Frenchman Coulee — Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015

Central Washington > Potholes Region

There's a reason no one seems to hike here in the summer. First there's the part about it being inhumanely hot by 8:30am, and then there are the rattlesnakes. We'd come down the night before to catch the Perseids in those clear, eastern Washington skies, intending to camp at Echo Basin just up the road from the trailhead here and then explore this hike in the morning. But last minute we diverted to the Sand Hollow campground south of the bridge where there is camping right along the river/lake (this section of the Columbia is more like a lake between the Wanapum and Rock Island dams). Just after sunset, walking back to the car from our camp spot, the dogs both suddenly jumped, and I heard an unmistakable rattle. Before the dogs could get curious, I gave them a "Leave It" so loud they jumped back a second time. The small snake was just to the side of the path (by some picnic tables!), coiled into the size of a softball and rattling for all it was worth, seemingly as frightened as we'd been. I looked the dogs over carefully and am genuinely grateful to that snake for not taking it beyond rattling. No more trips to the car at dusk, and our enthusiasm for hiking in the dessert was dampened, but the meteors were awesome! The next morning, we drove over for a look at the Frenchman Coulee area. Still spooked by the rattlesnake run-in, I opted against the hike with two dogs but always appreciate a look at the 14-15 million year old basalt lava formations which are among the biggest in the world. Not surprisingly, the waterfall is looking sparse. While chatting with a ranger and relaying the rattlesnake encounter, he said that this has been a bad year for them and that the park rangers had just met about several nests that were recently discovered in one of the camping spots at Echo Basin. Nothing is posted yet, but it's one of the better positioned spots where we've camped in previous years, up the hill from the other road-side areas, well above the bathrooms and behind the big rock formation, so more secluded than the rest of the campground. This year, less optimal -- heads-up. And now my continuing education on helping the dog Survive The Hazards of Nature includes rattlesnakes. While encounters, never mind bites, are rare, it's good to know stuff, and maybe some of you will find this useful. A lot of the commonly held snake-bite treatments are no longer recommended and are either of no benefit or actually harmful. So, if a human or dog is bit, do NOT: tie a tourniquet (it is more likely to lead to an amputation), try to suck out the venom (not effective), mess with any of the snake bite kits (they are mostly about trying to suction out venom which is not considered effective), lance the bite in any way (only increases odds of infection), nor try to catch the snake for identification (seriously). What is currently recommended is to keep the person or dog as still as possible and ideally have them carried back to the car. Keep the bite below their heart, flush it with clean water and apply an antibacterial. It's a great idea to carry Benadryl in your first-aid kit anyway, and here it's the primary recommended first-aid: normal adult dose for humans, and a dose of 2mg/lb for dogs (this is specific for venomous snake bites and double the normal dose for dogs of 1mg/lb but still safe. For dogs, this may be the most critical part of the treatment and potentially life-saving. To be safe for dogs, you want to carry only the one-ingredient Benadryl, no additives. Any generic is fine as long as there's only the one ingredient: Diphenhydramine.) If the bite is on a limb, wrap a light compression bandage above the bite -- again, not a tourniquet, but loose enough to easily slip a finger under. The idea is to just slow the progression of the venom. Evidently snake bites hurt like a sonofabitch, so if you don't already anyway, you might consider carrying aspirin for your dog and something stronger for humans. (Never give dogs tylenol, advil, or any of the generic equivalents. Only aspirin or a canine-specific pain killer. Same as for the human variety, I save a few pain-killers from prescription events to keep in my first-aid kit. Especially good is Tramadol which is an opiate safe for both dogs and humans.) And get them to a hospital/vet as soon as possible. I had the numbers of emergency vets in Ellensburg and Yakima on my phone and am grateful to have not needed them. This is an amazing area and well worth exploring, just maybe not with dogs in the middle of summer. Another time! Some pretty good imagery and info on the local geology to be had here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssy_UDPAOZ8