This week's POTW is called "Amphibians of the Near North". Angela and I decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment camping trip to Grundy Lake, which was one of the few provincial parks that wasn't completely booked for the long weekend. We did a lot of hiking at Grundy Lake and at Mashkinonje, which is a day-use park nearby.

The weather was fantastic - I think it was the best weekend this summer. We were gone Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and it didn't rain once! In fact, the weather was so hot and sunny that we cancelled our plans to rent a canoe to explore the French River. Instead, we decided we would be cooler spending our time hiking through the forest.

We saw a lot of wildlife, but since we were in parks primarily known for their wetlands, we especially kept our eyes and ears open for frogs:

• The upper left is a Northern Green Frog that we saw at the end of a guided hike at Grundy Lake. We also saw a painted turtle lurking around in the same area.
• The lower left is another Northern Green Frog, but he is trying very hard to camouflage himself against the rock and brown dirt patches nearby. It almost worked - I didn't see him at all when I was looking for frogs, but Angela noticed him.
• The upper right is a Northern Leopard Frog that we saw partway through a 7km hike through Mashkinonje. He hopped out of our way as we walked along the trail.
• The lower right is a baby American Toad that we found along the same trail. He was so tiny! We couldn't resist picking him up to get a photo.

Technical details: These images were taken with my Rebel XT + EF 70-300 IS at 300mm and (clockwise from upper left) ISO (400, 1600, 1600, 400), (f/8, f/8, f/5.6, f/8) for (1/125th, 1/160th, 1/125th, 1/200th) of a second.