I'm soaking up this thread!
A note about snake bites: always get a good identification of the species of snake that did the biting. Unless there's been some remarkable advances with a "universal serum" then it don't exist and its my understanding (old info?) that the medical personnel won't give you any anti-venom unless they know the kind of snake invovled.
There might be some observational or serum diagnostics to specify (or narrow down) likely candidates, too.
Stay calm and hold on to your presence of mind the best you can and take a series of good pictures of it or bring its carcass or its disembodied head with you (handled carefully, of course, since some head only specimens have been know to inflict injury).
Other than getting bitten in the first place the next worst thing would be not getting to medical care in some reasonable time, then that is closely followed by not knowing what kind of snake it was which is not a rare occurrence, I'm sure.
Please keep the thoughts and ideas coming, I've got a ntoebook nearby. Oh, I almost forgot, I will also be looking into the archives and noting past routes for PainenDias and Ridgerunner to get an idea were I might find them ; )
JVG