Ten Mile (Beaver?) Creek

On April 2, Tammy and Jodi paid a visit to the source of the Chetek Chain of Lakes. The weather was perfect--50's and sunny--especially in hindsight as we're dealing with sub-freezing temperatures and snow for the rest of the week.

This creek (we still aren't sure exactly which one it is) is very marshy with ideal habitat for nesting waterfowl. We saw mallards, Canadian geese and wood ducks in plenty. At two different times we were hot on the trails of unidentified aquatic mammals. We guess the first was a beaver and the second was a muskrat.

The paddling here was good once we passed a shallow stretch (< 6 inches deep) while first setting out. Tammy visited this area last fall and was pretty sure the water was higher back then. The bottom is thick with silt and muck, so if you get stuck out there, you'd be hard-pressed to get out and walk. The good news is that even if your boat scrapes bottom, there isn't much friction in the muck to keep you from scooting your way to deeper water. The creek narrows farther upstream to the point where my 11-foot boat could just barely turn around. The channel remains navigable through sharp S-turns. We were forced to abandon our exploration when we came to some bushes blocking our upstream progress from both sides. Due to time contraints we had to turn around at that point, but Tammy thought she saw a way to portage around the bushes. We'll be back!

From Ten Mile Cree...