Rattlesnakes in CT ?

Backpacker magazine has a section at the end called Waypoints. They have these little tear out cards (wallet size) with brief descriptions of hikes. In the past 2 issues, when mentioning the Sages Ravine/Bear Mt/Mt Frissel area, they say "Caution:Watch for rattlesnakes".

Is this for real?

I encountered timber rattler along the AT in Connecticut a few years ago... but can't remember exactly where at this point.

- Ivy

Yes, that's correct. I have seen rattlesnakes along the South Taconic Trail just south of Bash Bish Falls.
There are actually alot of places in the Hudson Valley & nearby Fairfield CT where rattlesnakes den.

Massachusetts

Rattlers are not unusual on the Mass AT on the southern plateau between Jug End and Sage's Ravine. I know of one recent sighting at the Tom Leonard shelter 11 miles north of Jug End, but nothing north of there. There are stories from some years back of rattlers in the Blue Hills just outside Boston.

"Landscape with Reptile," by Thomas Palmer (1992, Ticknor and Fields), is a wonderful book about timber rattlers in the Blue Hills of Massachusetts. Outside magazine published a chapter once - about a theoretical snakebite victim and his slow inexorable progress towards horrible death.

Barbara McMartin's book, "Discover the Northeastern Adirondacks," describes hiking on Split Rock Mountain on the shores of Lake Champlain. Ledges on Big Snake Bay (aka Snake Den Harbor) have a rattler population. She even cautions against bringing kids and dogs there.

Two summers ago I arrived at the summit of Alander with my little dog on leash. Two hikers, also with a dog, warned me to keep him on lead, they had just seen a rattler on their way up.
Got home to read they had airlifted a hiker off of nearby Bear Mt. that very afternoon after a rattler bite.
So yes, it's very true.