Day two of the Hikers Guide to Cardigan

By Nick M.

The day dawned foggy and gray, and after a hearty breakfast of bacon and muffins, our group was ready to hike. After a briefing on the roles of each person in our group, we set out up the mountain. About fifteen minutes into the hike, we stopped in a little clearing which our instructor had noticed. The small square we stepped into primarily consisted of American Beech trees. We set up a table study where we marked four corners, and took note of all the life within the boundaries. The most primary trees were paper birch, and American Beech. After observing and marking down our findings, we proceeded.

The hike was easy at first, but as we progressed, the terrain became a jumble of rock and scree which became more difficult, and some of our members were having trouble. Tabatha took notice and we stopped for a quick snack of ritz crackers and water, and observed the way the land had changed. While the American Beech and Birch trees had been the most common at lower elevations, at about 1500 to 2000 feet up, the shrubs and diminutive pines had started to become more frequent. Our second table study confirmed this observation, and we found that the trees had decreased in height as well. Again, we marked our findings and proceeded on our way. As the minutes wore on, clouds began to gather and seemed to promise rain. After about another hour, glacial boulders began to become more frequent and the trees continued to decrease in height and type.

The rock was slick from the previous day of rain, and our climb through the boulder field was precarious. As we climbed ever higher, the clouds became more prominent and the winds picked up, and after another hour and a half, we reached Firescrew Peak, and conducted our third and final table study. The trees were now so small they appeared to be shrubs, and the shrubs themselves dominated the rocky ground. Moss was also common, growing alongside the small pools of water which rested inside the indentations in the rock. The height of the surrounding bushes was now so small that I could measure them with the tape upright. Yet again, we recorded our findings and then Tabatha called us into a huddle. The geography that we found, we decided, had to do with our movement up cardigan mountain, thus pointing to the theme of movement. As we climbed higher, the soil lessened, and the winds and conditions became more extreme. This caused variations in the wildlife that we saw, based on where and when we moved, thus pointing to the theme of geography that we came up with.