Day 2 at Mt. Cardigan in the Wild

I woke up and stretched. Wait. Why did I hear rustling? Then I noticed that Julie and Francie were already up! We soon all got up and went downstairs to join the rest of the grade. There was hot chocolate! We raced to the dispenser and each got some, then we went and observed the other students in their arguments. Soon, the instructors called us over and we were served breakfast. It was delicious! Eggs, bacon, and watermelon! Heaven! After we had finished eating, they called us up to make our lunches. Then we went upstairs and packed our daypacks for the hike. Once I was all packed I went down to where we were told to meet. Once everybody had appeared, Josh had us come up with a question and prediction about the Canadian Mayflower. We then talked about our plan for the day, and soon we were off!

We started our venture toward Mt. Cardigan by doing Plot Study #1 and identify the plants in the area. Once we finished that we continued on the Nature Trail until it connected with the Holt Trail. As we continued along the trail we stopped for a snack and talked about what we had noticed so far. Then, we continued on the Holt Trail until we came to another fork. We took a left and turned onto the Holt-Clark Cutoff and kept on going past one junction. While we hiked Mateo and Izzy continued their war as they tried to get the most points. Soon we came to another fork! This time we turned right and went along the Clark Trail. As we got higher up in elevation we stopped and did Plot Study #2. Across the trail from Plot Study #2 we found a Spiny Wood Fern and sketched that while enjoying the nice breeze. As we got closer to the top of Mt. Cardigan I noticed that more rock was uncovered and there were less trees. It was as if there were different regions and layers on the mountain. Once we got to the top we huffed and puffed up the steep rock and finally sat down. We ate our lunch and then went over to the side to listen to Josh tell a story while we looked out at the land below us.

We then got all of our gear back on and continued on down the mountain on the opposite side. As we hiked down the steep rock I would occasionally crab walk. Soon we came to an Alpine bog and sat down and sketched Plot Study #3. In all of the plot studies we had done there were not any Canadian Mayflowers. Once we got down the dip between the two mountains we stopped and found a mysterious plant that we sketched and identified. We found out that it was called Club Moss. Then we continued up the trail while listening to Izzy and Mateo continue their war. Now and then Sophie would join in because she was now in the race. Soon we got to the top of Firescrew and gathered around the map. Once we had determined which way to go we started back down to our last destination, the AMC Lodge. Josh stopped us 5 minutes later and took out a clothespin. It was a new version of the pencil game! As he hid it we started a conversation about who would likely have the most points. But before we could come to a conclusion, it was time to find the clothespin. Once we all found it we did it again, then we continued down the trail. Soon, we stopped again and identified a Trillium, and then we were off again. But we were going to fast, so we had to stop, and the fast people went in the back, while the slower ones were in the front. Then, finally we were back at the lodge. We stopped near the fire pit and put down our backpacks and ran towards the other side of the field, as far as we could go while screaming with one breath. When you ran out of that breath you had to stop running. Then we all went to the edge of the field and were assigned partners. I then led Bryce, who was blindfolded, over to a tree in the woods and he felt it and used his senses to memorize it. I then led him back to where he started and he took of the blindfold. Once he found the tree, he did the same to me and then we sketched our trees, mine had turned out to be an Ash tree.

Now we were free to go play. During that time I played a little soccer until we were called over into our groups to talk. Then we went up for dinner. We were served chicken with mustard and bacon on it with many other sides. Then, for dessert we got spice cake with vanilla frosting! Delicious! We were then sent upstairs to bundle up and get ready for the campfire. A little while later we were all gathered around the campfire with instructors in the middle. We sang Repeat After Me songs and listened to Andys owl call joke. Josh then told a story about a Purple Gorrilla in an underground chamber and we all laughed at the hilarious ending. Then we watched a skit about the Noodle People and their attacks. To end the night we sang a song Fern taught us in a round. Once we were all back in the lodge and wearing our jammies we listened to a story about ligtning hitting all four of the living Woolners houses the night Mr. Woolners uncle died, and 15 minutes later, we were all fast asleep. I had learned a lot during that day, how Mt, Cardigan was part of the Alps and it was located in Alexandria, NH. It certainly did belong to many regions!

Day 2 Sketches from Cardigan by CT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.