Winter Bog Walk

Took an hour walk about the bog on the NE side of the lake yesterday.  Our neighbors and we own land that join at a tiny creek trickling through an extensive bog that probably is a mile from source to the lake.  Of the 40 acres of maple syruping woods along the lake, maybe 15 acres are lake shore, creek bog; inaccessible most of the year--too wet to walk through and I am to old to hop from tussock to tussock like my younger days of bog exploring. 

Scott and I took a tour to see what was there.  You can join us on the tour in photos. 

The bog begins on the right side of the photo with the tag alder brush and wraps around the east and north side of the lake and then extends to the NE a mile or more crossing Hwy 87

The beavers and the wet late fall raised the water level and more of the bog is iced over and easy to walk across.  There are springs here and there that makes it exciting as you have to be careful not to step through thin ice.

Beaver lodge up the creek.  Scott kayaked up this far last summer.  

Otter trail?  

Access for beavers, muskrats, otters and ??   A spring and activity keeps it open

I think we must have about 15 acres of this type of bog, although some of it is higher and has ash, tamarack and other trees in the mossy surface.

Tamarack trees

Tag alders and red twig dogwood

Center of photo is an open spring.  I couldn't walk closer as the ground is wet and a person sinks into the bog.  I didn't test how deeply I would sink, but probably only over my boots.

Tamarack cones

The warm weather fooled some pussy willows

It looks like an ash tree but what are the seeds?

Not ash seeds, so what kind of a tree is it?