Our North Carolina friends, Neil Jacobs and Jen Modliszewski, made a visit to a place called Baker’s Brook Bog in July of 2012. It’s a large raised bog situated about 10 km (6 miles) north of Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. This is a fairly unknown bog, but it has relatively easy access from the main highway. Apparently, many of the large bogs serve as playgrounds for snowmobile enthusiasts, and this one is no exception. There was an obvious snowmobile trail leading from the highway up a fairly steep slope into the raised bog. Along the way into the bog, we saw several moose tracks, so it appears that they tend to choose the path of least resistance, as well.
What drew me to want to visit this site was Jen’s images of several Arethusa bulbosa or Dragon’s Mouth orchids that had colored petals but an almost white lip. Even though I had seen what seems like “billions” of Arethusa bulbosa so far, I had not run across this color form and was anxious to find it. Neil’s directions were spot on, especially since he had gotten them from another friend and author of Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Stan Bentley, who had visited the bog in 1996.
So we headed off to find that elusive bi-colored Arethusa bulbosa:
Walter and I make our way up the slope that ran under two sets of powerlines and finally reached the bog. By this point, I’m becoming fairly discriminating about which Arethusa bulbosa orchids I’m photographing. There don’t seem to be as many at this site as I’ve seen in other locations, but there is promise here. I see a white/alba form here and there, and soon, I’m seeing some really nice color forms with good contrast in their coloration:
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Even though this is a huge bog covering many dozens maybe hundreds of acres, most of the best Arethusa bulbosa orchids appear to be on or near the faint snowmobile path that crosses the bog. Since it is fairly straight and level, I followed this path several hundred yards across the bog. Soon, I’m making some progress in finding the bi-colored orchids I came to photograph. Here is one that almost fits the bill:
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see the one pictured at the beginning of this blog entry. Yay! I had found it! I began to set up the tripod and about that time, I hear a yelp from back up the trail, and discover that Walter has gotten himself mired, almost knee-deep in a soft portion of the bog off the edge of the snowmodile trail. The more he attempted to extricate himself, the worse his predicament became. So I rushed over to give him some assistance. It was difficult to pull him from the boot-sucking muck that had, by this time, taken the other foot. We both hoped (out loud) that he wouldn’t lose his boots in the process, but fortunately he had tied the laces quite tightly, and the ordeal ended successfully for us.
Back to the bi-colored specimen, I took several shots of this beauty, then noticed that there was a small group of very light colored ones within an arm’s length. These were an unusual color of pink that I had not previously seen, and to my amazement, they all had almost completely white lips!:
We spent another hour or so wandering around the bog, then decided to make our way back to the car, being careful to stay on the snowmobile trail and avoid the softer portions of the bog. On our way back down, we noticed a very nice stand of Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata also known as White Bog orchid or Scent Bottle orchid blooming beside the trail. In our haste to reach the bog on our way up, we had failed to make note of these beautiful plants. The common name of Scent Bottle orchid is quite appropriate, because the fragrance is perhaps the strongest of any of the wild orchids found in Newfoundland. These plants, unlike most of the other native orchids in the area, can grow quite tall. Some of the ones we saw were at least 2 feet (60 cm) tall, and were glowing beautifully in the morning sunlight:
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We still had one more place to visit, and this would involve hiking a 3 km (~2 mile) trail to a place called Western Brook Pond. This is an area that was created eons ago when a massive glacier carved a fjord into the landscape. The 2000 foot (600 meter) cliff walls surrounding the fjord are a sight to see, even from a great distance. There is a boat tour which we did not take that ferries travelers between the cliffs and into the deepest recesses of the fjord. Here is the scene from mid-way along the trail:
We proceeded down the trail, which was either gravel or boardwalk, so there was no chance of having to walk in the wet bogs. The weather quickly became foggy, and I figured that we would no longer be able to get any long-distance shots. In this part of Newfoundland, so close to the coast, the weather can change on a dime. As we rounded a corner, there were a couple of people looking out into the fog, pointing to a dark object several hundred yards away. It turned out to be a female moose, browsing on the local vegetation:
According to the focus of her ears, she seemed to be quite aware of us but not startled in any way. Soon, she wandered off into the fog.
Farther on down the boardwalk, we came upon a lovely sight of the boardwalk surrounded by an Iris-covered swamp. The species of Iris is Iris versicolor or Harlequin Blueflag — what a name… This is one of the most common wildflowers we would see on our trip — they were growing in every wet place along the highway and in the lowest portions of all of the bogs:
We finally reached the boat dock where people had gathered for the scheduled boat trip into the fjord. Here is the scene from the observation deck along the dock:
We hung around there for a little while and then made our way back out, enjoying the bogs along the way. One bog, in particular near the boardwalk, provided habitat for a large number of very robust carivorous plants called Drosera rotundifolia or Round-leaf sundew:
This was very near where we had earlier photographed the moose. Close by, was a very nice example of Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata or Scent Bottle orchid. The fragrance was so strong that we could not have missed it:
All the rest of the way back, we looked for additional orchids, but we didn’t find anything except the typically colored Arethusa bulbosa. At this point, it would take one that was super exceptional to interest me in stopping. We finally made it back to the car, packed our gear, and drove back to the motel in Rocky Harbour. The next morning, we would be heading northward and hoping to see some orchid species that were still on my bucket list…
— Jim