Debbie, Krista
After a flurry of emails discussing our approach to the Seward Range, Debbie and I decided we'd like to challenge ourselves but attempting the entire range (all 4 peaks) in one day. Our strategy would be to sleep in Debbie's pop up truck camper in the parking lot and get up early and attempt the peaks by doing Seymour first, then up to the ridge to to Sewards, Donaldson and Emmons, back down Caulkins brook to the parking lot.
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| Warm and dry in the Toyota Hilton |
The first night in the camper was fantastic. Arriving just at sunset, we set up and settled into our warm, dry accommodations in what Debbie calls the "Toyota Hilton". Set the alarm for 5am and went to bed early caressed by the melodic sounds of rain hitting the roof. All night the rain fell, and our sleep became restless and we both arose before our alarm knowing what we were going to be getting ourselves into.
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| Seymour summit shot |
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Seymour lookout-swears Debbie...see?
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On the trail by 6am, we heading off with headlamps on down the trail with rain pouring down on us turning left at the first junction an onward to the lean-to's. Made it to blueberry lean-to by 7:30am, and the Seymour cairn by 7:45am. It had only been 1 and 3/4 hours, and we had covered 8.85km. Marching up to the top of Seymour the rain continued. Going off the trail once on a side trail, it eventually hooked up with the main herdpath and we summited at 9:14am. It wasn't my fastest ascent. I got a muscle cramp in my stomach (probably due to the blistering anaerobic pace Debbie was setting) and felt nauseous an had to slow down. Took a few quick pictures and a snack and headed over to a look out point that Debbie swears is beautiful on clear days. I'll have to take her word for it as today the summits and lookouts were to be foggy and cloudy.
Returned back to the cairn by 10:30am in the rain and headed over to Ward Brook lean to for a 15 minute break out of the rain. On the trail again we left the Seward cairn (located just beside a truck bridge #1) and headed up once again. We passed an extremely scenic rocky brook, even for Adirondack standards. I guess this is called Ward Brook. Soon after we hit the famous Seward mountain rocky outcroppings which were tricky as the rivers flowed down them. Passed a pair of female hikers and caught up with another group of 4 men at the summit. It was 12:55pm now. Most trip reports say it takes hikers 3 hours to make the summit and we had made it in less than two even with my stomach cramp still annoying me. My only solace was that the rain started to fade out, but the trails were as muddy and wet as ever.
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| Final crux pitch before Seward summit |
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Debbie heading up slippery Seward
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Took some summit shots and immediately left the summit in order to get ahead of the group of guys who were all carrying full packs with them. Forgot to waypoint the summit as a result. Headed to Donaldson and arrived there 50 mins later at 1:45pm. Met 2 solo men hikers at the summit (which we found out later was the faux summit) there and learnt that one of them, Steve was about to summit his 46th peak on Emmons! The other hiker had already been to Emmons and said it only takes 15-20mins to get to, contradicting the trip reports I had read. By this point we needed more fuel, so we took another 15 minute break to fuel up. It was quite windy and starting to rain once more. Heading over to Emmons, we found the true Donaldson summit with the actual marker on it and celebrated all over again.
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| On Donaldson's true summit |
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Summit of Seward Mtn
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Headed over to Emmons and met Steve once again on a rocky outcropping he thought was the summit. Checking my GPS, I would assure him that this wasn't the summit and we should keep going. The three of us continued on, and about 49 mins after leaving Donaldson, we were there at 2:49pm. We celebrated Steve's 46er finish and my 45th peak and then headed back, taking another 49 mins to return to Donaldson. We soon realized that many hikers mistake Donaldson's true summit from the lookout. Also, many hikers don't get to Emmons. The trip reports I have read some hikers say its only 30mins away, which it doesn't. I think many hikers cheat on these peaks and claim there are no summit markers which there are! We caught a few today!
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Me pointing to the actual Emmons summit marker
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On Emmons summit-photo by Steve!
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Got to the junction at Caulkins brook around 4pm, and descended the wet, mucky slippery trail down to the bucket junction by 5:30. Steve had followed us down Caulkins but we left him in our dust with our use of poles on the slippery terrain-a godsend! Trudged up and down the road and turned left at the next junction and arrived at the parking lot wet and hungry by 6:18pm. This was an epic hike. The longest hike that Debbie or I have been on, and for me the on with the biggest ascent and time. We had to endure cold rain and wet, muddy trails all day long. Lucky we had a warm and dry camper to return to once finished. A wet tent wouldn't have been so nice. Check four more off the list...down to ONE!!
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| The views we were supposed to see on this hike but had to catch on the way home Sunday. |
Hike totals: 33.33km, 7129ft of ascending, 12 hours 18mins. Epic.
