May 20, 2013—Hilltromper and Co. headed up to Nisene Marks yesterday for the park's 50th anniversary celebration. It was great—lots of happy people, the dedication of a very cool wheelchair-accessible trail near the main kiosk and old photos everywhere showing remarkable scenes from the forest's history. (A lake formed there once after a massive landslide. Who knew?) All in all, the Advocates of the Forest of Nisene Marks put on a fine party.
There were even surprises. We expected barbecue (it was delicious). We expected a lumberjack demonstration (missed the action but saw the shingles and split-rail fence they whipped out). But we definitely did not expect a rattlesnake whisperer.
Steve Liebenberg, a San Lorenzo Valley lumberjack and the guy behind Liebenberg Tree Service and Lumber Manufacturing, was persuaded to bring out his basket full of rattlesnakes for a little show and tell. Liebenberg has apparently become the unofficial county fixer of bad snake situations. He gets called upon to pull rattlesnakes out of basements, municipal dumps, yards—anywhere an unwelcome rattlesnake sets up housekeeping. Here's the unusual thing: Liebenberg says he gets attached to some of them. So he just keeps them—hence this remarkable encounter with Leo, Trigger and Skye.
They're not defanged or devenomed. And yes, he's been bitten — a lot ("like being stung by a 10-inch bee," he grins). One bite 40 years ago dissolved the cartilage in his right forefinger. But if you handle them right, he says, snakes are curious and maybe even kind of affectionate. Trigger, the once-hostile rattler in the video below, was very uptight, all hisses and rattles, until he saw the other snakes being handled without incident. "Then one day," says Liebenberg, "he just crawled up in my arms."
READ MORE:
Nisene Marks: Hoffman's Historic Site
Nisene Marks Big Loop to West Trail Camp
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