What cardigan was like (mountains, rivers, weather, trees)
Cardigan is a field trip the seventh grade at HMHS goes on, but also a lodge and a mountain, all located in Alexandria, New Hampshire. On the first day of the field trip, my group went on the Manning Trail north of the AMC lodge, which did not lead to a summit but nonetheless had a lot of pretty stops. I was introduced to the cucumber of the forest, a delicious edible plant growing in the lower area of the hike. The trees growing in that area were mainly beech trees, maple trees, and pine trees. On the second day, when our group reached the summit of Firescrew, we realized all the trees growing in the alpine zone were very short or didn't have leaves at the top. This was because the lack of oxygen at that high of a point making it harder for the trees to live. The leaves were just beginning to fall, but there were still mostly green and lush. (because the weather was 60 to 70 degrees farenheight.) The water we came upon was Welton falls, which had been eroded over time to create a large, pretty, and extremely steep downfall. When we tried to feel it, it was freezing cold! Eventually, we stopped to have lunch, and we sat down on some huge rocks lining a very pretty and shallow river.
(hiking trails, cabins, towers, cairns)
Cardigan is mostly made out of natural materials, (trees, dirt, rock, etc.) but overtime, humans have shaped the mountain as well. While walking up Firescrew, our group spotted many cairns near the top, made by people and stacked up, the rocks smaller the higher they were. Kairns are pretty common to find on hikes and are a sybol of balance usually. There were bright yellow arrows on the rocks as well, pointing the way to the correct direction for that trail, as well as there were there paint splotches on trees. We unfortunately did not see the fire tower, but we did see a water shed, and a even a mini outhouse. The outhouse was along with the beginning of the hike. On the third day, we went on a nature walk and found a cement dam about halfway through to sit on and do a group activity. It had been built, evidently a while ago, to help control the flow of the river there. Along the nature walk, there were also a few wooden steps, decomposing slowly into the trail, built The hiking trails had also been made by humans and were pretty nicely cleared off (except for the rocky steep parts we had to climb up.) And of course, there was an ancient rusting car in the woods, which our group did not find, but had been there for a very long time because of the engine that helped power the ski lift, that used to be in place of the mountain.