When my children were little, one of our favorite books to read together was The Bear's Water Picnic, which tells the story of a bear who invites his animal friends to a picnic on a raft on a pond. The illustrations always put me in mind of this place, the dismally-named Buzzard Swamp in the Allegheny National Forest...just a few miles from Marienville. It's a wildlife management area and bird sanctuary, and unlike most other locations in the forest, it's grassy and level.
Actually, I'm not exactly sure which came first: Did I like to read The Bear's Water Picnic to my kids because it reminded me of the beautiful Buzzard Swamp, or did I like Buzzard Swamp because it reminded me of happy times, reading to my daughters with one on each knee? I don't know. It doesn't matter. There are 13 official "ponds" at Buzzard swamp, some of which could almost pass for lakes. In addition to those 13, there are countless little meres and marshes and tarns...
I've been visiting the main southern area of Buzzard Swamp for many years, especially during the pandemic when I often camped there. But I'd never ventured very far along the northern ponds and their grassy track leading toward Lamonaville Road. On this trip, I decided to change all that. I hiked as far as Pond 8, which is by far the loveliest of the 13 that I've seen. It's got no duckweed; it's surrounded by green forests, and there are no people. It was strange: when we arrived to the more popular southern segment of the wildlife management area on a Tuesday afternoon, we saw 5 or 6 other groups of people--mostly fishers and cyclists. One local guy had attached a pair of wheels to his kayak with bungee cords, and he pulled it behind his bike from the parking lot to the dam. The very next day, all day long, we saw only a father and a son fishing at the largest dam. Until this trip, I'd barely ever encountered another soul at Buzzard Swamp.
I need to go back to Pond 8 someday with a kayak.
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