Are Schwalbe Marathons resistant to snake bites?
 

A couple of visitors on the Katy Trail in Missouri this past weekend:

I tried to get the rattle snake in the top pic to get off the trail for everyone's safety, his and ours, but he was not willing to just "shoo" off. He coiled up, rattled, and struck out a couple of times at my wheel as I slowly rolled it towards him. Which made me wonder if my new Schwalbe Marathons with snake skin side walls are really resistant to this less common type of snake bite punctures. ha

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/4...0AasmbRi4cs2LA

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/4...0AasmbRi4cs2LA

Cool pics!

A number of years ago, my then-12 y.o. daughter & I rode the Katy. She had to stop for every snake & assist it off the trail, lest it suffer the same fate as many of its asphalt-crossing bretheren. One little (6" or so long) feller impressed us both with its aggressiveness - kinda snapping at her as she reached for it, much more than the others she'd picked up. She ended up shoo-ing it off the trail with her glove.

A short while later we stopped at a country store in one of the small towns along the trail - I'd have to dig out my journal to remember where - & discussed the variety of snakes we'd seen with the local guy. The dark snakes with the yellow stripes were just garter snakes, he told us city folk. The long black guys? "Black snakes. The hillbillies eat 'em, but I don't like them." What about the dark olive green things with a little bit of kinda diamond pattern markings - the one that had seemed so aggressive for such a little runt? "Cottonmouth - pretty poisonous - don't play with 'em!"

Needless to say, she was subsequently more cautious about preventing trailkill.

Yo Ro -
How is the Katy holding up this year with all the rain ???
If the river is swollen.. ... could that have caused the snakes to move up the shore to the K.T. ?
Only wildlife I ever came upon was tommy-turtle in two places a couple of years back.

Katy Trail is in good shape. Rode it between Augusta and St Charles today.

There were some really soft areas between Clinton and Sedalia, and carrying 35lbs on the back rack made for a slow pull but Sedalia on east was better. I didn't get to ride the whole 225 miles as we ran out of time but hope to do it again in the near future.

We rode the Katy this past weekend also from Booneville to Rocheport( About 26 mi). Despite more than 5 inches of rain the day before the surface was suprisingly firm. That railbed drains much better than many local gravel covered trails.

That top snake appears to be a timber rattlesnake. I hope you used the zoom on your camera and gave it a wide berth.

great animals a few of my friends keep rattlers (crotalus) species. Idk what the black one is could be a racer but without I better pick I would hate to guess. Alot of watersnakes can be confused for cottonmouthes as well, though are non venomous. But best not to take the chance. Most smaller snakes are very aggressive, they tend to be prey items for more than their big brothers so a bit of a mean streak may just keep them alive longer. Happens that way with many newly hatched (neonate) snakes till they get some size on them then many calm down. Great pics.

Yea, it was a woodland rattle snake and my zoom was at work and so I was able to stand a few feet away from him. The lower photo snake was not venomous but I just thought his ribbon-like shape was kind of neat.