Small World
Occam has a photo in his journal of a snapping turtle laying eggs. He was out geocaching when he came across it in the woods. His photo reminded me of the time Holly and I came across an absolutely HUGE, very angry, snapping turtle in the Adirondacks...
We were living in Syracuse, NY at the time and decided to spend a weekend at a B&B a few miles outside of Saranac Lake, a small town in the Adirondacks, about 200 miles from home. On Sunday morning, before heading home from a lovely weekend, we decided to explore some back roads. We drove far back into the woods on gravel and dirt roads, and while driving down one road we came across the biggest snapping turtle I have ever seen! It was lying in the middle of the road and it's shell was well over a foot in diameter. Probably closer to 15-18 inches! I could have driven carefully around it...and in hindsight I probably should have. But I thought "Hey! We gotta get photos of this monster!" - so we stopped and got out of the car.
The snapping turtle was *not* happy being disturbed. It hissed and snapped and several times lunged towards us. I picked-up a long branch and used it to keep it away from us while Holly snapped (heh) a few pictures. It was a very angry turtle. Suddenly the turtle turned, ran across the road and into the yard of a quaint little cabin. I had no idea a turtle could move so fast!! It qucikly ran through the yard, around a lawnmower that was parked in the yard, and into the bushes at the front of the cabin. Holly and I got back in the car and drove on.
The next morning at work I casually mentioned to my boss, the company owner, that Holly and I had gone up into the Adirondacks for the weekend. "Oh, we have a summer cottage in the Adirondacks that you're welcome to stay at if you two decide to go there again" my boss said to me. "We were up there this weekend - I had some work to do on the place. . . and the strangest thing happened" he added.
The he told this story:
"I was cutting the yard with the lawnmower yesterday morning. I stopped for a minute to go inside and get a beer. My 6 year-old daughter was playing in her bedroom, which is in the cabin's basement. While I was in the kitchen I heard her screaming from her bedroom! I ran to her - and saw this enormous snapping turtle at her window! It was hissing and clawing and trying to get inside! I got a long-handled rake from the garage and after several minutes I was able to chase it out of the front bushes and into the woods. It was enormous! My daughter was trembling and crying, she was so frightened. She didn't settle down until we got home last night."
"Wow" I said, "...that's really...umm...interesting."
"Your cabin, it doesn't happen to be up by Saranac Lake, does it?" I asked. "Why yes, it is - why do you ask?" my boss said puzzled. "Oh, no reason - I was just wondering" I replied.