An Excursion Out of Hopkinton

Mount Cardigan is a 3,155 foot mountain in New Hampshire. It is located half in the town of Alexandria and half in the town Orange. It is in West New Hampshire in what is known as the lakes region. South east of the mountain is the town of Bristol. The peak of Cardigan is pinpointed at 43.6498 degrees N, 71.9148 degrees W. The mountains Fire screw and Orange mountain are neighbors to Mount Cardigan. The longitude and latitude of the peak of the mountain my group climbed, Fire screw, is N 43 degrees 39 minutes 21.8 seconds and W 71 degrees 54 minutes 27.5 second . From the top of all the mountains, you can see most mountains nearby or even in neighbor states. Nearby mountains include Mount Monadnock, the White Mountains, Pleasure Mountain, Maine and Camels hump, Vermont. The AMC lodge (where we stayed) was located east Mount Cardigan at the base. Physical geography was all over our Cardigan trip.The AMC lodge was a white building with a tin roof. It was four stories tall with many different rooms. On the first floor there was a library a makeshift mudroom and a room that only AMC staff was aloud to go in. The second floor was where we ate our sit down meals or met with own groups. Floor three was the girls bunk rooms and both bathrooms. The third floor was where I slept. Lastly, the top floor was for boys bunking only. Outside of the second floor there was a porch and a field. There was a lot of nature around the lodge too. When we went on nature hikes around that elevation we saw many deciduous trees. As we climbed up the mountain and progressed slowly to the alpine zone, we then saw more coniferous trees, even though sometimes we would spot a couple of birch trees. When we stayed at AMC we saw examples of cultural geography. There were so many trails and paths that were made by humans. Our guides were from many different part of the country. My guide, Robin, happened to be from North Carolina. When we ate breakfast and dinner, sit down meals, the guides would weigh how much food waste we had. They called it ORT (Our Remaining Tidbits). At AMC they were very supportive of minimal food going to waste. On the nature trail, we played lots of fun games. The object of one was to see where the hidden close pin was. Another was to find the tree that you had been lead to while you were blindfolded. At the campfire there was lots of cultural geography. We sang a lot of songs I had never heard before and they told us interesting stories of how the world became what it is today. It was a very traditional campfire, but still different from all the other ones I have been to.