Doing the Maze All Proper

The sky is overcast, the bottom of the clouds just high enough to not be fog.  It is calm and about 70F, there is a very light drizzle every so often.  The Mai Tai Navy will not leave port in such inclement weather and it is common knowledge that a jet ski engine will never fire up under such conditions.  The twice-a-summer plastic kayak drivers huddle in fear in their stately hovels at the thought of getting lost.  I have the marsh to myself.

 

The tide has been coming in for about 2 hours. It is still quite low and the current is not bad, yet.  I have limited choices in the marsh until the water rises some.  There are many Great and Snowy Egrets working the edge of the water near the top of the marsh.  I head up Beaver Brook, not having been in there at low tide for some time.  It is quiet and I am hemmed in by two or three feet of pre-peat banks topped by tall grasses and reeds.  I flush several Yellow Crowned Night Herons.  When I come back out, the water has risen enough to paddle the eastern channel to the lower end of the marsh.

I have no particular distance or place to reach today.  I wander the channels of the middle marsh as the water comes up.  Following a channel to a dead end, I back out and find the water a few inches higher, and the number of possible routes increased.  I eventually get over to Nell's Channel and paddle into the lower entrance of the maze.  After a couple hundred yards of known channels, I start exploring. Everything is going to dead ends - winding channels ending in small ponds with no exits.  I backtrack and try another unknown.  By the time I decide to head out, I have trouble getting back on track.  After dozens of forks and bends, the ones I need to recognize don't stand out.  Finally, I find the long deadfall that blocks one of the better channels. It is a rare and important landmark, but I am on the wrong side of it.  On the second attempt, I find a set of channels leading to the other side.  From that point it is fairly simple (for me) to get to the exit.  I have spent the long part of an hour in the maze and most of that time I was bewildered.  I keep thinking that the route finding will get easier, but it doesn't.  Maze is the correct word for this spot. 

I head back out after three hours of paddling.  I have not seen anyone else in the marsh the whole time.