QUICK TRAIL FACTS
- Preserve Size: 192 acres
- Trail Mileage: ~1.8 miles
- Pets: yes
- Difficulty: easy
- Sights: Kettle bog
By Sam Shirley
Canaan Bog Preserve is a wonderful place to ski in the new snow! The lollipop-loop trail is only open in winter for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, as it passes over wetlands. The first part of the trail (~0.5 miles) follows the power lines, while the 0.7-mile loop weaves through beautiful mixed forest. The trails are relatively easy for backcountry trails, with few hills.
You can see on the Google map that the loop trail makes its way through a small forest encircled by an extensive bog ecosystem. Canaan Bog Preserve is a kettle bog, named for the depression, or “kettle hole,” that formed here thousands of years ago by a large block of ice that split off from a retreating glacier. The ice block eventually got covered with sediment, and when it melted, left behind a hollow that filled with water.
Directions: The trailhead and parking area is at the utility corridor on East River Road, about 0.6 miles south of the intersection with Oak Pond Road.
