Editor’s note: This story was originally published in July 2021. Clinging to bark, neon green lung lichen glistened with rain from the night before. A thick carpet of emerald moss covered the forest floor and crept up tree trunks.
Overhead, the leafy canopy glowed against a white blanket of clouds. “Everything’s so green,” I said to my friend Lauren as we approached the western slope of Schoodic Mountain in eastern Maine. My dog Juno led the way, and I’m sure her nose told her all sorts of things about the forest that we humans would never know.
A squirrel stash here, a deer trail there. Colorful mushrooms dotted the forest floor — orange, red and yellow caps and corals. A hermit thrush filled the woods with its eerily beautiful song.
Mosquitoes danced. And we hiked on, eager to explore a part of the state-owned Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land. Sometimes you can’t wait for the perfect weather to go hiking.
On that particular Saturday in June, the forecast called for cloudy skies and a potential for afternoon showers. With a steady breeze and temperatures in the 70s, it was gloomy but comfortable. The low cloud cover meant that Lauren and I wouldn’t enjoy any mountaintop views, yet we were determined to cover several miles of trail, breathe some fresh air and exercise our legs.
Lucky for us, the gloomy wilderness had its own special type of beauty. Filled with giant boulders and twisting tree roots, the woods of Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land — which cov.