As I began my walk on the Trail Around Middlebury, the voices and sounds of cars faded. I turned right off of the trail into an open field and followed four-wheeler tracks. The signs of human disturbance began to disappear as I reached a large patch of trees. I walked from the path on a thick layer of leaves until I was immersed in trees, and I sat down against a young Red Oak (Quercus rubra) to begin my observations.
The setting sun broke through the trees to where I was sitting, and immediately I was in awe in the way that the sun rays created streaks of shadows through the branches. In front of me, on the branches and needles of a White Pine (Pinus strobus), a spiderweb glimmered in a small patch of sunlight. I then began to look at the trees more closely. With the exception of a white pine in the distance, I was surrounded by a dense patch of much younger trees, none taller than 20-30 feet. Though there were a few evergreens interspersed, the trees were mostly deciduous and the ground was covered in a thick layer of leaves. The trunks of the trees were all thin and their lower branches were mostly broken off, possibly due to how young and dense the forest was.
After observing the surrounding area and trees, I closed my eyes and turned my focus to the sounds I heard. Immediately I heard the wind swishing through the trees like a great waterfall, something that I had barely noticed before. As I opened my eyes and began to watch the trees sway in the wind, I looked up and saw an empty bird’s nest amongst the branches of one of the taller American Beech trees (Fagus americana). As my time in the woods came to an end and I began to walk back, the picture of the sun breaking through the swaying trees remained in my head.
