Day 2 at Cardigan Mountain

Through all of of the days at Cardigan, day 2 had to have been the longest, but the most rewarding. After a long talk with my bunk mates until we all fell asleep, and getting up, had felt only a few hours apart. When we all finally got up and ready, we headed down stairs to a lovely breakfast of french toast. After we ate, each hiking group at a time was dismissed to go and make their lunches at the sandwich bar. Then, when all of us were ready, we met up in our groups and off we went.

Our group like a few others, hiked up Firescrew. Like other trails, this one had trail blazes and sign to tell you that you were in the right path. As the group went along, we soon stopped, set our stuff down, and got our sketchbooks out to sketch anything around us. Then, we played a game relating to plant resources, and how you won was by winning rock, paper, scissors. I would call that movement because it was a movement of an idea. After we collected our things and after all the other hiking groups passed us, we continued hiking passing all the other groups. As we hiked along, the trail got steeper, and steeper, and most if not everyone got out of breath. After we hiked quite a ways, we stopped, this time for a snack and a little breather. Next, after our trail mix and other snacks we brought, we then started back up and continued up the mountain. This cycle continued up the mountain until we finally got up to the top... Of Firescrew. At the point, we all sat and ate our lunches we had made at the lodge. If you looked hard enough, poking out of the fall colored trees, you could see the lodge. It was a magnificent view! But I really could not wait to see the view from the actual Cardigan summit!

Walking along the trail to Cardigan, a lot of it was bare rock and evergreen trees. To get to the top faster, we had less breaks (which was fine because it was only a few miles) and less waits for people. Instead, we put a certain stopping point where we would all meet up again. This helped us get to the top faster, and then, BAM! We were at the top. Up on top, cookies were handed out, Scott (one of the AMC guides) brought his kite up (which did not end too well), and then, we all the sudden had to go down. It was like "Hey! Great job! You made it up! Well, now you get to go all the way down! Sound fun?". And you know what, it kind of was fun. It went a lot faster than the way up. When we got down, everyone was exhausted from a big day of hiking. We met at the base of the lodge, talked about our hike, and then got dismissed to free time. Everyone slept good that night after dinner and the stories Mr.Woolner told.