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Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Hiking the Seward Range

While there is no shortage of mountains in the Adirondacks, the Seward Range caught my attention.  The Seward Range is the western most range of the High Peaks and makes up the eastern skyline of my town, Tupper Lake.  As I have in the past, I set out to climb mountains that I see regularly.

There are four readily accessible peaks in the Seward Range.  Seward Mountain tops out at 4,361 feet and stands as the high point in the range.  South of Seward along the same ridgeline are 4,140-foot Mt Donaldson and 4,040-foot Mt Emmons.  These three peaks make up the skyline visible from Tupper Lake.  A fourth peak, 4,120-foot Seymour Mountain is separated by Ouluska Pass to the east and is also accessible.  Climbing Seymour requires a different route from the other three summits however due to dense forests and cliffs.  I set out to climb Seward, Donaldson, and Emmons on June 28th with my frequent hiking companion, my dog Choya.

There are two routes that climb to these three peaks.  I chose to climb via the Calkins Brook herd path.  The route starts at the Seward Mountain trailhead, sometimes referred to as the Coreys trailhead. 

Before I even opened my door, mosquitoes found my car.  I thought I was in for a miserable time.  While I got my gear in order, the mosquitoes kept me on my toes.  Fortunately, the mosquitoes were most dense at the trailhead and thinned within the first half-mile.

Trailhead

The terrain stays pretty mellow for the first several miles of the hike.  The trails follow the remnants of former truck roads from long ago logging operations.  As a result, the path still remains wide and fairly gentle.  I traveled just over a mile on the Ward Brook Truck Trail before heading south on the Calkins Brook Truck Trail.  Despite the monikers, the route travels through the High Peaks Wilderness and any vehicles have long been banned from using the roads.

Gentle trail near the trailhead

Calkins Brook Truck Trail

After 3.3 miles of easy travel, I turned off the official trails onto the Calkins Brook herd path.   This junction is easy to miss.  The first few feet of the herd path don’t stand out.   No signs mark the trail.  A crumbled cairn with a metal bucket marks the trail.  This could easily be mistaken for trash if you don’t know it’s the trail marker.  As with many of the higher summits in the Adirondacks, unofficial and unmaintained herd paths are used to reach summits.  The Calkins Brook herd path has no signs or official maintenance.  The only markings along the route are two cairns that mark the trail on either side of the ford of Calkins Brook. 

This bucket marks the turn to the Calkins Brook herd path

After a few feet, the herd path becomes more defined and easier to follow.  After following Calkins Brook a short distance, the path crosses the rocky brook on an easy ford that most can step across on stones under normal water conditions.  Any confusion on finding the trail after the ford is eliminated by cairns on either side of the brook.

Calkins Brook

From the brook, the path begins climbing toward the crest of the Seward Range.  In the lower elevations the path can be somewhat less defined in the less dense hardwood forest, but never difficult to follow.  Along its course, the route crosses numerous creeks and a few muddy spots that may make the route slightly less straightforward, but again, never difficult to stay on course.

Rougher section on the upper reaches of the Calkins Brook herd path

The path travels about three miles before reaching a junction on the main path across the crest of the Seward Range. Another cairn marks the upper end of the herd path. While there are some muddy spots, I managed to keep my feet fairly dry.  I was fairly sweaty by the end of the climb however.  The humidity was quite thick and it was shaping up to be a warm day by Adirondack standards.  Even though I grew up and spent most of my life in the northeast, living in Colorado the past five years has left me unacclimated to the summertime humidity on the east coast.

The main path across the Seward Range is a herd path as well.  The path features no signs or maintenance.  Despite this, the route sees a fair amount of traffic and following the path remains straightforward for the most part. 

This junction sits less than ¼ mile from the summit of Donaldson.  One can turn left at this junction and climb Seward or right toward Donaldson and Emmons.  I headed right.

Almost immediately, the path faces a slabby section with requires hands to negotiate.  Choya handled this with ease, leaping over the initial rise and impressing a couple other hikers at this spot.  The path goes over or bypasses a couple ledges before soon reaching Mt Donaldson. 

Challenging slab below Donaldson

Rocky ramp below Donaldson

The trail climbs the crevice between the rocks

Donaldson’s marked summit is quite small.  A small open rocky area sits below the summit sign.  Of the three peaks on this stretch of the Seward Range, Donaldson offers the best views.  From the summit proper, Seward Mountain stands out a short distance to the north, giving a glimpse of the route later in the day.  The view to the east is pretty wide open as it looks over the Cold River drainage to the heart of the High Peaks.  The Santanoni Range towers just over the Cold River to the southeast. 

