Once bitten twice shy....so twice bitten...4 times shy? That sucks!Not much to do with this thread but hired a guide for the Deschutes a few years ago in early May. Great guide and good dude. Hired out of main shop there in Maupin. Anyways. We are doing some bushwhacking to rivers edge to get some access…: after a few trips to the river’s edge he tells us about a client they had a year before who was bitten by a rattlesnake doing what we were doing. the dude had to be rushed to the hospital and alll and turned out okay. Apparently several months later the same dude in the fall season sits down by a log to have some lunch and gets tagged by a rattler in the groin. He survived but another hospital trip. We were so paranoid after that story and moved so cautiously around the river. If true horrible!
The D is snakey for sure! I sat down on 2 railroad ties that were criss crossed. Made for a great seat. It was right next to that big rock across from the locked gate. I'm sitting there and my buddy says "Don't move". I knew exactly why he said that and sprung up faster than I ever have. Luckily, the rattler just sat there until we chased him away.
The D is the only place I've had a rattler go right over my foot. I was crossing down a steep hill and he went from the high side right over my right wading boot and down the hill! Luckily he was just trying to get the hell outta there! We were both scared! Probably the biggest rattler I've seen at the D.
And just upstream from the rock, on that side of the river, I had a bull snake stand me up in the trail. He was a huge one and he wasn't gonna back down. I literally had to go around. Haha! Thank God rattlers don't do that!



