Post by aarongunnar on Jan 18, 2012 17:43:09 GMT -5
I visited a few sites in one day so I thought I'd just put them all in one thread. My wife was running a marathon, so I figured it would be perfect to grab my kids and explore some bogs while she ran. It was an uncharacteristic day in May, near-freezing temps and intermittent drizzle/flurries.
First stop was the Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, which has a high-quality bog along Shelp Lake. We didn't venture over to Scott Lake, which is across the road.
Shelp Lake Bog, the leatherleaf in bloom made for some interesting coloration on the groundlayer:
A closeup of the leatherleaf flowers:
A giant pitcher plant rosette, I think it was 1 plant, but I can't be sure. I wonder how old it is?
A photo of my shoe, giving a detail of what to expect when hiking northern WI bogs:
My favorite pic from the site, my daughter, none too happy about walking into the bog on this cold day. Fortunately, we had a pair of boots in the car, which I should've made her put on first.
The 2nd and 3rd places we went were in the Vilas County Forest, Katie Lake and Mud Minnow Lake. Both were pretty similar - kettle lakes surrounded mostly by a fringe of bog:
Katie Lake:
Mud Minnow Lake:
some purps at Katie Lake, no growth had commenced yet, so these are last year's leaves:
Lastly, my son "quaking" the bog at Mud Minnow Lake. If you've never walked on a kettle bog, the closest analogy I can think, is think what it would be like walking on a giant wet sponge floating on a lake. You can jump up and down and send little "shockwaves". There's always a fear of perforating the mat and sinking up to your waste, but it hasn't happened to me...yet:
First stop was the Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, which has a high-quality bog along Shelp Lake. We didn't venture over to Scott Lake, which is across the road.
Shelp Lake Bog, the leatherleaf in bloom made for some interesting coloration on the groundlayer:
A closeup of the leatherleaf flowers:
A giant pitcher plant rosette, I think it was 1 plant, but I can't be sure. I wonder how old it is?
A photo of my shoe, giving a detail of what to expect when hiking northern WI bogs:
My favorite pic from the site, my daughter, none too happy about walking into the bog on this cold day. Fortunately, we had a pair of boots in the car, which I should've made her put on first.
The 2nd and 3rd places we went were in the Vilas County Forest, Katie Lake and Mud Minnow Lake. Both were pretty similar - kettle lakes surrounded mostly by a fringe of bog:
Katie Lake:
Mud Minnow Lake:
some purps at Katie Lake, no growth had commenced yet, so these are last year's leaves:
Lastly, my son "quaking" the bog at Mud Minnow Lake. If you've never walked on a kettle bog, the closest analogy I can think, is think what it would be like walking on a giant wet sponge floating on a lake. You can jump up and down and send little "shockwaves". There's always a fear of perforating the mat and sinking up to your waste, but it hasn't happened to me...yet: