Summer Vacation to Wild Places

by Tim Burris, Mariton Preserve Manager.

A secret place in the Adirondacks.

Maureen and I recently went canoeing with a group of friends in the Adirondacks. Like us, that region was very dry in mid-July.  It started raining while we were there, but not enough to interrupt our day trips.  One day we visited a new spot.  It is a boggy pond.  There is a substantial inlet and outlet, but bog vegetation is taking over the pond and it will someday be a flat wet area with a stream flowing through it.  The water is shallow and you have to find channels to get across the pond, especially in low water conditions.  It was breezy enough the day we visited, but bugs can be an issue too.  Many people might not enjoy canoeing through an area like this, but one of our friends and I love these places.

Sundews

We had been studying the maps and talking about visiting this area for over a year. These are the types of places where you find bog vegetation like Pitcher Plants and Sundews, but we were looking forward to seeing Rose Pogonia and bog-loving orchids.  Unfortunately, because it was so dry, we couldn’t reach the wild flowers we were hoping to find.

Bunchberry

Not a problem, we know how to reach this secret place now, and plan to go back next year to explore it more extensively. I found one of the best examples of Bunchberry (Cornus Canadensis) I think I have ever seen.  Seeing this dogwood species really made my day, and made up for the fact that we missed the orchids.

Green Frog by Manon and Jim’s canoe

This Green Frog made Manon’s day.  Getting to this special place entails a lot of physical work (probably why it is still special), but we were already talking about next year on the hike out.