September 26th, 2022 was the second day I was at Cardigan mountain AMC lodge. At the start of the day, I woke up at 6:00 am and packed my hiking gear for the day. At 8 they called us down for breakfast. I ate french toast casserole with scrambled eggs and tater tots. I then descended into the mud room with my backpack to meet up with my group. We decided to hike up Firescrew, then walk across the saddle to the summit of Cardigan. Not too far into the hike we saw an old cellar hole, which was probably an old house or barn. We saw many different plants, such as the virginia medeola, white pine trees, diseased beech trees, and a few ash trees including the biggest ash tree in the state. As we got closer to the summit of Firescrew, the terrain got steeper and more difficult to walk across. At multiple points, we had to climb or use nature to get to the top of a rise. We eventually stopped for lunch at a flat wide clearing with a view of some lesser mountains below. In due course, we ventured on, stopping for a small snack at a nearby glacial erratic Mr. Woolner wanted to point out (he was with us for that day). We quickly sketched the dented rock, and persisted. The journey to the peak was both stimulating and wearisome at the same time. Firescrew has a lot of false crags, so you would climb to the top of a hill, but then realize there was more. Around 5 minutes to the summit for Firescrew, we saw a rare alpine bog that Mr. Woolner had us sketch. We reached the summit at last, pausing to drink water and rest, before daring to go a foot further. We took a photo, and picked up where we left off. We climbed the saddle, the stretch of land between Cardigan and Firescrew, which dipped down in the middle. The saddle was a rather quick walk, and my group passed it pretty quickly. We were 10 yards from the summit when we passed by Erin's group, who was coming down. I had a quick chat with my friends, a group photo, and then we finally reached the mountaintop. We spent some time there, enjoying the view, resting, and chatting with friends. Max's group joined us soon, then Shawn’s group came from orange mountain a little to the right. I sketched the seal of cardigan, talked with Maisie, suffered while Shawn and Mr. Woolner had a dad joke competition, and then we started the descent. Going downhill is much easier than going up, if that wasn’t already obvious. A little ways down we stopped at PJ ledge and sketched this cool looking tree, we had some water, and then we trekked onward. Nothing really important happened. We saw a lion's mane mushroom most of the way down. We sketched it rather roughly quickly, then continued. We headed back rather quickly after that, for everyone was cranky and tired. I got back and rested for a bit, ate dinner, and went outside to do a group skit, and then some stargazing. We went inside and changed into our pajamas and Mr. Woolner told us a story about his family I then went upstairs and chatted briefly with my bunkmates before falling asleep. Although Day 2 was the longest hike of the three, it was also the most enjoyable. I had a lot of fun, despite having no friends in my group. The views were stunning and some of the plants were quite interesting to say the least. I honestly enjoyed this hike and I would definitely do it again.
Regions of Cardigan
On the second hike, our goal was to reach the summit of Mount Cardigan. We started the hike off in the montane zone, which is a forest or woodland. We were surrounded by beech and birch trees, many of which were diseased and dying due to an invasive species. We then entered a short subalpine region, where there was a mix of birch and beech, but also firs and spruces. As stated before, this particular zone was very short, as the woodland trees quickly began to thin out, leaving only a boreal forest, littered with spruce and a few fir trees. This lasted especially long, when it too began to fade into a bare rock summit, with a small alpine bog. We crossed the saddle between firescrew and cadigan, then reached our day's goal. It was cold and very windy, the summit brewing somewhere around 3,000 feet. We stood on the top for maybe around an hour, socializing and relaxing, until it was time to depart. We came across the same regions, the only exception being the woodland region, which had a mix of ash trees as well as birch and beech. We saw NH largest ash tree, which was so large I couldn't see the top.