Last month I checked out a big tract of vacant land in North Philly. I felt a little skittish to explore it all on my own, but last week I recruited Scott to join me on a more thorough exploration.

I could have a lot of fun here. Though I am sure plenty of sketchy stuff happens there, all the kids riding around on their dirt bikes and ATVs and the ordinary-looking guys with their kids fishing in the river put us at ease.

And there are a ton of snakes, all a short and easy bike ride from my office. Of course they're common snakes - garters (Thamnophis sirtalis) and browns (Storeria dekayi) - but they were everywhere, and some of them were lookers.

Of course my iPhone took the blurriest photos of the pretty ones:




But the volume in such a short period of time walking around seemed to make up for that disappointment.

 

And there's something cool about the ruins, about a thriving industrial site now overtaken by a mix of natural forces (trees, meadows) and human (graffiti):