What to expect
This cache is located in Lake Bemidji State Park. Entry in to the park requires a MN State Park Pass. There are many different plants and flowers that appear at different times througout the year. The trail system leading up to the Bog Walk is mainly gravel with signs directing you where to go. The hike is just under 1 mile on maintained gravel and dirt trails. While it is available during winter, the boardwalk and some other trails are not maintained during the winter but are accessible on snow shoes and skiis.
Once you reach the Bog Walk, you'll follow a narrow boardwalk that leads to the posted coords. The boardwalk is the only place where you can walk in the bog. Due to how narrow the boardwalk is, it is best to leave the pets at home. Bikes are not allowed on the boardwalk but you can ride them on the dirt trails. There is a place to lock your bikes up once you get the boardwalk.
Logging this geocache
To log this cache, submit answers to the following questions.
- What was the biggest contributor to this bog being formed?
- What is drift?
- Think about the landscape you have seen so far in the park. Answer one:
- Which way, lengthwise, do you imagine a glacier facing (e.g. north/south or east/west)
- Where do you think most of the drift was located along the hike?
Submit my answers
Bog, Marsh, Swamp... they are different
Most of us would probably use the terms bog, marsh, or swamp interchaneably. While they are all wetlands they are all different!
A swamp is a forested wetland, usually with little or shallow peat. Waters are neutral or slightly acidic. Much standing or gently flowing water is present.
A marsh is a grassy wetland, usually with cattails and no trees. Standing or slowly moving water is present. The water is not acidic.
A bog is what you are in if your are on the boardwalk that leads to the posted coordinates. A bog is a peatland dominated by mosses, especially sphagnum moss. If you look down, you will see primarily moss. That is the light pillowy looking green stuff! In a bog trees may or may not be present. The water in a bog is usually strongly acidic. In the case of a raised bog there is an elevated dome caused by peat accumulation. The dome, at least, is isolated from the water table and depends entirely on precipitation for water. In some areas of this bog, that appears to be the case.
About this bog
Bogs are sometimes described as Minnesota's last wilderness areas. Due to this bog being protected and preserved this bog is home to a wide array of some of Minnesota's most rare plant and animal species. The boardwalk brings you in only 1/4 of a mile in to this bog but gives a very good sampling of what lives and grows througought this bog.
Ecologists use the term "bog" to describe a very specific plant community type. Bogs, in the narrow sense, occur only on deep saturated peat. The surface of a bog is isolated from ground water and from water that flows from mineral soil, so it's only source of water is rainwater. This makes bog water very low in mineral nutrients and very acidic so only very specialized plant species can survive these conditions.
Bogs are typically dominated by hummocks (small knolls/mounds above ground) of sphagnum moss, with scattered shrubs and stunted trees. This bog lies within a spruce-tamarack forest. So you will find many trees, such as black spruce (Picea mariana) or tamarack (Larix laricina).
The landscape in the area is unique. This region does not have much sudden or steep variation. Yet the bog is surrounded by rolling, sometimes steep, variations in elevation. Geologists explain that this uniuqe landscape resulted, thousands of years ago, during Minnesota's last stage of glaciation (glaciers scraping accross the ground). Soil, gravel, and rock materials were caried by a glacier as it moved south. As the ice melted, these materials were left to sit here. When moved by a glacier, these materials are called drift.
Geologists say that as the glacier moved, chunks of ice separated from it and they later filled with water. This bog, Bog Lake, and Lake Bemidji were likely formed by those chunks of ice. It is good to notice another aspect of how this land was formed.
Keep an eye out for small labels placed next to plants when park rangers spot new plant growth. Each label gives the name of the plant in English and the Ojibwe language.