Rattle snake bite

2gypsies wrote:
Were you walking on a trail or off-trail? Or sitting on a rock? Did you see the snake before it struck? Not that it matters - could happen anywhere, but just curious how it happened. Glad you're improving!

I stopped momentarily on the trail to look back and see how far back my hiking companion was. I could hear the rattle and instantly felt a bite - as if a dry branch prickled on my leg. I looked down and here it was - a good size snake about 1' away from my foot, happily coiled. I threw a sitting cushion that I carried under my armpit on the top of it and jumped back a few steps to look at the damage done to my leg. I could see three bloody marks about 15" above my foot. Later on the doctors decided that I was bitten twice and that there were four marks. I could recognise only three - the most significant one right on the shin bone of my rather skinny legs.

I guess that the snake was resting just on the edge of the Peralta trail - one of the more popular trails in the eastern Phoenix area. I estimate that a hiker, or a group of hikers was walking by that spot about once every fifteen minutes, or so that day.