A close call with a rattlesnake

April 30th and May 1st, 2015

I woke up the next morning went back to Ziggy and the Bear's. I charged my cell phone and my camera. While I did this I finally caught up on some blogging. I haven't really had a lot of time to do this since I left the hospital. I also got to talk to a lot of hikers. They were talking about many things but mostly about their complaints. A lot of people would complain about how steep the trail is, how their blisters hurt, and how sleeping on their side is painful... and the list goes on. 

I waited and I kept on asking Ziggy if my package was somewhere in the house. Every time I would write my name on the little pad and paper and give it to her. She would come back and say she couldn't find find the package.

Later on everybody ordered pizza from Little Caesars and I kept on asking for my package. By about 4 PM they finally found my package. I repacked and put a whole bunch of water in my backpack. It felt very heavy this time I must have had 10 pounds of water and 10 pounds of food plus all my gear. So it was a little bit hard starting out. Also during this time the temperature reached 100°.

Before I left I put on a cold wet shirt that I just washed and stepped out into the desert heat. 

I start walking up the mountain I got up about four miles up the trail and I saw another hiker named Chowder. He was reading his Kindle and resting. I talked to him for a second then I went up the trail. 

Around the corner and down on the trail was a rattlesnake. It was about four and half feet long and as fat as a softball. He was just sitting there so I didn't try going around. I thought I would just give it some space. So I went back to Chowder to tell him there's rattlesnake very close down the trail. The trail was very steep on the edge of the mountain and was very difficult to find a way around the rattlesnake. But I figured I'd give it a shot. I walked up the mountain and then I figured I would come down a very steep part and jump back on the trail. 

I started sliding down the mountain   and I jumped down and I heard "sssss." I looked down about 6 inches from where I jumped down was the rattlesnake. I planned it wrong and came down the wrong place or the rattlesnake moved up the trail. I jumped back and the rattlesnake was already in strike mode. I went back to where chowder was then I took a break myself and ate some pizza. 

He said all you have to do is scare it away by throwing some pebbles at it. 

He packed up and we headed out.

out.  We walked slowly and very cautiously looking everywhere down the trail. Then all of a sudden he heard hissing and jumped back and said, "oh sh*t."

The rattlesnake ended up going up the mountain to where it was almost eye level with you and we walked right into his ambush.

After this we were pretty cautious and decided just to go down the mountain give the snake and plenty room and go around. Finally we successfully got around the snake nobody got bitten.

We walked another six or seven miles got to the river with a decomposed cow bone carcass on the bottom. Walking in desert with cactuses, very dry air, rattlesnakes and now dead cows I felt like I was really in the desert. I left Chowder behind and walked ahead another 10 miles or so. I walked into the night and while I was walking there were coyotes howling maybe 100 yards away from me on the mountain. I couldn't really see them with my very dim headlamp but it was okay.

It was kind of a relief to have some cold air and to see the stars. I got to a place called Mission Creek in the canyon and found a place to camp.

Next morning I got up and started walking back up into the mountains. By this time it was around 3000 feet and now I was heading towards Big Bear. It was a nice walk and was starting to cool down as I got higher and out of the desert.  There were plenty of water sources and it was pretty nice in general.  It was an uneventful day... just a lot of walking and some pictures were taken. At the end of the day there was a magnificent sunset and I went to sleep.