As mentioned the other day, you are bound to see lots of grass and reed photos here because I take a lot of them.

One of the smartest things I did was bring my rubber boots camping. I was able to wade right into shallow wetland areas and take pictures like this.

The boots also made me feel more invincible against a Massassauga Rattler bite. I didn’t see any, although I always let my presence be known when trudging on their turf. I kind of hoped to see one — they’re endangered and all — but the possibility of a bite made me a bit nervous. Ontario is known as a region with very little wildlife that can hurt or kill you. As a result, I think we’ve got a bit of a built-in wuss factor when it comes to remotely dangerous animals. Black bears are probably the scariest threat when out in the wild and I didn’t see one of those either. I mean, they eat berries and insects, both of which were in abundance out there. I reminded myself of that every time I heard a branch break in the forest. We did string up our food to be sure.

I thought I heard a rattler during a pit stop on our long canoe paddle in, but didn’t stick around long enough to find out. Our camping buddies did see one but on a large island further north of ours.

Despite the wuss factor I’m generally not afraid to go trudging out into god knows where in places that are much less safe. Although I will say that I was not able to pee in the bush at night in Florida. I just could not stop thinking about the plethora of poisonous creatures lurking around my exposed butt.