of Tehipite is loaded with them. I day hiked from Tehipite down the Middle Fork and up into the side canyons and saw maybe 6 or 7 on that hike. They were curled up on boulders. I didn't bother them and they ignored me after a little shake of their button. Just be careful jumping from boulder to boulder. I was more freaked out by the revelation that there are Black Widows in Tehipite Valley, which I discovered on my third journey under rocks and downed trees.

[Cloudy]

Lol. I have a dose of Arachnophobia and we get quite a few Black Widows in the middle of my small town. I live in an apartment and have had two large ones crawl under my screen door and set up shop in my home - discovered by reaching for a shoe in the shelf by the door and hitting that unmistakeable web. I regularly kill 8-10 every two weeks around my friend's house (in town) during the summer and got one the other night in the garage. Yikes! I never see this many "in the wild"...

[Cross Country]

That's really something. I'm sure I've seen more rattlesnakes than black widows and I live is Los Angeles.

[richlong8]

We get plenty of widows in Bakersfield, but have to head to the hills to see snakes; haven't been to Tephite, but from what I have heard and read, it is full of bugs, no matter what time of year you go