Donaldson's summit

Santanoni Range rising above Cold River

High Peaks

Seward

With the small summit, I didn’t linger as the hikers I just passed arrived.  I continued south toward Emmons.  Not long after leaving the summit, the path passes a high, open ledge with far reaching 180-degree views to the west.  Although lacking the High Peaks in the view, this vista is just as impressive as the actual summit.  Lakes dominate this view with much of Long Lake visible to the south, Tupper Lake and Village to the west, Ampersand Mountain and Lake to the north, and the Saranac Lakes beyond.

Emmons

Ampersand Mountain and Lake

Hazy view toward Tupper Lake

Long Lake


The path becomes quite muddy and rough as it leaves Donaldson.  Larger pockets of deep mud make it difficult to keep your feet dry.  Numerous cliffs and slabs slow progress as well.  Choya handled most of these obstacles easier than I did.  The trail seems to drop a fair amount of elevation between the peaks.  The final climb to Emmons doesn’t seem to gain too much of that elevation back.

Tricky section of rock

House size rock covered in moss

Mt Emmons offers the least lackluster summit of the three summits.  There is a fairly small window of views through the trees.  Not enough to make Emmons a destination on its own.  There was a decent vantage point toward slides on Seward, but not much else to see from the tiny summit.  When I climbed the final slab and saw the sign for Emmons, I was surprised that I reached it and by the lack of features of the summit.

Emmon's summit

I took a break for a snack on Emmons.  Before long, the black flies found me.  I couldn’t eat my bar fast enough before leaving the thick cloud of flies.  This was the worst I have seen since I returned to the northeast.

From Emmons, I retraced my route back over Donaldson to the junction of the two herd paths.  The uneventful return seemed to go by much quicker traveling back north despite the numerous slabs and cliffs along the way.

Once past the junction, I continued north along the path, descending over more sections of slabby rock.  Eventually the slabs ended when I reached the low point between Donaldson and Seward.  The path becomes more threaded as it splits into a couple paths at spots.  Despite this, the paths never separate too much and rejoin quickly.

Rooty section of path

The path begins climbing soon enough, becoming quite rough along the way.  Initially the route follows a rocky gully.  The terrain becomes steeper as it climbs a rocky cleft with sections of even more slabs.  One final slabby section close to the summit features the best views that I encountered on Seward, with a good look to the west.

Hiking a rocky gully

Passing under a cliff

Tricky section of rocks

jumble of rocks in cleft

Steep slab

The summit proper is marked with a sign on a featureless wooded high point about .7 miles north of Donaldson.  I felt no desire to linger and backtracked to the rocky viewpoint just south of the summit for another snack before more black flies hurried my departure.

Seward's summit

Long Lake in the distance beyond Donaldson and Emmons

The Saranac Lakes 
Beyond the summit, the herd path continues north, eventually descending to the Ward Brook Truck Trail making a loop possible.  While I can’t speak from experience, nearly every report on this route I read makes it sound brutal at best with no benefit to travel it.  Two other hikers I passed enroute to Seward confirmed this.  While I usually prefer loops, this time I opted to retrace my steps and returned back to the Calkins Brook Herd Path.

The top of the rock cleft on the return

Donaldson and Emmons

I made it back to the junction quickly and descended the Calkins Brook herd path.  As I dropped in elevation, I could feel the temperature increase.  I took one last break at the ford of Calkins Brook.  I submerged my head in the brook to cool down.  The still frigid water takes your breath away.  The final 3.5 miles went by quickly on the gentle trails back to the trailhead. 

The Santanoni Range from a outcropping south of Seward

The heart of the High Peaks from the same outcropping

Another slab 

I arrived at the trailhead shortly after 2PM.  Following this route, the hike covers more than 15 miles and took me roughly 7.5 hours.  While I haven’t been in the Adirondacks long enough to know them that well, I get the impression that climbing these three peaks has the reputation of being a trudge.  I guess I can see this.  There are not a ton of views for the elevation and distance.  The trails can be somewhat rough going as well. 

Not much wildlife on this hike but I saw at least 30 toads

I can’t say that I have a great desire to repeat this full hike any time soon.  I would consider climbing Donaldson again.  From the Calkins Brook route, this is the quickest summit to reach, and easily has the best views.  I also enjoyed the fact that I could see my town, Tupper Lake, from the west side of the mountain. 

As for Choya, the 15 miles on this hike barely fazed him.  Sure he napped afterwards, but several hours after we were home, he was letting us know it was time for his evening walk.

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