Seymour

[alistair]

Does anyone know of a route/ bushwack across to Seymour from Donaldson/Emmons trail?

 

[Rick]

Alistair,
I looked into doing Seymour to Seward about 11-12 years ago - It looked like too much work and too much cliff for me.

I know a few folks have bushwacked down into Ouluska pass from Seymour and headed to the Cold River Valley. I think Pete Hickey is one who could tell you more.

If you were heading due West from Seymour, you would have to negotiate some steep cliffs probably around 750-1000 feet in height, head across the top of Ouluska Pass and then negotiate the cliffs on Seward - I thought it looked impossible.

If you were truly trying to make Emmons or Donaldson, I would think you could head SW from Seymour Summit on gentler terrain to Seward Brook and the head due west up one of it's tribs near the col between Emmons & Donaldson and avoid the cliffs. Lotta Krumholtz up there.

Sounds like a mighty tough bushwack - I would think it might take upwards of 2 days.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

I . I think Pete Hickey is one who could tell you more.

Rick has it. There are cliffs. Both going down and going up. You can head toward the Donaldson-seward col as you approach the cliffs, working your way up the cliffs.

It's not easy, and it's not fast. You'll save time by going all the way to the bottom and climbing Seward. Also, another note. If it is hot, you won't find water. And there is no water once you get back up. After doing this one hot day, I couldn'T wait to be going back down. I just stuck my head in Calkins Brook and drank and drank and drank.

 

[Johnnycakes]

alistair,

There is a nice route from Seymour to Emmons, via the Emmons slide. From Emmons, Donaldson & Seward can be reached via the herd path along the ridge, followed by a descent along Calkins Brook. In my notes, it says that all four peaks took 11 hours, 18 miles for the trip (with a 3.3 mile bushwhack), and 4,900 feet of elevation gain.

Email me if you want more detail with regards to the route. If you're interested, there is a good chance that I will be doing this hike in the next 2 weeks, but most likely on a weekday.

John

 

[eddie]

JCakes - how about just posting it here...I'd like to try this route as I'm sure others would!

 

[Johnnycakes]

Here it is. The Barbara McMartin book does a pretty good job of describing how to get to the slide, although the directions are from the other direction (from the Northville Placid Trail). Someone has cut and maintained a nice herd path from Ouluska Pass down along Seward Brook to the south. There is a nasty section of blowdown that has to be dealt with at the base of the slide. I just drew the route in from memory. It's pretty accurate, but the location of the slide is not exact. Unfortunately, I forgot to mark the base of the slide with my GPS while I was there.

The route off Seymour is important because it avoids nearly all of the cliffs and ledges. I'm sure there are other routes that will work as well, but I know this one works nicely. Essentially, head south off the summit until you intercept the drainage that runs southwest. Follow that until the stream makes an obvious direction change to the south. Note that on the route I outlined, this is the point where I jump from that drainage to the next drainage to the west, which is Seward Brook. You could stay in the first drainage and eventually get where you want to go, but I know the going is good in Seward Brook, plus you have the benefit of the herd path. The herd path eventually veers off to the east of Seward Brook (if my memory serves me correct), so you cannont blindly follow the herd path. You want to stay in Seward Brook until you hit the tributary draining the Emmons-Donaldson col. If you have a GPS, it would be a good idea to mark this point so you don't end up taking the wrong tributary. There will be some feeder tributaries to this tributary, but if you keep bearing left (on the ascent), I believe you will come to the base of the slide. You may want to mark a waypoint in the vicinity of the route where I labeled "Slide."

The slide itself is not anything spectacular. In fact, the base of the slide is starting to grow in. Nonetheless, it is a nice approach to get all four peaks in a day, and shaves off considerable elevation gain in the process. As with all slides though, there are some great views, and it makes a great place to stop for lunch. Those that like to poke around in the woods and route find will certainly enjoy it. There is an old lumber camp that is worth exploring on the east side of Seward Brook as you approach the tributary you will have to follow to hit the slide.

John

 

[alistair]

j-cakes

Is there anychance you would be joining this 6/10/04 expedition?

 

[Johnnycakes]

alistair,

I wasn't aware of the 6/10/04 expedition, but (coincidentally) it looks like we'll be doing this trip either 6/9, 6/10, or 6/11. Thunderstorms are predicted for 6/9, so it will most likely be one of the two other days.

John

 

[alistair]

I will be climbing 6/10 with AIG doing Donald. and Em. if your climbing and also want to try this bushwack let me know.

 

[ADKSherpa]

Resurrecting the dead with this one!

Had an idea about camping in Ouluska Pass (below 3,500 ft, of course). Anyone done it? It seems like the perfect staging point for doing Seward-Donaldson-Emmons (possibly in a loop including the aforementioned slide) as well as doing Seymour (also using Johnnycakes route down the drainage). Any thoughts? Just seems like a cool idea. Thanks!

