ALGonquin Bob
Well-known member
DECISIONS: A funny thing happened on the way to the Loj. Late Tuesday night I was headed toward Lake Placid and Heart Lake in anticipation of a solo day hike up Tabletop & Phelps, but as I passed through the town of Tupper Lake I decided to check out Coreys Road. I had read that it was still open and passable all the way to the summer trailhead for the Seward Range. I drove across the bridge onto the unplowed portion of the road with great trepidation. There were only a few inches of snow on the ground and many tire tracks, but I felt uncomfortable on this section because almost one year ago to the day, I had found out first hand why it’s referred to as the “summer” trailhead. Yes, I was one of the morons who got stuck there last year and had to be extricated with a backhoe. My hiking partner, “the driver”, shall remain nameless as I’m sworn to secrecy forever.
My old Honda was the only vehicle in the parking lot that night, but Wednesday morning, as I prepared for my hike up Seymour, a truck parked next to me. The lone hiker identified himself as Rick. He was there to work on his remaining winter 46 by hiking the big 3 peaks: Seward, Donaldson and Emmons. I had decided to only do Seymour, since I had to drive back to Rochester immediately after the hike. “Hiker Rick” started up the trail just ahead of me, and I soon joined him on our walk. As we reached the junction with the horse path that leads to Calkins Brook, I expected to part company, as he would turn right and I would continue toward the Ward Brook truck trail. At that point I asked if he preferred a solo hike, or would he mind some company on this day. The thought of knocking 3 more peaks off of my list appealed to me, and I could begin my quest for the winter 46 on the same peaks where I had become a 46er just six months ago. Instead of two hikers each taking the risks that accompany traveling alone in cold weather, we climbed together.
THE TRAIL: There is new flagging now to mark the path toward Calkins Brook, perhaps in anticipation of this becoming a maintained trail. Regardless, the herd path now turns off the road (horse trail) much sooner than the route I had taken just last June... you can’t miss it, the junction is well marked. I began the hike on snowshoes, but there was only minimal snow cover and I soon switched to crampons. We reached the top of the ridge by Donaldson after much work, and many rest... ummmm.... PHOTO stops. Thinking that we were on a path that put us just north of Donaldson, we turned toward the right and searched for the first summit. We found a high point and declared it to be Donaldson, but later found the proper summit and sign.
FOUND AND LOST: Rick found a full water bottle in a yellow insulated holder. The partially frozen juice inside indicated it was likely lost by a member of the group that climbed just two days earlier. I emptied the bottle and attached it to my pack in order to take it off the mountain and attempt to find the owner. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Even though I frequently turned around and checked the trail after ducking under trees, the bottle was again lost. It now resides on the herd path somewhere between Donaldson and Emmons.
DAZED AND CONFUSED: After much wandering, we couldn’t find a path that went in the “right” direction and decided to not try for Emmons, but to go on to Seward. As we made our way on the trail, we met a gent from Philadelphia who told us we were headed toward Emmons. That was good news and bad news; we wanted to reach Emmons, but now realized that we were completely disoriented. We did reach the rock and disc on top of Emmons, but the rest of the day seemed to be opposite of how it should have been. We decided to skip Seward for lack of time and daylight and tried to find the way back toward Calkins Brook. My compass said “East”, but with fading daylight and no other trail down, we accepted our confusion and descended on the beaten path by the light of our headlamps. The terrain looked familiar, and indeed, we had come down the proper trail. The horse path was a very welcome sight, indicating only about one more hour to our vehicles. We will do Seward another day. Perhaps the trail from Ward Brook will be broken, and I will combine that summit with a trip up Seymour.
SLEEP...SLEEP: Rick and I said our good-byes, and we were off in opposite directions on our journey home. It was good to make a new friend and spend the day in the Sewards with him. I made the very long trip back to Rochester in order to work the next day. Three hours of sleep was barely enough to get me through the workday, but the memories and satisfaction of hiking in the Adirondacks was more than enough compensation. -ALG
My old Honda was the only vehicle in the parking lot that night, but Wednesday morning, as I prepared for my hike up Seymour, a truck parked next to me. The lone hiker identified himself as Rick. He was there to work on his remaining winter 46 by hiking the big 3 peaks: Seward, Donaldson and Emmons. I had decided to only do Seymour, since I had to drive back to Rochester immediately after the hike. “Hiker Rick” started up the trail just ahead of me, and I soon joined him on our walk. As we reached the junction with the horse path that leads to Calkins Brook, I expected to part company, as he would turn right and I would continue toward the Ward Brook truck trail. At that point I asked if he preferred a solo hike, or would he mind some company on this day. The thought of knocking 3 more peaks off of my list appealed to me, and I could begin my quest for the winter 46 on the same peaks where I had become a 46er just six months ago. Instead of two hikers each taking the risks that accompany traveling alone in cold weather, we climbed together.
THE TRAIL: There is new flagging now to mark the path toward Calkins Brook, perhaps in anticipation of this becoming a maintained trail. Regardless, the herd path now turns off the road (horse trail) much sooner than the route I had taken just last June... you can’t miss it, the junction is well marked. I began the hike on snowshoes, but there was only minimal snow cover and I soon switched to crampons. We reached the top of the ridge by Donaldson after much work, and many rest... ummmm.... PHOTO stops. Thinking that we were on a path that put us just north of Donaldson, we turned toward the right and searched for the first summit. We found a high point and declared it to be Donaldson, but later found the proper summit and sign.
FOUND AND LOST: Rick found a full water bottle in a yellow insulated holder. The partially frozen juice inside indicated it was likely lost by a member of the group that climbed just two days earlier. I emptied the bottle and attached it to my pack in order to take it off the mountain and attempt to find the owner. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Even though I frequently turned around and checked the trail after ducking under trees, the bottle was again lost. It now resides on the herd path somewhere between Donaldson and Emmons.
DAZED AND CONFUSED: After much wandering, we couldn’t find a path that went in the “right” direction and decided to not try for Emmons, but to go on to Seward. As we made our way on the trail, we met a gent from Philadelphia who told us we were headed toward Emmons. That was good news and bad news; we wanted to reach Emmons, but now realized that we were completely disoriented. We did reach the rock and disc on top of Emmons, but the rest of the day seemed to be opposite of how it should have been. We decided to skip Seward for lack of time and daylight and tried to find the way back toward Calkins Brook. My compass said “East”, but with fading daylight and no other trail down, we accepted our confusion and descended on the beaten path by the light of our headlamps. The terrain looked familiar, and indeed, we had come down the proper trail. The horse path was a very welcome sight, indicating only about one more hour to our vehicles. We will do Seward another day. Perhaps the trail from Ward Brook will be broken, and I will combine that summit with a trip up Seymour.
SLEEP...SLEEP: Rick and I said our good-byes, and we were off in opposite directions on our journey home. It was good to make a new friend and spend the day in the Sewards with him. I made the very long trip back to Rochester in order to work the next day. Three hours of sleep was barely enough to get me through the workday, but the memories and satisfaction of hiking in the Adirondacks was more than enough compensation. -ALG
No problem - friends of mine re-found it the following day. I sent an e-mail to Rick to thank him myself (we climbed Cliff together last year).
