Onion River Exploration Project: Sheboygan Marsh

Day 27 (10/16/10)

The Sheboygan Marsh

Today we went to the Sheboygan Marsh for a change of pace. We had been hearing about it since we first got our kayaks. After spending some time on the internet gathering maps we were off to the marsh. When we left home there was very little wind but as we were climbing the observation tower at the marsh we noticed that the wind had definitely picked up. One of the interesting things about the marsh is that it has hundreds of floating cattail bogs and because of the wind they were all parking themselves right in the boat docking area. We found a unique route out through the islands and made our way into what we were told was the main ditch. We chose to not take the channel down to the main lake since the wind was blowing directly from that direction. We skirted the inner edge of the ditch on the way out to avoid the wind as much as possible. It was still pretty bad especially since all the cattails were shedding their cotton and it was as thick as snow at times. Because of the wind we had a somewhat abbreviated visit but we can’t wait to go back next summer. What the area lacks in scenery (the part we were at was all lined with cattails) it makes up for in hidden inlets which are fun to explore. We were told that people do get lost in the march because it is hard to see landmarks so we decided before next summer to laminate a map that we can chart our course as we go. The marsh will definitely warrant a closer look next summer when it is not so windy.