After spending the night at the famous Adobe Deli restaurant, just a mile south of Hwy 549, I’d decided to start the morning by walking Solana Rd, a dirt & gravel road extending due east of the restaurant, before reconnecting back to 549.
When I walk dirt and gravel roads, the majority of my attention is focused on choosing the … See Morenext step or two– I carefully select thousands of steps daily so as to minimize any pain to my feet caused by walking over big or sharp rocks.
The first time I saw a rattlesnake was on a dirt road in eastern California, just a few miles before Blythe. It was dead (recently run over), and clearly showed that rattlers had emerged from hibernation for the spring. The first time a live rattler rattled at me was on my walk from Coolidge to Picacho, AZ. It was warning me from a safe distance, hidden amongst some grass at least 12 feet away. I’ve received many similar rattler warnings since then over the weeks– allowing me to feel reassured that they’re typically aware and warning me before I have a chance to get too close. I typically won’t wear my headphones unless I clearly see the paved road shoulder in front of me (if it exists).
This morning, within about the first ten minutes of my walk east on Solana, ears wide open, moving swiftly, attentively choosing every next step, I suddenly spotted the shape of a large, curled up rattlesnake camouflaged into the dirt road before me. I was just a step or so away from it, and about to firmly meet its scales with my swiftly-moving shoe soles. Within a crucially perceptive and reactive nanosecond, my momentum broke as I jumped like a jack rabbit off to the left, and bolted twenty-five feet forward– fast and far enough to safely look back and find it still in rattling in the coiled position it quickly shifted into upon feeling me spring dirt and pebbles at it as I leapt out of its way.
Coiled, head up, still rattling, I now found the experience to be pretty fascinating– from 25 safe feet away– fascinating enough to attempt a couple of pics from my bottom-of-the-line cam on the phone.
One can’t help but to feel blessed and thankful after such a close call. I even found myself slightly bowing to the snake, wishing it well, sending peaceful thoughts its way before turning and proceeding on– now often looking at more than just the next couple of steps…