Hiking to Chickering Bog in the Rain

Trip Reports

Sun May 04 2025 Hiking to Chickering Bog in the Rain by Phyllis Rubenstein

On Sunday, May 4, five hardy souls and I hiked over 3 miles in Adamant to Chickering Bog and along some of its side trails in a persistent, light rain. We stopped frequently to identify more than a dozen spring wildflowers in different phases of leafing out, budding, or flowering, including red trillium, yellow trout lily, wild ginger, Dutchmen’s breeches, two-leaf toothwort, Carolina spring beauty, three-leaf goldthread, Canada mayflower, early blue cohosh, and sharp-lobed hepatica, and shrubs such as the non-native daphne. From the boardwalk, we saw purple pitcher plants, leatherleaf, Labrador tea, bog rosemary, and possibly low bush blueberry. In marshy areas, we saw marsh marigold, and a very small plant with a tiny flower. Through a hand lens we could better see the tiny flower with what appeared to have 8 tiny orange balls arranged in a square. I was later able to identify it as American golden saxifrage, a very cool looking plant! We also looked at trees, ferns, mosses, lichens, liverworts, club mosses, moose scat, and more. In July, the spring wildflowers will no longer be visible, but the pitcher plants will be flowering and other fen plants such as orchids will be present. Time to return!

Red trillium