24, 25, & 26: Seward, Donaldson, & Emmons
There were many failed attempts over the last few weeks to get out into the High Peaks region. The weather and the social situation this weekend was finally looking perfect to get something done. After our camping trip, we packed up the car and headed for Corey's Rd.
We started from home around 1:30pm. Along the way on the almost 3 hour drive, I tried finding a place with a folding saw. I was excited to finally be camping somewhere we could have fire. I finally found one at the Curtis Lumber in Ray Brook.
Blueberry Trail
As it was a Thursday afternoon, the Seward trailhead had plenty of spaces available. We packed up and headed out at around 5:15. The sign at the trailhead insisted the distance to Blueberry Lean-to was under 4 miles but that estimate is laughable in the extreme. I expected the hike to be at least two hours but probably more like two and a half.
I saw there were two groups from Williams College marked in this day on the trail register. I was very concerned I'd find the Blueberry Lean-to full.
We did start off at a pretty great clip. For much of the Blueberry Trail portion of the hike, the air didn't smell of pristine nature. Instead, it reeked of fake deer piss. I expect this is due to the private land which abutts the trail. Throughout our stay, we heard gunshots, trucks, and dogs barking from time to time. I suspect that the heavy use of the scent is to conceal the smell of hikers on the trail and entice deer to cross the path into the Ampersand basin.
The trail was very fast with plenty of stream crossings along the way.
Drizzles popped up on and off during our hike and light was low. We were able to find our way and take a few pretty pictures anyways.
I think the bridge has been out here for a while. A friend told me this crossing was damn near impossible when they attempted it a few years ago. This trail may be fast when dry, but it's got a lot of mud pits and unmaintained crossings. It's in pretty rough shape until the lean-tos.
The on and off drizzling turned into steady rain moments after we arrived at the lean-to. There were three bags and some rain flys hanging, and a tent was set up nearby. It seemed that the college group had moved on to the Ward Brook lean-to. I set our stuff up by last light. I called out to see if anyone was in the tent, but nobody responded. In retrospect, this was kind of rude.
Sunny curled up peacefully at my feet. I was still a little wired so I listened to an audiobook for an hour or so. At around 8:30pm, some headlamps bounced towards the lean-to. Three hikers were arriving from the West, having completed the Seward range loop.
A dad had just finished his 46, joined by his two Eagle Scout sons. They'd gotten a late start that day and decided to loop around instead of hiking back up and down Seward in the dark. Knowing what I know now, I think that was a really good idea and worth the extra miles.
While they prepared and ate dinner, we talked for some time about all manner of things. Although we went to sleep later than we would have normally, I was glad for the conversation. All three slept in their tent rather than the lean-to.
I had some trouble sleeping. I'd brought my 20 degree bag even though the forecast promised lows would be in the 50s and 60s. I eventually stripped down and left the zipper open and was finally comfortable. I really need to do better at picking the right bag topper when camping.
Foreshadowing: both Sunny and I had gurgly bellies.
Up Seward
We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I tried a freezed-dried meal for the first time and put too much water in. I forced most of it down. As usual, Sunny was too excited to eat.
Sunny was pulling me hard through the mud. We moved very quickly. Although it wasn't raining anymore and the prospects for the day were great, the wetness on the leaves and needles got into us right away. Fortunately, the temps were fine.
True to form, a minute into the hike, Sunny pooped. True to form, I left my trekking pole where I buried the poo.
Fortunately, the truck trail bridge was in a fine state of repair.
We made it to the Seward cairn at 7:45am.
There was plenty of mud to start, but mostly squelchy, not watery.
The trail followed and crossed the brook much of the way to the top. There is plenty of fresh, clean water to be had on the way up Seward. I topped off our water here. I should have, instead, replaced all of our water here.
Sunny was having the best day ever.
The first third of the trail or so is just generally uphill rough following the brook. It's fairly fast-going and dryish, clambering over roots and rocks (but mostly roots).
We found a weird, half-buried cable at 2700'. Jonothan Zaharek's great High Peaks guide mentions that the lands were devastated by logging as recent as 80 years ago, so I suspect this is an artefact of that age.
When I say "dryish", this is what I mean.
Roots and Rocks.
Best day ever!
Clintona Borealis: Blue Bead-lily
After a while, the trail becomes a stream ascent, stomping up rocks and water.
The slabs also begin around here. Fortunately, the rock on this range is all very pitted. It has multiple minerals in it, all eroding at a different rate. The footing is actually very good. Having said that, this part of the trail is extremely strenuous. You are really feeling the "2000' gain over 2 miles" here.
There are quite a few fun spots along the stream ascent. I used roots and trees to assist my climb both up and down the mountain.
Happy boy!
As usual, don't forget to turn around for the views.
The top third of the hike is very steep indeed. Sunny did a great job hopping the ledges. I had a bit of trouble with some of them. Any ledge that is too tall for me to lift a leg up yet too short to have a secondary foothold is most difficult for this short guy.
Hop! Hop! Hop!
