Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sunsets and snakepits at Achray

Paddling into the sunset
Northern Water Snakes

After a couple of weeks back at the office it was time for our annual camping trip to Achray in Algonquin Park.

The kids were especially excited as they remember this getaway to be a snake catcher's dream. Together they caught nearly 50 snakes (some were caught more than once). Surprisingly this year there were more water snakes caught than garters. The largest one by far was a monster northern water snake measuring about 4 1/2 feet long.

Monster water snake
Canoe sailing Northern Water Snake

Most of our week was spent paddling, fishing, catching snakes, and dodging rain storms. For the most part our weather was great - sunny and low 20's. We did have one downpour on the first night that flooded out some of our fellow campers but we were high and dry in our tent trailer. Suckas!

Sandpit jumper Feeding the fish
Combing the shores of Achray Watching the snakes
Snake's lunch R & R View from our campsite Canoe at sunset

4 comments:

Kenmore said...

Looks like a good week in the park. I assume all snakes recieved names...

Tripper said...

It was a great week. And yes, all snakes received names but don't ask me to recite them.

Jordan said...

wow what a beautiful area!! looks like a really fun place to explore. have you been down to the white mountains at all?

thanks for checking out my blog, that was the first time I have seen a green snake, they seem rather elusive.

Tripper said...

Thanks Jordan. We haven't been to the White Mountains yet. The closest would be our trips camping and hiking in the Adirondacks. And I last spring I checked out the Mountain Jam Festival in the Catskills. That's about the extent of our travels in the US to date (aside from Cape Code which is nearly the exact opposite of peak bagging). Franconia Notch is on our short list for one of these summer adventures.