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| Tamaracks line the shores of Big Bog Lake in autumn. |
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| Bog Walk map. Click for larger version. |
The Bog Walk runs miles 2.4 miles round-trip. A boardwalk takes you through wetlands – with leaves of various shrubs turning yellow while others remain green – to a beautiful lake ringed by trees with orange needles.
To reach the trailhead, from Bemidji, take County Road 19/Lake Avenue NE north. Pretty Lake Bemidji sits to the left/west, and along the way you’ll cross the Mississippi River, which this close to its headwaters is just a small, shallow river. At Bass Lake Road NE, turn right/east; this eventually becomes New Bass Road North. At County Road 20/Birchmont Beach Road NE, go left/west. Next, turn left/south onto County Road 414/State Park Road NE and enter the park. At the next junction, go right/south and then take the next left/southeast into the parking area.
From the parking lot walk alongside the road you just came in on, heading west. Where the road forks to the ranger station, instead right/north. You'll cross County Road 414 and pass the campground's western side. Once you pass the second road to the camper cabins, at 0.3 miles, the trail technically begins. Fortunately, the whole route is shaded.
When the trail crosses County Road 20, you’ve entered wilderness. A couple of trails branch off to the left/northwest, but you'll want to stay on the main trail, which veers right/east.
Most of the trail to this point has been pines with a few hardwoods. The region is a transition zone between the deciduous forests of maple, basswood and oak to the south and the great boreal forest of spruce, fir, paper birch, aspen, and jack pine to the north.
At 0.7 miles, the trail junctions a path going left/north. Continue right-straight/east. Once you pass the bike parking area, you'll come to the quarter-mile boardwalk over a bog.
Big Bog
The bog sits in a tamarack spruce lowland forest. At your feet are a number of fascinating plants you won't anywhere but a swamp – sheets of sphagnum moss that look solid but actually sit on oversaturated soil and would sway if stepped on...round-leaved sundew and pitcher plants that dine on insects...and if in late spring or early summer the showy blooms of lady's-slipper and Dragon’s-mouth orchid that look like they belong in an elegant home's expensive vase rather than a mysterious swamp.
On the slightly higher ground around and in the bog, several shrubs and trees grow. The needles of the black spruce provides year-round greenery.
Leaves on the alders growing in the bog also stubbornly remain green through autumn. The multi-stemmed shrub grows 10-25 feet high and often forms thickets that are impossible to walk through. To identify an alder, look for warty bark, which are signs of a mature shrub.
Or during autumn just look for the green leaves, both on the shrub and the ground. Bacteria on the alder's roots help convert nitrogen to energy, so when there’s less sunlight, the plant has no need to abandon its leaves to stay alive as deciduous trees do.
Bog birch
Another common shrub along the boardwalk is the bog birch, known by various other names including dwarf birch, low birch, and swamp birch. Its leaves do change color in autumn, turning yellow.
Growing about 5-8 feet high, bog birch is a clump-forming shrub that colonizes bogs and lake borders. It requires wet areas and the full sun to thrive.
In 1.2 miles, the trail reaches Big Bog Lake. Tamaracks, a deciduous conifer tree, line the lakeside. Each autumn, its needles turn orange and fall off, as if they were leaves on maple tree. They rise between 40-70 feet tall and about 14-20 inches wide. Tamaracks also are known as American larch.
After taking in the sites, retrace your steps back to the parking lot.
