As I was riding my bike today on the Hawknest Trail at Brown’s Ranch, I encountered this massive diamondback rattlesnake!! This guy was at least 5 feet long and his width at the widest point was quite a bit wider than my mountain bike tires!! He must eat javelina for breakfast to grow to be so large!! He covered the whole trail and there was no room to go around him. He seemed quite content to enjoy laying in the sun. After taking his photo with my cellular phone, I started tossing rocks around him to get him to move off the trail. He did not seem to care or react. Another mountain biker came from the other direction and we both started tossing rocks to get him to move. He was simply not interested! Finally, the other biker found a branch and started moving it on the ground and walked toward the snake. The snake did not like that and slowly moved off the trail. He never made a rattling sound despite all his rattles. Also, he never coiled up in striking position. He was a slowpoke moving off the trail. Once he moved off the trail we could continue riding our bikes. I peddled as hard as I could to go quickly by the snake because he was only a few feet off the trail. He just watched us ride down the trail and was not aggressive toward us. I am just glad that I saw him in time and could easily stop before getting too close!!
Fiesta on Wheels 