Look out for snakes.

[Back-of-the-boat]

Went out on a little recon mission to find a likely spot to detect or sluice and was down by the rivers edge couldn't get past some boulders, went back up the bank to find a different route and saw a possible way, started to go and with my foot almost ready to step down, I notice about a 6 or 7 foot Rattlesnake coiled under the rock I was going to step on, HOLY @&%#. Backed out the way I came, went back to the truck to clean my jeans and reconsider if a little nugget or a few flakes of flour was worth it today and decided coin shooting the local park sounded better.What got me was it never rattled once, the head must have been pointed so it didn't sense my warmth?It blended so well it was scary, now mind you for 50 years I have been around snakes and have never been that close without a warning buzz.Stay safe and alert friends. 9 and a button was all that told me it was a rattler, it's pattern almost looked like a gopher snake.

 

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[Hoser John]

GREEN BAD LIKE A ENVIRONUTZ....

 

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[63bkpkr]

I've come across quite a few rattle snakes along the NFAR as well as Scorpions in Green Valley, finding a Scorpion there really surprised me. One time up the NF of the NFAR a baby rattle snake was totally intent on taking me out, little bugger just kept striking. Most of the time now I move them out of my path with my hiking staff. When they are shedding their skins they have ugly tempers. I learned to be very careful around pools where single leaf water plants grow, the single leaf offers a great deal of shade and guess who sleeps in the shade! Only knew of one RS that absolutely needed a dose of bird shot, a group of us were walking across a flood plain way up river when 15' in front of us this snake rears up hissing and rattling. Did not see any baby snakes or an obvious reason why it reacted like that other than we created a lot of vibration in the ground. Not much meat on NorCal mountain rattlers. I've seen a portion of a very large NorCal Rattler so I know a few can get very long. The odor of a den is quite "distinctive". If it smells like reptile be wary! One year and only one year, there were a bunch of light green snakes that I came across in a side canyon, I'd Never seen that particular breed before or since, even back up that same side canyon. The reason I recall them is one of the buggers came at me with its head way up in the air and I just did not like that. I removed it from the gene pool!

They serve a purpose as they keep bugs, mice and the like under control But they also eat the Trout. I've checked under and around logs and rocks for many years and intend to keep doing it for as long as I'm out there. Using a hiking staff can be a benefit as it hits the ground some distance in front of you and that can set a snake to shaking its tail..................63bkpkr

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

I've come across quite a few rattle snakes along the NFAR as well as Scorpions in Green Valley, finding a Scorpion there really surprised me. One time up the NF of the NFAR a baby rattle snake was totally intent on taking me out, little bugger just kept striking. Most of the time now I move them out of my path with my hiking staff. When they are shedding their skins they have ugly tempers. I learned to be very careful around pools where single leaf water plants grow, the single leaf offers a great deal of shade and guess who sleeps in the shade! Only knew of one RS that absolutely needed a dose of bird shot, a group of us were walking across a flood plain way up river when 15' in front of us this snake rears up hissing and rattling. Did not see any baby snakes or an obvious reason why it reacted like that other than we created a lot of vibration in the ground. Not much meat on NorCal mountain rattlers. I've seen a portion of a very large NorCal Rattler so I know a few can get very long. The odor of a den is quite "distinctive". If it smells like reptile be wary! One year and only one year, there were a bunch of light green snakes that I came across in a side canyon, I'd Never seen that particular breed before or since, even back up that same side canyon. The reason I recall them is one of the buggers came at me with its head way up in the air and I just did not like that. I removed it from the gene pool!

They serve a purpose as they keep bugs, mice and the like under control But they also eat the Trout. I've checked under and around logs and rocks for many years and intend to keep doing it for as long as I'm out there. Using a hiking staff can be a benefit as it hits the ground some distance in front of you and that can set a snake to shaking its tail..................63bkpkr

63bkpker -You should write a book one day about your many adventures & experiences in the NFAR area. I always enjoy reading your posts!

