A woman was airlifted to a hospital earlier today after a rattlesnake bit her as she was hiking out of the Crooked River Canyon near Crooked River Ranch.
“She put her hand on a rock to climb on up and it got her," said Tim McLaren, chief of Crooked River Ranch Fire and Rescue.
The woman was one of four on a hike along the Scout Camp Trail, he said. The group had hiked about a mile and a half to the river and was headed out of the canyon when the snake bit the woman around 11 a.m.
The woman was bit on her right index finger, McLaren said. She then grabbed the snake and flung it.
Before the strike the woman didn’t hear or see the snake, he said.
“He was probably just sunning himself on the rocks," McLaren said.
A team of seven from Crooked River Ranch Fire and Rescue hiked down into the canyon to tend to the injured woman, McLaren said. They moved her about a quarter mile to a plateau where a LifeFlight helicopter picked her up and carried her to St. Charles Bend.
