Day 3 At Cardigan
By Molly H
Green Group D1B3
Day 3 was the worst day at Mount Cardigan for me because I came on crutches and it was pouring. First, we got on the bus and it was just a quiet ride for me all the way up there. Then, once we were there my whole group and I huddled under a small tent to stay out of the rain while we looked at cards that said different attributes of a tree. It was wet and my foot was dying from all the weight on one foot for that amount of time, however soon it was over and we went and sat under the eves of the AMC lodge.
We were then divided into groups of three, where we would then auction for different parts of a tree. For instance, fireproof bark, or insect-proof leaves to make the best tree that you can. It was Will, Nico, and I on one team. We had an auctioneer, a drawer, and an acountaint, I started off as the auctioneer however I was replaced by Nico halfway through and that was an immediate mistake. He auctioned off everything and drained all of our money. It was ok though because at the end we had a decent tree with power-house roots. We did not win the auction however I was happy to do anything that was not outside in the rain and that meant crutching around in the rain.
Then as the rain started to settle down, we seized the moment and slowly walked over to one of the closest campsites so we could do a mystery of the trees activity. We used our compass, followed directions to find different species of trees. I had to stop about halfway through because we were bushwacking uphill and it was just too difficult to do on crutches. Nico was not interested so Nico, Mr. McCrillis and I did some sketches while the rest of the group took a long walk up a hill and found this old car engine that used to power a ski lift when Mount Cardigan was more of a ski mountain than a hiking mountain. Meanwhile, Nico and I were sketching and Nico was fidgeting around with the fireplace he found a Newt. He named it Ned the Newt and it was good because it gave me something else to draw rather than a maple leaf.
After I finished the sketch, Mr. Woolner and another group showed up and he wanted to show us this cool thing that in order to see we had to hike up this huge hill. It took me a while and it was painful for my armpits however I muddled through and after I saw what he wanted us to see I knew that it was worth it. It was this huge ant hill about 4 feet by 3 feet and it was overrun by fireants so we could not get too close. Apparently Mr. Woolner had been monitoring it for about five years and now it was huge. If I were to go back next year I can not imagine how big it would be.
Then it started to rain harder and I started heading back to the bus. Today was a short day because it was our last one and we had to get back before school ended. I headed back to the bus where we got Swedish Fish and headed back to the bus and then we waved goodbye to our AMC guides and we were off, back to school. Then we got off the bus and there was some confusion about sports games and we had so much extra time in the parking lot so the boys who were on the soccer team crutched around the parking lot on my crutches.
Human-Environmental Interactions
Day 3 for I think everyone who went on session 2 represented human-environmental interactions because it was pouring. As a result of that, we all had to wear raincoats and for the
first 30 mins, we all huddled under a big tarp while it rained cats and dogs. We also had to sit under the eaves of the lodge because it was pouring so much and we did an auction on trees. So, because of the rain on day 3, I chose to assign day 3 to human-environmental interactions, because of how our behavior changed because of the environment.