California Dog Hiking Danger – In the Danger Zone

Today about 10:30AM at Mission Trails Regional Park I saw the third rattlesnake for this year.  Hiking with my two Airedale Terriers here in San Diego, seeing rattlesnakes on the trails is common. The first on I saw was on the Barker Way Trail on Cowles Mountain, the second one was on the walking path around Lake Murray. So, today’s sighting was not unexpected. But, today, I made an almost fatal mistake that could have taken out one or both of my dogs.

California Dog Hiking Danger

Annie & Teddy Larger Airedale Terriers

Moving over on the trail to let people pass and especially people with other dogs go by, is pretty much standard operating procedure. But, today, instead of usually stopping until the other hikers go by, I kept on walking down the trail. But worst of all, perhaps just out of carelessness, I was distracted from my usually scanning the sides of the trail ahead of me as I always do to avoid just a situation that was about to happen. Yes, I was looking at the three gentlemen coming by, instead of scanning the trail ahead of us. This was only a momentary distraction, but combined with the fact that I kept on walking down the trail when I usually stop for people passing by almost ended in tragedy.

As I said, I was just momentarily distracted by looking at the gentleman coming by us, who are now within approximately just a few feet of passing by, when I turned and looked back at the trail in front of us, my heart took a beat, because both dogs and myself were well within striking distance of what I approximate to be about a 15 inch long Western diamondback rattlesnake.

The adrenaline rush was instantaneous, and I jerked back on both leashes as hard as I could, while taking a step or two backwards. Both of my Airedales, which weight about 65 and 75 pounds, never even noticed the snake because it was perfectly still. The action of my stepping back and yanking the dogs, was obviously a very strange site, as the first of the three gentlemen coming up the trail, the one closest to us, immediately asked if I was all right. He did not see the snake, and thought that I had had a heart attack or some type of seizure. Just as the gentleman finishes question, he immediately noticed the snake and asked if it was a rattlesnake.

The photo at the beginning of this article is of the snake we encountered after we were at a safe distance. I drew a yellow arrow on the photo showing the imprint of my shoe, that’s how close I was, and the dogs were even closer as they were right on my right side.

So what’s the take away from this article? Went hiking with your dogs in Southern California or any areas where there are rattlesnakes, always scan the trail in front of you especially at the sides of the trails you can if you have dogs, don’t just keep on walking by people coming the other direction, but stop walking until they pass you.

I see so many people on the trails not only with their dogs but with very young children that walk ahead of them by 6 to 10 feet. Obviously, even though there are many signs warning about rattlesnakes, I would say the vast majority of the public did not realize how prevalent they are in Southern California.

I’m certainly not a snake expert, but I’ve never seen a rattlesnake rattle or strike, unless they are first coiled. As the snake we ran into today, was obviously sunning itself, this could have been a factor that contributed to me writing this story from my home rather than the ER.

Here are a few other of our rattlesnake encounters here in San Diego:

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He is swift, formidable, graceful, big of brain, an ideal chum and guard. ….To his master he is an adoring pal. To marauders he is a destructive lightning bolt.”

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Our Airedale Terrier Youtube channel.

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