by Hadley C.
Blue Group
9/27/2018
During our second day at Cardigan, we went on the two largest hikes of the trip up to the towering mountains of Cardigan and Firescrew. The hikes were both tedious and exhausting, but in the end it was worth it once we reached the top for the view. Since we managed to have a clear view, we could see Mt. Washington from the summit. In order to reach these two twin mountains, we crossed small streams, climbed up noticeably large rocks, and for the final hundred feet we climbed seemingly with our hands up the nearly vertical ascent. On the summit, there was also areas of moss that were decades old, and Pietra had us carefully navigate our footing to avoid stepping on any of it. This was part of a small bog area on the summit of Firescrew, a watery area complete with various amounts of plants and small insects, known as an Alpine Bog. This is an uncommon sight in New England, and was an interesting sight at the top of a mountain. Most of the other students had not expected to find such a wet location at the summit, since it seemed like an odd physical feature. Nonetheless, leading up to the mountain there were various streams and watery areas that branched out and cut through the majority of the trails up both Firescrew and Cardigan.
Once we returned to Cardigan Lodge we had a delicious dinner and enjoyed a campfire where each of the hiking groups preformed skits for everyone else. Later on, cookies were distributed and we returned inside after a long day of hiking. We also enjoyed a story read by Mr. Woolner before going to bed.
This area is located in a mountainous, dense, forest region of New Hampshire in the town of Alexandria and part of Mount Cardigan is in the town of Orange. This place can be identified in an even larger region such as New England or the United States of America. The mountains Cardigan and Firescrew themselves were divided into three different regions higher up the mountain. These were the Hardwood zone, the Alpine Tundra zone, and the Borreal zone. Each were labeled based off of the plants found in the area, the abundance of wildlife, and other physical attributes of the surroundings based on the animal and plant life. An image of one of the zones can be viewed at the top of the page.
We were at Mount Cardigan and the surrounding area for three days, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. This is the Cardigan Index.