Day Two:

This is a picture from the top of Firescrew. Here, we sketched the view...

This is my sketch of the view from the summit of Mt Firescrew. One of the neighboring mountains was lined with spinning white windmills, and to the east, I could see the sparkling waters of Newfound Lake. Because we were in the Alpine zone, all of the trees were coniferous and tough, and the ground was mostly bare rock.

On the second day, everyone got up early. After breakfast and the traditional Ort Report song, our groups set off on our choice of trails up either Firescrew or Orange. My group went chose to climb to the top of Firescrew, then across to Cardigan and then down Orange. As we climbed Firescrew, it was clear that the mountains had three distinct regions, changing as the altitude increased: Hardwood/Deciduous, Boreal, and Alpine. Each zone had different nature, wildlife, and even climate. In the hardwood zone, plants such as maple trees and yellow birches grew, along with thick underbrush. In the boreal zone, which is kind of a mix between the hardwood and the alpine, the tree density slowly started to decrease, and the soil began to change to bare rock. As we climbed higher, the temperature started to noticeably decrease as well, as it began to become more windy due to the lack of trees. In the alpine zone, the trees were even fewer, and all coniferous. By then, we were climbing the distinguished bare rock faces, which were extremely steep, and in my opinion, very intimidating. As I mentioned earlier, Cardigan and Firescrew, have prominent bare rock summits, and although it appears to be due to a high altitude, it is actually because of a wildfire a couple hundred years back. The view at the top of Firescrew was absolutely beautiful; we could see many surrounding mountains, a windmill power plant, and a few lakes. After lunch and a bit of sketching, my group set off to climb the saddle between Firescrew and Cardigan and over to its summit. When we go there, we met up with two of the other climbing groups, one who climbed the same trails we did, and one who climbed Orange mountain on the opposite side of Cardigan, the same way we ended up climbing down. After taking a big group picture, we started out climb back down to the lodge. Our descent was, though similar in some ways, quite a bit different than our hike up. The change between each zones was just as clear, but we were climbing down a ski slope, so it was therefore much more grassy and open. We eventually got back to the AMC lodge, and after dinner that evening, had a campfire. It was, overall, a fantastic day, and I learned quite a bit about the different regions and zones of the mountains.

On our hike up Firescrew, we stopped to sketch this fallen log and the trees around it. The log was the perfect habitat for creatures such as salamanders, and there were clear holes in the wood from insects. The trees shown in my sketch are beech and yellow birch; there were many of these in the area of the forest, along with maple. At the base of the two specific trees grew club moss and ferns, protruding from a bed of dead leaves and thick soil.

This is my sketch of an Owl Pellet that my group found in the saddle between Firescrew and Cardigan. Although the saddle does dip back down into the Boreal zone for a bit, we found the pellet when we were still in the Alpine zone. It was a big ball of grey fur, and when you looked closer, you could see tiny bones, most likely those of a mouse.

This is a picture from the summit of Cardigan. Here, three of the four climbing groups met up and took this picture next to the fire tower. It was super windy, and really cold too. The view was amazing; you could see many of the nearby mountains, towns, lakes, and ponds.

On the trek down Mount Cardigan, we stopped to sketch the Croo Bridge, which spanned over a small stream. The stream's bed was made up of large, flat rocks, some of them sticking out of the water. I sat on one of them while sketching the bridge, and on my way back up to the trail, slipped and fell!

On the evening of day two, we had a campfire at the lodge, right after dinner. Everyone was tired from the long hike, but it was still super fun! We sang songs, listened to stories, practiced bird calls, and made up skits about our day.