Enchanted Forest

Photos by Francie

Ashland Hiking Home

Six hikers decided to brave potentially hiking in the rain. I wore my newly purchased rain pants and hard shell rain coat hoping that would guarantee a dry hike. The plan worked well.

We headed up along the trail and were surprised to see that the big leaf maples were still mostly green. Just shy of 1 mile, we took the Felton Memorial trail to the right and hiked for 1.5 miles. We passed a group of 6 that said a neighbor in the area had come down and showed them pictures of a bear from his trail camera. We had seen scat and several places where it looked like the dirt on the side of the trail had been disrupted. When we got to the plaque memorializing the 3 men, we talked about how they had died in the performance of their duties. We took our packs off and had a snack.

Liz found leaves from a white oak and a black oak and explained to us the difference (see photo below). The white oak has rounded edges on the leaves much like the shape of a Halloween ghost that is white. The black oak has pointed edges of the leaves much like a witches pointed hat that is black.

We hiked back to the Enchanted Forest Trail and continued up the trail and then went up to a ridge and decided that was a good place for a late lunch. The return to the cars was only 2.5 miles.

Francie