Blue Group
On the third day of the Cardigan trip, we woke up, packed up our bags to put in the truck, and got ready for the last and smallest hike. We went downstairs to find an amazing breakfast of french toast with syrup and juice and then, after packing our lunches, went outside to start what was more of a nature walk. In our groups, we first learned how to use compasses and then tested out our skills by trying to get to the right trees with them and then learning a thing or two about those trees, or sometimes stone walls and bushes. I was surprised when we were going up a hill, or a part of a mountain, and a tiny mouse popped out of the bushes. I didn't think I'd see that at Cardigan. Further up the mountain, although we didn't go so far we couldn't see the lodge, there was an old ski lift with a rusty car next to it. This was very cool to see since we found out how people used to make ski lifts- they would have a belt and they would use the car engine to help it spin to carry people up the mountain. After this adventure, we walked down to the field at the lodge and sat down to have lunch. We then went to the quite large pond next to the cabin, which is a good example of Regions because the pond is in the region of the Mt. Cardigan AMC lodge area. We took a sketch and waypoint, and went to find pond creatures. Most of us just found crab apples and dead bugs but eventually found some live creatures. I found two water beetles and a dragonfly nymph, or baby dragonfly, all alive.
When we started throwing around crab apples with the little nets we were given, Gretchen knew it was time to go on to the next thing, the last thing. We all walked down a path from the pond into the woods to face another path. She said we had to walk down alone, since it was a solemn walk, a time to reflect on our time here. She started and, once again, another adult told us when to go and, once again, I was the first to go. Why was I always the first one to walk into the woods alone? Anyway, I followed little colored cards that said things like "go left" or weird things like "pick up a rock and smell it," even though there were no rocks around. At one point in the walk, there was a card that said "laugh out loud, does anyone or anything laugh back?" I was absolutely amazed when someone on a path next to and a little above me actually laughed back. I kept going on the path and when I heard someone laugh out loud, I knew what to do and I laughed right back. I thought that was the most clever card there. Somewhere along the way, there was a misplaced card that said "go right" even though that would go off the path. A lot of people went off the path down a steep hill before realizing that card wasn't supposed to be there. The path kept going but finally went over a bridge to a clearing near the pond where Gretchen was sitting waiting for people. After everyone got back, Gretchen apologized for the misplaced card before it was time to say goodbye. We all said goodbye and got on the bus to leave. But before we left, one of the group leaders that refused to dab finally dabbed as we drove off and some of the other group leaders ran as fast as they could go to wave goodbye. A few people were falling asleep as we drove to the school and went home.
Mt. Cardigan Day 3 by CD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.