We decided to drive to the back-roads of neighbouring states here and explore the rural country. It took us about three hours to get to Alexandria, New Hampshire. We had reserved a cabin at the Appalachian Mountain Lodge (AMC) there and had planned on doing some hiking and climbing up Mt. Cardigan, a relatively small peak (3200 ft).

We reached the lodge at four in the afternoon and got the key to our room on the third floor. The room was extremely tiny and had low, sloping ceilings and bunk beds. Dinner was to be served at six p.m. and we went to the dining room to join the other travelers for a home-style meal. At our table was a couple with two rather talkative children. On the menu was salad, bread and pot-pie. I have never developed a taste for bland food and had difficulty in eating even the meager portion of the vegetable pot-pie I had served myself.

After dinner and a hot chocolate, we assembled in the living room to take a night walk along the trail. Our guide was going to take us into the woods without any lamps and show us a few tricks of night-hiking. We were an excited group of eighteen, with children as well as the senior members. Walking on the trail in pitch dark was fun. We stopped by the pond, where our guide showed us some constellations in the sky. It was beautiful - have never seen so many stars from the city. As our eyes adjusted to the dark, he demonstrated a few tricks with light (and the theory of rods and cones of the eyes) and showed us how to listen for the sounds of the brook nearby or owls and other small animals. Accustomed to the dark by now, we walked on the trail, trying to look for luminous mushrooms. He gave us crayons and asked us to guess the colours in the dark and told us mean tricks used by pirates or sailors for better vision while out at sea.

The next morning, we went for breakfast. There was a limited choice for vegetarians - cream of wheat and 'veg' sausages, eggs. I did not want to try the latter two, so I had a big mug of coffee instead. A skeleton lunch arrangement was done on the table and we made sandwiches ourselves and filled our backpack.

We took the trail to Mt. Cardigan along with the others, for a mile or so to the Grand Junction point. The road forked here, with a longer, easier trail called 'Cathedral Forest trail' going up to the summit and the shorter, more strenuous Holt trail. We decided to give the Holt trail a try. "We can always return and take the easier trail!" we thought. We were totally wrong!

The first third of the Holt trail was the usual kind, a few large rocks and narrow pathways. As the gradient increased, we saw larger rocks and we had to find footholds and crevices in the rocks in order to scale them. I was particularly scared about the afternoon sun, as I have suffered several sunburns on hikes before. After scaling one gigantic rock, I announced to hubby that I had a feeling that we would be stranded there in the hot sun and should turn back and take the easier, Cathedral trail. To our consternation, we found out that it was even more difficult to slide down the rocks we had come up and there was no turning back! It was a one-way route!

There were very few trekkers on this route, mostly seasoned guys who had no difficulty scrambling up the rocks in a step or two. "Need any help?" they shouted from a distance above, as we were crawling up the rocks on all fours like monkeys or monitor lizards! I did not even want to look back the way we came - it was terribly steep and I have vertigo. The last half of this trail was a terror - sharply steep rock ledges that looked almost vertical, that we would have to scale! I was busy looking for footholds and planning where to put my foot next and extremely nervous because hubby was behind and if I slipped, I would take him down as well! I remember climbing Rajgadh (which has a lesser steep ledge at the top but has chains and railings) but that seemed like ages ago - either this was more difficult or I am totally inflexible now! This last 0.8 mile stretch was just one huge, never-ending vertical ledge where one could not even rest for a bit.

Finally, we reached the summit in two and half hours. There was an observation/fire tower at the top. Many trekkers had come up the longer, Cathedral Forest trail and these included families with children and their dogs as well as one couple with their one-year old child on the back! The views from the top were amazing and the mountains in Vermont in the distance looked dreamy in shades of blue. Descending from Holt trail was not allowed (what relief) and we took the Cathedral trail back down, running most of the way. Had our packed lunch by the dry riverbed and then took a smaller 'nature' trail. A wonderful climb, totally worth the efforts!