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Another snake story.
I was 17 years old, and hiking in the Grand Canyon with my family. We were all broken up and spread out, but I was with my brother. It had been a long day, and we were down in the bottom of the canyon, where the walls close in and there isn't much to see. So I was getting a little tired and the hike was turning more into a trudge. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other, moving along at a constant pace, not really paying attention.
I was broken out of my daze by a familiar sound from the movies and TV. You all know it. I instinctively stopped cold. So did my brother. My brain processed the sound just as my eyed rested on the rattlesnake. It was all coiled up and rattling like crazy, not much more than 5-6 feet away.
We both jumped way back pretty quickly. The snake held its ground.
After a while of standing there, and looking at the snake, which wasn't moving, we started to get annoyed. The trail was bordered on each side by very thick cactus growth. And there were cliffs, one going up, and one going down, 20 feet or so beyond the cactus on each side. Basically, there was no way to get around.
My brother told me not to, but I picked up a bunch of small rocks and started throwing them at the snake. I didn't try to hit it, just scare it. It finally slithered into the thick cactus growth by the side of the trail. I threw a few more for about 5-10 minutes after that into the cactus where we had seen it. Then we quickly walked past that area where the snake had been. I half expected it to strike us as we walked past, but it didn't.
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