Time: 2:00pm
Date: October 21st, 2019
Weather: 57 degrees and sunny
When you enter Centenniel woods stick left, on each trail that opens up stay towards the leftmost trail. You will walk past one or two small wooden bridges, until you begin to pass a small valley. The valley will have an abandoned tent, pass the tent and the next clearing will be my locationThe trail sits midway upon an incline, right around a small bend that opens up to trees. The bend sits opposite an even steeper incline across a small valley of open brush. The brush has dried from the cooling autumn temperatures since my first visit when it had sprouted goldenrod and tall plant stalks I could not identify. The forest floor is littered in fallen leaves, pinecones, and pine needles.
Just beyond the trail lay a tree that has since been cut into separate pieces so it could be moved off of the trail easily. Seen in the image below are two drawings from my field notebook, the top image is of a branch from one of the ferns on the trail and the bottom image is of a piece of log that had its own ecosystem growing on the bark.
The trees consistent of Striped Maple and White Pines, as well as a species with red berries that I have yet to identify. The place is incredibly small and there is little to no space to sit, but you can spread a jacket or small blanket on the incline to observe the opposite view. The leaves are changing quickly in the small valley from greens to golds, oranges, and bright reds. They are beautiful in their vibrancy. This small place is unlikely in its showiness, but offers a frame of the local fall change and its foliage.
The sun filters through in leaf patterns on the soil and underlying plants offering some light to the lower plants that fill in the open space below the towering pine. The pine is easily the largest tree on the site with branches that move upwards in a spiral reaching outwards, its own needles pepper the ground which softens your steps.