Hammersley Fork Backpacking - Best Time of Year?

[Swattie87]

This is sooo true. That's why you want to do your best to fish it on a weekday.

As far as the rattlers go, like Swattie said, the Hammersley is where I've had the bulk of my encounters with them over the years. Also as mentioned, pay extra attention while walking through those ferns, they love that enviornment. Really, the only chance of a strike though, would be if you step on one. They are that docile. Those ferns still give the heebie-jeebies. 🙂

Salmonoid has a great picture of one he almost stepped on, tucked into tall ferns. Maybe he’ll see this and post it again. Not Hammersley, but a similar wilderness setting stream with a similar degree of remoteness from roads. (I’m not going to name it for obvious reasons, but I know it’s a stream and watershed you fish Jeff, and one we talk about often in PM’s. The one I said recently was my least favorite hike out of any stream I fish, due to the high ferns and lack of a reliable trail system. I’ve never seen a Rattler there, but that place gives me the creeps worse than Hammersley.)

 

[jifigz]

Salmonoid has a great picture of one he almost stepped on, tucked into tall ferns. Maybe he’ll see this and post it again. Not Hammersley, but a similar wilderness setting stream with a similar degree of remoteness from roads. (I’m not going to name it for obvious reasons, but I know it’s a stream and watershed you fish Jeff, and one we talk about often in PM’s. The one I said recently was my least favorite hike out of any stream I fish, due to the high ferns and lack of a reliable trail system. I’ve never seen a Rattler there, but that place gives me the creeps worse than Hammersley.)

Dude, I have nearly stepped on rattlers when walking the Mid-State Trail through Huntingdon/Mifflin Counties, the Eagleton Mine Camp Trail in Clinton County, the Old Logger's Path in Potter County, and just while bush whacking in Potter County. I generally don't see them while fishing, but HopBack and I ran into one in Perry County while searching for a stream, too. The one on the mid-state didn't rattle or do anything, and I would have stepped on it. I caught a glimpse of it at the very last second and somehow reacted and never touched it, but the snake never moved.

Encounters where I have seen them and been nowhere near stepping on them are so numerous that I can't even count.

 

[wildtrout2]

Dude, I have nearly stepped on rattlers when walking the Mid-State Trail through Huntingdon/Mifflin Counties, the Eagleton Mine Camp Trail in Clinton County, the Old Logger's Path in Potter County, and just while bush whacking in Potter County. I generally don't see them while fishing, but HopBack and I ran into one in Perry County while searching for a stream, too. The one on the mid-state didn't rattle or do anything, and I would have stepped on it. I caught a glimpse of it at the very last second and somehow reacted and never touched it, but the snake never moved.

Encounters where I have seen them and been nowhere near stepping on them are so numerous that I can't even count.

Of the rattlers I've encountered, only one rattled. I was going up a very steep powerline in Carbon county, which Swattie is more than familure with. I had hiked up and down this powerline no less than 40 times over the years, and always wondered why I'd never seen one, because it just looked like that kind of habitat.
Then, one day maybe four/five years ago, I was almost to the top of that line when I heard that unmistakable sound. I immediately stopped, just in time to see the tail end of a black phase slithering into the thick blueberry brush (IMO as bad as ferns). I would have stepped on him had he not rattled, because he was two feet in front of me.

This is one I came upon just above Cow Run on the Hammersley. It was a rare opportunity to get a good pic, because sightings are usually short lived.

Matt, I know the stream you mentioned earlier, it doesn't get much more remote than that!

 

[albatross]

The more aggressive Western variety. Scary!