Mountain Biking - Snakes

Hey,

not that I was doing any major Mountain Biking, but I was riding it, around the lake near my house(nice cut grass).

Anyhow I was just tooling along nice and easy when I come across this snake sunning near the shore on some built up sticks and branches.

So I stop nice and easy to check it out. Looked to be about a 4' cotton mouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus. His body was at least 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

So do you moutian bikers find yourself comming up on snakes alot?? I would figure becuase of the rollin nature of the tires, a snake wouldn't be able to detect your presents as easy as if your walking(and creating vibration) that they could feel and take off before you see them.

I have only ridden up on snakes one time... I think their minds were on other activities as me and my friend approached. They were mating in the middle of the trail... I rode right past them yelling out snake. When we stopped to check them out that is when they parted ways and flew back into the woods… Talk about fast! They were black snakes so I deemed them harmless.

The funny thing, my friend was just talking about how much he hated snakes and I mentioned that I had never seen one on the trail. lol

I've encountered snakes often, however, they are usually already moving into the underbrush. Fortuneately for me, they are mostly of the Non-poisonous variety. I think the trails where I ride, have enough roots and varied terrain, that the bikes do make enough vibration and the snakes sense this. I've never come close to riding over one, but my good friend claims he rode right over a black snake sunning in the middle of the trail.

I have however, launched over a small alligator! Yikes!

L8R

I live in sunny Arizona, snakes everywhere! I usually just leave them alone, except for the time a rattler scared the crap out of my kid and his bike landed over the 5 footer. Took me 20 minutes to get it back from him (he wouldn't leave!)

I've seen a snake twice on the trails I ride daily. One was black with white vertical stripes .... like a roll of lifesavers. The other was a snake that spanned the entire trail. I stopped cause I was a little freaked and I noticed another rider coming down the opposite way. I yelled out "snake" and he just ran over it and stared at me as he rode by. I was like "what the hell?". After that, the snake slithered off.

I ride at Markham park in FL. I saw 3 snakes at different spots on the trail on Sat. I've often thought about riding the dike along the Everglades for training, but I worry about gators laying in the grass along the edge.

Just bears...not many snakes in these here parts :)

I encounter crazy aggresive squirrels!!!! hehe ..nah they are just afraid of me and hide...

Originally posted by Maelstrom
Just bears...not many snakes in these here parts :)

I have been wondering about that... I hear that there are a lot of bears out in Colorado (I know you live in Canada;)) where I'm venturing.. has anyone from that region had any encounters with them either camping or riding..?;

Where I live there are a lot of Coral and King snakes, which makes for some pretty interesting conversation. While a Coral snake comes fully equiped with a neuro-toxin variety venom, the king snake is totally harmless. The fun part is, they look almost identical save some minor differences. The thing they always taught us in school was, "Red on yellow kills a fellow, red on black means venom lack." There are variations of this, but its a pretty good saying for keeping yourself... well... neuro-toxin free. The problem is, because there are so many versions of it people can never seem to remember it quite accurately. So, you'll be flying down some epic descent after climbing it with your friends when one yells, "SNAKE!" Always excited for a change of pace, everyone stops to examine the find, then begins the attempt to remember the saying you learned in 4th grade to decide whether or not this little guy is going to kill you or let you play with it. Its happened enough times now that we'll often joke about it. One rider yells, "SNAKE!" And the one behind him will say decicively, "No don't stop! I think I saw yellow!" The rider behind him will follow suit, but surely saw red. It makes for a good time, but not good enough to make me want to play with snakes :p

Yeah we get them often enough. See them on the trails. Sometimes they walk around my house...no biggy they are pretty relaxed as long as they are women with kids or REALLY hungry...then watch out ;)

saw a snake yesterday at the shoulder of the paved road. looked dead, although i couldn't be sure. wanted to go back and check it out but i didn't want to hold up other riders who were behind me. was either a rattler or a corn snake, most likely the latter.

We dont get much where i live, St Paddy scared em all off you see

http://thejab.com/paddy/snake2.jpg

http://thejab.com/paddy/snake1.jpg

I see a lot of gopher snakes, and saw one rattler.

Snakes are the norm while trail riding around here, and so are alligators for that matter.

Originally posted by Wait
I have been wondering about that... I hear that there are a lot of bears out in Colorado (I know you live in Canada;)) where I'm venturing.. has anyone from that region had any encounters with them either camping or riding..?;

Bears... a lot?

Most of the bears are known by names and most of them are counted and even traced. In 80s, the number of grizzly bears in the State of Colorado was estimated at 800 maxiumum, according to "one book I was reading recently", in comparison with thousands of them in Alaska.
Where beggest bears in the world live - the Kodiaks.

http://www.alaskaone.com/kodiak_nwr/kodiak.gif