When I agreed to go with my brother and cousin to explore a bog – more specifically a fen – a fen is a type of wetland, similar to a swamp or a bog – I did not fully comprehend the kind of adventure that I was about to embark on. After eating some Kraft Dinner for lunch, we loaded up our inflatable boats in my cousin’s car, and headed off to explore!
When we arrived, we had to walk down a short pathway, from which a lightly worn trail ran down a steep slope, and straight towards the fen. When we reached the bottom, there was a little opening from which we could launch our boats. We then pumped up our inflatable boats, and set out on our adventure.
Trouble hit immediately. I took a couple steps into the swampy water to launch my boat, but quickly sunk into the slimy filth halfway to my knee. Great – I thought – wet and muddy from the start. Thankfully, I got into my boat with relative ease, but unfortunately, that is when things got worse for me and my ill-fated boat. In the fen, there were many fallen sticks, branches, and trees. To navigate, I quickly found out that I had to precariously make my way over them while trying not to puncture my little boat. Sadly, this was easier said than done. When I had only gone several yards out, I heard a tearing sound as I was passing over one of the fallen branches, and felt the air quickly escape from the bottom of my boat! Thankfully, the boats we use have two sections of air. After a few moments, I determined that it was only the small bottom section of my boat that was punctured, so for now, I was still afloat.
We paddled on for a while, until we came near some land. I was excited to explore this section of land, as it was full of giant reeds, and all kinds of plants. When I came near enough, I climbed out of my boat onto a small tree stump. I looked around while I waited for the others to join me. There were many interesting things to see, my favourite of which was some bright green moss growing near the tree stump that I had climbed up on. When the others had climbed up onto the land, we left our boats to go explore the little area of land that we had found. We trekked through the swampy land, finding all sorts of amazing mosses, mushrooms, and bushes. We even found some edible leaves, called Labrador tea, which we tasted. The leaves were fuzzy and very strange looking – the top being green, and the bottom a whitish brown. While I enjoyed the adventure of trying the leaf, I did not like the taste – it was bitter, and the leaves were tough.
When we finally returned to our boats, we made our way towards a little dam past which was a larger body of water that we wanted to explore. Exploring this area brought more difficulties. At first, we tried to break apart the dam, as it was uninhabited and very small, but this proved ineffective, and we decided to portage across instead.
On the other side of the dam, there was so much to discover! We made our way through reeds and over logs, until we came to a narrow channel through which we paddled. When we reached the end of the channel, we found ourselves in a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. As we paddled towards the center of the lake, I happened to look back, and saw something hiding behind the reeds. Curious, I began to paddle towards it. It looked like a boat, but I did not think that it was likely that there would be an abandoned boat just sitting there. As I got closer, however, I realized that it was, in fact, a partially sunken boat. I was very excited, and called out my discovery to the others! I paddled closer to get a better look at it, but just as I was nearing the boat, I noticed a flash of bright colour to my left. I paddled towards the colour peeping up from a tuft of earth and grass in the water. To my amazement and excitement, I found myself looking down at some brightly coloured pitcher plants. (Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that have a trap containing liquid to digest insects that get trapped in their “pitcher”.) Part of the fun of exploring fens, bogs, swamps, and the like are the amazing plants that can be found in them. I am often amazed at the types of plants that are indigenous to Canada. One can find carnivorous plants such as pitcher plants and sundew plants in Canada, as well as many other fascinating plants!
After we looked over those exciting finds, it was time to head home. We slowly made our way back towards the place where we had first launched our boats. By the time we had hiked up the steep slope on which we had first descended, we were very wet and dirty, but happy! We drove back home, discussing aspirations and plans for future adventuring.
Sounds like a lot of fun!