Marshall and Seward Range 10/8-10

[HuiYeng]

What would my life be if I don't hike? I love that almost every Monday when I'm still nursing my aching knees from a weekend of hiking, I'm on a long email thread planning the next weekend. It's so good to have friends that share the same passion.

Just before last weekend backpacking trip to Great Gulf (NH Whites), Jason and I have already made plan to backpack the Seward Range. We both have "flexible schedule" so a weekday trip to ADK workout best for us, or for me anyway so that I can still have the weekend to hang out with other folks at the Barnes for the Columbus Day weekend. So as usual, I painted a beautiful picture in my head: Hike Marshall on Wednesday; backpacking Seward Range on Thursday and Friday; drive back to Barnes Field (Gorham NH) on Saturday, more hiking on Sunday and Monday. Brilliant!

But as always, the reality like to mess with my picture perfect plan, I caught a cold from the Great Gulf backpacking weekend, and it wasn't getting better by Tuesday. But some fresh mountain air may be just what the doctor would order, that'd cure just about anything! So as plan, my loaded up my gears and gallons of water/OJs and boxes of tissue paper into my car and headed to ADK anyway. I spent a relatively comfortable night in my car at South Meadows road. Drove up to the Loj the next morning and started my hike to Marshall as planned. Kinda.

Day 1: Mt Marshall Wednesday October 8
THE PLAN:
The plan was to hike in from the Loj via Indian Pass, a quick visit to Rocky Falls; continue to Cold brook Trail, first take a detour to search for the plane crash site, find the crash site, take couple of victorious pictures next to the plane (the pilot survived the crash), then head back up the Cold Brook herdpath to Marshall. From Marshall descent from Herbert Brook herbpath to Lake Colden and take Avalanche Lake trail out back to the Loj, couldn't have planned it any better than that!

THE REALITY:
Indian Pass trial is wide and gradual. I was enjoying myself walking down the leaves padded trail and the workout actually did unclog my stuffy nose and I was feeling relatively good. In no time I arrived at the Rocky Falls. The falls is a lot smaller and than I've expected, but nonetheless it is a beautiful spot. I pulled out my map and located the lean-to just above the falls and a campsite near the falls. Made my way back to the main trail and continued my quest. Somehow after leaving the falls I was feeling sick again, and began to sneeze more. The abundant leaves on the ground made perfect material to blow my nose with. By the time I got to the junction of Cold Brook trail, I was feeling the cold all over again. I scrawled my way up the trail, and was glad I found the cairn marking the herbpath entrance with no problem. As plan, I would first try to search for the crash site before heading up the herdpath. Based on the information I gathered from Skyclimber, I located the boulder and even the fairly obvious herdpath that supposedly will lead me to the crash site. I followed the herbpath as close as I could but the patches of snow on the ground lured me into thinking that they were the debris of the crash and I eventually wandered off the herbpath. I was already behind my schedule because of the cold, and really didn't want to spend more time wandering in the woods by myself. So I bushwhacked my way back to the Cold Brook Trail, and made my way up to Mt Marshall.

The Cold Brook HP is very easy to follow, it goes up somewhat steeply at the beginning and reaches a false summit, and then drops down to a swampy col before the last climb up to the summit. Somehow, I thought the col is where the Herbert Brook HP merges with Cold Brook HP, but I must be wrong or blind, I couldn't find the junction. The rest of the hike up to the summit was supposedly easy, but I still managed to lost the trail. Just below the summit there is a big boulder to climb, it was a bit icy on the surface so I decided to climb around it and made it to the top but lost the trail after that. There was some patches of snows on the ground around there but thankfully a pink ribbon on a branch guided me back to the trail.

At the summit of Marshall, I ran into a guy John and his husky Furbits, who came up via Herbert Brook HP. Perfect, so I decided to hike down with them via Herbert Brook HP. The cold has obviously impaired my trail-finding ability, but I didn't know it actually can affect people around me too. Somehow neither John nor Furbits could find their way back down Herbert Brook HP and we all ended up descended via Cold Brook HP. With John and Furbits joined my team, we made another effort to try to locate the crash site but yielded no result. I tucked the tail that I don't have between my legs, acknowledged that today's just not my day. A quick hike down to the Lake Colden interior outpost where John and Furbits and I parted way. I hiked as quickly as my weary body could out to the Loj, a quick hot shower and hot meal later, I was back to South Meadows and fall asleep under steady rain throughout the night.

