[Dusty Road]

Hate to bust your bubble but East Texas has a large population of Timber Rattlers. Listed with Texas Parks and Wildlife as a protected species. They range from East Texas all the way to the east coast, don’t know how far North they range but it might be surprising. We have 10 different species of Rattler here in Texas with Timbers being one.

[Flycatcher]

Thanks for the range map update. You are correct. I had heard they were going to split the species into the northern timber and southern canebrake, but apparently the split has not occurred.

I've only seen one true timber rattler and that was in the Great Smokies. Beautiful snake.

[buffaloguy]

“Hate to bust your bubble but East Texas has a large population of Timber Rattlers.”

I had forgotten about that. The rural county I lived in specified one of the rattlers as endangered and when I found that out my reaction was “Wait, What?”.

I lived in Missouri for many years and the timber rattlers are thick. Fortunately they are not aggressive.

The best advice I can give is the SOP for Missouri:

Most all snakebites are below the ankle, therefor:

Where hiking boots and make noise with your feet as you walk around. I can’t remember how many rattlers I spotted running from me when I walked loudly through the forest, especially at night.