Seymour Mountain – Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009
4,120 ft. | Ranked 34/46 in height | 11th peak climbed | 35 to go
The trip we planned: Sat. 10/10: Leave Corey’s Rd./ Seward trailhead on to hike in along the Ward Brook Truck Trail to either the Blueberry Lean-To (4.5 mi.) or Ward Brook Lean-To (5.4 mi.) depending on occupancy. Leave the heavy packs; continue on to the Seymour Mountain herd path, ascend, summit, descend and return to the lean-to (just over 4 miles round trip), and camp for the night. Sun. 10/11: hike to herd path to Seward, Emmons and Donaldson, summit each and return to spend Sunday night at the lean-to. Mon. 10/12: Pack out at a leisurely pace. Possible variation: Seymour on Monday (instead of Saturday).
The trip we took went totally differently.
The plan, in order to fit Seymour in on the first day, was to arrive at the trailhead aggressively early, and reach camp by early afternoon. Through a combination of unrelated setbacks, we didn’t arrive at the trailhead until late morning. Discouragingly, it was raining. Friday’s storms hadn’t quite moved far enough east yet.
Corey's Rd./Seward Mountain Trailhead
Not to be deterred, we piled on the Gore Tex: rain jackets, pack covers, and gaiters (new for this trip!), and headed off.
Pack weight (dry): 34 lbs. Ooft.
The rain stopped soon into the hike, and we were encouraged by the brighter sky. The trail was a wet mess — muddy, with so many stream fords that we lost track — but we thanked the someone up there for the genius of Robert W. Gore, et al., and splashed through. (Gaiters were a MUST.)
Blueberry lean-to was already occupied, with a tent city set up around it, so we continued on to Ward Brook lean-to. A couple from Montreal was already there, but there was plenty of space to pitch the tent nearby. We pitched the tent, made dinner, and huddled around the fire.
Ward Brook lean-to and fire pit
Dinner time: Mac & Cheese. Blue Nalgene for filtered water, opaque Nalgene for red wine.
The camp fire was tough going, since it had rained that morning, but among the 4 Americans and 4 Canadians calling Ward Brook home for the night, we were the clear fire stars:
My daddy didn't raise no fire-building fool...
Bedtime found temperatures in the 30’s, and goose down a welcome friend. We didn’t stay asleep, though — between midnight and 1am, we awoke to the first cold rain shower of the night passing through. Between then and 6am, the rain came in fits and starts, waking us up with alternating pouring and drizzling. I was pretty freaked out. I’d never tented in the rain before, didn’t know how well our tent would hold off the water, and had never tented in such cold weather. (My 35-degree rated sleeping back was meeting its match.) Getting soaked was not on the menu. With each shower that swept through, I woke up, felt around the edges and listened, afraid of finding a puddle. Miraculously, I never did.
Our tent is the next best thing to amphibious.
Puddles on the footprint, but not in the tent!
After dawn, we bundled up, crawled out, and assessed the situation. Our tent was a rockstar. Soaking outside but bone dry inside, the tent was pretty amazing. We’d pitched it on ground that was at about a 15 degree angle (felt a little like sleeping on a hospital bed), but it worked in our favor, avoiding any major pools. All the same, it was a confidence shaker for the start of the trip, and looking skyward was really foreboding. We discussed options, and decided that with the sky looking the way it did, we weren’t comfortable starting on the Seward Range as planned, for a 10-12 hour hike.
Then the hail started, confirming that sentiment. Small hail, but little bits of ice falling on our oatmeal all the same.
Hey! Who ordered breakfast on the rocks?!
Scrapping the Sewards was looking smarter and smarter. We considered our options, and packed up the tent and the bed rolls. The hail relented, though, so with (slightly) brighter skies we opted to give Seymour a shot before packing out, figuring that if we had bad luck with the weather, at least we could summit the single peak and still get back out to the car before dark.
Cairn marking the turn from Ward Brook Truck Trail to Seymour herd path
The herd path was a new experience. We’ve done peaks before with unmaintained trails (Esther and Tabletop), but this was a new level of minimalism. The first third was wet, but easy, following and crossing back and forth over the brook coming down from the mountain. 
About halfway up, we came to a cascade that marked the beginning of the more difficult climb. The bald rock in places made it hard to tell where the herd path was, and the mud made it slippery. Aside from a little hail on the lower portion, though, the weather held, and the sun even came out. Woohoo!
The middle third was the hardest of the hike (both ascending and descending). Once we started the approach to the false summit, the climb eased, and heading over the false summit, down, and up the actual summit was very pleasant. The look of our surroundings also changed – it was like we stepped through the wardrobe into Narnia.
At this elevation, the rain on our tent overnight had been snow!
11 peaks!
A tag on a tree was the only indication of the summit, but the views just beyond the summit were better.
Seward, Emmons, and Donaldson, from Seymour
We had the summit to ourselves, making another opportunity to use one of my backpack luxury toys – my little Joby tripod. Wrap that puppy around a tree branch, set the camera timer and presto! We didn’t linger long, though; it was cold up there once you stopped moving!
The hike back down was uneventful – we made it round trip from Ward Brook lean-to to the summit and back in 5.5 hours, including time on the summit. Back at the lean-to, we changed socks, loaded the packs, filtered some extra water from Ward Brook, and started the 5+ miles back to the car. Despite the weight, we didn’t take any breaks, and were out in about 3 hours.
By the time we were a mile out, the sky was looking ominous again, and by half a mile out, a few pieces of ice were falling again. We were simultaneously glad to have salvaged a peak from the trip, glad not to have gotten too wet or cold, and disappointed at the prospect of leaving on Sunday night. To that end, we agreed that our plan would be to drive to Lake Placid, for some warm food and iPhone service (to check weather.com), and decide from there what to do.
Columbus Day weekend to be continued…
