The Second Day at Cardigan Mountain
by Ryan L.
Green Group, D1B4
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On October 3rd 2019, the 7th grade of HMHS started their second day at Cardigan Lodge. They made their way downstairs to slowly wake up and get ready for the day. Once everyone is settled for breakfast, the students ate and cleaned up. getting dressed, getting gear, and packing up for the hike passed in a blur and soon enough, everyone was on the trails.
Garrett, who was the guide for the AMC Lodge, told his group about their destination for the day, Firescrew Mountain. Firescrew was close to Cardigan Mountain, which was in a mountainous region. Mountainous meaning full of valleys and huge outcroppings of rock. After hiking for a few hours, the group stopped for maybe the 15th WAM. ‘WAM’ was an acronym for Water Appreciation Moment. During the WAM, the aforesaid hiking group was taught about the regions of the mountains in their region in the region. The group was in the Northeast Region of the United States, and also a mountainous region, as well as the Northern Hardwood Forest Zone. The lesson of region was reinforced, the lesson being what region really was.
“Region is classification of sorts. It defines a set of places by their shared characteristics,” their geography teacher had told them before. The group sketched the area around them, and then moved on, stopping a few times afterwards for more WAMs and snack breaks. An hour or two later, the group observed their current surroundings to sketch.
“There are less deciduous trees and more Hemlock trees,” many noticed. “There’s more streams,” others said.
“There’s way more exposed rock and tree roots,” everyone agreed. It was true. The features of the Boreal region on a mountain are described like this, and everyone who saw the view agreed they were a great deal higher than they were before. Being in the middle ‘level’ of a mountain was beautiful, it felt like floating above a sea of red and gold, with the occasional patch of green.
However, once the group had finally made its way to the summit, the colors were in full view. After sketching trees for the last four hours, the group was excited to eat lunch and then sketch the valleys and mountains in the distance. The group had seen what was to be seen, now it was time to just go home and enjoy their free time. Emotions were getting more positive as they got closer to the lodge. It had been a hard day, and everyone felt it. Soon, Garrett’s group was in sight of the lodge. There was a debriefing, and everyone was told to go back to the lodge and hang out, which was sounding good for a group of around 18 tired middle schoolers.
Back at the lodge was free time until dinner, and then it was campfire time. After the campfire, stories were told and people were slowly drifting off. Later, everyone was sent upstairs, and everyone was asleep by 11:00, ending the second day at Cardigan Mountain.