Please humor me as I post some more plant photos. One just has to appreciate the plants that grow in wet, nutrient-deficient bogs, and I saw pitcher plants putting up blooms in the wild today! We raised them in the botany class, but they rarely survived the lack of care they got over the summer. We were also seeing the black spruces here that Paul and Roxann are seeing in Alaska. The Tamarack trees are unique in that they lose their needles each winter, the pine cones stay on the tree for years, and the needles feel really soft.

The list is an attempt to define words used for various, slightly different, wet environments. Annie Proulx wrote a book about peatlands and said to not be too concerned with names as the experts don’t agree anyway. She said they just need to be appreciated and saved, and I agree! Thoreau said he’d rather live in a dismal swamp than the most beautiful garden, but I’m not sure I agree with that. Swamps definitely have mosquitos.

The beach here at the park is really nice – lots of sand, shallow area, good water clarity. We also walked along the Paul Bunyan Trail which is 115 miles of paved trail that is perfect for biking.