Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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The copperhead was well-camouflaged in the middle of the trail, so she walked up on it. In the southern Appalachians there are three kinds of poisonous snakes: timber rattlesnakes (the biggest and most dangerous), pygmy rattlesnakes, and copperheads. I do a heckuva lot of outdoors activity - far, far more than most people. I hike hundreds of miles a year in these mountains. Half the time or more I'm by myself. I occasionally run across vipers - maybe three or four times a year on average - enough to be alert to the possibility but not to obsess over it. I am far more concerned about lightning. Since 2007, I've backpacked 500+ miles in 13 trips on the AT. I saw two copperheads and one timber rattler year one; I think this copperhead was the only other viper I've encountered on the AT. That first year, I was turned around to sit on a huge log in a mountain gap when my then 12-year-old son John walked up and exclaimed, "Daddy, rattlesnake!" It was a small copperhead coiled right where I was about to sit. My butt would've gotten bit if the snake could've worked its mouth to advantage. I do occasionally encounter timber rattlers - big, fat, intimidating ones - on Lavender Mountain or Strawberry Mountain or Horn Mountain here near home. A rattlesnake bite can be a matter of serious concern, though sometimes they dry-bite, not injecting any venom. I do not carry snake bite antivenin. I don't think that's even available or possible. If I suffered a bite, I'd try to remain calm and walk to the nearest location where I could get transportation to a hospital or make an emergency call. If it was a rattlesnake bite, I'd apply a tourniquet if I could. If it was a copperhead bite I wouldn't.
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