Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
- gcj
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
Hi
On trips from the mid-seventies through the eighties I encountered approx 1 per year. My record for a single trip was 4 encounters. (It did make up for a couple of dry years.) That trip was up the trail from Road's End through Paradise Valley and Woods Creek. Two were below Mist Falls and two were near Woods Creek. I was a little surprised to see so many along such a popular trail. Especially since I have been up the notorious Middle Fork Canyon from Tehipite to beyond Simpson Mdws and didn't see a single one. During that Middle Fork trip, there had been some unseasonably heavy storms that caused the river to flood much of the trail forcing me to travel a significant distance X-country with much bush-whacking and boulder hopping. I expected to see a snake at any moment, but didn't see a single one! I did see one on a subsequent trip down Goddard Creek just before the final drop to the Simpson Mdw area. I guess my experience has been that if I'm expecting to encounter them, I usually don't. However, if I let my guard down and don't really expect to see any, well, I have had more than a few surprises. I love snakes, though, and if you give them enough space, they will nearly always back off.
On trips from the mid-seventies through the eighties I encountered approx 1 per year. My record for a single trip was 4 encounters. (It did make up for a couple of dry years.) That trip was up the trail from Road's End through Paradise Valley and Woods Creek. Two were below Mist Falls and two were near Woods Creek. I was a little surprised to see so many along such a popular trail. Especially since I have been up the notorious Middle Fork Canyon from Tehipite to beyond Simpson Mdws and didn't see a single one. During that Middle Fork trip, there had been some unseasonably heavy storms that caused the river to flood much of the trail forcing me to travel a significant distance X-country with much bush-whacking and boulder hopping. I expected to see a snake at any moment, but didn't see a single one! I did see one on a subsequent trip down Goddard Creek just before the final drop to the Simpson Mdw area. I guess my experience has been that if I'm expecting to encounter them, I usually don't. However, if I let my guard down and don't really expect to see any, well, I have had more than a few surprises. I love snakes, though, and if you give them enough space, they will nearly always back off.
-gordon
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
I had similar experiences with the Roads End, PV, WC area. That trail is where I saw several snakes on several trips.
- East Side Hiker
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
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.
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
Yup. Those damn snakes just can't handle liquor.
- Cloudy
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
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
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
That's because they don't have opposable thumbs.quentinc wrote:Yup. Those damn snakes just can't handle liquor.
Or thumbs (or hands or arms) at all, for that matter.
- richlong8
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
Domelands Wilderness is a great place to see rattlesnakes!
- texan
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
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.
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- vandman
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
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.
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- Cloudy
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Re: Rattlesnakes in Tehipite Valley
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"...
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