Day 1 at Cardigan Mountain

From Hopkinton Middle/High School, we passed through many towns and regions of New Hampshire to end up at the base of Cardigan Mountain in the Central West region of New hampshire. Everyone collected their stuff and went to their rooms to set up. After that, we got all of our hiking materials and headed down to the fields. There, we played games that would somehow connect to the ecosystem around us. One game we played was about animals and their needed resources, but also how humans can get in the way of that process. After that, we were told our AMC guides and learned more about them. After the final check to make sure we had everything and everyone, we headed off to Welton Falls.

The trail was already noticeably different compared to outside by the lodge. The trail itself was a big region of deciduous trees. As the group hiked along, other people passed with adorable dogs and we stopped to sketch and do other activities and to notice what was around us. Something that we pointed out was that on rocks and/or trees, you would sometimes see painted rectangles on them. These are called trail blazes and thy are there so you can stay on the trail and not get lost. These were very helpful in quite a few cases! Along the trail, there were signs of animals to, whether it be scat that we avoided, or marks on the trees such as pileated woodpecker holes. When we reached the falls, we stopped to sketch and have a snack, but after that, we ran around, jumped from rock to rock to get to mini islands in the water. Unlike the trail, the area around Welton Falls was quite open with the falls itself and the water running down from it must have cleared the way.

We headed back after our freetime by the falls. It was funny how sometimes we would notice different things on the way back instead of getting it all in on the way to the falls. When we got back, we met by the solar panels and talked about all the things we saw and gave shoutouts to people in our group that we thought did a good job at doing something. For example, I made some good sketches, John made people laugh, Griffin did a good job marking all the way points, Judah was a good navigator, Piper set a good pace in the beginning, and so on. Then, we split up and enjoyed freetime. After that, we met once again before dinner and depending on which group you were in, you had to help set up dinner. Then, we went in to have dinner (which was one of my favorites, I mean, make your own tacos!) and got ready for our night activity. Our first night activity was talking more about today, and then having silence and a time to just look at the stars.