52 With A View: Mount Cardigan

Monday, Nov. 9, 2020 - So far I have done 10 of the "52 With A View" (zoomed-in on the unhiked mountains):
Today I'm going to tackle Mount Cardigan (and its side-peak Firescrew):

I will be doing "Manning Trail" going up, then south on "Mowglis Trail", then back east to the AMC Lodge via "Clark Trail" (plus a final unnamed trail north to the Lodge):

It is supposed to be a 2-hour-11-minute drive up to the AMC Cardigan Lodge, and I left the house about 8:30 AM:

Sometimes "It's Not About The Hike" - I was passed by a Subaru Outback with the BEST GRAPHIC EVER:
Ok - I'm pretty sure Wendy won't let me put it on her car ... but maybe on mine??

Once I was off I-93, I went west to Bristol and turned north - I was thinking about going to see Wellington State Park (containing the largest freshwater swimming beach in the New Hampshire state park system) on the shore of Newfound Lake (the 3rd largest lake in New Hampshire), but the road system was a little complicated, and I was on a tight schedule. I did stop at a nice little park (Newfound Lake Watershed), which had a bridge over the Newfound River:
looking upstream:
and looking downstream:

I hit the AMC Cardigan Reservation at 11:35

And was heading up the trail at 11:48

30 minutes into the hike, I'm now climbing up hill:
and looking back down at where I have come from:

After going up through the forest, you start going on-and-off ledges, to get up to Firescrew. KEEP FOLLOWING THE CAIRNS AND YELLOW BLAZES:

And, OF COURSE, the views back behind me are PRETTY WONDERFUL:
I hit the Firescrew summit just after 1 PM:

Looking northeast from Firescrew summit:
and southwest to Mount Cardigan and its fire tower:

I headed down the Mowglis Trail, and 20 minutes later was at Mount Cardigan:



GREAT VIEWS up at the summit:

But once I started down the back-side, there weren't very many visual clues to find the trail:
and I GOT LOST:

Nice view back up, before heading down into the woods:

About a half-mile down the trail, there is an intersection, with the AMC Cardigan Mountain High Cabin up in the woods on the right:
and a wonderful open-area-with-a-bench off to the left:

Another half-mile later, and I was flying down the trail:

At 2:30 I was on the final northeast leg of the Clark Trail:

The final 2/3 mile (13 minutes) was a lovely stroll through the woods:

I did 6.98 miles in 3 hours 7 minutes:

Easy drive home for dinner - 261.5 miles today. Thank You God for this Great "52 With A View" Day!

For my listening pleasure today:

John Coltrane - Standards, 2001 compliation

Jackson Browne - Running on Empty, 1977
I want to say that Wendy and I saw Jackson Browne at the Nassau Coliseum, but he played there July 19 and 20, 1980, which were Saturday and Sunday - but we were going up to the Vineyard on weekends, and I'm pretty sure the only time we made it back for a Sunday concert was for Rickie Lee Jones at Carnegie Hall Sunday July 22, 1979. So maybe it was when we went to the M.U.S.E. concert on Friday September 21, 1979 at Madison Square Garden, when Jackson performed with Bruce, and Bruce premiered "The River". Ah, once upon a time...

INXS - The Greatest Hits, 1994 greatest hits

Jr. Walker and The All Stars - Greatest Hits, 1969 first greatest hits album
The only memories here are 77-WABC, and AM radio.

And then it was time for HIKING MUSIC:

Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won, 2003 release of 1972 concerts (triple live album)
I listened to cd 1 hiking up and cd 2 hiking down, with quiet for the middle-third (on the peaks and in-between).

When I resumed driving, I listened to cd 3; then:

Michael McDonald - Motown Two, 2004

Michael Jackson - Off the Wall, 1979

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about visiting Art Museums and National Parks (and hiking in the Rockies)
hyperlink: dixonheadingwest
http://dixonheadingwest.blogspot.com/