I visited Derby again on Sunday October 31st at 2:00 PM. It was chilly and rainy when I visited. I took my normal route down the bike path to the trail head. There were very few people out and about on the bike path due to the rain. I experienced the same thing on the nature trail, there was no one else there.
I made my way to the edge of the Winooski River a ways down the nature trail. I decided to sit on the grass strip between the nature trail and the slope to the shoreline. This was my sit spot for 15 min. The map of my spot is below.
During my 15 minute sit the sound of rain was the main thing on my mind, both in the trees and on the surface of the river. Besides the sound of rain, the area around me was incredibly quiet. The stream bank also smelled like rain. All of the wet mud on the shoreline had a very strong scent. With all of the cloud cover the landscape was very dim, and the river was very dark in color. The whole area had a very calm energy from the sound of the rain, to the dark lighting. It was incredibly calming to sit in my spot and let the rain hit my face. After the 15 minutes I felt very refreshed. Along with that, I gained a great appreciation of my place, and felt a deeper connection to it.
I noticed a few subtle changes in my place since I had last been there. The river seemed to be moving faster than the last time I visited, mostly likely from the increase in runoff from the past few rainy days. The water temperature was also felt fairly colder than last time I had been there. The temperature seems to finally be dropping along the water enough to induce phenological changes. Another one of these changes is that the leaves of the trees are now changing colors, similar to the other ones further inland.
I am excited for the coming months to see this place really change as temperatures begin to drop more and more.