Rattlesnake Adventures:

Having moved to Clayton in 2001, I've had my share of rattlesnake encounters...it's difficult to keep track of the number, but at least 25, most with interesting stories:

1) On my first exploration of Donner Canyon, in the spring of 2002, while hunting wildflowers, I was wandering up the beginning of the Donner Trail, when I encountered an older counter stepping back from the side of the trail. As I approached, they pointed out a fat rattler rattling with abandon from the trailside. Observing distantly, I noticed a young family approaching, who didn't seem to understand my warnings...they were Spanish-speakers, and I was unable to recall the Spanish noun for snake...
The young father, to my protestations, plucked a thin, forked branch from the grass, and approached the snake with no hesitation, as I shook my head and gestured frantically. He, however, nodded confidently, walked directly to the back side of the coiling rattler, and pinned the head down under the forked twig, grabbed the 3-4 ft. snake, and held it up for all to see, before carrying it off several feet up-slope in the grass to be released. I was amazed at his aplomb!

2) One fine summer day, while hiking up through the intermittently shady Back Creek trail, lost in thought, I suddenly realized I was hearing the sound of a rainbird sprinkler...however, the likelihood of a rainbird sprinkler running in that vicinity was virtually nil...Abruptly, my mind returned to the location at hand, recognizing I was hearing a frantically-rattling rattler...in very close proximity! Alone on the trail, betwen narrow canyon walls, the echoes prevented my determining the direction of the rattle, so I froze in place and looked every direction. Still unable to discern the location, I yelled to some people who were now out of sight, but whom I had passed picnicking along the trail, asking them to come help me with rattling rattlesnake. After some searching, they discovered it in the shadow and grass under a tree a few feet away. The rattling persisting, I backed away until it stopped. After my heart stopped pounding, I gingerly started to proceed again, and the rattling returned, so I backed away again. Several such attempts passed before I just decided to walk on past, my heart rate much increased.

3) Bicycling up the paved trail past Cal State Eastbay, I encountered a dead snake in the trail.

4) One scorching summer afternoon, I sauntered past a dead rattlesnake in the Mitchell Canyon parking lot, on the scorching gravel.

5) One fall afternoon, as Chris & I walked the fire road near the pond, a small twig in the trail flicked it's tongue out, and a thrust out my arm in front of Chris mid-conversation to stop him in his tracks just before he was ready to step on it.

6) One hot summer day, the neighbor across the street stepped out of his house, and over a rattlesnake, down the garage steps to retrieve supper from the freezer. Upon turning around to re-enter the house, he was surprised and startled to see the rattlesnake he had just stepped over, and proceeded to tell me all about it!

7) One summer afternoon, on a walk around the block, I saw a dead rattlesnake in the street in front of the house next door.

8) On a fall evening after work, I decided to take a quick jaunt to the pond, but didn't get very far. Sitting in a gopher hole, in the middle of the trail was a fat (and happy?) rattlesnake, awaiting it's next meal.

9) One spring morning, returning from the pond, I encountered a fat, dark-colored rattler sitting mid-trail. I turned around and went the long way home.

10) Exploring Lime Ridge, near the Blue Oak trail, I suddenly heard the sound of a rain-bird sprinkler...and realized a rattler was rattling at me from the grass in the center of the fire road where I was walking.

11) One year later, I was rattled at again in the exact same spot! I now avoid that spot in spring!

12) Another day, returning on the same trail, just before proceeding downhill to the parking lot, I noticed a large, dark-looking branch in the trail. Thinking it odd, because I had not noticed it going the other direction, and had seen no one else in the park, I took a closer look to realize it was a rattlesnake sunning itself in the waning sunlight.

13) Coming down my favorite portion of the now-closed singletrack Ridge Trail, I spied a rattler stretched out in the trail. Unable to determine whether it was alive, I paused long...it was a long way back to the last trail intersection, yet the brush on either side of the snake was thick and deep. Finally, I tossed a few pebbles the snake's direction to see whether it moved. It didn't. But not willing to step over it, I turned around and went back the long way.

14) Water tower trail

15) Oak rd. trail

16) Pond trail

17) Brick Wall bush

18) Driveway

19) Fallen leaf

20) Black Diamond

21) Backyard

22) President's Day

23) Lafayetter Rez - lawn

24) Lafayette Rez - backside

25) Lafayette Rez - Rim Trail

26) Tick Woods trail