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Snakes........on the course

I had a similar experience when I was riding my mountain bike up near SFU, however it was with a black bear! I was riding at a fast pace down a trail when about 50 feet in front of me a black bear walked out onto the trail (the trail was maybe 3 feet wide with very dense bush on either side, so there was no room to go around). I had to slam on the brakes and hope I didn't slam into the thing :bulgy-eyes:. I managed to stop about 10 feet or so short of it. I wouldn't say I was scared or nervous or really feeling anything...my mind just kind of went blank and I stared at it. All I could think was, "yupp, that's a bear and yupp, it is very capable of killing me."

It just stared right back at me and then after about 30 seconds it continued on its way. Thankfully it wasn't hungry or agressive...otherwise I was pretty screwed. I had nothing to defend myself with and it probably could have been all over me before I would have been able to dismount off the bike!
 
Wow that's crazy!! I hate rattle snakes, we had a close call last year when we were walking the dog. They are a huge reason why I hate living in the desert.
 
Wongstongs said:
I had a similar experience when I was riding my mountain bike up near SFU, however it was with a black bear! I was riding at a fast pace down a trail when about 50 feet in front of me a black bear walked out onto the trail (the trail was maybe 3 feet wide with very dense bush on either side, so there was no room to go around). I had to slam on the brakes and hope I didn't slam into the thing :bulgy-eyes:. I managed to stop about 10 feet or so short of it. I wouldn't say I was scared or nervous or really feeling anything...my mind just kind of went blank and I stared at it. All I could think was, "yupp, that's a bear and yupp, it is very capable of killing me."

It just stared right back at me and then after about 30 seconds it continued on its way. Thankfully it wasn't hungry or agressive...otherwise I was pretty screwed. I had nothing to defend myself with and it probably could have been all over me before I would have been able to dismount off the bike!
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that's pretty scary! We had a guy here a few years ago, riding his road bike up in the Sierras on a road I've ridden many times. He was jamming down a hill, when all of a sudden a black bear darted out of the brush on the side of the road, right in front of him and the guy just t-boned the bear. The bear ran off, thankfully, but the guys bike was toast. Broke the framecompletely where the down tube comes out of the head tube. He was pretty lucky that's all it was, though.
 
sheesh! I hate snakes with a passion, and this story made me shiver.
 
The only good snake is a dead snake in my book
 
T2GRN18 said:
The only good snake is a dead snake in my book
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Well Kev, I was playing Compass Point one day and we hear these bird screams... next thing you know my friend yells "Duck Big Ball! " Just as I do, an Osprey and a juvenile Eagle fly right over my head, both holding onto 1 snake. They dropped it right behind me! Funny thing was, the head was gone, but it was still thrashing around. Worse part was i missed the par putt!
 
BIGBALL said:
Well Kev, I was playing Compass Point one day and we hear these bird screams... next thing you know my friend yells "Duck Big Ball! " Just as I do, an Osprey and a juvenile Eagle fly right over my head, both holding onto 1 snake. They dropped it right behind me! Funny thing was, the head was gone, but it was still thrashing around. Worse part was i missed the par putt!
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you wouldn't of seen me! I would of said its good!
 
Snakes........on the course

I'm the kind of guy that gives snakes all the room they want when I see them. However with all of the rain we've had this spring there are many areas of our local course where the grass is getting out of control. During our usual Saturday morning group outing I was hunting for my partners golf ball in an area he had just walked through (tall grass near a ditch). I've always heard that cottonmouths are an aggressive breed of snake, but I'm very thankful it was cool out this morning and the one that I almost stepped on was only interested in moving along to a new spot. Anyone else have close calls with poisonous snakes on the course?
 
Ddec did. It was like a 15 foot man-eater.
 
Nate said:
Was it a cottonmouth?
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Yeah, the entire group came by and we all agreed it wasn't a water snake when it finally raised it's head and opened it's mouth to hiss at us and let us know we had out lasted our welcome!!
 
I almost got bit at Maderas in Cali 2 yrs ago by a big rattler. Coiled beside a cart path I was walking up. Scared the crap outta me. He missed me by 6" @ most. I ran like hell to my cart....

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This was in the par 3 course I played earlier this week. Walking up to a green and didn't see it until we were about 10 feet away.

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"livin' on the edge is such a rush"!!!!!!! sometimes you look for it and sometimes it finds you!!!! glad it found you and you are ok!!! now you know you can handle a tough situtation.
 
Glad to hear everyone was alright man. Unfortunately there are a lot of sad stories out West that begin with a rattler's bite. I've even heard of tales in Arizona where they have adapted to stop rattling because of being hunted, so people have no idea they are there and boom.
 
last time I played a round at my favorite course, I faded an approach shot a bit, and the ball went down a bank towards the water. While looking for my golf ball, I looked over at the pond next to the hole, there was really thick algae on top, and you could see a weird squiggly pattern in it...as I traced the pattern, I saw a great big snake slithering through there. I looked at my playing partner said "I don't care what penalty you call on me, but there's no way in hell I'm hitting my shot from here with my back turned to that big SOB!" I hate a snake, they can be anywhere, and you won't know it. And we've had so much rain, the grass is thick and damp and tall, and prime snake territory. Big Dave ain't messing with that stuff!
 
ya big ol' sissys you got a ready made snake stick in your hands. Only snake i would thump would be a cottonmouth, those things are nasty nasty nasty, most rattle snakes are fairly docile unless you molest them.
 
dhil I think I would have quit the round after seeing that
 
Great. Give the guy who is deathly afraid of snakes a scary snake story 3 weeks before he leaves for California on vacation!!
 
Glad the snake missed you and the misses did crash when she ran over it.
 
adwillingham said:
Yep, you've convinced me. I'll never ride a bike again. I had already decided to not because it sounded too much like exercise, but that was before I had thought about being attacked by a snake while riding.
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I am with Donnie
 
I hate snakes so much!! I see rattlers all the time in september, which is breeding season and sometimes even on the course. They are pretty scary
 
We have a golf course about 30 minutes away from my home town that used to have so many rattlers on the course that they allowed people to carry handguns if they had clearance through the local PD. Wasn't uncommon to hear a dozen gun shots in a round my dad said. That was all when I was too young to even walk. Now the problem is way down because they found and relocated an entire den of them. I've seen a few the last couple years but now you call the grounds crew and they come out and kill them with machetes.
 
Wow. California in August. Sounds like I'm going to be wearing combat boots and a NBC suit! Quietly whimpering here....
 
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