WCA Minesing Swamp - 26th April 2014 | Wilderness Canoe Association

After meeting just outside Angus, they helped me unloading my canoe. When everyone arrived, Mary Bernadette and Gary organized the shuttle.
Luckily it was only very short.
We were with 9 canoes with 2 or more people in it and 8 Kayaks/solo canoes. We were there with 26 people. A very large group for a cloudy, drizzling day.
After decorating my canoe with orange flags, as it was in the Netherlands a national holiday, King's Birthday we took off.
Helping each other getting in the muddy river. A creek with lots of turns and lots of flooded area next to the river. Lots of birds we heard, but didn't see that many up close, beside the Red wing black bird.
at one point there was a split so we all waited to figure out which direction to go as Gary and Geri were scouting both sides out.
We turned left near the forest. Here the flooding was even bigger, and sometimes it was hard to find the river. Danny suggested to follow the junk.
After a short break in the water and having a quick snack the group moved on.
We saw a big Bald Eagle scouting the river out and moving from tree to tree, an excellent opportunity to get some amazing pictures. But the group fell further apart and we had to make sure that the people in the back didn't loose sight of the front part.
Going through the forest was an amazing experience, the water level was so high, that even the look out points for the hunters were on water level.
At one point we broke through the forest onto a field, it turned out to be a flooded corn field, the wind was strong here, and the water level was getting lower and lower and some boats got stranded.
We moved some of the kids into other boats to even out the weights, but it was still very hard.
At that point after contacting the leader with a message, we decided to go back to the forest and find the river.
It was an amazing river, unfortunately much longer then anticipated due to the high level of flooding, but that also gave us some amazing picturesque sights.
At the end it was really cool to see that although the water level was extremely high, that the water level had dropped already more then a meter.
We all made it safely to land and had a great time.
Thank you Mary Bernadette for organizing and looking after us.
and thanks to Gary James leading us.
and special thanks to Daniel Aufgang to find our way out following the river using his GPS
I had a great time
Emmy