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There is a little bog near Mirror Lake. It is almost perfectly circular, especially when seen in aerial views. No trip to Mirror Lake is complete without a visit to The Bog. We sit in the sphagnum moss and take stock of our lives, trade memories, and have a few sips of brandy. It is a sacred place for old friends. I can't tell you how to find the Bog. It's not due to selfishness, just the fact that it is very tiny, and there are no clearly defined guides to it on the off-trail hike. |
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Here Sprague and Rafferty go searching for cranberries.
The vegetation supports a person's weight, but it moves and rolls
much like a water bed because there is water below.
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The Bog is populated by Pitcher Plants. These are insectivorous - they "eat" bugs for nutrients. The insects get caught in downward-angled hairs at the top of the plant and eventually fall into the pitcher and steep in the rainwater collected inside.A complex process involving protozoa and mosquito larvae make a "bug tea" that feeds the plant. This year I found snow fleas inside the pitchers. I'd pull out about 50 of them when I dipped a finger inside. As the water dried, they would jump off, one by one, until all were gone. |
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Sprague likes to get right on the ground to get
closer to Nature. I could assemble an album of photos of him doing
this in various venues. Here he gets comfortable in the sphagnum,
leatherleaf and pitcher plants.
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