Mount Ninham October 14, 2019
Yesterday I went for a hike up Mount Ninham in my hometown of Carmel (Kent), New York. Ninham is probably my favorite place to hike, mostly because there is a firetower at the top of the trail, the highest point in the county, with amazing views from the top. You can even see the NYC skyline on a clear day. It is the perfect place to watch a sunset, which is exactly what I did yesterday! I went at around 6 p.m. and it was the perfect temperature, probably about 65ºF. The top of the firetower is usually extremely windy, but yesterday it was comfortable. While walking up I kept spotting chipmunks and wanted to take pictures, but they move so fast I never ended up getting a good picture. The changing colors of the leaves looked so beautiful, and the bright yellow and orange leaves that had already fallen, covered the trail entirely. It looked magical. I thought it was so cool to take observations and realize how different each type of plant is, even if they look relatively similar. If you notice in my observations, I had to turn my camera's flash on for my last observation, because it was too dark without flash. The sun set so quickly, it was amazing to watch it physically descend into the horizon of trees. Though I started walking down soon after, it still managed to get dark fast; a good reminder that winter is soon approaching. I thought it was interesting that I was able to observe some berries. I never noticed any berries before while hiking that trail. By taking iNaturalist observations, I felt more connected to a place that I thought I knew so well. The observations reminded me that there's still so much to learn.
