Portobello Creek
Quite a bit closer to home than what I've been writing about recently, this post is about some kayaking I did last weekend.
I went out to French Lake and Portobello Creek. The launch point I used was by the bridge over the throughfare between French Lake and Maquapit Lake. I didn't track my route on GPS, but from measuring it on the map when I got home (see below), I think I did a loop that was around 12 km. From the map, some of the places that I paddled look like they'd be meadows (rather than covered by a metre or more of water) at other times of the year.
Here are a few photos from this kayaking trip:
Portobello Creek is a protected wildlife area. Here is an introductory description, from one of the links above:
Portobello Creek National Wildlife Area (NWA) is part of a large alluvial floodplain located adjacent to the St. John River just east of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Each spring the river overflows its banks submerging all but the highest forested area which makes it one of the most expansive wetland complexes in the Maritimes. The NWA further protects 37 provincially rare plant species.
It would be interesting to return at other times of year to see how it changes as the water level falls and rises seasonally, or try to get further up the creek. A canoe or kayak is one of the best ways to explore this kind of floodplain ecosystem.