By Brew Davis
On Mother’s Day (of all days), Gus and I took the trip of a lifetime up to Manitoba in Canada. For years we had been reading in National Geographic Kids and the Guinness Book of World Records about a place north of Winnipeg called the Narcisse Snake Dens where more than 70,000 (!) garter snakes congregate every winter. We are big on experiences with our kids so for Christmas last year, we gave Gus this “present.” And it did not disappoint.
We flew into Minneapolis and drove north because a) tickets were $400 cheaper than flying into Winnipeg, b) we could fly nonstop from Asheville, and c) riding in a car through exotic places like Fargo, North Dakota sounded like fun to us.
We ended up timing the trip perfectly. Usually the snakes come out of “brumation” (hibernation from reptiles) and begin mating from late April through the first few weeks of May. I bought our plane tickets in December and we just happened to hit the weather window jackpot. The week before was cold and snowing, and the week after had highs in the 40s. But the few days we were sunny and 70!
I’m not sure we could’ve asked for a better experience. We spent part of three days in the area. Every day we spent three or four hours, running back-and-forth between the four snake den.
They are connected by trail about 2 miles long- that’s 3 km for those of you scoring in Canadian. :-) Dens 2 and 3 were by far the most active. Do you know that scene in Indiana Jones where his sidekick looks down into a dark pyramid tomb in Egypt and says “Indy, why does the floor move?” It was because of all of the snakes and that is exactly what the bottom of these sinkholes looked like.
It was snakes on top of snakes on top of snakes- snakes climbing up the sides of the sink hole, snakes coming out of crevices and caves, snakes going up and down tree limbs that extended up into the forest, snakes slithering on the ground and hanging from branches.
For most people it would be a nightmare, but for Gus it was Disney World and the Super Bowl rolled into one. He enjoyed watching the snakes in the pits but he really enjoyed catching them more. In all he caught around 200. He’d spot one on the forest floor, gently catch it, hold it for 20 or 30 seconds, then let it go before looking for the next one. We made Crocodile Hunter style videos, using Australian accents and trying to sound like David Attenborough in the Planet Earth documentaries.
We made friends with one of the interpreters (equivalent to our park rangers). She was so impressed by how into it Gus was and that we’d come all the way from North Carolina that she gave us her official “Narcisse Snake Dens interpreter" hat and just asked us not wear it until we left so others wouldn’t get jealous.
It was an epic adventure. When Jen and I were engaged we had four or five premarital counseling sessions. The best advice we got was to let each other keep dreaming. I would say we’ve tried to make that a reality for our kids as well. We want to nurture their traveling spirits and adventurous natures. Who knows? Maybe Gus will be a herpetologist (reptile expert) someday. It would be neat if we could look back on this trip as one of the things that led him to it. I hope you and your family can let each other dream in the same way. :-)
