DSettahr
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This past weekend, I went to the Western High Peaks with the Paul Smith’s Outing Club. We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Ward Brook Lean To, climbed Seymour on Friday, and hiked to Duck Hole and back on Saturday. The weekend was pretty wet and cold overall, but we had fun.
The trail into the Ward Brook Lean To from Corey’s was fairly wet, and the streams were running pretty high. We went in on Friday and arrived at the lean to at about 2 in the afternoon. After setting up camp, we set off to do Seymour before it got dark.
The herd path up Seymour was fairly easy to follow, even with all the leaves on the ground. I’d done Seward a few months ago, and Seymour was very easy in comparison- not nearly as steep, and one defined herd path instead of 20 undefined ones. We didn’t follow the slide because it was so wet, but the herd path generally stays to the west of the slide until the top (some older guide books say you have to use the slide, this is no longer true). Because of the ridge near the top, we thought we were near the summit about 15-20 minutes before we got there. We would have had an excellent view to the south-west if we hadn’t been in the clouds.
Our plan for Saturday was to do the Seward Range, but because of the weather and the fact that we didn’t get up until 10 am, we decided to go to Duck Hole instead to see the dam before it either breaks or is removed. The ward brook truck trail is generally pretty flat with a couple of steep sections. There is a washed out section of it about halfway from the Ward Brook lean to to the intersection with the N-P Trail- beavers have damned up a stream nearby and the road was under about a foot of water. We took a short side trip to Mountain Pond for some pictures.
At Duck Hole the clouds actually lifted and the sun came out for a couple of hours. While eating lunch, we met 2 hikers on their 7th day of traversing the entire N-P trail (they did the entire trip in only 8 days). One of them was the director for a summer camp I attended about 8 years ago.
On our way back to the lean to, the skies became dark and overcast again. The rain was hard at times, and there was some hail. (We were really glad we had not attempted the Seward Range as we would’ve been trying to find our way down in the dark during the hail). That evening the temperature dropped quite a bit- it was a good thing fires are allowed in the western high peaks because it allowed us to dry off and quickly warm up.
Hiking back out to Corey’s on Sunday was miserable- it poured the entire time, and there was never any less than an inch of water on the trail. The streams were even more overflowing than they had been on the hike in, some of which we had no choice but to walk through thigh deep water to cross. This trail is going to be very muddy, probably for the rest of the fall before everything freezes, and maybe even muddier than usual in the spring. Anyone headed to this area should take this into account when planning their trip.
At least we had the area to ourselves- we only saw 5 other people the entire weekend. The two N-P hikers, and 3 day hikers going up Seymour on Saturday. We were the only people crazy enough to be outside on such a wet and miserable weekend.
The trail into the Ward Brook Lean To from Corey’s was fairly wet, and the streams were running pretty high. We went in on Friday and arrived at the lean to at about 2 in the afternoon. After setting up camp, we set off to do Seymour before it got dark.
The herd path up Seymour was fairly easy to follow, even with all the leaves on the ground. I’d done Seward a few months ago, and Seymour was very easy in comparison- not nearly as steep, and one defined herd path instead of 20 undefined ones. We didn’t follow the slide because it was so wet, but the herd path generally stays to the west of the slide until the top (some older guide books say you have to use the slide, this is no longer true). Because of the ridge near the top, we thought we were near the summit about 15-20 minutes before we got there. We would have had an excellent view to the south-west if we hadn’t been in the clouds.
Our plan for Saturday was to do the Seward Range, but because of the weather and the fact that we didn’t get up until 10 am, we decided to go to Duck Hole instead to see the dam before it either breaks or is removed. The ward brook truck trail is generally pretty flat with a couple of steep sections. There is a washed out section of it about halfway from the Ward Brook lean to to the intersection with the N-P Trail- beavers have damned up a stream nearby and the road was under about a foot of water. We took a short side trip to Mountain Pond for some pictures.
At Duck Hole the clouds actually lifted and the sun came out for a couple of hours. While eating lunch, we met 2 hikers on their 7th day of traversing the entire N-P trail (they did the entire trip in only 8 days). One of them was the director for a summer camp I attended about 8 years ago.
On our way back to the lean to, the skies became dark and overcast again. The rain was hard at times, and there was some hail. (We were really glad we had not attempted the Seward Range as we would’ve been trying to find our way down in the dark during the hail). That evening the temperature dropped quite a bit- it was a good thing fires are allowed in the western high peaks because it allowed us to dry off and quickly warm up.
Hiking back out to Corey’s on Sunday was miserable- it poured the entire time, and there was never any less than an inch of water on the trail. The streams were even more overflowing than they had been on the hike in, some of which we had no choice but to walk through thigh deep water to cross. This trail is going to be very muddy, probably for the rest of the fall before everything freezes, and maybe even muddier than usual in the spring. Anyone headed to this area should take this into account when planning their trip.
At least we had the area to ourselves- we only saw 5 other people the entire weekend. The two N-P hikers, and 3 day hikers going up Seymour on Saturday. We were the only people crazy enough to be outside on such a wet and miserable weekend.
