content: Here, where I live in California, they're prevalent on hiking paths. I exercise my dog by attaching a harness to my bike and letting him go nuts. Because we use dirt paths near some brush, we've come up on a few snakes before. Even if you're just hiking, one could reach out from the brush as you pass by if your vigilance lapses. If my dog and I come across one on one of our runs, we pretty much take the widest possible path around it.