Stepping Lightly on a Nightly Walk

Besides our work, which is far from sedentary, B and I count on walking around our neighborhood to provide our exercise. One night last week, it had gotten dark before we were back home.  I had to do a little step-hop to keep from stepping on this smallish red rat snake that was right in my path--or was I in its path?  Either way, it surprised me. B was able to scoot it off the road and into the grass before we all continued on on our separate travels.