I just got back from a run on the trails.
This sign is at the trailhead:
I knew I wouldn’t be lucky enough to see coyotes because I didn’t get out there until about 8:00 when they’d already be on people-alert. I did, however, see and hear many birds. Western meadowlarks, orioles, and magpies. I also saw a friend and her dog.
A few minutes after passing my friend, I was on a downhill. Running “fast.” And I heard a LOUD hissing, rattling sound off to the left of the trail.
I startled, kind of screamed, did a little side-hop, and kept running. But it wasn’t until I’d taken a bunch more steps that my brain made the connection: rattlesnake. And then my first thought was:
How many times before I hear that sound
and know it’s a snake,
and NOT lawn sprinklers turning on?
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. ~ Aristotle
Tracy Abell 
My husband and I once encountered a rattler that coiled up right in the middle of a trail we were hiking. (I ended up using a slightly fictionalized version of the incident in my 3rd novel!)
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Did you startle and scream? Or were you cool and collected? I seem to shriek at least once every run, whether it’s due to startle or hooking a toe and almost falling, etc.
That’s very cool you used your rattlesnake encounter in your book! I love when I can do that.
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I froze, which is my usual response to danger!
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Freezing is WAY closer to cool than shrieking!
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