Fairfield Swamp WMA

This was an amazing place. We drove up to St Albans and put in at this little parking lot off of Rte 36. It was a bit of a struggle to get into the swamp since the inlet was full of logs and swamp plants. But it was worth it.

We saw Great Blue Heron, a nesting pair of Ospreys (who circled us while screaming at us), toads, frogs, swallows, cedar waxwings, eel-like fish, little fish and lots of beautiful plants.

Yellow water lilies, white water lilies, lots of swamp plants (including millfoil, unfortunately), pitcher plants and a gazillion others lined the shores.

The Dead Creek meanders lazily back and forth through this swamp. At first it is very open and marsh-like, then it closes up a bit and we started to see some trees. Then it really closes up and the woods come right up to the water and it looks just like a small river.

We kayaked about 3 miles downstream (barely a current) and then sat and had lunch near the dam. It took us about 3 hours, but mostly it was because we were slow and lazy. We stopped a lot to just look. It took us 2 hours to make the same trip back even against the current.

This was a great trip. If you didn't want to make the entire trip, you could easily just go to the Osprey nest and then turn around and it would only be a 2 hour trip. Well worth the entire trip though.