The trail quickly split in two and we went left. Not soon into the trail, we already had spotted something to sketch. A tree had massive mushrooms poking out of its sides from our height to the top of it! We kept walking, the trail mostly flat. A huge fallen tree was over the trail, making a two foot long tunnel. By the black scars along the broken area and fresh wood in that same spot, we presumed it had fallen from a lightning strike from a recent thunderstorm. Our group sketched the tree and kept on moving forward. The path not far after started getting really steep.
A bit up one of the hills our group decided to eat our snack. After going up even more, a good view of Cardigan and other mountain ranges appeared. We stopped and sketched that, also having lunch at the same time. Our group kept going up, eventually making it to a small level spot. Here we played a fun game using blindfolds. Going up even more, we started to get to rocky areas, stopping at one with quite a good view to sketch the far off mountain ranges, ponds, lakes and wind turbines. I also sketched a second three page mountain range picture.
After a little more climbing, sometimes having to go on our hands and knees, our group finally got to the Firescrew summit. It was awesome. We were literally inside a cloud, water blowing at our faces. At times, you could be looking at Mount Cardigan, not seeing it at all and then bam! The clouds part and you realize it was right in front of your face the entire time! After sketching another great view and playing a game of camouflage, our group started on the short but steep saddle separating Cardigan from Firescrew. Down and up we went, finally getting to the rocky summit of Mount Cardigan. Both the wind and view were incredibly powerful. The wind was everywhere, the only cover behind the firetower, and the 360 view was everywhere you looked. You could see lakes, mountains, even the AMC lodge where we started! The entrance to the tall firetower was locked, but we were still able to go up the stairs leading to its trapdoor. The wind was overpowering up there. No other way to explain it.
After doing a sketch of whatever view we picked, (I chose sketching Firescrew) our group did a final descent, only to go back up the saddle. Then we made our real final descent down, back to the lodge. Leaving Cardigan for the second time, everybody got back on the bus and went home.
The Theme of Regions
For the Geography! day two theme, I picked regions. The main reason that I picked the theme regions is because of how a mountain has (in this case Mount Cardigan) different regions. The bottom/base of Mt. Cadigan is a mass of trees, ponds, streams, mushrooms, and tons of other different plants. The mid region starts to get some rock and gets pretty steep. Roots start to pop out of the ground, and there are no more ponds as well as few to one stream(s). Also, you begin to see a view of other mountains and mountain ranges. The top part is basically the summit, and is completely rocky. Directly below the summit, there are very few plants, only tiny trees and weird moss. Cardigan has a great view, from which you can see the other two parts of it, as well as miles of trees, ponds, lakes and mountains.
