The Second Day

September 26, 2016

Francie T.

Yellow Group

There was a little bit of cotton grass along the border of the puddle on the summit on the second day.	At the end of one of our transects on the second day there was a grey birch.

This was a red spruce I saw at our first transect.

Most people woke up early on the second day and went downstairs to the living room area where we sat and talked for a while. Eventually hot chocolate was brought out and most people had half of a cup, while others had none. Soon breakfast was brought out by another group. We had eggs and bacon and biscuits and honey dew melon, all of which was gobbled down eagerly. We had less ORT at breakfast than dinner, only two fifths of a pound.

After breakfast we were called up by group to make ourselves lunch. My group was last, but there was still plenty of everything left. I put roast beef, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on my sandwich plus celery and carrots in beside it. I also had a NutriGrain bar and a sugar cookie. Then we went upstairs and packed our bags with the five essentials: water, rain gear, warm clothes, boots, and a backpack. We shoved in our lunch and clattered downstairs, ready to start our day.

Once together we headed off a short way down the Manning Trail. There we stopped, played red light, green light to warm up, and planned where our six transects would be taken. We took one transect there and made a waypoint. Our other transects would be taken at about two thousand four hundred feet on the way up, the summit of Firescrew, the low point in the saddle between Firescrew and Cardigan, the summit of Cardigan, and at two thousand four hundred feet on the way down. This time Brendan and Andrew were carrying the GPS's so they read out the information.

I was the leader on the way up so Emma and I went to the front. Every now and then Fern (our group leader) would yell "Red light!" and the people at the front would stop to let the back catch up. We took another transect at about two thousand four hundred feet and also made a waypoint. As we climbed, Andrew and Brendan had a competition to see whose GPS showed a higher elevation. Brendan's usually won, but Andrew's was higher a few times. Soon after that we stopped on a ledge to have a snack. Shortly thereafter that we stopped on a different ledge to have lunch. There was a beautiful view, though we had to crash through a lot of undergrowth to go to the bathroom.

Eventually we were on our way again. When we neared the summit of Firescrew we began to see cairns instead of the yellow blazes that had been so plentiful previously. Soon we reached another bare rock ledge which was close to the summit. We took a transect and made a waypoint and admired the alpine bog and the cotton grass growing in it. Then we went the short distance to the summit. Not stopping at the summit, we continued into the saddle between Firescrew and Cardigan, stopping at the lowest point to take a transect and make a waypoint.

We continued to the summit of Cardigan with many "Red lights!" and "Magnetic toes!" (when we had to be in a circle with our toes touching in five seconds). After a steep final climb we were on the summit. There was a puddle through which we took our transect and made our waypoint, though there were no trees to record. After that we had a snack and explored the summit, making rubbings of the geodetic marker and climbing to the first level of the firetower. We also looked at the names people carved into the summit, some hundreds of years old!

Soon we began to descend steeply on the other side of the summit, this time with Aiden as the leader. We stopped again near the fire warden's cabin for a bathroom break and for some trail mix which I had been carrying. We had to divide the M&Ms evenly because that was what everyone (except Mrs. Allen, our parent chaperone) wanted.

We continued down the mountain by way of the Alexandria Ski Trail. About halfway down the mountain we saw a small hut with first aid supplies for a skier who had hurt themselves as they were skiing. There were a lot more red lights on the way down as Aiden liked to hike faster and Fern even had to use Marco Polo a little bit to remind some of us how far ahead we were. We stopped for another transect at two thousand four hundred feet, and then finished going down. This time Owen decided that cucumber roots should be against the law and tried to rip off their tops so that Emily and I couldn't get them. We still succeeded in getting a few. We stopped at the crew bridge for a brief sketch and then finished the short distance back to the lodge. Once there we had free time until dinner which we were setting up. This time we had mustard chicken with bacon bits, salad, and cornbread, with spice cake for dessert. We had no ORT that night!

This time after dinner we had a campfire instead of a night hike. I enjoyed it; there were repeat after me songs, skits (the noodle people!), stories (the Big Purple Gorilla), and of course the duck call. Then we went and showered (fewer people did tonight!) and got into pajamas before heading downstairs for the story. This time it was about a pheasant and then one about lightning. After that we went to bed. There was less whispering that night, as we were all so tired.

Day two is an example of human-environment interaction in many ways. One example of humans changing the environment was the trails. Another example is the cairns and blazes along the trails. One way that the environment changes humans is by forcing humans to bring raingear and warm clothes. The environment also forces humans to make blazes and cairns by overgrowing trails that are not maintained.