"Andy's Coming!": The Travels of a Adventurous, Slighty Annoying Hiking Group

September 26-28, 2018

By Conrad

Cardigan Mountain Location:

Cardigan Lodge is in the town Alexandria in the state New Hampshire. The mountain itself is in Orange, NH and has the AMC Cardigan Lodge to its west. It also has Firescrew Mountain to its north, South Peak to the SSE, and Rimrock to the SSW. It can be traveled to from the lodge by many trails, but there are three that are most direct. One is by traveling on the Manning Trail, past Firescrew Mountain, and continuing south on the Mowglis Trail. Another direct route is simply taking the Holt Trail for a really long time. The last direct trail is going on the Clark trail for a long time before taking a little break-off trail heading up to Cardigan.

The absolute location is latitude N 43 degrees 38 minutes 58.0 minutes and longitude W 071 degrees 54 minutes 50.6 seconds. This is in sexagesimal system, showing the absolute location of the Cardigan Mountain peak. On the peak there was a rusty old metal fire tower. That is the abolute location of the fire tower at Cardigan Mountain.

Cardigan Mountain Physical Place:

In the Cardigan area, there was a lot of physical geography, one, of course, being Mount Cardigan and its neighboring mountains. In addition, there are multiple waterfalls, the biggest among them being Welton Falls, which was humongous! Cardigan was also home to a variety of wildlife, especially trees. In one and half days of hiking, we already recognized spruce, hemlock, ash, birch, oak, pine, and maple trees. In addition, Cardigan is home to an alpine bog, an exquisite beauty, especially rare and for sure a novelty in southern New Hampshire. Cardigan also has many glacial erratics, and one we saw had a special attribute of target lichen growing on it. Finally, this state park had amazing views, especially from the mountain Cardigan next door neighbor Firescrew.

Cardigan Mountain Cultural Place:

Cardigan also happens to be rich in cultural attributes. For example, the lodge itself. The food was great, the staff was amazing, and it was nice and cozy. The lodge also had trails circling it that had large fire pits and picnic benches for camping out. At higher elevation, there was the high cabin a.k.a. The Jon, which had the only outhouse high up on Cardigan. Generally there was tree markings to guide you, but when it grew too barren for trees, there were piles of rocks, or cairns, stacked up to lead the way. There was also spray paint on the rocks. At the summit of Cardigan, there was a rusted old fire tower we could partially ascend. Like all other AMC mountains, there was also a metal marker showing the actual summit of Cardigan. Back down, at lower elevation, there were cellar holes that once stored items for people who once dwelled on the mountain. That is basically the cultural geography aspect of Cardigan.

We were at Cardigan Mountain for three days: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It was amazing, and so much happened. It was awesome!