Peggy, Ellen, Ozzy and I went for a bike ride along the Deschutes River.
There is a lot of Flox out, a bit of Balsamroot and Lupine along with tons of Fiddleneck and other small flowers.
ALSO
We saw three rattlesnakes right in the road. The were all smallish, 2.5 to 3 feet long. This was the biggest one.
If you go out there, be careful.
Posted by Cliff Dodge on April 13, 2008 at 9:02 PM
Years ago a friend on mine was fishing at Banks lake in Eastern Wa. He came across a small boy who was catching fish, he was sweating like crazy and Dale asked him what he was using for bait. He said worms, but they are biting me all the time. He Was getting the 'worms' from under a rock and unfortunately they were baby rattlesnakes. It wasnt a good ending, so yes, be careful.
Posted by Nancy Lamb on April 14, 2008 at 12:27 PM
GROSS! SAD!! Did he live? Nancy
Posted by Marc Dilley on April 14, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Coiled and ready! Good action shot, I would crop this on all sides except maybe from the L.
Posted by Tom Kloster on April 14, 2008 at 12:58 PM
Good warning, Mark - and also watch your step in balsamroot country over the next few weeks. This snake was among the flowers on Dalles Mountain a couple of years ago - almost stepped on by a pre-occupied photographer!
Posted by Cliff Dodge on April 14, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Thanks again for the warnings, i am headed that way on the second of May for a week and dont even think of rattle snakes because of the region i live in.
Posted by Curtis Knight on April 14, 2008 at 2:27 PM
yeesh! so if he was young enough to not realize that worms don't bite, it seems odd that he would be left alone to fish...
What's wierd to me is that I spent 10 years of my youth east of the mountains (Skamania and Klickitat counties) and I never saw a live rattler. I saw one or two dead in the road, and we heard one in the brush one day when we came home, but I never actually saw one live. I didn't spend all my time in town either. I ran around all over the place. To this day, in fact, as often as I return to the area, I've never come across one.
Aaaaack! I expected to see the Deschutes River here, not a SNAKE! And the horrible story of the little boy. Lord have mercy.
A well timed warning. I had NO idea there could be rattlesnakes in with the Balsamroot!!
Posted by Rick Lundh on April 15, 2008 at 10:23 PM
crazy and scary dude.
Posted by Tom Kloster on April 16, 2008 at 12:15 AM
...and speaking of creepy-crawlies, did I ever post this photo here? Taken along the trail to Tamanawas Falls, of all places, last year! Big enough to keep my distance, but the main lesson is to keep an eye on kids who are poking around under stones. This guy was under a rock that I rolled off the trail while doing a bit of trail tending.
What??!! Is this the PNW we're talking about? Since when do we have all this nastiness! I expect this in places like the desert... Oh, dear. I may never get out of my car again to hit the trails...
Posted by Curtis Knight on April 16, 2008 at 11:49 AM
Catherine, a great deal of the PNW (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Northern California) is desert. But these critters aren't limited to desert climate either.
My stepson's friend was bitten by a Black Widow in Tigard a couple years ago. The doctor said that Black Widows are a fairly common cause of emergency room visits in the Portland Metro area (not frequent, but common).
Rattlers have been sighted in much of Skamania County.
And don't forget the Brown Recluse. A co-worker was bitten by one of these in his back yard about 4 years ago. It left a nasty scar on his arm.
When I was living in White Salmon, my dad's boss discovered a scorpion in his boot one morning. If I remember right, he didn't get stung, but it was a close call.
Yet, somehow, I've managed to never personally come in contact with any of these critters, except the occasional Brown Recluse when I'm splitting firewood.
I myself have come across many Rattlers on this road. One night we were hiking back in the dark from some summer steelhead fishing and we heard a rattle. Shined the flashlight down about a foot in front of us on a huge coiled up rattler. Been careful ever since.
Posted by John Williams on April 20, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Practicing in Arizona for a number of years, I saw quite a few patients with rattlesnake bites.
I once had an aged couple who were living way out on the reservation bring in a little Chihuahua that had been bitten. The story was that they had heard the idea, popular for awhile but since proven ineffective, that applying an electrical shock to the bite would inactivate the venom. Realizing they were several hours away from veterinary care, they hooked jumper cables to their beat-up old pickup and proceeded to try and jolt the Chihuahua. For an instant this was successful. However their success lead to her, holding the Chihuahua, being bitten, and him, holding the jumper cables, to be urinated on. Apparently urine conducts electricity quite well, allowing his hands to be shocked far better than the Chihuahua. Being salt of the earth folk, they tried several more times before deciding they had had enough shocking and biting.
By the time they made it in to me, they had settled down and were laughing about the craziness of the situation; they were really a nice old couple. Ironically, it turned out the Chihuahua had a dry bite (little or no venom injected, and surprisingly common) and only needed an antibiotic. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a permanent phobia to jumper cables though.
Posted by Mark Hudon on April 20, 2008 at 12:58 PM
John, That has to be the funniest thing I've ever heard!
Posted by Curtis Knight on April 20, 2008 at 10:48 PM
I've heard from several people that if a snake isn't hunting for food, he'll often either dry bite, or inject very little venom, as a strictly defensive move, rather than waste valuable venom. Apparently, it takes them a while to replenish their supply, and they learn to ration it. This is supposedly why baby rattlers are more deadly than adults; because they haven't yet learned to ration their venom.
Discussion
15 repliesThere is a lot of Flox out, a bit of Balsamroot and Lupine along with tons of Fiddleneck and other small flowers.
ALSO
We saw three rattlesnakes right in the road. The were all smallish, 2.5 to 3 feet long. This was the biggest one.
If you go out there, be careful.
What's wierd to me is that I spent 10 years of my youth east of the mountains (Skamania and Klickitat counties) and I never saw a live rattler. I saw one or two dead in the road, and we heard one in the brush one day when we came home, but I never actually saw one live. I didn't spend all my time in town either. I ran around all over the place. To this day, in fact, as often as I return to the area, I've never come across one.
A well timed warning. I had NO idea there could be rattlesnakes in with the Balsamroot!!
My stepson's friend was bitten by a Black Widow in Tigard a couple years ago. The doctor said that Black Widows are a fairly common cause of emergency room visits in the Portland Metro area (not frequent, but common).
Rattlers have been sighted in much of Skamania County.
And don't forget the Brown Recluse. A co-worker was bitten by one of these in his back yard about 4 years ago. It left a nasty scar on his arm.
When I was living in White Salmon, my dad's boss discovered a scorpion in his boot one morning. If I remember right, he didn't get stung, but it was a close call.
Yet, somehow, I've managed to never personally come in contact with any of these critters, except the occasional Brown Recluse when I'm splitting firewood.
I once had an aged couple who were living way out on the reservation bring in a little Chihuahua that had been bitten. The story was that they had heard the idea, popular for awhile but since proven ineffective, that applying an electrical shock to the bite would inactivate the venom. Realizing they were several hours away from veterinary care, they hooked jumper cables to their beat-up old pickup and proceeded to try and jolt the Chihuahua. For an instant this was successful. However their success lead to her, holding the Chihuahua, being bitten, and him, holding the jumper cables, to be urinated on. Apparently urine conducts electricity quite well, allowing his hands to be shocked far better than the Chihuahua. Being salt of the earth folk, they tried several more times before deciding they had had enough shocking and biting.
By the time they made it in to me, they had settled down and were laughing about the craziness of the situation; they were really a nice old couple. Ironically, it turned out the Chihuahua had a dry bite (little or no venom injected, and surprisingly common) and only needed an antibiotic. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a permanent phobia to jumper cables though.