Old western red cedar (Thuja plicata) trees make great shade. Walking through an old cedar stand can be quite comfortable year round. When it's raining, the upper canopy intercepts the rain. If you were out in the open, then your forehead would intercept the rain. This photo (left) is of the ancient trees on Long Island in Willipa Bay in Washington State, just east of Long Beach Peninsula.
Summer heat doesn't penetrate very far (<100m) into the forest, horizontally and vertically. As you walk closer to the edge of the forest, the temperature raises, your eyes start to squint, and your nostrils start to dry out. As you return to the forest, you can smell the moist forest floor, springy with layers of decomposing materials and mycelia.
The ground stays moist, dead branches break when you fall into them, and mushrooms grow on leaf litter and downed woody debris. Snails and slugs wander through the forest floor. A deadly lancetooth (Ancotrema Sportella) searches for a mollusk meal.
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