It’s spring and that means rattlesnakes are out in the San Luis Valley - something a trail runner discovered the hard way when he was bit in Del Norte recently.

Tres Binkley, 35, was running down Lookout Mountain April 25 when he felt a sharp poke on his ankle. The Texas native was in the valley visiting his girlfriend.

“I thought I got poked by something, looked down and I’d probably taken a few strides and I immediately noticed it was more than a thorn or cactus. I was pretty sure I’d been bitten by a rattlesnake but there was no way to know at that moment,” he said. He was off-trail in rugged terrain and never saw the snake or heard a warning rattle.

He knew snake bite victims are supposed to remain still to prevent the venom from spreading but didn’t have a phone to call for help, so he ran to a gas station and found a forest ranger to give him a ride to Rio Grande Hospital. He said adrenaline got him that far, but the sight of his rapidly swelling leg and the reality of the situation sent him into shock.

He has since learned that about a third of rattlesnake bites are dry bites, meaning no venom is injected. He was not so lucky.

“They pretty much told me right  there and then that I would have to be flown somewhere because they don’t have the anti-venom here in Del Norte,” he said. Within an hour of the bite he was being airlifted to Durango.

Hospital CEO Arlene Harms said privacy laws prohibit her from discussing the incident but the facility does keep anti-venom in stock.

“RGH stocks initial emergency doses of anti-venom to administer to Emergency Department patients.  However, because rattlesnake bites typically require additional follow-up anti-venom therapy, and both the snake venom and the anti-venom can result in serious and even life-threatening allergic reactions and complications requiring a higher level of care, it is common for small, rural hospitals to urgently transfer snake bite patients to hospitals with higher levels of care and the specialized capabilities to manage such reactions and complications that are not available at small, rural hospitals,” she wrote in an email.

Rattlesnakes are the only venomous snake native to Colorado, and the western side of the Valley is home to a healthy population. The venom is a powerful neurotoxin. Bites can be fatal but 99 percent of victims survive if treated within the first two hours.

Binkley’s leg eventually swelled all the way to the hip as doctors administered anti-venom every six hours. He was hospitalized for four days.

Recovering in Del Norte a week later, he was still in immense pain and could put no weight on his right leg. He figures he must have stepped nearly on the snake and if it rattled he didn’t hear it over the sound of his feet crunching rocks and dirt. He was not listening to music.

“This is the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It’s hands-down the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced,” he said. “It almost makes you want to cry, it’s so painful. You can’t pick yourself up. It takes more effort than I ever thought it could just to get up. 

Still, he is expected to make a full recovery, though it will be a few weeks until he’ll be back on the trail.

He is also expecting to receive a massive bill for the incident. Rattlesnake anti-venom is notoriously expensive - thousands of dollars per vial - and has a short shelf life - reasons smaller hospitals don’t keep large amounts in stock. Medical air transport can cost $10,000 or more.

And he is between jobs and has no health insurance. He would have started a new job in Grand Junction by now if not for encountering the snake.

“I’ll just take that a day at a time. I’m not really sure what the options are but I’ll figure something out,” he said. He wishes he could have been treated without incurring the cost of the flight.

“I think there’s a lot to that I don’t understand, but I would say this is a very remote area and if you have someone who does get bit, the option to treat them is something worth considering ... We’re a long way from Denver,” he said.

Donna Wehe, spokeswoman for San Luis Valley Health, said it is not uncommon for snake bite victims - there are about 1 to 3 a year in the valley - to be transported elsewhere for treatment. The Alamosa hospital is a level 3 trauma center and the Conejos and Rio Grande hospitals are level 4 and severe bites often require more intense treatment, not to mention more vials of anti-venom.

“We would stabilize the patient, use the anti-venom we have, and in a lot of cases that patient needs more and the symptoms are worsening,” she said. “Sometimes people need really long, long treatment after they get bit by a venomous snake.”

For his part, Binkley knows the snake was only defending itself.

“It just kind of happened. I don’t think anybody would look at that ridge line and not want to run down it, scramble on some cool rocks. It’s part of exploring,” he said. “I guess one thing I did learn is there’s a timeline in which you want to seek emergency medical attention and that’s not very long.”

“If you are fare out from civilization, calming your heart down and stopping moving are pretty important. I felt like I needed to get help as soon as possible so I continued to move.”

Is there a lesson in all this?

“Run with your phone. Maybe just always have your cell phone just in case.”