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Night Rattlesnake Takes Over My Mountain Bike
Date: October 05, 2000 at 09:20:47
From: Robert Charles Altman
In the dark, only lit by the skyline, I made my way down from Henninger Flats on my mountain bike. This is in the Angeles Forest in L.A. county. It was the end of September 2000-the Olympics were on in Sydney..
I made my way following the faint dark gray way of the road in the dark. I was up near Wilson earlier and only needed to get from Henninger to the Ridgecrest where it's paved.
I made my way down with just enough light to see the road. It's an easy coast down to Eaton Canyon's bridge.
Once at the bridge, I began to peddle up the hill the short way to the end. My bike made a screeching sound since there was some grit in the gears from my coast down.
I peddled on up only about 200 yards from the bridge and was coming to the first and last turn before the gate and pavement when.. something moved in the dark.. on the road.. directly in front of my tire.. a dark shape on the dirt road..
I reacted quick having had seen rattlers around. Wasn't long ago when I read about a guy in the Santa Anita mountains who ran over one and it bit him. I reacted fast. I was only going about 4 mph in the dark coming up the hill and I just jumped off the back of the bike letting it fall on the road.
LUCKY thing! I didn't get bit. Because in the dark.. started a rattle!! It was indeed, a rattler. Funny thing is.. I was almost at the end of my dirt road ride and my bike-obviously didn't kill the snake.. because the rattle kept going. Real strange was I could see the siloutte of my bike on the road and the rattle was coming right from the bike!
Having had sat through many lessons of snake handling by the "Crocodile Hunter", I knew that the snake wouldn't just lunge out more than couple yards max.
I walked closer to the rattling bike on the ground and the constant ssssss of the rattle was relentless-no stop just sssssss. I never knew it was like that.. it went for minutes-not slow rattling-constant.
There are houses up the hill and I thought maybe it wasn't a snake's rattle at all-a sprinkler I thought maybe. It just went on.. the rattle was a constant ssssssss.
Well, I walked down the road a bit from the bike and the sssss rattle stopped. I walked a bit closer.. it started, and I knew. Snake.
I threw some dust, little handfulls of rocks and sticks on the siloutte bike to get the snake away to no avail.
It was humorious. I knew I was lucky I wasn't bit. I did this for about ten minutes trying to get the snake to leave. I could not see the snake it was so dark-there was only cresent moon.
I finally decided to walk up to the gate around the bike and see if I could get a flashlight from the guy who locked the gate in about 20 minutes-it was about 8:10PM.
I remembered the strike distance from TV and carefully walked around the bike on the road side over the weeds and all. I walked slowly-yet fast enough to keep moving. I made my wasy on the other side of the bike, I kept my eyes on the bike, then rattle started, and I SHOT forward away from there!!!
I was safe. The bike was there in the dark rattling.
I waited at the gate about 100 yards up from the bike till the guy came to lock it. I told him the story and asked him not to take my bike.
I walked to where I live and came back in the car. I climbed the locked gate and with flashlight saw the snake was gone. I locked the bike near the gate, climbed back over it and came back the next day when the gate was open to pick up the bike.
I found no blood on the bike or road where the bike had been. I was happy since I meant to harm to the snake.
It was an interesting experience and I thought I'd share it with you.
Enjoy the Angeles Forest.
I recall I read that it is not our human home in the Angeles Forest-it is the forest-animal's home... we are only visitors.
So just as well I didn't kill the snake in it's home being just a visitor and all..
Responses: (1) (2) (3) (4) Post Reply 
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- Re: Night Rattlesnake Takes Over My Mountain Bike
Endo...
they (snakes) might not die right away but even under the best of circumstances in captivity a snake with as many broken ribs as one would get from being riden over will die.
Posted by Ridin' or Dyin'  a 40 year old Die-hard Enthusiast riding a Voodo wanga-lightspeed appalachian-clark kent f-14-schwing predator and a couple of little green bikes! from Mpls on 08/07/01
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- Re: Night Rattlesnake Takes Over My Mountain Bike
Endo...
they (snakes) might not die right away but even under the best of circumstances in captivity a snake with as many broken ribs as one would get from being riden over will die.
Posted by Ridin' or Dyin' a 40 year old Die-hard Enthusiast riding a Voodo wanga-lightspeed appalachian-clark kent f-14-schwing predator and a couple of little green bikes! from Mpls on 08/07/01
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- Re: Night Rattlesnake Takes Over My Mountain Bike
rattle. rattle.
Posted by =P on 02/21/01
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- Re: Night Rattlesnake Takes Over My Mountain Bike
Um, you know you can just bunny hop them. I've rode
past, over and on top of (they don't die when you do
that) many rattlers and usually stop and admire them,
try and get them to rattle a little, then shoo them off the
trail.
Posted by Endo Verendo on 12/18/00
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