... to be continued...

 

[HuiYeng]

...
DAY 2-3: The Seward Range
Day 2 and 3 were pretty much went as plan. I indulged myself with a late start this morning. Jason and I planned to meet at Ward Brook Lean-to between 10 AM to noon. Hauling the fullpack on my back, I slogged slowly in and arrived before noon. The climb up Seymour reminded me of Allen, a gigantic pain in the a**. The "trail" was muddy, wet, eroded and steep. We made it up to the first bump, and then the summit. There is a nice outlook after the summit with a great views of Santanoni Range. But it was too windy for me to want to hang out for too long, we made it down about the same time it took us to climb up. Just before we got back to the truck road, we ran into a group of 4 heading up to Seymour, they would be our lean-to-mate tonight.

Day 3. Jason needed an early start so we decided to go separately. A night at the lean-to was tough on me. On top of my cold, I developed a bad cough from the night, and my hike out wasn't pretty. I was coughing loudly, spitting left and right along the trail, and those poor leaves...

I dropped my fullpack at the junction of Ward Brook and Calkins Brook truck road. I removed the top of my backpack which turned into a fanny pack and enough to hold all the things I need for a day hike. I could have fitted my 2 liter hydration bladder in it, but my crap-filled and bloated head decided to go with one nalgene bottle. The entrance to Calkins Brook HP is easy to find. The lower section is flat and goes through the open woods. But with leaves covering the path, I began to wonder it may be hard to follow in the dark, judging by my speed at that point, it's likely that I won't have enough day light on my way out. I kicked off as much leaves as I could along the way, dragging my poles to sweep away the leaves hoping to make it easier to follow with headlamp. The trail ascent gradually, few muddy areas but in general I think it is a great trail. About 2/3 up the herdpath, I ran into Jason coming down, I was feeling pretty weak with chest pain from excessive coughing and stuffy head and all, I was seriously considered turning back with him. But I didn't. I continued on slowly and made it to the ridge. I walked down the col up to the summit of Seward. 1 down 2 to go. I have about 1/3 of a bottle of water left at this point. Down Seward up Donaldson and on my way to Emmons, I ran into our lean-to-mates who took the Seward express (Ouluska Pass) up. According to them the trail toward the top was steep and with wet ledges to climb, they managed to climb up safely, but would rather not to go down the same way. I told them the condition on Calkins Brook HP and suggested that's a good alternative. The walk to Emmons seemed endless, I took my last sip of water at the summit and on my way back to Donaldson, I was happy to find water dripping under a boulder. I shoved my water bottle under it waited forever for barely half a bottle, dropped a tablet in it but gulped it down before the pill even completely soaked. The ridge walk for a healthy me would have been a relatively easy walk, a bit of ups and downs and muddy sections to negotiate, especially between Donaldson and Emmons. But with a cold, it was a tough hike. I felt slightly better after having some liquid in my system and the hike down was much bearable. Water was plentiful as soon as I got off the ridge with a couple of brook crossings just below the ridge. Back to the junction hauled the pack back on and I slogged my way out.

By the time I got back to my car, I saw a dark shadow sitting on the ground, leaning onto my car, I was way too tire to react to it, and then the shadow turned on his headlamp, it was Jason. He injured a tendon on his foot and have to cut short his backpacking trip. We drove to Lake Placid, later met up with Gillian and spent a night there. The next day, instead of heading to Barnes Field for more hiking, I decided (well, I know for sure) that no one would want me to be around under my condition, and headed straight home for some much needed rest. The entire weekend I was tucked in my bed looking out at the gorgeous clear blue sky, thinking of all my hiking friends having fun in the mountains. Now that's a good reason to want to stay healthy. To good health!

Pictures from Marshall and Seward Range.

 

[ferrisjrf]

By the time I got back to my car, I saw a dark shadow sitting on the ground, leaning onto my car, I was way too tire to react to it, and then the shadow turned on his headlamp, it was Jason. He injured a tendon on his foot and have to cut short his backpacking trip. We drove to Lake Placid, later met up with Gillian and spent a night there.

You make it sound so simple Hui Yeng.

She forgot to mention that first she got me some pizza, then she drove me to the Adirondack Med Ctr in SL and waited a couple hours while I got x-rays (and snuck me a slice into the ER ), and then drove me around to multiple hotels until we found a place with a vacancy.

