I love all animals, I really do.  But I’m not a fan of snakes.  Like some people have an irrational fear of heights, I have an irrational fear of snakes.  And it’s puzzling too because it wasn’t always like that.  In middle school, my science teacher Ms. Freeman had six snakes in the classroom and I used to love to have Zoe (a South American Boa) slither across my desk in class.  I remember feeding her and the other snakes and just loved to hang out with them.  But over the years, I’ve begun to really dislike snakes which is a bad thing if you live in Southeastern Colorado.  The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake is EVERYWHERE.  On the roads, sidewalks, parking lots, everywhere.  We even have rattlesnake awareness classes and drills at work in addition to the normal fire drills.

Until today, I had the luxury of seeing them from the relative safety of my SUV.  While climbing a ridiculously long, steep and narrow hill today on my bike, I had fast traveling traffic to my left and only had about 6-8 inches of shoulder to ride on.  Near the crest of the hill, where I was most knackered, a coiled rattlesnake lay about 50 yards ahead of me.   Despite my hypoxic state, I quickly determined I had two options: 1) run right over the snake hoping that he didn’t take a bite out of my left calf and probably killing him in the process or 2) quickly veer 10 feet to my left into traffic probably killing myself.  I know this sounds stupid, but I chose the latter.   I may hate snakes but I’d never want to kill one and risk getting bitten in the process.  It seemed certain that one of those two would happen where I might stand a chance of not getting hit by a car.  Since you’re reading this, I didn’t get hit but I got a pretty good honking at.  I missed the snake but my right leg was still in striking distance and that thought pushed my heart rate even higher, so much so that I had to get off a take a break at the top.

I love wildlife but now I know they tell you to never hike with headphone and to stay on the trail no matter what.  I used to laugh at all the snake warning posters at work but won’t anymore.  Or maybe I’ll start looking for jobs in nrothern Alaska…