Ok, story time.
When I was a kid, we caught snakes just because, well, we were boys. It quickly became a competition to see who could catch the most dangerous snake. We had Swamp Rattlers and Timber Rattlers around and had varying degrees of success with those. We'd pin them down with nets, or if you were quick, with a forked stick, grab them, study them in detail, show everyone, and then fling them into the tall grass and run like hell, get on your bike and ride away. Until... vacationing down south, I learned of... water moccasins.
Well, I thought, that'd pretty much take the cake, right there. I'd be untouchable if I showed back up with a Water Moccasin. We'd never heard of them before, and they were apparently venomous, so I was determined to catch one. Well. Let me tell you. I swam out there many times hoping to see one, but the one time I did in fact find them, and was close enough to see what I was nearing... that was the last time I went in that lake. That moment is forever burned into my mind, as is the heart-dropping frozen panic and terror.
There you are, up to your knees in muck and chest-deep water. You can barely pull your feet through the spongy weedy silty lakebed. And then you see it. You don't dare make a ripple. The adrenaline surges, and your senses redline, as you try to detect if the surrounding water is carrying your body heat off and in which direction. Because there, 40 feet in front of you, is a writhing ball of... tails... on the surface. ...and long black bodies everywhere below it.
As it turns out, water moccasins will tie themselves into a ball at the surface. Then they let their heads dangle down and out in all directions, like a neutrally bouyant, huge, poisonous, medusa head, but much, much worse. When a fish, bullfrog, bird, or unlucky bastard gets close enough, the nearest snake uses the ball to lunge off from, and strikes with great speed and deadly venom. The rest of the group instantly unwinds and joins in the attack, carrying the prey down. The water boils, the sorry prey is simultaneously poisoned, drowned, torn apart and devoured.
I didn't capture a water moccasin. But they did make me appreciate how manageable every other species of snake is in comparison.
...and yeah, I've been told over the years that they don't ball. But you'll never convince me after that.
...not great. I have this irrational fear of $H!t that can kill me so I tend to not solo Mtn. Bike all that much...every time I have, I've seen Mt. Lion, Snake, Bobcat, Crazy Dude talking to themselves (might have been on hands-free cellphone in Peters Canyon).