So Hui Yeng deserves special thanks for helping me out, as does Gillian, who hiked into Ward Brook for me the next day, to retrieve my (pretty damned heavy) pack.

So I remain on the DL, sidelined while I wait for the apparent extensor tendonitis (which I initially mistook [I hope] for a metatarsal stress fracture) in my left foot to heal.

Jason

 

[Gillian]

Great trip report Huiyeng with absolutely beautiful pics! Nice job bagging those peaks considering the tough conditions you had with your cold. I sure hope you are feeling better. Thanks so much for rescuing Jason To good health indeed!!

 

[Adventurous]

Great trip report - very entertaining read!!! You are certainly a woman on a mission. I'm glad you were able to bag those peaks and stay on schedule. There's no way I would have been out there if I felt as crappy as you did. And you're correct, those of us at Barnes appreciated you keeping your germs to yourself Hope you're feeling better for this weekend!!!

Jason - sorry to hear about your injury. Hopefully you'll recover quickly!!!

 

[bubba]

Ouch, ouch and more ouch!! This was one painful TR to read!!

Glad it all turned out for the best (Jason - well, ??) HY - let's go find that airplane wreck!! Nice to know that the trail up Marshall is as nice and easy as it is on that side. Coming down shouldn't have been that hard - IIRC, most of the top follows the brook's rock surface (although it may have been slippery).

 

[mookie]

you are a machine!!!

 

[Adk_dib]

I rememeber when I did marshall a couple of years ago, I almost missed the trail you mentioned. I came up the brook trail and turned left to go to the summit. On the way down I almost walked right past the turn to go back down. It was not very obvious but a tree branch was laid across the trail to say stop! go right.

 

[Darl58]

Great Job hiking when you feel like crap!!
Also thanks for not coming over to Barnes and spreading your "cold"....I was wondering what happened to you.

Thanks for being there for Jason too! It's nice to know we can depend on each other when things don't come out as planned..

Good for you to keep going and accomplishing part of your plan...you are on a mission!

Hope you are feeling better!!!

 

[leaf]

Hey! you were supposed the save marshall for last! now who am i going to go with?? glad you got your nemisis out of the way.. Although i did find it entertaining to curse at it from the trap dike.

 

[WinterWarlock]

Nice job on getting them done feeling like you did...

Seymour is actually one of my favorites so far, but it was drier when I was there than it looked for you.

Jason - sorry to hear about the injury...hope it heals up quickly, but I somehow doubt it will slow you down much, except to maybe the pace of mere mortals.

Scott

 

[HuiYeng]

she drove me to the Adirondack Med Ctr in SL and waited a couple hours while I got x-rays (and snuck me a slice into the ER )

You should see the face of the woman in the check-in office when I walked in with the oversize pizza box, that's priceless. . I'm sure you'll the same for your friends, besides, I really didn't do anything at all. Heal fast, dude!

This was one painful TR to read!!

The bad grammer or the horrible writing, or both? I'm totally going back. Not only for the crash site, I want to hike Herbert Brook herbpath. Still wonder where it connects with Cold Brook HP, if they merge at all.

Cold Brook HP is in good shape, very easy to follow. But I heard so much good thing about Herbert Brook HP, and would love to hike it, besides, I think I know the krazy guy who adopts that trail. Have to ruin the trail and make him work harder

Adk_dib: Did you go down to the col to get back to the Herbert Brook HP or the 2 herbpaths diverge before the col, I wonder if the pink ribbon actually marks the junction of the 2 herbpaths. Can't wit to go back and check it out.

Leaf: No way! I've saved Haystack for last! Yea and I pity the fool who missed Iroqouis because of the sign

WinterWarlock: I Love ADK with all my heart, but I can tell you, Seymour and Allen are the 2 I'll never go back to!! NEVER!

Thanks guys, I'm feeling much better now, and yes, I'm ready for the weekend! Bring it on!

 

[TMax]

WinterWarlock: I Love ADK with all my heart, but I can tell you, Seymour and Allen are the 2 I'll never go back to!! NEVER!

Never say never! Winter is coming!

Great report! Can't wait for the big finish!

 

[forestgnome]

Very nice! I like your pic of the view from the summit of Marshall. Nice mood!

happy trails