Through Cardigan and Back.read
by Charles R. Red Group. D1 B2
About two weeks ago, we hiked Mt. Cardigan. That was a fun time, I must admit, but there are other things to go over now. The first theme of geography. There are two types of locations for things: The first, Absolute Location, is not made up of estimates of what towns are nearby, but a rather more exact approach: Coordinates. Geographers use an imaginary grid of lines that cover the entire Earth. There are coordinates for every place on Earth (even you house). The Absolute Location of the mountain is 43 degrees 38'59" North 70 degrees 54'53" West. The next type of location is called a Relative Location. This gives a location for a place (two themes in the same sentence!) that is based on it's surroundings, so I could say my house is in Hopkinton, not far from Contoocook, and a ways away from Concord. So, saying that, the relative location of the mountain is near the towns of Orange and Alexandria. Location is a small piece of geography, but it helps us find out where things are.
Some of the physical parts of Cardigan was the Mountain itself, because it was formed naturally over many cataclysmic events that happened naturally, the Forests, which were made up of Spruce, Oak, and Pines, and intrestingly enough, Scotch Pines! They are a marvel of both types of geography, because they have been imported over from (where else) Scotland, and grown naturally, and Welton Falls (which I do not think anyone got to see), although there were large streams that people saw, like the one my group saw. Although it wasn't the falls, it was still intresting because we got to playon seperated rocks (most likely because of erosion). It was flowing fast, and was abnout 8 feet wide. It was intresting because when you lifted up rocks, you could find Crawfish! In general, Cardigan Mountain is an extremely phsyical place, because it is consisted almost entirely of rock, rock that which we didn't put there. Same with the forests. They're natural.
Cultural things at Cardigan are the Alexandria Lodge, which was actually the remake of an old barn, that was restored during the time of creation of national parks, the Trails on it, which were beaten down over the course of years of people hiking them with heavy feet, and rain erosion that took away soil to exspose roots, the Fire Tower at the top of the mountain, which had to be help down by ropes because of the extreme winds, and some of the ski lodges around it which were usually occupied in winter time. There were trailblazers there too, and they were used to tell people where to go around the trails. There were a variety of colors, each for its own trail, and even a large hunk of quartz at he top! Although it seems like it would be physical (which it kind of is) it is yet another marvel between both types of geography. Its is belived that some pranksters hauled it all the way up, ut other theories show that during a prehistoric ice flow, it waqs carried up! Although Cardigan is almost entirely physical, it still has some cultural things to it. In summary, Mt. Cardigan is an intresting place with both Physical and Cultural types of geography.
My group of students was at Cardigan was at Cardigan for three days and the days were September 27 (Sunday), 9-28 (Monday), and 9-29, Tuesday