So this was interesting. We were hiking Green Mountain, which peaks at about 8000 ft. About 3/4th of the way there I stopped to looked back on Stefan who was behind us on the trail. Saw that a large snake, at the time thought to be a rattlesnake, was 2ft beside him, just off the trail, and Stefan was moving toward it. In a split second I thought a) do I run down there and grab Stefan away or would that scare the snake, b) do I tell him to freeze, or c) do I tell him to move up to me now. Option C worked, and at least Stefan listened this time. I made sure not to scare him in my tone because I did not want to freak him out forever on snakes. When all was safe I got the camera from Nadya and we went back down to have a "relaxed" look (he was not coiled). You will note that Nadya and I were above Stefan on the trail, which meant we passed right by the snake without even noticing. Funny thing, fear never crept in even after the event was over.
