Posted on 03/28/2026 2:10:29 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
The woman, identified as 46-year-old Gabriela Bautista, is the second person to suffer a fatal bite in recent weeks.
A 46-year-old hiker died after a rattlesnake bit her on a popular Southern California hiking trail, the area’s second death by snakebite this year, authorities say. Gabriela Bautista was hiking at Wildwood Regional Park, a popular area near Thousand Oaks with 17 miles of trail, when she suffered a bite on March 14 at about 11:40 a.m., Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd told the Thousand Oaks Acorn. Emergency services airlifted Bautista to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she died on March 19. While the incident occurred earlier this month, it had not been publicly reported until this week.
Bautista’s death came just weeks after another fatal snake encounter in Southern California. On February 1, Julian Hernandez, 25, was mountain biking near Irvine. He stopped to adjust his shoe when he lost his balance and fell into some brush, where a rattlesnake apparently bit him, the Irvine Police Department told Los Angeles’s ABC7. While Orange County firefighters rushed Hernandez to the hospital, he died just over a month later on March 4.
A warm winter and spring across much of the western United States may be contributing to higher-than-usual rattlesnake activity. Dowd told Los Angeles’s KTLA that in 2025 the department recorded 9 rattlesnake-related calls, and that since March 14 alone, it had responded to 4. Following the bites, San Bernardino National Forest issued an alert warning visitors of rattlesnakes in the area.
Deaths by snakebite are extremely rare in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7,000 to 8,000 people suffer venomous snakebites every year, with only 5 or so dying as a result. In August of 2025, a hiker died from an allergic reaction to a rattlesnake bite in Tennessee’s Savage Gulf State Park. Authorities later said they believed that the hiker had picked up the snake, possibly in an attempt to move it.
When we lived in Simi Valley (adjacent to Thousand Oaks), we had rattlesnakes in our yard often. [Shudder]
People cain’t say they wasn’t warned.
Often snipe hunters never made it back to camp. When they did they’d be plum tuckered out running their dangest to stay ahead of those hoop snakes.
Jump over a snake?!
Not a good idea.
Rattlesnakes move very slowly, like 1 mi/hour, but can snap and ambush very fast!
They ambush to 2/3 of their length, even backwards.
So the safest way is to walk around it in wide circle.
They really attack only in self defense.
Like all snakes, they cannot bite off food, so they have to swallow their prey whole.
And we are just to big a bite for them!
On “Spin and Marty” the snipe hunters always came back.
Thanks for the laughs.
I grew up in and hunted in snake country.
I had pet snakes.
My attitude is any snake I come across in
the wild that doesn’t try to get
away or displays any sign of attack,
gets dead. They have lots of babies,
we won’t run out of snakes. A dead
adult leaves more food for the babies.
Rattlesnake bite is VERY expensive.
The serum costs like $5,000 for a pop and you need on average about 20 of them.
So an average rattlesnake bite set you back like $100,000 or so.
You can buy cheap kit on Amazon, but it does not really work!
Do NOT rely on those!
Incorrect.. it’s about 1/3 to 1/2 their body distance.
Bless ‘em.
I just realized, were you talking about whiskey?
I have seen several Western Diamondbacks from safe distance, but I had very scary close encounter with Arizona Black Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus). Rattling and loudly hissing, just next to me.
That one is smaller (< 3ft), little bit less aggressive and little bit less poisonous.
It scared a s**t out of me anyway!
I was far away from civilization in AZ woods, no phone signal.
I do not know if I could make it out of there alive?
Note: Urinating on the bite doesn’t help. That’s with jellyfish. In the latest Anaconda movie, they urinate on the snake bite. Stupid movie.
Bourbon to be exact.
I entirely missed that earlier, I make a lot of dry humor posts myself but I sure missed that one.
New iPhones have satellite comms if you have no cellular signal. I carry a Garmin InReach Mini with me when I’m out of cellular range. It has an “SOS” button on it that communicates to a Garmin center and they contact you for info, then dispatch Search & Rescue. It can still take some time for S&R to get to you depending where you are.
That young woman died on the mountain in New York State in January. She had fallen, called on her phone at 2 pm, S&R was dispatched and, when they found her at 9 pm, she had frozen to death.
“New iPhones have satellite comms”
So do Samsungs.
T-Mobile has a subscription program where you can use apps for remote country outings.
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