[cva66snipe]

I used to monitor the Smoky Mountain National Park rangers radio. I heard about a confirmed Copperhead bite at about 3000 feet up the mountain. Rattlers are there all the way up to the top. Copperheads can take the cold winters here. All the charts I've seen on Cottonmouths show them being in middle to western end of the state where it's flat country just like it shows them being on costal southern Virginia and south.

We sit between two major mountain ranges the Apalachians and Cumberlands with plenty of high ridges and smaller mountain ranges in between. My land goes from about 980 ft to nealy 1300 ft on 28 acres. IOW steep. Some of the creeks are so cold they will support trout. That is the main reason this region isn't suitable for Cottonmouths. If I saw one here I would highly suspect it was one somebody has turned loose. The same with the ocassional Gator spottings :>} http://epaper.tfponline.com/WebChannel/ShowStory.asp?Path=ChatTFPress/2007/03/14&ID=Ar00102

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I knew ol’tattletail would be up that high but that was

in SoCal,,,

As flat as it is around here when we get high water

(like it’s doin’ now)

It drives Everything out of the bottoms to high ground

including them damned Fire Ants...