Out of all the possible places I could have chosen to make a focus of this blog, I could not think of another spot that I would want to spend more time in than this one. I have always naturally been drawn to areas covered in ferns and pine needles– something about them is calming. Like a space that has not been altered by time or humans. As such, I was immediately drawn to this little spot in Centennial Woods full of moisture and Eastern White Pines. It was beautiful and I would gladly spend hours sitting in that area by myself. It is a spot that inspires creativity and general calm in me, thus my decision to focus on this area.
I am a spiritual person as well– especially with regards to nature. I believe that spots like this link us closer to the greater world that we cannot understand. There is a feeling in forests that I get that makes me feel raw– such inner calm and vulnerability is rare for me– making me feel so much more connected to our earth.
Why this Specific Spot? An Introduction to my Location
Welcome to a small area in Centennial Woods where Eastern White Pines and Ferns grow abundantly. This spot is in Burlington, Vermont on the Centennial Woods Nature Preserve. You can get to the spot off the Catamount Drive entrance to Centennial Woods. You then follow that trail for roughly half of a mile, crossing Centennial Brook. You will then get to a small clearing with Eastern White Pines and Eastern Hemlocks to your left and Paper and Yellow Birches to your right. There are 3 trails branching off from there (one to the left, one in the center, and one to the right). Take the one in the center and follow it for roughly 300 feet. That is the location of this spot.
This spot is covered in orange Pine Needles and dead, decomposing trees. Overall, it may not seem like the most vibrant place in the Woods, but the relative simplicity of the forest composition (that being Eastern White Pine, Sugar Maples, and Ferns are almost the entirety of the vegetation in the area) is still interesting and beautiful to me. It is relatively close to Centennial Brook (you can see it not far from the left side of the spot) and that contributes to the dampness of this area. The soil is acidic and sandy (the former being due to the taninns in the decomposing pine needles and the latter being due to the geographic history of Vermont- specifically the Champlain Sea).
But why choose this spot? For one, its beautiful and calming. I love Ferns and I love Pines. So it seems like a natural fit. Its an interesting site full of decay and rebirth– that would be interesting enough to validate my want to examine the site. Yet, none of those are the main reason for this site being chosen. My specific reasoning is that it is nostalgic for me. While I mentioned before that this site is beautiful and that I like Pine trees, my major drive for this spot was this sticky-sweet feeling of nostalgia I get from the site. I love traveling and my travels as a kid were comprised of a lot of hikes in the North-Eastern United States. I am drawn to Eastern White Pines because I associate them with some of my earliest memories and best memories that I have– (just as an example, Acadia National Park and its rugged coasts filled with evergreens holds a special place in my heart as the first place that someone recognized and encouraged my love of dendrology). My history with the trees in this spot make the spot calming, peaceful, almost holy in a way. I want to see the changes in time of the trees that helped to shape me.