There were a handfull of rockfaces like this on the top third of the climb. Many of them were easy to climb, but not so easy to descend. Most of these difficult sections have a root climb herd path adjacent to it. Sometimes Sunny chose the herd path and sometimes I did. Despite the porous nature of the slabs, it seemed like the right choice.
This rockface greets you near the summit. The path leads left to a place where you can get up it.
Be careful when descending. I ended up blundering down an accidental herd path and had to bushwhack over to the trail. This isn't surprising considering the trail itself is a herd path.
The ledge offers a lovely view of the Ampersand region.
We were not impressed at this point.
Neither was Adirondack Kommando.
The ledge on the Southwest side of Seward offers a great place to sit and enjoy the view. Our opinion of the mountain changed drastically at this point. If you're approaching from the North, just take a quick snap at the summit and enjoy your snack here on the Southern ledge instead.
Looking across the range, you can see where you will hike to the left of the hump in the foreground to Donaldson, the saddle peak beyond it. Emmons is not pictured here. We didn't wait here long, though. Despite the fact that we only had 8 miles total to hike today, the ascent up Seward had taken 3 hours and I knew the next 4 and a half miles out and back would be a serious "uphill both ways" situation.
Down Seward and Across Donaldson
The weather was absolutely fabulous as we started the climb down from Seward. The South side of the mountain is steep, but managable. I actually feel like this climb was easier than the upper third of the North side of the mountain (even on the return trip). It also might just be that we were now in the sun and feeling awesome.
There is this one spot that's a little tough. I was worried about Sunny on the way back, but he scaled it without my help. All told, I think I had to pull him up on this hike about four times. During ascents and descents, I've been keeping the leash and lead attached, but stuffing the leash and lead in his pack. This makes it easy to quickly unpack the leash and haul him up where necessary.
The climb on the South side of Seward is awesome.
It is much more of a staircase than the haul-and-scramble on the other side. The sunshine alone makes this side more desirable than the Northern approach. If I were to do the three mountains in the range as a day hike, I'd definitely just do the "T" up and down Calkins Brook instead of the loop.
The hike across to Donaldson features one major hump over the shoulder of the little peak between the two mountains, but the hike is quite pretty. We found ourselves hiking past little streams running through skinny conifers and mossy undergrowth. It is beautiful up there, but probably also quite fragile. I stuck to the trail as best I could.
I love ridges in the High Peaks.
The climb up Donaldson is largely tame.
"Where's the people to pet me?" Sunny is wondering here at the Calkins Brook cairn. He was rewarded with a group of three hikers, one who had run ahead to bag Donaldson and two coming up Calkins Brook trail. After this, we met around six or seven different groups or individuals taking advantage of the perfect hiking weather. Everyone on the trail was super awesome and gave Sunny lots of love.
A couple of differnt overlooks have gorgeous views back at Seward...
...up towards Ampersand, Lake Placid, and Long Lake...
...and South towards the Santanonis.
Donaldson summit, I guess? There is no sign.
Adirondack Kommando approves of the terrain on Donaldson.
Emmons
I'd been documenting so much with my phone that I decided to just charge up on the way across to Emmons. This was a nasty hike.
First of all, it is fairly disheartening to lose so much elevation between Donaldson and Emmons. Instead of following the ridgetop, the trail descends 350' down from the Donaldson saddle to a low point of 3790' along the side of the mountain. It's not a lot on paper, but after all those ups and downs, it's frustrating.
The second and most brutal part of this section is the mud. There is so much mud. There is no avoiding the mud. It will become a part of you. Sunny was drinking from the ridge water all day and even had a drink on Emmons. I told him that didn't seem like a good idea, but he did it anyways.
The ascent up Emmons is rather unremarkable.
"Thpp."
Adirondack Kommando wants to go back to Santanoni.
We sat and had lunch on the Southwest overlook on Emmons. I must admit it is a beautiful place. I took a deep breath and tried to forget about the last mile. We were treated with the company of a huge raptor soaring on the updrafts. Sunny finally ate his bowl of dog food.
Mud.
Victory Lap
The hike back across to Donadlson was as blah as the hike to Emmons. We met some new friends on Donaldson summit where we ate another snack and chatted.
The hike back up Seymour was fun. The rocks were very rough and scalable. We met a couple of young, skinny solo hikers who were still on their way across the range on a day hike with plans of hiking out Calkins Brook. I'm very impressed with folks who can do that in a day. Those were the last people we saw on the trail that day.
These little guys are so cute.
Update: well, apparently this cutie is called Galerina hypnorum and it is lethal to ingest.
Sunny and I got back up to the Seward Southern overlook around 3:30pm. I felt really great at that point; we had conquered one of the most notorious ranges, it was early in the day, and the sun was shining. After our snacks (banana, energy bar), we sat and enjoyed the view and the breeze for at least a half an hour. It was so quiet up there.
The hike back down Seward was rough and tiring. We followed a lot of the herd paths down the more difficult sections.
