Chickering Bog Nature Trail

Just 15 minutes from Vermont's state capitol of Montpelier, this wide-open peatland, circled by dark tamarack, spruce and fir forest, feels as if it is a world away. Chickering Bog began to form when glaciers receded from Vermont over 10,000 years ago and left behind a bedrock basin that filled with water. Chickering Bog is actually misnamed; this so-called bog is really a fen. Water enters bogs solely through rainwater, while fens like Chickering Bog are also fed by calcium-rich groundwater and springs. A one mile trail and boardwalk passes through a second growth mixed conifer/broadleaved forest before reaching the fen boardwalk which allows visitors to get close to the myriad of fen plants such as blue flag iris and showy lady's slipper orchids, as well as to wildlife. Bullfrogs, pickerel frogs, northern leopard frogs and wood frogs all strike up their choruses in season. Wood ducks, barred owls, pileated woodpeckers, swamp sparrows and other birds are found here. In winter, the tracks of mammals ranging from fishers to white-tailed deer and snowshoe hares crisscross the fen's frozen surface. With the help of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps the boardwalk was reconstructed in 2006 to provide an unobstructed view of the fen and wetland plants by allowing visitors to walk out over the wetland without disturbing it.