Snakes , some people are not afraid some are creeped out of their minds by them .... beneficial to the Eco system that they are . beautiful creatures ,again yes they are . most around here are not a threat , rattle snakes are. now if left alone , let them go in peace ,im all about that . have not killed a snake in years (last one was under my house , had bit a couple of my dogs and I had small children at that time ) . some people don't feel that way .... farmers and ranchers see them as a hazard ( they will ruin your weekend if bitten ) and kill them on sight . now if your working the land to feed the world and that's your living you do what you have to do . I was 50/50 on shooting this snake , could not reach my pistol before carrot pulled his.
now for the story .... we were playing follow the leader on the trails and I was following carrot . he comes to a right turn at a tree but has to also go around a large fallen tree limb . when I get to the tree I see a nice hole that would allow me to go straight and get in front of carrot ... so I was stopped and considering my options and I noticed the tree had bright yellow roots , then a pile of something moved that was coiled up against that tree . my eyes quickly focused on a large ( almost 5 ft ) rattlesnake .... SNAKE I holler . carrot hears me and sees me pointing at the snake , pulls his revolver and 6 shots latter snake is no longer a threat . when wearing a helmet it is impossible to cover ones ears from the extremely loud muzzle blast and we are in the woods so like being in a room .
the second part of this story is after , everyone got on the bikes and proceeded to ride . well im still in position to ride through that hole by that tree . and I proceed . so I have to duck down under the limb and do this countless times but this time the limb grabs my Klim vest and holds me in the spot under that tree ..... so had I not hesitated and noticed the yellow roots and then noticed the rattlesnake I would have likely proceeded and been snagged next to a snake with my feet right next to him . im thinking that my very expensive M/X boots might have prevented a bite but not the heart attack from the adrenaline rush it would have invoked. so that is how life is at times , do I turn left or right , how many seconds in your day are you away from calamity ..... it could have been a bad end to a great day .
so every stick we saw looked like a snake the rest of the day .
