ghawk
09-22-2013, 08:42 AM
So my wife, my friend Brendan and his Dad and me all headed down to Zion this weekend to run through Telephone. I hadn't done it before and it looked like it could be fun. It's a long and beautiful hike up to the top. We took a moderate pace and reached the head of the canyon in somewhere between 2 to 3 hours. We dropped in and did rap after rap after rap. It's pretty much a bunch of rappels in succession without a lot of anything else. There are a few spots to downclimb, but some of the places that look like potential downclimbs are trickier because the walls in this canyon are so slick.
So we headed down and were having a pretty good time when I dropped this downclimb and started walking this narrow section. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and I jumped forward really fast. I looked down and saw this 4 foot snake strike at the wall next to me :cold:. I climbed up the between the canyon walls as quick as I could while the snake was coiling up below me, watching me, and looking ready to strike at me. He was not a happy camper! It was then that he started hissing at me as well, which if I had known more about snakes would have made our lives a lot easier. However, since my snake knowledge isn't that high I noted that he wasn't rattling but that he looked similar to rattlers I had seen (though a more yellow body than I had seen on others) and either way he was angry and I didn't want to get bit by any snake.
He was stuck right in the middle of a narrow section where it was hard to get high enough to avoid him. My wife and Bredan's dad aren't the best at stemming and so I worried about the snake biting them as they came across. Brendan had a trekking pole that we thought we could use to flick the snake downcanyon, but there were even tighter chokepoints there so we didn't want to do that. This whole time the snake just watched my every move. We ended up getting some logs and wood from above and throwing them down to give him a place to hide under. While we threw them down the snake continued to hiss really loud. I'm not sure if any of the wood we threw injured him but when he was under the wood he stopped making noise and we didn't see him again. I figure he was pretty scared. We got everybody across and moved downcanyon. Had I been sure he was a rattler I think I would have done the same. Throwing rocks at him or finding another way to kill the snake would have been fairly difficult in that setting because you couldn't get close enough without putting yourself in striking range. Anyway, this morning I got online and did my research. It was a gopher snake and here's more information on them for those of you who would like to educate yourself (see page 4). http://www.nps.gov/grba/naturescience/upload/reptile%20field%20guide.pdf
Overall the canyon was interesting if you like lots of rappels (I think we did around 15), but fairly one dimensional (besides the snake part). I like a little more variety in canyons I think so I won't be heading back, unless I go for the telephone to behunin route. Overall a great day in Zion, some fun rappels, and a beautiful and long hike.
(my wife on the first rappel into the canyon. We just rapped 200 feet from the top, rather than use the middle anchor on the tree, though the pull wasn't as clean)
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Brendan pointing at the snake in the pile of wood
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Another picture of the pile of wood with the snake under it. I didn't get any while he was visible because I was hanging out ten feet up. Anyone else have fun snake stories? What would you have done in this situation? Once, a few years ago, I was stemming for about 20 feet about 6 feet up and this baby rattler was following us along underneath. We were able to avoid him eventually. I've almost stepped on rattlers a few times but they have always warned me off and I back away. I've never had a snake try to strike at me until this time. I'm glad he wasn't as dangerous as he could have been.
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My wife looking good!
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A nice spot for a picture
69476
Lots of rappels
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So we headed down and were having a pretty good time when I dropped this downclimb and started walking this narrow section. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and I jumped forward really fast. I looked down and saw this 4 foot snake strike at the wall next to me :cold:. I climbed up the between the canyon walls as quick as I could while the snake was coiling up below me, watching me, and looking ready to strike at me. He was not a happy camper! It was then that he started hissing at me as well, which if I had known more about snakes would have made our lives a lot easier. However, since my snake knowledge isn't that high I noted that he wasn't rattling but that he looked similar to rattlers I had seen (though a more yellow body than I had seen on others) and either way he was angry and I didn't want to get bit by any snake.
He was stuck right in the middle of a narrow section where it was hard to get high enough to avoid him. My wife and Bredan's dad aren't the best at stemming and so I worried about the snake biting them as they came across. Brendan had a trekking pole that we thought we could use to flick the snake downcanyon, but there were even tighter chokepoints there so we didn't want to do that. This whole time the snake just watched my every move. We ended up getting some logs and wood from above and throwing them down to give him a place to hide under. While we threw them down the snake continued to hiss really loud. I'm not sure if any of the wood we threw injured him but when he was under the wood he stopped making noise and we didn't see him again. I figure he was pretty scared. We got everybody across and moved downcanyon. Had I been sure he was a rattler I think I would have done the same. Throwing rocks at him or finding another way to kill the snake would have been fairly difficult in that setting because you couldn't get close enough without putting yourself in striking range. Anyway, this morning I got online and did my research. It was a gopher snake and here's more information on them for those of you who would like to educate yourself (see page 4). http://www.nps.gov/grba/naturescience/upload/reptile%20field%20guide.pdf
Overall the canyon was interesting if you like lots of rappels (I think we did around 15), but fairly one dimensional (besides the snake part). I like a little more variety in canyons I think so I won't be heading back, unless I go for the telephone to behunin route. Overall a great day in Zion, some fun rappels, and a beautiful and long hike.
(my wife on the first rappel into the canyon. We just rapped 200 feet from the top, rather than use the middle anchor on the tree, though the pull wasn't as clean)
69472
Brendan pointing at the snake in the pile of wood
69473
Another picture of the pile of wood with the snake under it. I didn't get any while he was visible because I was hanging out ten feet up. Anyone else have fun snake stories? What would you have done in this situation? Once, a few years ago, I was stemming for about 20 feet about 6 feet up and this baby rattler was following us along underneath. We were able to avoid him eventually. I've almost stepped on rattlers a few times but they have always warned me off and I back away. I've never had a snake try to strike at me until this time. I'm glad he wasn't as dangerous as he could have been.
69474
My wife looking good!
69475
A nice spot for a picture
69476
Lots of rappels
69477