I'm glad this thread's still going. Lots of interesting stories here. Here's (one of) mine.
Back in the 70's, 3 of us were doing a back-country patrol of Grand Canyon's North Bass Trail. It's a really rugged trail and inner-canyon temperatures soar over 100 every day, so we usually wore shorts on foot patrol.
Ranger Jim King was the most experienced of us and was in the lead when he stepped over a small rock ledge. Well, there was a big ol' Western Diamondback resting under the ledge that apparently didn't like Jim's leg blocking his view. The rattler sunk both fangs into Jim's calf muscle, which of course caused Jim to take off running. Bad idea, as the snake couldn't let go
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It wasn't funny at the time, but recalling the sight of Jim running 15-20 feet with this big snake flopping along behind, hanging onto Jim's leg still makes me chuckle.
We were about 2 days out, so we had to radio for the park helicopter to medivac him out. It sounds serious, but he ended up with nothing more than a sore leg as it was a dry bite, no venom injected. I think the snake was too surprised to think about venom.
Given that it had a happy ending, we ribbed Jim about that sight for months afterward
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