The Long Hike

Mount Cardigan is located in Alexandria and Orange NH. Orange is to the west of the mountain and Alexandria to the east. The town southeast of Cardigan is Bristol. At the top of Cardigan, the elevation is about 3,186 ft. While our group was at the top, we recorded the coordinates of the summit, which were N43 degrees 39' 11.9" and W71 degrees 54' 48.6". When hiking, my group didn't take the exact route to Mount Cardigan; we took a trail up to Firescrew, the mountain next to Cardigan, and then hiked a little connecter trail to Cardigan. While on Firescrew, the elevation was 3,036 ft. At that point, the coordinates were N43 degrees 39' 4.1" and W71 degrees 53' 56.2". We found out later that helicopters use Firescrew's bald summit as a practice landing pad!

While at Cardigan, we stayed at the AMC lodge located at 1,400 ft. of elevation N43 degrees 38' 59" and W71 degrees 52' 42". The Cardigan lodge contains of four floors, the bottom one just as a mudroom. You walk in the building, through the mud room, and up a flight of wooden stairs to arrive at the 2nd floor; the dining area. On that floor is where we ate all of our meals, and met in front of the fireplace before and after dinner. After you walk up another flight of stairs, you get to the girls floor which contains of both the boys and girls bathrooms, and the girl's bunk rooms, where I slept. And up one more flight of stairs you get to the boys floor that I know nothing about because never went up there. Outside of the lodge to the right is a trail leading to the hiking trails with four porta potty's. To the left of the lodge, you have to walk across a grassy field to arrive at a camping area, along with a couple of other trails. On these trails is where we spent most of our time at Cardigan, each of them named a unique name and blazed with a certain color. The blazes are there to help hikers make sure that they stay on the trail.

At Cardigan, we saw lots of plants, animals, and some wildlife. I noticed that around there, little tiny newts were very popular. In one day, I saw two of them, and even got to touch one's tiny little foot! There were also many snakes, and I got to see a woodpecker from about 3 feet away. There's lots of different varieties of plants and trees in the Cardigan forest, from Striped Maples to Alpine Moss to Beech trees. The Striped Maple is known for it's striped light and dark gray bark, and it's rounded leaves. If you step on Alpine Moss, it's most possible that you've killed it because it's a very fragile species, and, of course Beech Trees can be identified for their bright vibrant green leaves and light gray bark. We also walked over lots of streams and brooks while in Cardigan mountain forest.

We were at Cardigan Lodge for three days: Sunday (Day 1), the day we arrived, Monday (Day 2), the day of the big hike, and Tuesday (Day 3), which is when we got poured on.