The Enchanted Forest trail promises even more enchantment in the Fall as the large-leafed maples turn golden. Thirteen of us found golden leaves hanging from some of the maple trees. The maples had turned gold at lower levels in the creek valleys but were still green further up the trail.
The trail close to the Fenton Memorial is special because there are so many intriguing mosses and lichens hanging from trees. Dendroalsia moss with strands like clinched fists was on a downed log across the trail. Tree lungwort lichen that looks like tree leaves was on some tree trunks. We returned to the trail fork and found Elisabeth relieved to see us after she had come up the Felton trail an hour and a half later due to waiting for AAA to open her car after having locked her keys in the car at CVS. Why relieved? She’d hiked up Felton about ¾ mile and spotted an adorable young bear in the “V” of a tree near the trail. She calmly turned around and then tried to alert us, unsuccessfully with no cell coverage and unable to gain satellite access. Our group didn’t see the bear, by then likely scared off by our co-hike leader.
We all continued up the Enchanted Forest trail. We saw few golden leaves but discovered an enchanting area for lunch with downed logs, a dark marsh, and a Brown Creeper creeping. We returned down the trail where more golden leaves will soon fall as Socorro demonstrated by gently shaking a tree.
Hike distance: 4.7 miles, elevation gain around 500’. Afterwards many of us went to Pennington Farms for pear pie and pastries where we enjoyed more autumn color sitting in their garden.
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