Northern Shrike

I was following a snowmobile trail through the swamps.  Up ahead I saw a couple of hoses on the trail.  When the weather gets cold here, pieces often snap off machinery.  However, when I got close, I saw these "hoses" were actually two snakes.  The track had obviously passed over them but there were no guts nor blood so I'm sure the snakes were not only dead but frozen when the snowmobile passed.  I looked over the embankment next to the trail and saw a third snake about three feet off the trail.  What would have brought these snakes out of their winter torpor is a mystery.  All I could do was take a picture for my folder of "Illogical Things" and walk on.