First Great Swamp of the Year

The Great Swamp is one of my favorite trips during spring and fall. While there is nothing particularly difficult about the river - it is placid and narrow as it runs through a large beaver swamp, it can be a grind at certain water levels or if there are a lot of blocking deadfalls.  One never knows until one gives it a go. During very low water the beaver will put up a bunch of low dams to keep the water level.  It is sunny and moving from 60F to 70F, but the water temperature feels to my touch like something in the 50's.

I put in at Green Chimneys and head upstream towards Patterson, which is 6-1/2 miles away.  There is a steady current of maybe 1/2 to 1 mph.  It is about as strong as the current ever gets, and it happens when the river is high but just barely in its banks.  It's weird, but if the water is out of the banks, the current is much slower as it is when the water is low.

The top of the first beaver dam just touches the surface, and I can just cruise through a low spot. I flush a half dozen Wood Ducks, several Mallards, and a few yards farther on, 4 white tail deer bound off into the swamp.

There is a lot of beaver sign, and it shows up steady all through the trip.  The lodges that I know from the past look good and seem to have recent additions of peeled sticks.  There are a few new lodges as well.

Approaching a flooded beaver dam

All of the beaver dams are crossed without getting out of the canoe.  The forest section is easy and it appears that no new timber has fallen into the river during the winter.  I still have to portage at the power lines where there is a massive deadfall jam from two or three years ago.  It looks like it will be another couple years before that section will be canoeable.  

About a mile up into the upper section, the current dies down. This is where the river is narrower and much more serpentine.  It's busy. I pass a group of 4 kayakers when I am about a 1/2 hour from Patterson.  I'm pretty sure I will pass the again on the way back.  They ask and I tell them that there aren't any blockages. I pass two bends where the bullfrogs are making a racket - croaking and belching, like an amplified stomach growl.  There are a lot of bullfrogs in here and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I turn at Patterson, and the current is really obvious - my return speed clearly faster. A Pileated Woodpecker speeds across in front of me and sets up in a nearby tree.

I pass the 4 kayakers again at the lower end f the forest section.  I pass three idiots in two canoes, telling them that their bodies will be easier to recover if they actually wear their PFDs.   

It has been a fine day.  I am tired.