When we were cruising around the San Juan Islands recently, one of the passengers pointed at the shore and exclaimed, "Anacondas!" Indeed, it looked as if there were large anacondas lying on the hills. But none were slithering, so we knew they couldn't be snakes. When I finally got to shore and hiked, I solved the mystery. Apparently some madrone trees grow along the ground. I'm not sure why they do this, but the ground hugging trees were alive.