The route off Seymour is important because it avoids nearly all of the cliffs and ledges. I'm sure there are other routes that will work as well, but I know this one works nicely. Essentially, head south off the summit until you intercept the drainage that runs southwest. Follow that until the stream makes an obvious direction change to the south. Note that on the route I outlined, this is the point where I jump from that drainage to the next drainage to the west, which is Seward Brook. You could stay in the first drainage and eventually get where you want to go, but I know the going is good in Seward Brook, plus you have the benefit of the herd path. The herd path eventually veers off to the east of Seward Brook (if my memory serves me correct), so you cannont blindly follow the herd path. You want to stay in Seward Brook until you hit the tributary draining the Emmons-Donaldson col. If you have a GPS, it would be a good idea to mark this point so you don't end up taking the wrong tributary. There will be some feeder tributaries to this tributary, but if you keep bearing left (on the ascent), I believe you will come to the base of the slide. You may want to mark a waypoint in the vicinity of the route where I labeled "Slide."

The slide itself is not anything spectacular. In fact, the base of the slide is starting to grow in. Nonetheless, it is a nice approach to get all four peaks in a day, and shaves off considerable elevation gain in the process. As with all slides though, there are some great views, and it makes a great place to stop for lunch. Those that like to poke around in the woods and route find will certainly enjoy it. There is an old lumber camp that is worth exploring on the east side of Seward Brook as you approach the tributary you will have to follow to hit the slide.

John

 

[ColdRiverRun]

The "cut herd path" that he referred to was cut over a decade ago. It is NOTHING like any regular "herd path" up the other 46. You would only see short sections with some cut logs nowadays. You need to be very comfortable off trail to enjoy this hike or maybe I should say depends on what kind of "fun" you're looking for. Think nothing of the fact that on a map you can draw a straight line and it looks short. The slide if you kept moving would only be a little over 20 minutes of a long day.

I have been up that slide 3 times, the second time I went with a very experienced group and we went up through the pass. The North side of the pass is actually some relatively nice woods. One of the group members decided to bring a very "sporty" girl in her early 20's with us because she has done so well on some peaks earlier in the week. After finally getting to the regular ridge line herd path she started crying from being so happy about being a on trail again. Then later we had to get her to stop crying from being so exhausted going down the Calkins brook trail. That was in 2004. Just be prepared for a physically demanding day, I personally might rate doing a full Great Range traverse as easier than that hike (as a day hike anyway). So before you jump off that trail look at all the tough low scrub around you off trail and if you can say to yourself I can see me pushing through that in black fly season than have at it.

As a side note, Irene, did open up a lot of brooks so some of these drainages could of been cleared some although Western peaks took less rain. That area in the top of the col can get very wet when it's been raining or if a beaver found his way in there too.

 

[Neil]

Go for it but "caveat emptor".

Spread over a half-dozen trips or so I've bushwhacked all the Sewards including Donaldson West, Seymour East and Seward NW and NNW. My findings have always been that it's a very tough area for off-trail hiking. As ColdRiver Run might say, the cripplebush fights back in the Sewards.

About 4 years ago (4 years already!) I bushwhacked from Seymour to Seward. The Ouluska Pass area remains firmly embedded in my memory as one of the most amazing but forbidding places I've ever been to. I remember it weighing on me. We were somewhat south of the actual pass summit but I have heard that to the north of where we went through (ie. the pass summit area itself and northwards toward the Ward Brook truck trail) is even more forbidding due to thick blowdown and very tight new growth. We found the (illegally I imagine) cut trail and tree trunks up to 2 feet, if not more, in diameter were sawed right through. However, we followed this trail for only a 100 meters or so and then we followed a different bearing.

We found this to be quite a difficult trip taking probably more than 2 hours per mile.

If you are looking for a way to facilitate bagging a couple of peaks I say forget about it. However if you want to go out there and experience something totally different and extreme (such as aggressively hostile cripplebush) then for sure go for it but I wouldn't recommend Ouluska as a first-ever bushwhack.

 

[Dunbar]

Dang it you two.......now I want to go there.

 

[Raymond]

Didn’t PinPin used to cut across from Seymour to Seward? I thought I’d read that on these pages years ago.

 

[alistair]

Didn’t PinPin used to cut across from Seymour to Seward? I thought I’d read that on these pages years ago.

Maybe, but remember PinPin has the ability to ghost through cripplebush without a scratch.

 

[Raymond]

He was able to get out to Allen and back in under six hours when the trail was closed by the acres of blowdown left by Tropical Storm Floyd, too. I’ve never gotten over that.

 

[Neil]

Quite a few years ago I was invited on a hike directly from Seward to Seymour. I asked Pin-Pin for his opinion and he said he wouldn't do it.