I'm smiling in this picture ... indication that it was taken BEFORE our snake encounter and Indiana Jones moment.

From the guide books we knew we had one final, cold swim at the end of the canyon and we weren't looking forward to it (the water was much colder than in the Subway or Mystery Canyon). We arrived at the final swim to find a deep, narrow channel to swim through. Steve was in front of me and when he got in the water I hear him say "I hope that snake is dead. I hope that snake is dead. Ohhh, he's not dead!". I looked over his shoulder and saw the snake perk up and start slithering our way. So we got back out and watched as the snake uncoiled to his full length and came to the surface -- all 2-3 feet of him. Yikes! We were hoping he would slither on out and up the canyon, but no such luck. He was just hanging out where we were supposed to get in. The channel was so narrow there was no way to avoid him and because we couldn't touch the bottom, he would've been right by our heads. Um, yea, NOT a happy camper! So after standing there a bit we decided to try and chimney over him and drop into the water. Steve made it over and I was having a harder time with the slick canyon shoes on the smooth walls. I did make it over the sanke and then I slipped and fell in the water. I was pushing at Steve in front of me and hollering for him to go. The snake had looked up, but didn't come our way, so we were fine. But man, I did not like that one bit!

There were two guys ahead of us in the canyon and when we got back to our car they had left us a note: "Got snake? From the boys who screamed in the canyon". :)