I have had a lot of practice this past April hiking a lot of smaller peaks in hope that when I started hiking with Logan I would not be left in the dust. Boy was I wrong. We decided to head up on May 9th for a quick afternoon hike at Mount Cardigan and Firescrew. We had been camping all weekend so we were not up for anything huge. I knew I was dehydrated going into this but I felt that with all the hiking I had done that it would not be that difficult. Well, I forgot the part about bringing my olympic athlete fiancee with me. I swear I could have the most strict diet and workout regiment and this man could sit on the couch the entire time I did it and still do infinitely better than me!
We started up the Clark trail up Cardigan first. The first 2 miles are relatively flat and lead to the grand junction where the Holt trail and Clark trail split. We kept left and continued on the Clark trail upwards. The pace Logan set on the flat section was already too fast for me, let alone adding in some elevation. The elevation on this trail is very beginner/ intermediate so I thought I could keep up. He set a relentless pace and I found myself struggling to keep my heart rate below 180bpm. I cursed him out saying he was no fun to be with while hiking and told him to cut out the shit. This didn't help at all, and I continued to feel ill for the rest of the ascent.
Regardless, best part of going later in the day was there was fewer people. the people we did see were descending the peak so it was us and maybe 10 other people sharing a usually crowded summit. There was little wind and a partially cloudy day, so we could see all the way to Washington! It was well worth the suffering to come enjoy this beautiful day and summit. We stayed up there enjoying the views for 20 minutes before descending over to Firescrew.
The ridge walk over to Firescrew was very pleasant. The elevation was pretty level and between the trees you got views of the White Mountains. Each time was the same view but it was still unbelievably beautiful. I think I took 100 pictures of the same landscape! We had this summit entirely to ourselves which made it even cooler to be there.
We started descending Firescrew via Manning Trail. I had heard some rumors that most people prefer to ascend this way, well now I understand why! The incline is pretty severe at times which makes descending slow going. Especially with spring time conditions, portions of the trail are extremely wet and make footing more difficult than usual. I had been on steeper trails before so this did not seem all that bad, but I understood peoples concern. I think next time I will ascend this way for more of a challenge!
Overall it was an absolutely fantastic day at Cardigan State Park. I have been here many times and I see myself returning for many more!
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