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Re: [at-l] snake phobia/tarps
Good for you, but always be leary of them.
Highlander
----------
> From: Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>
> To: at-l-digest@saffron.hack.net
> Subject: Re: [at-l] snake phobia/tarps
> Date: Monday, June 15, 1998 2:49 PM
>
> OK, I admit it. I am a'feared of snakes too. I have spent many hours
trying to
> get over my phobia, but they still give me the willies.
>
> When I lived in AZ, I carried a 22 pistol loaded with bird-shot as a
sidearm
> in the desert. I never used it. I only saw three or four rattlesnakes in
two
> years of serious desert hiking. I didn't shoot any of them - they were
not a
> threat. The only time I actually discharged the gun was one evening when
a
> pack of coydogs were circling our camp just at the edge of the campfire
light
> and driving our own dogs nuts. A single shot into the air sent the
coydogs
> running off into the night.
>
> This past month I was out in the Maine woods with a group of Boy Scouts,
> teaching them orienteering skills. I was walking a parallel path to their
> compass course - staying out of sight and observing. I stopped and sat on
my
> haunches on a large rock outcrop while the boys argued about bearing and
> distance travelled. Just below me in the leaves, I heard the telltale
rattle
> of a snake - or at least I thought it was a rattle.
>
> There are no rattlesnakes in Maine, but what I saw when I looked down
into the
> leaf litter just below me, made me jump anyway. A good sized milk snake
was
> shaking it's tail back and forth in the leaves and making a fair
impression of
> a rattlesnake. This snake was colored in three shades of brown, and it
took
> me a few heartbeats to recognize it. I caught it and showed the boys. It
> still gave me the willies, but as I said, I'm trying to rationally shed
my fear...
>
> -Paddler (273 days and counting... GA>ME 99)
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