Down in the Swamp

Just as the high water levels created an ephemeral waterfalls, they have all the rivers and streams in the area running full.  These shots are taken 'down in the swamp', several miles further down the valley, where the Beaver River enters and flows through a long flat soft maple swamp. 

This is a designated canoe route, though it's too late in the year for canoeing now.  And canoes wouldn't fit under the bridge I'm standing on with these high water levels.  The route is about 10 km. as the crow flies, and following the winding river it's probably double that.

In these high water levels the channel is far wider than it was in the summer, and the water has overflowed the low banks and filled the swamp, back several hundred yards in places.  The forest in these pictures also give a picture of our November woods - no leaves left on the trees; it's all shades of gray and brown.

The swamp provides some of the largest isolated forest habitat in the region, too wet for people to traverse, except by canoe.  There has been a heronry in one corner for years, and this year I heard several reliable reports of a bald eagle nesting somewhere in the middle of the swamp.  That would be a first in many years for the valley.

I took these pictures at the one bridge that bisects the wetland, and the high water levels provide great relfections beyond the river channel in the forested swamp.  You're driving through swamp for nearly half a kilometre along the road.

One of my future goals is to paddle here when the water levels are high enough that you can paddle in among the trees - perhaps in the spring.

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