03/29/2026
Very early heat in the bay area, too. It's already a very bad year for snakebites; I'm seeing lots of bite to humans in the National Snakebite Support group in the past couple of weeks.
Www.homeschooledhounds.com/rattlesnake-avoidance
She went hiking on a Tuesday morning. She never came home.
Gabriela Bautista was 46 years old, from Moorpark, and by every account from those who knew her, she was a devoted wife, a mother, and a woman who loved being on the trails. On March 14, just before noon, she was hiking at Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks — a popular park, a familiar kind of morning — when a rattlesnake bit her.
Paramedics responded. Lifesaving measures. An airlift to Los Robles Regional Medical Center.
She fought for five days.
On March 19, the Ventura County Medical Examiner confirmed her cause of death: rattlesnake venom toxicity. Gabriela Bautista became the second person to die from a rattlesnake bite in Southern California in just weeks. In February, 25-year-old Julian Hernandez of Costa Mesa was bitten while mountain biking at Quail Hill Trailhead in Irvine. He died March 4.
Wildlife experts say this is not a coincidence. Southern California is experiencing one of the hottest Marches on record, and rattlesnakes — which don't truly hibernate, but slow down in colder months — are emerging from their dormancy far earlier than usual. In Ventura County, there were nine rattlesnake bite reports in all of 2025. Since March 14 alone, there have been four.
"In one day, I had three reports from the public," said Melissa Borde, reserve manager at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. "With the warm forecast over the next couple of weeks, I think they're going to be pretty active."
A teenage girl bitten on March 20 near the Wendy Drive trailhead in Newbury Park was rushed to the hospital and received antivenom in time. She survived.
Gabriela did not. And the trails that the rest of us are planning to walk this weekend — they haven't changed. The snakes are just out earlier. And earlier, this year, is now.
Wear the boots. Stay on the path. And if you see one, let it go.
SOURCE:
KTLA
CBS Los Angeles
Ventura County Fire Department
