RandiRA,
I've been following your report, and you write with such a fun sense of humor. . .even the bad stuff. Geez, I can't even imagine getting off to a start like that! What a crazy deal.

Loved your "dog section" story. . "there in the dog section". . .with the hippies. . .
LOL!

Thanks for sharing it all. . .I like the POSSIBILITY of seeing snakes. . .and love to see them safely when I know just where they are. We were reminded while at Rancho Naturalista not to putting our hands near vegetation (eye lash viper danger). The warning was to me when I innocently reached out to take a delicious looking raspberry from a raspberry plant. We just aren't used to thinking along those lines!

Looking forward to the rest. .

Tully,

I certainly would recommend Rainmaker Reserve to anyone in the MA area.
It's the only hanging bridge experience for us so I don't have anything to compare it to, but loved it.
Beautiful landscape and dramatic topography. I have great admiration for the workers that hacked their way up that mountainside, with bags of cement on the their backs, heavy cable, rope and wood, to build those high steps and bridges. It all felt very "Indiana Jones", walking across many narrow, swinging walkways, hundreds of feet above a lush gorge, rushing waterfall and ocean in the distance, each bridge becoming longer and higher than the one before.

After all the snake anticipation we only saw two tiny vipers, but they were the poisonous variety so we got our little adrenaline rush. Can't say I'm a big snake person, even though they are an important and colorful part of CR. One was curled up on the hand railing and blended in so well that we would never have seen it without the eyes of our guide. It looked like a bit of moss. After that I was very careful about where I put my hands & was glad they'd provided us with walking sticks.

It was all great.
Randi