Personal Narrative: Mt Cardigan

There was a slight cool breeze at the top of Mt. Cardigan during mid Fall, the landscape was a beautiful painting made by the earth and sky. I could see blue ponds reflecting the clear sky like a giant mirror, some trees had begun to turn orange, yellow, or red, while other trees still held on to their green. It was a very popular day to hike and we had a spectacle of thirty plus people watching to see what our daring plan was. Three of my friends and I were out of place on this mountain because we did not come up with a dog or even hiking boots on. We brought helmets and bikes with us.

We initially thought that we would be able to bike a decent part of the mountain because of our cross country biking background and experience. We were wrong,

We knew that the last mile way far steeper, but we also knew that there were no stairs and water flowed down hill, our hope was that if anything we could tell a cool story. Once we lost the protection of the trees the water had turned to ice making small frozen streams that wanted to send us hurtling back down, it was like a game of shoots and ladders but without dice or a slide. Once we knew that we were almost at the top the four of us wanted to get a quick snack and then attempt to ride the rest of the way up because most of the ice was now behind us. That's when it happened, John rode across an icy section and his bike slid out from under him and he broke his fall with his hand but that was a mistake. He immediately had some choice words and could not move it without shooting pain. We realized that he could no longer ride his bike, which he just spent three plus hours pushing up a hill just so he can now walk down it with the bike by his side. We discussed his condition and he gave us he ok that we should finish the climb to the top since we could already see the peak just a few hundred feet