Place
The lodge is in Grafton county, in Orange NH on Cardigan Mountain Rd. It is at 43 degrees, 38 minutes, 58.41 seconds N, 071 degrees, 54 minutes, 51.45 seconds W. At the base of Cardigan is the Amc lodge. Next to Cardigan is Firescrew, and at the summit was a fire tower. From the fire tower you can see Mount Monadnock and White Mountains, Camel's Hump and Green Mountain, Pleasant Mountain and Mount Chocorua. At the top of Cardigan, there were little to no trees and few bushes. There was a ton of lichen and a bunch of carvings of names and stacks of rocks. There was lots of graffiti on the fire tower, which I thought was kind of annoying. This was something great and for your enjoyment. Why ruin it? It was very cold and windy and I had to put on extra layers when I got up there.
The lodge has hemlock trees, birch trees, apple trees, Etc. It has many types of bushes and plants. There is a pond outside of the lodge, along with many trails and camping spots. It is a big white building with a deck and four floors. There is a high cabin where there is more room to stay. It is free to climb the mountains but not to stay in the lodge or camp. We each had to pay two hundred bucks to go, and that was because we stayed two nights in the lodge.The people at the lodge make food for you, and after every meal they weigh how much food was left over. They feed the leftovers to a local pig farm, and they also recycle. The hike up the mountain was tiring but worth the view. there were many trail markers that tell you where you are going. There is a lot of wildlife, especially squirrels. I can't tell you how many times I stopped the group just to yell squirrel.
We were there for three days. Wednesday, the day we went there, we all were just getting used to being in the lodge. We all moved into our bunks and hung out until we went outside to meet our groups. My group leader was Jen, and our chaperones were Brice's mom, her boyfriend and Tayla's dad. I had a lot of friends in that group. When we started hiking I realized how fun this field trip thingy was gonna be. As we hiked along we found cool rocks, trees, plants, and talked about HobbleBush. It was a fun hike. When we reached Welton Falls we all waded to a rock in the middle of the water. We took a picture with all of us, including Jen and Tayla's dad, and then sketched some stuff. I sketched beth sitting on an uprooted tree and the 'Gathering Rock' as we called it. We also went on a small night hike that night. Thursday , I woke up and found a few of my friends had already showered. There were no clocks in the rooms which was a big problem. I got up and got dressed and ready as my friends stirred in their bunks. Once we were all ready we went downstairs to get food. The boys were already yelling "I'm on the girls floor!!!" And we just ignored it. We ate our breakfast and got on our way to leaving for the mountains. My group was hoping to hike all of the summits but it didn't happen. We only hike Firescrew and Cardigan. At the top of the mountains we ate lunch and went into the fire tower to learn about the way they tracked the fires. It was pretty cool. On the way down we ended up being late to dinner. It was really fun. All we did on Friday was go on a small nature hike and do a stream study. Then we left Cardigan.
