This is a place I know. I know it well. I have run past it for the past four years. The Thetford Academy cross country trail runs past a stand of dark hemlocks and spruce. I took a walk last week on the trail that I knew so well and decided to explore this area more. I was delighted with what I found and how much I had never noticed when running the trail. I love this trail. I live next to the school and so in my free time I often go for walks or runs on the trails. I did not however venture off trail until my senior year during forestry class. I learned then began to bring my friend along with me and show him everything I had learned and where I had learned it. We discovered new things together. Going back to this place was so comforting and familiar that I was sad when I had to return to the trail and walk home again. I was pleased to realize that I had learned something while at UVM and that I could again share what I knew with my friend who came along again. I noticed the distinct change in forest structure when we crossed over a stone wall. The ground became uneven where it was been fairly level before. There was a beech snag by the stone wall that was much larger than any other beeches in the area. This lead me to believe that the area had not been clear cut as recently as the other side of the stone wall. The stone wall was a property marker along a forest perhaps. I was so pleased with this hypothesis that I shared it with my friend and now I share it with you.
This area is unlike my site near the waters edge in Burlington. This area in the woods behind my house felt more real. There was a level of structure and diversity that cannot be found in the small park that I have been visiting. The leaves there are nearly all gone and the shrubs are dying back. The grass is crunchy from frost. The wind sweeps against that little park from off the lake and makes it an unpleasant place to sit now. The woods behind my house however, are still and full of rustling leaves and soft needles in the case of this stand of hemlocks I found. The two places are so different, but I still know which one is my favorite. The hemlock stand feels like home; a place I can escape to be free. Where the park feels like a quiet misused spat of land.
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
Shelton, Sadie (2015).