 

[63bkpkr]

Thank You SOHR,
I enjoy the sharing of the stories and pictures and times I've had out there, I just love the place! It would be a long book or a series of them. Likely one of the crazier things I did in there was to, well heck now I'm having trouble thinking of just which one of my stunts would be the craziest. At the moment its got me stumped! Gosh, I've done so many of them in there like carrying in a touch over 200lbs of gear by myself but it took three trips in (1 day) and three trips out (a second day). Snakes are just a small part of the 'fun' I've had in there....................63bkpkr

 

[Hoser John]

My all time favorites are the pics of the LEDGE you shimmy across to get to your special spot. Tooooo long a fall and not much foothold. Enjoy as always Herb-respect-John

 

[63bkpkr]

Well John, there have been a few of those in 50 years of BPing the NorCal Sierras and not a one of them has left me without some form of an impression about life, staying alive, and yet there is always the impression of "wanting more" of the same and of course then there is the finding of more of those very special places. Either free climbing or roping my way through one of these places its always a "Thrill"! I must be careful around the steep stuff as without being on the rope my brain will not allow me to do certain things and once I was in a spot where the brain actually started me getting dizzy due to a high amount of unusual angles in a canyon area and I suppose my brain was trying to find a horizon line and could not and hence the dizzy spell. Each person has something they must deal with! However when a person begins doing, I will call it unique things in life, well it is not realized at the moment but a person stretches their zone of being able to do a thing, within limits of course as I still can not walk up to a cliff and look down without being on a rope. That is one thing that has never gone away, I suspect it is an eye brain thing for me as looking over a sheer drop off makes my insides feel like a 50 pound bag of freshly caught night crawlers (lawn worms that is). Put me on the rope clipped into my harness and bingo a different person and mental reaction. The searching for new stuff is exciting and from experience I Know there is more amazing sights out there in fact so many that I will never be able to see all of them but I sure want to see a few more!
........................63bkpkr



On the far left you can see my faithful 1992 Bronco and all around it are where those interesting places are waiting for someone to come and find them, big Trout and likely some good nuggets.

 

[AU_Solitude]

I saw one rattler on the way down to NFAR/Green Valley on Saturday, just a little guy. I approached from Foresthill/Elliot Ranch Road, unfortunately, people for whatever reason think it's okay to ignore signs and four guys on dirt bikes tore up the Green Valley trail all the way down to the river. The NFAR is higher than I have ever seen it, swollen out past its banks and roaring, you could hear it from about 1,000 ft above in elevation, quite different than the last few years. No where to move alongside the river, every gravel bar is underwater, no luck in forging ahead a little above the river as the poison oak is out of control with the heavy moisture this year.

 

[worldtalker]

I was clearing some brush around a pond the other day and came across a water moccasin about 5 feet long. When I poked it with a long stick the silly thing came right at me so I relocated back to hell.

I recall as a kid in Florida fishing in the swamps them critters trying to get in the boat with us.

 

[63bkpkr]

AU Solitude,
Right at this moment the NFAR is running at ~1750 CFS. Try to imagine what it was like at 30,000 cfs! My first time in on Green Valley trail was from the Alta side in February of 1963 and though I do not know what the cfs was on that particular trip it was quite a ways up the canyon wall, milk chocolate brown, roaring with good sized boulders, from the sounds they were making, bouncing down the bedrock. It was quite a sight with big pines racing down the river! Quite a place!...............63bkpkr

 

[Slingshot]

I was bitten by a copperhead in my left forearm while clearing brush last year. It was in a sapling I had bent over to cut down, and nailed me 3 times, one was pretty bad. Put me out of action for 3 weeks, and I still have 2 dark purple spots on my arm where the worst bite was. I leave them alone in the woods, but around the house I take them out. This year I have done in 2 copperheads with my slingshot, and drove over a rattlesnake by my brush pile that I didn't see until I got out of my truck, it was belly up with the or I might not have seen it then.

 

[NorCalPilot]

I haven't seen any rattlers yet on the NFAR this year, but this cobble got up and started walking today

 

[63bkpkr]

NorCalPilot - did you check that cobble for any gold? I believe that is the first turtle I've ever seen on the NFAR or the South Fork or the Middle Fork either. Great picture................63bkpkr

 

[NorCalPilot]

NorCalPilot - did you check that cobble for any gold? I believe that is the first turtle I've ever seen on the NFAR or the South Fork or the Middle Fork either. Great picture................63bkpkr

He was about the size or a melon and right along the waterline. It was 50 with light rain Friday, so I didn't stick around long either.