My Three Day Experience at Cardigan
by Hannah P
Red Group
October 4-6 2017
Red Group
Absolute and Relative Location of Cardigan:
The location of the summit of Mt.Cardigan has a latitude of 43 degrees north, 38 minutes and 59 seconds and has a longitude of 71 degrees west, 54 minutes and 53 seconds. Mt.Cardigan is located in the town of Alexandria and west of Newfound lake. It is roughly an hour long bus ride from Hopkinton Middle High School and North of Cardigan is the town of Bristol. Cardigan is among several other peaks. One of them being the well known mountain, Firescrew.Place of Cardigan-Cultural Geography
The AMC lodge was where we ate, slept and enjoyed our free time. When we first arrived off the bus we unpacked and soon transitioned straight into hiking the Upper and Lower nature trails there. Also, every night and morning the AMC staff would prepare delicious meals for us, most of which was served family style. And after each breakfast we would prepare a lunch that we would eat while on or around the mountains everyday. These are all examples of the cultural geography at Cardigan.
Place of Cardigan-Physical Geography:
The AMC lodge had plenty of outside space for us to enjoy our free time. There was a pond we could explore and a field right outside the lodge where we relaxed when we weren't hiking. Interestingly, the trails we were hiking were packed down and hard by all the people who had hiked where we were at that moment, but as soon as we ventured off our group found that the ground was sponge-like because of the moss and various untouched growth beneath our feet. As we hiked up the mountains we sketched anything from tree bark to the small lichen growing on a nearby rock. Also, as we neared the summit where the wind and other various weathering conditions could reach it, the ground suddenly changed to bare rock underneath us. The view from Mt. Cardigan was amazing in that you could see so far that the distant mountains were a foggy grey color against the blue sky. When we later visited Welton Falls. The mist it gave off was refreshing after our long hike to get there. It smelt earthy because of all the rich soil right along the riverside. The man- made cave was very cool and as you started to walk alongside the rock you got suddenly cold as if you were underground. Hiking at Cardigan was a very cool experience that all of us can now say we experienced.
Activities: We were there for three days total, Wednesday Thursday and Friday. On our first day we unpacked and quickly hiked both the High and Lower Nature Trails and on Thursday we hiked the summits. We traveled up Firescrew accross to Cardigan and down South Peak. To top off our trip we ventured out to the Welton Falls on Friday and after a long three days spent exploring, we packed up and headed for Hopkinton.
