So Brigid and I did a long weekend - Thursday to Sunday, in Jim Thorpe PA. which is in the Lehigh Valley and on the edge of the Poconos.
Saturday we did a 3.6 mile hike on the Tank Hollow Trail, north of the town. Nice easy to moderate hike ending in a lovely view of the Lehigh Gorge. We knew from comments on the AllTrails website that rattlesnakes regularly sun themselves on the rocky outcrop you stand on for the view. And as we hiked in, one man leaving and a couple also leaving said there was a rattler and a black snake (looks formidable but harmless) at the outcrop. And before we got to the outcrop we came across this guy - a garter snake - size comparison (he/she was small) you can see the tip of my trekking pole -
a few minutes later we arrived at the outcrop for the wonderful view and after a bit of scrambling I took this picture. Brigid is just out of view to the
right.
And when I turned around, about six feet behind me, curled up partially sheltered by a ledge, was the rattlesnake having a snooze. I took several pictures, and this shows the trekking pole, again to give an idea about the size. I think he was over two feet long - maybe close to three.
Just to confirm he's a rattlesnake, here's a view of the rattle.
After a few minutes gawking at the rattlesnake I looked up and there under another ledge about 20 feet away and between Brigid and myself was the blacksnake!
So three snakes in 15 minutes. I have seen many black snakes in the Hudson Valley but this is only the second time I'd seen a rattle snake - the first time while hiking upstate with the Gagnon family a number of years ago. Rural Pennsylvanians seem pretty blase about rattlers; they talk about them the way we might talk about squirrels. Evidently they (the rattlers not the Pennsylvanians) are docile, but don't inadvertently step on one - so say the Pennsylvanians....
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