Another, almost annual, wild otter chase that I partake in leads me to the steep granite cliffs of the Narrows between Eel Bay and South Bay

where I see the otter tracks going up and down the cliffs. I couldn't possibly follow them. One year I did get a measure of my own superiority. I discovered that if the otters (there were at least two of them) had taken the time to go up another rock another three feet they could have looked to their right and seen the Canadian mainland and looked to their left to see the American mainland.

I can go down to the ice on the river and pick up their trails. However, they usually make these major tours in March when the ice on the river becomes a little more treacherous, and I've never followed their trails to Grinnell Island and along side Murray Island. I know the otters swim in the channel of the St. Lawrence. I've seen otter tracks on Goose Island, and know that others have seen them on the shore near the Thousand Island Bridge. Otters own the river as well as the swamps. The photo below shows the trail of two otters going along the South Bay shore of Wellesley Island

I saw those trails in January, and wanted to follow, but as you can see, the sun was going down, and the next morning when I came out on my skis, a snow squall during the night had obliterated the tracks.

My guess is that they were going to Picton Island. I have seen otters swimming between Grindstone and Picton. Go to page 41