by Hadley C.
Blue Group
9/26/2018
On the first day of my three day expedition those of us who attended the second session of Cardigan with me left Hopkinton and set off on the hour long ride to Cardigan Mountain. It was after we had arrived at our destination, played a few rounds of tag and other games, and reunited with our things, we were sorted into different hiking groups which we would stay with for the entire trip. On this day, we went on one particular voyage that stood out from the rest to the magnificent Welton Falls located off of one of the main trails, leading you deep into the abundant trees surrounding the lodge. Here we came across multiple spectacular sights such as a rundown house, all that remained of the dilapidated construction being the cellar hole. The people that once lived there moved to some other location, going from their cellar hole to another home. From here we came across a peculiar oddity known as a boll on a particular tree, which is caused when a tree is infected by a bug and works to fight against the pest.
Farther down the trail we were tasked with the ominous job of crossing a river of rapidly moving water by hopping from one rock to another, and more than a few times someone slipped into the chilling waters. This was an example of movement, as my hiking group lead by Pietra and I made our way from Cardigan Lodge and to Welton Falls, coming across various wonderful attractions along the way. Some of the other people who work at AMC work at Cardigan for only part of the year, and spend their winters working at another mountain to lead hiking groups just like they did for us, which is another example of movement.
After our first day at Cardigan we returned to the lodge and consumed a wonderful dinner before participating in two activities. The first was playing a game which involved blindfolding a "bat" in the center of a circle of people, whose job was to attempt to tag the "moth" that was in the circle with them while blindfolded. Once we had played a few rounds we were then moved onto the next station which was where we got to observe and identify various skulls of creatures. We then all dispersed for bed, after a long day of hiking.
We were at Mount Cardigan and the surrounding area for three days, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. This is the Cardigan Index.