TMax
New member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 589
- Reaction score
- 85
Guinness and I had an early start out on Saturday morning and met some non-VFTT friends of mine in Long Lake who are working their 46er lists. We all drove out to the Seward trail head and we were on the trail by 7:30 with the plan of heading up Caulkins Brook to Donaldson, Emmons, back over Donaldson to Seward and then down to Blueberry leanto. There was an AMC group of 11 planning the traverse but in the opposite direction. The parking area was full! JayH and JimK (a VFTT lurker) would arrive later and pass us somewhere on the trail. We made good time to the cutoff where several of us went Caulkins Brook and Guinness went the other way to reserve spots at the leanto. He planned to meet us on Seward. I hadn't done the Caulkin's Brook trail before and was assured there was a cairn marking the herd path. When we got to the spot where it had to be, no cairn! So we went beyond it a little way just to make sure. A quick detour it was but I started to think that maybe JayH and JimK got past us and would start worrying. Anyway, the climb up is pretty moderate from this direction but I could feel it with the heavier pack on. My two companions were only in for the day so had lighter packs. About 2/3's of the way up, JayH and JimK finally caught up to us. We managed to stick together for most of the day (only because they would take long rest breaks!). When you get to the col on this route, you're only a couple of minutes below the summit of Donaldson. It's a much easier route than climbing up Seward. We stopped for the fantastic views on Donaldson and I did something I never do... I dropped my pack! By this time I had an extra couple of pounds of mud on me and was looking to lighten the load. Did I mention the mud? Most of the trail was like the Couchie swamp! Heading from Donaldson to Emmons was equally swampy. Met a couple of folks on Emmons but headed back to Donaldson pretty quickly. We stopped on the viewpoint just west of the summit and there we ran into the AMC group. I don't think they believed us when we said it wasn't the summit
. We soaked in the wonderful view and took a long lunch break before starting off again. The drop down into the col and the climb back up Seward was wet and guess what... right! Muddy!!! We only took a short break on the viewless peak and started down. The trail was akin to cruel and unusual punishment. All the boulders were wet and at times slippery. I felt a little like a monkey swinging down onto the next boulder holding on to anything I could! About a third of the way down we ran into Guinness. He stayed on the summit until the bugs chased him off. It was a slow trip down and at one point I was lured into climbing down to that really nice swimming hole at the base of a small waterfall. Once down there, it was clear this wasn't the regular herd path but I really didn't feel like climbing back up. So we crossed the stream and followed the mud pits down. At one point we had to get on our hands and knees to get under some blowdown but in several inches of the black ooze. When we emerged, we were at the regular spot for the stream crossing and most of the rest of our crew were there waiting. They headed down (two were going back to the parking area) while I filtered water and watched for Guinness. He emerged (on the right side of the stream I might add) and we went down to the leanto. It was a beautiful night and we managed a really nice fire before the rains came. In the morning, it was wet and miserable and only JimK felt like more wet muddy misery on Seymour (he's the only one who needed it for his list). Guinness and I headed out while JayH passed the time in the leanto.
On the walk out, we noticed a large tree had been chopped down and dropped right into the trail. Clearly not done by a trail crew...
Another great time in the Daxs!
. We soaked in the wonderful view and took a long lunch break before starting off again. The drop down into the col and the climb back up Seward was wet and guess what... right! Muddy!!! We only took a short break on the viewless peak and started down. The trail was akin to cruel and unusual punishment. All the boulders were wet and at times slippery. I felt a little like a monkey swinging down onto the next boulder holding on to anything I could! About a third of the way down we ran into Guinness. He stayed on the summit until the bugs chased him off. It was a slow trip down and at one point I was lured into climbing down to that really nice swimming hole at the base of a small waterfall. Once down there, it was clear this wasn't the regular herd path but I really didn't feel like climbing back up. So we crossed the stream and followed the mud pits down. At one point we had to get on our hands and knees to get under some blowdown but in several inches of the black ooze. When we emerged, we were at the regular spot for the stream crossing and most of the rest of our crew were there waiting. They headed down (two were going back to the parking area) while I filtered water and watched for Guinness. He emerged (on the right side of the stream I might add) and we went down to the leanto. It was a beautiful night and we managed a really nice fire before the rains came. In the morning, it was wet and miserable and only JimK felt like more wet muddy misery on Seymour (he's the only one who needed it for his list). Guinness and I headed out while JayH passed the time in the leanto.On the walk out, we noticed a large tree had been chopped down and dropped right into the trail. Clearly not done by a trail crew...
Another great time in the Daxs!
