Welcome to the little spot of mine located in Centennial Woods in Burlington, VT! My spot is located on the middle of a footbridge which is right over a stream running through the woods.
How do I get there?
To get to my favorite spot in Centennial Woods you need to begin at the entrance located by the campus police station. From there you enter the woods by the sign and walk down the path. The path is on a downwards incline and you follow it until you get to a clearing in the woods that has an abundance of Eastern White pines. Once there you take the leftward path and there should be a small footbridge about 20ft. from the pine clearing. After you cross that footbridge you really start to feel yourself getting deeper into the woods and away from civilization. Soon you’ll arrive at another clearing but this time the trees in the area are paper birches. Just after the birch clearing there is a long foot bridge. If you go half way across the bridge there is a clearing in the trees and there you go; you’ve arrived.
This place definitely has changed its landscape overtime and you can tell because of the mysterious feeling you get when you are there. My spot is located on a footbridge which shows that human involvement in the area is obviously high and it makes you wonder what it looked like before humans came into the picture.
the 5 senses
5 senses come into play when spending time in this place. The first thing you’ll really notice when you’re sitting on this footbridge, taking nature in, is what you hear. When it is just you in the woods by yourself you hear just how alive the forest is, even when you can’t see a lot of organisms. You can hear the cicadas making the air hum as they try and hold onto the last days of summer. Bird activity is very high in this area and you can hear all of the birds calling out to each other and flapping their wings above. The most distinct sound in this spot is the flow of the stream. On days after a heavy rainfall the stream is moving at fast rates or on normal days it is slowly pushing along. Regardless the stream velocity the sound that comes about is a very peaceful one that reminds me of a day spa vibe.
The next sense that comes into play is smell. Due to the moving water in this area, the first time I came to this spot it reminded me of a spring day even though it was one of the last summer days in Vermont. The smell is fresh and earthy and the only way to experience it is to get outside.
Visually, you see the moving stream snake its way through the landscape, eroding the banks of tall grass and small beech trees. If you look just past the brook you see a bunch of larger Norway maples who’s colors are shifting from green to red as the fall season encroaches upon us. To the left you see the transition from an area with water to a dry wooded area with many tall pines and to the right you see smaller shrubs entangling themselves with the foot bridge.
There isn’t much I would recommend tasting here but I will say you can taste the air in the same way that it smells. The air just tastes cleaner even though you are still so close to a city.
Sitting on the dock you can feel just how worn out the wood on the foot bridge is and think about how many people cross it a day. You can feel the Earth of the river bank between your hands and how rich the soil feels as compared to an arid landscape. Overall this sight is pleasing to every sense in every way imaginable.