Schoodic bog loop

We took an enjoyable hike last weekend. The bugs are just starting to come out. They were a little bothersome, but not terrible. We got too warm – it’s hard to know how to dress in these cool/warm days. We saw non-human creatures, living their lives in a place where they feel at home. Some sights from the trail:

The area is known as Schoodic Bog, and water penetrates the grasses in channels. One of the channels held this floating log and as we watched it, two turtles came into focus. There was one too small to photograph and this one. The dots look like eyes, but are spots on the back of its neck. I haven’t seen a turtle in a long time so it was good to say hello to them.

Here you can see the boggy nature of the place and the Downeast Sunrise Trail moving through. This is mostly used by ATV (all-terrain vehicles), which are loud and noisy. We only saw one small motorized bike and one runner on this day. There is a lovely view of the nubble (226 m / 741 feet) and Schoodic Mountain (329 m / 1080 feet).

Our route turned off the Sunrise Trail into the forest. Schoodic Mountain was at our back most of the way. It was eerie feeling it looming and watching.

What does Schoodic mean? I looked it up. Maybe the Mi’kmaq word eskwodek meaning “the end” or maybe the Passamaquoddy word scoudiac meaning “the burnt place.” I also found something that says it means “horseback” or glacial kame* in Penobscot and Maliseet. So I guess the meaning in English remains obscure. The references to four different tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy attests to the mixture of peoples that inhabited this area.

*”A kame, or knob, is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the glacier.”

Wikipedia

Here’s the route we took. The mountains are at the top, the bog is in the middle of the loop.