Another cottonmouth encounter

I saw another snake, perhaps the same cottonmouth as in my recent picture, on the creek bank. He was about the same size and only about 100 yards away. This time he was lying in a small drainage close to my cabin, beneath the foot- plank that I use to cross the stream. It made him nervous when I stepped one foot down onto the footbridge… he reared his head and opened his mouth in his threat display. It worked, too. Seeing that white maw, which gives cottonmouths their name, upsets me… I backed off; it was too close for comfort. He didn’t seem to like my company, either; and slithered off into a hole, allowing me to cross the bridge. Seeing so many snakes certainly keeps me attentive to where I am stepping. Mid- afternoon, I hiked to a high point on Hickory Ridge to get a cell phone signal and check my messages. I took a round- about route back to camp and within 50 yards of that same footbridge, there was a cottonmouth in the trail. Now, I needed to come down off the ridge and that trail was the only reasonable way. The snake was headed up and I was headed down, and we sorta found ourselves at an impasse. I took another quick step toward him and tried to appear as big and as bad as possible… my aggressive, threat- mode. Well, it got his attention and made him nervous, but it was counterproductive, as he held his ground and assumed his own aggressive threat- mode. My adrenaline was pumping, but he wasn’t getting the best of me! I was armed with a hiking staff and a revolver, and I fully intended to come down that trail. I flailed the ground and stirred the leaves with my staff and finally got the snake moving, but he only went up on the bank about shoulder- high and within striking distance of the trail… not good enough! But I could reach that position with my staff, so I goaded him a little. He wagged his tail and gaped his mouth and coiled up; he was getting mad now. This cottonmouth was difficult to convince, but I kept poking him, and he reared his head and gaped his white mouth, and hid under the weeds, and let out a terrible stink. Finally, he moved on off and let me pass. I’m a little uncomfortable about having a poisonous snake hanging around so close to my cabin, but I killed too many of them when I was a kid. They had me believing that all snakes were vermin to be exterminated, and I was very efficient with my pellet- gun. I came to regret that eventually, and don’t like to bother snakes if they don’t bother me. This guy is showing up too often, though. On the other hand, maybe I would like to propagate his non- aggressive genes… he was slow to anger, didn’t come forward to attack, and didn’t strike when I was poking him. We'll see.... Here's an interesting link I found about cottonmouths.