Mount Cardigan Field Trip

Relative Location & Absolute Location

On our way to Mount Cardigan, we went through a few towns during the hour and fifteen minute trip. Those towns included Warner, Sutton, New London, Danbury, Wilmont, Grafton, and finally stopped in Orange, NH. We were within the Cardigan Mountain State Forest at Cardigan Mountain State Park in Alexandria and Ornage NH. On the end of a bumpy dirt road, covered with rocks and potholes. There was a small man-made pond right outside the base lodge located at the elevation of 403 feet, North 43 degrees, 39 minutes, 11.8 seconds and West 71 degrees, 52 minutes, 46.5 seconds. We found a cairn at the elevation of 2,477 feet, North 43 degrees, 34 minutes, 15.9 seconds and West 71 degrees, 58 minutes, 58.7 seconds. At the top of Cardigan Mountain, there were multiple medallions in the rock with writing on them. Many other things were around the state park too.

Place

Physical Geography

At the base of the mountain, the lodge where we stayed stands, waiting for new hikers to come. Most of us hiked both Firescrew and Cardigan. Since it had rained the day before and the first day, all the rocks that we had to hike over were damp and slippery. Puddles also covered multiple areas of many of the trails, making some mud pits. The different types of trails included skiing and hiking but the ski trails are no longer in use. Some were steep and others were not and yellow paint helped guide the way, marking trees on the trail. Another thing about the mountain is that in the pond, there were so many little critters living in there, bugs and salamanders. Outside of the water, twigs and leaves were all over the ground because of the season. Under and on all the stuff on the ground, slugs, snails, and fungus hid. Tall trees stood around all of us like a wall, protecting us from the strong winds. We also learned about many of the other plants in the woods. Some of these were including different types of maples.

Cultural Geography

People have been changing the area around Cardigan for a long time now. They have created trails, built the lodge, and much more. Trails are the biggest thing that people have changed over time at Cardigan. Clearing them and making sure that we can hike them without crashing into anything was a big job, having to make them different sizes (depending on what they were going to be used for). Humans have also painted the trees, new coasts when the color faded, to help keep others on the correct path. Yellow paint blotches kept us going the correct direction. Anyone who works on the trails also has to make sure that the bridges are safe for visitors to use. If they did not, then the bridges would eventually rot out, leaving it unsafe. The summit of Cardigan has medallions, a fire tower, and some grafitti. Plus, the reason why the summit is all (and only) rock, is because there was a fire that was set. Firescrew would not have gotten its name if it had not been for a fire! Those are the main things that people have impacted over the years at Cardigan.

We were there for three days, day 1 (Wednseday), day 2 (Thursday), and day 3 (Friday).