The pathway passes through three distinct habitats. From the parking lot, you enter a predominantly beech forest, carpeted in ferns, and then arrive at a former railroad grade. A lone trail marker directs you south along the old railroad bed for 0.5 mile to a bridge leading into the woods. It’s along the open, meadow-like terrain of the rail-trail where the raspberries can be thicker than the deerflies.

The final habitat is the lush woods of a cedar swamp. Here the trees were primarily cedar, spruce, and tamarack, which grow well in the bog-like conditions and shade a forest floor carpeted in moss, wintergreen, and wildflowers earlier in the summer. Jack-in-the-pulpit, with its white flower in the green pulpit, is one of the easiest flowers for children to recognize. There are also Canada mayflowers, grass of Parnassus with its flower of five white petals, and great blue lobelia with its delicate bluish-purple flowers.

The trail follows a stream through the woods and consists of a boardwalk with scattered benches much of the way. Toward the end you cross the stream on a bridge and shortly emerge into the open area of cattails and marsh grasses, with the observation tower at the end of the boardwalk, 0.5 mile from the railroad grade.

The tower is 16 feet high and provides a sweeping panorama of Skegemog Swamp, a maze of open-water channels and patches of cattails and other shrubs. On the horizon is the edge of the lake, and with the aid of binoculars you can often spot a variety of bird life, including Canada geese, egrets, great blue herons, a variety of waterfowl, and, if you’re lucky, a bald eagle or osprey fishing along Skegemog Lake. Other wildlife that is occasionally spotted from the tower or even the boardwalk are otters, mink and beavers.