Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Karsts and Slithers by OHMIC (1.5/2) N50° 44.006  W97° 31.712 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 603840  N 5621215 Use waypoint: GC138QQ Size: Not chosen    Hidden on 5/29/2007 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                           Flat terrain makes for an easy hike on the interpretive trail. Facilities have been developed to accommodate visitors. The Narcisse Wildlife Managed Area (WMA) is well known for its extremely high snake population. But the main reason why so many snakes are present at this location derives from the geology of the area. The Narcisse WMA includes ridge-and-swale topography common to the Interlake. This creates a mixture of elevations and in some areas the soil gets noticeably thinner, and in places the porous limestone bedrock is even exposed. Portions of the area were formerly grazed, hayed and cultivated, but were proven to be unsuitable. Wherever limestone or other carbonate rocks are exposed to the surface, chemical reactions with rain water can quickly dissolve the rock and create caves and sinkholes. This is what is called karst topography. One of the main reason so many snakes are present in the area is the presence of this karst topography which provides roomy chambers for them to den together in. The winters here can be pretty cold sometimes dipping below 30 degrees Celsius, but the caverns stay just above freezing keeping the snakes alive. Karst is defined as a landscape formed by solutions of carbonate, creating limestone and dolomite bedrock. Common features of such landscapes are caves, sinkholes, and underground streams. A large proportion of the rainfall sinks immediately into the rocks and runs in channels underground. The higher land is dry; few streams flow upon its surface and even these may suddenly sink into the ground and disappear. The Southern Interlake is underlain by carbonate bedrock (limestone, dolomitized limestone and dolostone) which has been modified by recent glaciation. Glaciation shielded or sealed bedrock from erosion by depositing thick layers of glacial debris. In some cases, glaciation left open bedrock or thin layers of debris permitting the development of karst both on the surface and underground. During the glacial recession, melt waters are deeply injected into the karst aquifers, thus accelerating their formation. Requirements To log this EarthCache, you must email me the correct answers to the following two questions. Question 1 Name three geological features starting with the letter "C" you can find in this area. Question 2 (to find the answer for this question go to N50° 43.876 W097° 31.538) What created this new sinkhole and in what year?

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9/20/2009 by Kabuthunk
Had an awesome time out with my wife on a road-trip to my Grandma's place. Well, I perhaps enjoyed the Narcisse portion more than she did . However, despite her griping in the days leading up to the road trip, I eventually convinced her that this is something that you just... have to see! And besides, this happened to coincide with slightly after, yet still partially part of the fall migration of the snakes, so we'd miss the largest quantity of them at this time of year, yet still see a number of them. But c'mon... the largest concentration of this type of snake ON EARTH! Albeit there's many types of snakes, each with their own high-concentration areas, it's still nothing to sneeze at. One way or the other, I got her to get out of the car and walk with me. We decided to go for a walk to Den 1, walk to Den 2, then loop down past the sinkhole back to the car.

Although, not wanting to miss the information needed for the earthcache, after we'd visited my Grandma's place, on the way back I stopped here again and on my own jogged the rest of the entire circuit. And purely for the sake of it, including all of the subsidiary paths leading back to the parking lot, just in case there was any signs on the way. I took a picture of every sign... but obviously won't upload them to this, since that would kinda defeat the purpose for others . I DID however get a number of snake pictures .

In either case, Laura and I made our way down the winding path toward the first den. I never realized quite how scared Laura was of snakes (despite my pointing out the specific sign describing exactly what she could do to try to get over her fear... yeah, that didn't work ), but during the walk... which was quite slow in general, since she was scanning every hint of the path, as well as sides of the path for any movement. Most times when a snake went away, she kept moving, but a few of them slithered across the path or caught her by surprise in the grass. At that point, she froze solid and grasped my hand like I was going to disappear if she didn't . I tried to get her to walk in the dead-center of the path, with me offset, but that wasn't acceptable either. I wasn't allowed to walk close to the grass either, it seems .

Anyhoo... we continued onwards. Den 1 was pretty empty... all of 1 snake visible in there that I saw... so we headed towards Den 2. THERE'S the snakes! Laura was more concerning herself with some family's boy picking up a snake (which I didn't see, but the way Laura described it, by the tail. Stupid kids... it'll hurt the snake! Let it slither over your hands if anything. I hope the kid got a good dose of snake musk sprayed on him). However, I got her to come up to the fence and look at the snakes (see pics). The more you look around, the more there are! She looked for all of two seconds, and quickly stepped away from the fence again. After taking a few pics, we continued past the sinkhole, and back to the car.

Although, I mentioned that I had come back a second time to finish the circuit. Yeah, on that trip (about 4:00pm), I couldn't see a single snake inside either Dens 3 or 4. I did see a few of the slither across the walking paths though, and got a few good pictures... mainly the last one posted, where it's a nice, close-up shot of a snake's head. I'm really surprised the snake let me get that close before taking off. I tried to get one closer, hoping to get one with it's tongue fully extended, but no such luck. Although, one of my pictures got the tongue at least a little bit poking out.

But yeah... this was an awesome hike (and jog, for the second half). It's been YEARS since I've been here, and I still enjoy it every time I come. Thanks for taking me out here. It was an amazing trip down memory lane, and I'll have to come back another time .

Took: Lots of pictures
Left: Lots of people in the dust while jogging .

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