We parked by the Southeast entrance to the Nounou Forest Preserve, and hiked up and in. It was damp and hot! 80 degrees with 85% humidity, moving fast makes you sweat. The initial ascent is perfumed by the strawberry guava trees that you hike under: the blossoms were in full bloom, and the fruit ripening, falling to the ground, some overripe and fermenting. It's really heady, somewhat wine-like, and saturating and permeating the entire air with this heady sweetness. It's really indescribable. The ground is squishy, from the frequent damp, ranging from mist to full rain, and the constant leaf litter; this was very "jungle-y", in some places the trail seemed to disappear or the vegetation so thick as to make you duck. It was actually refreshing to ascend to the top ridge of the Norfolk pines, and get a breath of fresh breeze. It kind of blew my mind to see full-grown Norfolk pines in a forest: they are usually tiny little things in pots grown as novelty table top Christmas trees.
Pictures!
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