TR - High Spur & West Fork of Big Springs

[DWayne27]

Just a quick TR... We headed out to the High Spur area on Saturday morning. We wanted something light and easy to do Saturday, so we just did the West fork of the Big Springs EW loop. This was really a cool canyon. There were a couple decent raps, a fairly narrow section (nothing to worry about, I am pretty large, although my small but claustrophobic friend didnt love that section), some shallow potholes, and tons of cool bridges to climb through. In the area, you should definitely check it out.

High Spur... definitely had some scenic sections, and the final rap is pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of Blue Johns, with narrow and open sections alternating, and the last rap was a lot the same. The climb out was not bad at all. The exit crack wasnt difficult or long. At the first rap there was some water, just about ankle deep, although the water was pungent and disgusting. I was very surprised at how much water it looked like it would hold, and tons of log/twig jams with lots of junk coating the canyon floor and up the walls about. The problem we encounters was in the form of 2 snakes. The first one was a 10 in rattler. It was just a little guy, and moving very slow so it wasnt a big deal at all, except for my wifes extreme phobia of snakes, and it took us about 30 minutes to walk past that section. The thing crawled under the wall, and we put a bunch of rocks of it so it was out of site, but it was rattling and my wife didnt like the sound of it. Finally, we got her past it, and she made us keep a look out in front for any more snakes. Just as she was calming down, I saw another one. This was not a rattler, but my honest guess was that it had to be a solid 5 feet long. Luckily I stopped my wife short of seeing so she didnt freak out as much. My question is, how do you handle this stuff? In a slot there isnt exactly room to just walk around sometimes, and stemming over wasnt an option there. We just followed it for a while, and it is obvious it didnt want any more trouble than we did. We just tapped some rocks together and made some noise and it kept moving away. It took us a while until it found a spot that we could confirm it buried itself deep under some sand, and also give us enough room my wife could walk by. What are some good recommendations for handling this?

[The European Death Knot]

Our group always carries a portable stove and several different lengths of skewers for this exact scenario.

[Iceaxe]

Two places I always see lots of rattlesnakes are The Roost and Buckskin Gulch. One good thing is the snakes are normally really docile in the slots because of the cooler temperature. You will also find a lot of snakes in the slots after they flash.... one old cowboy out near the Roost told me it's because the snakes get caught in the floods and get washed into the slots. I tend to believe this because we did Not Mindbender the day after it flashed big time and found about a dozen rattlesnakes spread through the slot.

We have always been able to avoid the snakes. I've heard some people say you can take your shirt off and cover the snake, which will clam them so you can get by.... I've never tried it but would give it a whirl if I had not other options.