Okay, so I have a dirty little secret to share with you. I have a thing for snakes. I mean, I really like to play with them and spend time getting to know them when I find them on the trail. The bigger, the better! This guy here was my first big, real snake. I named him Shake the Snake. Up until this March hike in 2021, I had only run into garter snakes or grass snakes. They are cool, but not exactly dangerous or super impressive. Decades ago, I hiked with a dog who loved snakes in a different way. Her entire goal was to find them, snatch them up and kill them as quickly as she could. Nova and I had yet to run across one and I was a bit nervous of how she would handle it. Would she be like my old Shasta dog?
Well on this canyon river trail in eastern Oregon in March, I got to find out. We had been hiking along for hours enjoying the views and the river, the circling hawks and the long grasses. It was dry compared to the West side of the state on this day, so we were really enjoying that! Of course, being March, it was still pretty cold, so Nova was wearing her good winter coat with a pocket for her pocket warmer. She likes a warm butt when we hike in cold weather!
Once we got to the end point of our trail on this day, we ate a little fruit leather and dog food, then turned around to head back toward our truck. We found some perfect Balsam Root flowers to pose next to on our way and of course couldn't pass up that opportunity since they matched Nova's new yellow jacket.
We were moving pretty fast and the sun started to peak out a bit from behind a wall of clouds. Before I knew it, Nova was on one side of a long straight stick-like thing laying across the trail, and I was on the other. Funny, I don't remember that long stick laying across the trail like that before I thought. Then it moved and I realized, the moment I had feared, had finally come. There was a big snake stretched all the way across the trail sunning itself and Nova and I were attached to one another by a 6 foot leash over the top of it. I froze trying to think if it best if I jump over to Nova's side or what we should do to get to safety. I didn't really know how fast this thing could move. Would it strike one of us at any moment?? How high could it strike I wondered? But the initial shock of this discovery made a large shriek come out of one of us (Nova swears it was me) and before I knew it, Nova was back on my side of the snake! To her, it was just like walking over a stick. She seemed to have no cares or fears about the creature.
After having been walked over twice though, poor Shake the Snake was starting to coil up in the center of the trail. He was making direct eye contact with me like I never knew possible from a snake. He literally stared right into my eyes and would not look away. So the first thing I did of course was move to my right. His head and eyes followed, boring into my soul. Then I moved to my left. His head and eyes followed. This is so creepy I thought. I moved faster and faster and his head swung around from side to side boring into me with a great intensity. Those beady eyes did not leave mine. "Oh, how I love you Shake" I exclaimed out loud to him!! At this point, I searched around to find something to touch him with. Finally I found a short stick, maybe a foot and a half long. In the desert canyons, there are not many options for sticks. So I went with it. I figured I was wearing gloves and had fast reflexes. I stayed on the balls of my feet so I could quickly jump backwards if needed as I reached out to stroke him with the stick. When he didn't seem to mind, I decided I wanted to get a feel for how heavy he was and attempted to lift his body with the stick. He was heavier than I thought and quickly moved off my stick. At this point, I just had to feel what his scales felt like and slipped the glove off my right hand. I reached down and touched him. Then I slowly wrapped my hand around his lower body to feel the strength in him. The muscles under those rough scales were writhing and felt immensely strong as he pulled away from my grasp. He was not acting aggressively at all, but he started to curl up into a tighter ball in front of me to protect himself.
Then something really remarkable occurred. It was like a movie and I didn't think this really happened in real life. His entire upper snake body rose into the air higher and higher above his coiled lower body. Who knew??? Then the next thing I knew, the area that I would call his neck region puffed up to get wider and made him look even more impressive. All I could do was stare and watch this unfold. I was frozen as he stared at me as if in a trance. We still never broke eye contact through all of this. When I stroked him some more and told him I just wanted to be friends, he made the loudest hissing sound imaginable. I mean he hissed louder than a truly angry feral cat. It was only then that Nova seemed to even take note of him. She looked at me clearly saying "What?? Is that a cat?? I like cats." But she thankfully stayed back. I always kept her behind me, with Shake in front of me. That is except for one photo where Nova wanted to take a selfie with Shake the Snake. I promise you that distances are deceiving in this photo....I would never let Nova get within the strike zone of our new friend. Even as I took this photo, Shake was staring into my eyes through the camera.
Eventually Shake just wanted to be done with us and I allowed him to slither off into the bushes along the trail. Man, that was the coolest thing ever I thought!! I was on high running the rest of the trail that day! I kept hoping for more snakes, but only found this sign at the end of the trail that I didn't think much of when I started. Now how appropriate it seemed I thought!
This March hike was our first snake encounter, but there were more to come in 2021! On a trail in May we found where a snake had shed his outer coil and left behind most of that shell for us to appreciate. We could even see the holes from his eye sockets!
Not far after finding this skin shell, we found a rather impressive rattle snake who made a lot of noise and was adamant about getting away from us. I could only get one quick photo as he dashed under some boulders. I am not going to lie, I tried to pry him out, but the boulders would not budge. So much for playing with Shake II I thought.
To round out 2021, my best snake year yet, we found another snake that looked just like Shake the First, or Shake Senior as I now think of him. This guy was out on an exposed grassy knoll in the sunshine. Just like before, I wanted to convince him that we could be friends. When he tried to slither away, I reached for his lower body and pulled him back to me. This quickly got him coiling up and just like Shake Senior, he rose up and stared into my soul. What is with the eye contact with these snakes I thought?? There are not many animals who make such direct and intentional eye contact for such long periods of time! I looked around for a stick, but couldn't find any. There was just long blades of wheat grass. I took a stock of grass and tried to rub Shake the Third between the eyes. Perhaps I can charm him I thought. Yeah, that did not work.
As I played with him some more, investigating what made him tick and pulling him back to me a couple more times when he tried to leave our friendship council, he seemed to grow angrier than Shake Senior. He started to hiss, quickly coiling again and this time seemed to move his eyes from my face down to my throat.
Before I knew what was happening, he went for the strike. Right for my throat. It was faster than I imagined possible. I flinched and flew backwards throwing my arms up to protect my face and throat. I ended up propelling myself so fast in the opposite direction that I fell on my rear in the process. A terrible shrieking sound was happening. It would not stop. It sounded like a 5 year old girl on fire. I wanted to cover my ears to make it stop. It was truly a terrible sound and I looked at Nova to see where it was coming from. She was staring at me. The snake was gone. I covered my mouth as it dawned on me that this sound was coming from me!! I had no idea I could even make a sound like that!! Then I was so embarrassed thinking that every hiker in a 3 mile radius just heard that! "We have to get out of here Nova! I never want anyone to know that was me! If we run into anyone, please let's say that was you!!" I am pretty sure that Shake the Third had a good laugh at us after this, but I figure he deserved it.
Since Josie the Wolf has joined our hiking pack in 2022, we have not yet run into a large snake. But I know the day will come. I also know, it will be very bad. Every one of that wolf's instincts are to grab at things that move on the trail....large and small. Now, I do keep a snake bite kit on me at all times. It consists of a large knife on my tactical belt for the old cut and suck post bite technique. I also have antihistamines that we can all take. But I have faith that we will be okay. Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains....so it can surely handle a snake! Right?
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