Simply take care where hands and feet are placed, especially in rocky places and near logs. A walking stick is helpful for getting through thick overgrowth. Never walk at night without a flashlight. In fall and spring, snakes crawl to and from and concentrate around communal dens where they hibernate during the cold months. By the first serious frost, most snakes are underground.
Timber rattlers come in both yellow and black colorations.
Copperheads, the only other potentially dangerous snakes in the mountains, are more difficult to see in the leaves. Fortunately, they are more rarely encountered in the higher mountains. In serious snake-bite cases, consider staying put and calling for evacuation by helicopter or by local search and rescue teams. Electricity appears to destroy most venoms. In summary, plan ahead so that you are wellequipped and prepared to deal with the expected, as well as the unexpected.