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What's your worst herping trip ever?
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by herperadam on October 20, 2005
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Just wanted to start a topic to hear where some other people's worst herping trips ever were. Mine came this summer on July 27th at Pelee Island, Ontario, which is supposed to be about the best herping spot in Canada. I figure this is a good time to let people know about this trip since the new issue of Reptiles has an article called "Snake Hunting North of the Border," which would have you think it is an enjoyable experience. I have went up to Leamington, Ontario every summer of my life to my grandparents cottage but had never made the trip over to Pelee Island even though it sits directly across Lake Erie from our cottage just a few miles away. Let's start off with the first problem I encountered: getting there. The only method of getting there short of having your own boat is to take the ferry since the hydrofoil shut down during the past year. The ferry is absurdly slow and takes 1 1/2 hours to make the trip plus 1 hour you have to arrive early to get your car onboard. The other problem with the ferry is that it is booked during the summer due to trucks transporting wheat, and you have to make reservations at least 2 weeks in advance. This means that the day you go may have horrible weather or be beautiful: it's a gamble since no weather forecast is accurate 2 weeks out. So we made our reservation and the day we go ends up being about 60 degrees and raining when we go to the boat at 7AM, although it did clear up at around noon and go to 70's and sunny. I had done a lot of research before leaving home and had plans to make three stops on the island, each of which should have had a lot of reptiles.
The first stop off the boat for us was the Stone Road Alvar, which is supposedly a favorite place for blue racers to be found. The weather was better at this point but it was still drizzling so we put on sweatshirts to at least keep our shirts dry. So we get out of the car in the parking area and immediately find out the killer point of the trip---BITING FLIES! Now don't get me wrong we do have these flies at our cottage, and I have experienced them at Point Pelee National Park, but nowhere near what we experienced on the island. I had brought along a bag with just about ever kind of Off, Repel, Cutter, & various store brand bug repellent that is available just in case this happened all of which claim to repel black flies. Bottom line is NONE of them work including the almighty 99% deet Repel that I was saving as a last resort. The flies were not getting through our sweatshirts but every piece of skin that was exposed was under attack even our faces and hands. So after about 15 minutes of running at full speed like an idiot trying to avoid the flies we headed back to the car to see if there was a store on the island that sold pants or a full body bug suit, which there isn't. So we figured that maybe the other two places I had planned out wouldn't have flies.
The second stop was Lighthouse Point Nature Preserve and right when we exited the cars the flies were back on us. We headed down the trail through the woods and lost them for a minute but the second we got onto the beach and headed over to the historic lighthouse we were absolutely attacked by flies. My brother told me that at one point my entire back was covered in them so that you couldn't even see what color shirt I was wearing…this was while running at full speed to avoid them. So we gave up after a few minutes there also because it was pointless and headed over to the ferry to see if we could get an earlier return trip booked than the 6PM I had originally planned, luckily they still had room on the boat around 3PM, and I told them to hold it for me while I checked out my third stop.
The third stop was Fish Point Nature Preserve, and it looked good when we got out of the car. There is a nature trail through the woods where supposedly snakes and turtles are abundant, and on the trail there was no flies. That all changed again when we hit the beach, we got mobbed by flies just like everywhere else and ran back to the car. After this we went to find the Wilds of Pelee Island, which had one of the websites I had frequented in planning this trip and helped put together a book I had bought about the island to see if maybe they could help us find some reptiles. We drove up and down the street it was supposedly on judging from the address and couldn't even find it, my guess is that it is not actually a facility but just an open field..or it's hidden behind trees or something either way it was nonexistent to the two of us. I also tried to call them to find out the location but neither of our cell phones Cingular or Verizon had reception at any spot on the island. So we decided enough is enough and went back to wait for the ferry since it was already about noon so we could take a couple pictures of how filthy the rental car was from the dirt roads since there seemed to be no flies in the area of the ferry.
Altogether, we wasted almost a whole day, $31.50 Canadian each way so a little over $50 US total, and ran about 4 miles each trying to avoid flies. We saw no snakes whatsoever, no turtles, no reptiles period, no mammals either, saw a couple of birds, and millions of flies. Neither my brother nor I was able to stand still long enough to even get one single picture at Lighthouse Point due to flies, I managed to take one picture at the Stone Road Alvar while getting bitten, and a few on the nature trail at Fish Point. My video camera never even got turned on and the trip was a complete waste. If you still want to ever go there know these facts: NO bug repellent works on these black flies regardless what they claim, the flies will be there rain or shine and in heavy wind we experienced all these weather conditions. It doesn't matter how fast you run you will not lose the flies long enough to even take one photo without being bitten. As I stated before I would recommend taking a car since driving from one side of the island to another takes about 15 minutes and probably around 45 minutes to an hour by bicycle, which would leave little time for herping. I would suggest that if anything you go and do your herping overnight, which was my original plan. When I called up the parks office in Canada they told me that it is not allowed but there is nobody monitoring the reserves from what I could tell the only police officer on the island had came over on the ferry with us and left with us. I should have listened to our neighbor who has lived in Leamington for 60+ years who warned me that "the most interesting thing you will see from going to Pelee Island is the view off the ferry." Overall, I'll take the many venomous snakes, alligators, fire ants, and mosquitoes at home in Texas any day over the biting flies and invisible reptiles of Canada.
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RE: What's your worst herping trip ever?
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by tj on October 21, 2005
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My worst, if you call it that since I wasn't at work, was at a swamp looking for eastern massasauga's. The deer flies and skitoes were just unbearable....I later learned that nets are a must for these areas. And to top it off, I didn't see one snake. Good learning experience, though. Plus, I didn't get bit, hurt, or stung (knock on wood), so my experience will pale in comparison to many of the others.
-TJP
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RE: What's your worst herping trip ever?
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by Cro on October 21, 2005
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Several friends and myself made a winter trip to the Okefenokee Swamp one January, as the weather was unusually hot, and there were supposedly snakes out and about, according to a friend who lived down there we had called in advance.
We got there, and camped at Laura S. Walker State Park. The temperature dropped below freezing the night we got there, thus shutting down the warm herping spell.
What was far worse than no snakes and the freezing weather though, was that some of the dead wood that some gathered for the camp fire was dead poison sumac! As it burned, it was inhaled with the smoke by folks standing around the fire. The next morning, everyone was puffed up with poison sumac on their exposed skin. I had to take two people to the hospital, as they had inhaled it deep into their lungs, and they were sick for a couple of weeks.
If you ever camp at LSW State Park near the Okefenokee, do not burn the dry wood near the camp sites, as a lot of it is poison sumac!
JohnZ
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RE: What's your worst herping trip ever?
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by herperadam on October 21, 2005
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Lol nope didn't get a picture of the flies but I think this picture my brother took explains the trip. I would title it running down the beach with snake hook in hand trying to lose flies
http://home.earthlink.net/~saleenadam/peleeisland.JPG
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