Voices · Issue 12

Notes from the Bog Boardwalk

A short essay on the wettest, quietest, most undervalued walk in the park system.

Notes from the Bog Boardwalk

The boardwalk floats on the bog the way a held breath floats on a conversation. Every step is a small negotiation with a landscape that refuses to be drained, mapped, or hurried.

Reeds, sphagnum, the occasional heron — the bog has fewer species than the forest and shows them more honestly. It is the quietest walk we know, and the one that asks the least and gives the most back.