Rubber Boots and Insect Eaters

A view from the Ponkapoag Pond Boardwalk in Canton, MA. This is the view from the second to last board (I was too afraid to walk on the last board.) The walk is about a 1/2 mile, and if you want to do it all you're going to want some nice waterproof knee boots. There are a few boards that dip as much as 4 inches into the water, and get mighty slippery. It took me a year to get up the courage to walk the "boards." It is exactly as it sounds, thick floating boards, chained together making a path through a slightly overgrown peat bog. Blueberries and Sweet Pepperbushes (Clethra alnifolia) create the islands in the swampier portions. I went in to see native MA pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea), found a few, and a larger number of small red sundews (Drosera sp.). Once I saw my first few they were everywhere. Of course the first one was next to the sinking board. And there is no picture of me falling into the bog. I managed to avoid it.