Monotropa uniflora: Ghost Pipe
There were a couple of places where I got off-trail on my way down. At one point, about midway down, there's a place where the stream descent bends right into the woods to avoid a deep ravine. I crossed and went left instead. There's no huge danger for getting lost here, though. The trail is basically the stream for the most part.
I was still feeling a little gurgly from yesterday and I decided to fill our water at the bottom of the trail instead of at the little stream near the lean-to. I was starting to become dubious about its cleanliness.
When we got back, I retrieved my trekking pole and chatted with the new folks camping at the tent site. I ate the Lasagna and Beef freeze-dried meal which was yummy. I remembered Jay had scratched cup measurements in the boiler he'd given me, so that helped with the consistency. Sunny didn't want his food at all. He actively walked away from it as if he were disgusted.
I never did start a fire either night.
Homeward Bounding
We went down early that night and I could hear Sunny's belly gurgling. Mine was, too, a little. I woke up around 11pm to pee and Sunny followed me. While I was peeing, he vomited a disgusting-smelling mess. Around 3am I noticed he was shivering. Sunny doesn't shiver. He absolutely doesn't get cold in 60 and 50 degree weather. I am certain he was fighting something. I pulled him close and the shivering didn't really subside and I slept fitfully after that.
We woke up at 5. He was no longer shivering, but vomited again. He wouldn't take any water or food at that time and didn't beg me for any of my Stroganoff. I'm not sure if I was also ill or just very anxious about Sunny, but I couldn't choke down most of the Stroganoff either.
I don't want to blame the stream near the lean-to with any certainty. We were filtering and that really should have been enough to make a difference. Of course, Sunny had been drinking both filtered and unfiltered water. I never got very sick like Sunny, but I'd had a bit of an upset belly. When we first filtered, I had a bit of trouble squeezing the water out, so I'm not sure if there was some kind of malfunction with the filter. There's also the fact that Sunny took some drinks on Emmons.
I am quite fastidious about cleaning up and using sanitizer after bathroom visits.
I can't say for sure what the deal was.
From 5am to 6am I actually was still packing my day pack to hike Seymour. A little voice in my head kept telling me how selfish I was being. Another little voice was saying I was just trying to come up with an excuse to not have to hike the fourth mountain.
I took a deep breath and thought critically about it. I was feeling very motivated to finish the range. I absolutely didn't want to hike Deer Piss Trail again another day. I was certain in my heart that I wasn't just making an excuse not to hike the measly two miles up and two miles down compared to another full 14 mile day hike.
No, I was not going to finish the range that day. Even if Sunny got over whatever was ailing him, he wasn't eating. I couldn't guarantee he'd have the energy to make it the full 8 mile day. Even though I was technically prepared to stay another night, if he got worse, I'd be carrying a 75-lb dog at least another 5 miles in his sling, then coming back for my pack at a later date.
I refilled our backpacking pack and we headed back down Blueberry Trail. Within minutes of leaving, Sunny had vile diarrhea. In the past, veteranarians have told us that diarrhea and dehydration in dogs can be very dangerous. It can turn on a dime, leaving you just hours to respond. I was suddenly feeling very much more confident in my decision to bail.
I tried to take it easy on the way back. Sunny had other plans.
Despite his sick belly and refusal to eat anything, Sunny was in an amazing mood. He met a lot of people on the trail and was excited to get lots of love. I am pretty sure he was smelling his own scent and knew we were heading out.
"Big-ass rock in a swamp" is a pretty cool Adirondack aesthetic.
But I think my favorite is the "big-ass rock with big trees growing on it" aesthetic.
As we approached the last mile or so of the hike, I came across this half-buried cable. I didn't remember seeing it before, so I checked my map.
I was still on a trail, but not the trail. The trail markers are so poor and the maintenance is so bad that I never noticed I'd ended up on the verge of private property, at a section that bends South instead of North. I quickly bushwhacked back to the trail.
We made it back to the trailhead in about 3 hours. Sunny passed out after our stop at Stewart's (where he didn't even beg me for my pizza crust) and the Mountaineer (where I bought our peak pins). It was a beautiful drive to our family's campsite off Exit 25.
Quinn was very happy to see his best friend and Sunny was happy to see him.
Doggo slowly accepted more food and eventually ate his own dinner and drank water. Later, when we stopped at Martha's in Queensbury for ice cream, he was back to his old self. He socialized with the other patrons and made everyone's perfect day even more sunny.
I'm glad Sunny is okay. I'm pretty sure he was really fighting something Saturday night when he was shivering and vomiting. Although he ended up being fine, I believe it was absolutely the right call to bail on Seymour. I may try to come out for a day hike sometime in early September if I can get a weekday off for that purpose. If not, our next planned hike will be Algonquin mid-September with my sister.
We are currently at 26 High Peaks: 10 in 2022, 8 in 2023, and 8 in 2024. I'd love to get four more to be up to 30 by the end of the year, but I won't push it too hard. I was really hoping to knock out Blake & Colvin, but I really don't want to do those alone.
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