Seymour, Seward Donaldson and Emmons
Seymour, Seward, Donaldson and Emmons 6-21-25
The parking lot was full at 7am this morning for the Seward range and when I got back at 5 pm it was overflowing into the road. Lots of people on the trails today and at least one person in each of the the two lean toโs I saw from the trail on blueberry. The trail is easy hiking on the blueberry trail and ward brook truck trail to the turn off for Seymour then the climb to Seymour is the hardest terrain of the day with some challenging scrambles and a nice view a few minutes prior to the summit. The descent is tough in some spots and then back to the ward brook truck trail to go back to the turn off to start the ascent of Seward. This is similar to Seymour trail but longer and not as challenging scrambles. The best place of the day that I took time and hung out and conversed with fellow hikers was shortly after the summit of Seward looking over at Donaldson and Emmons with a nice view of long lake. The next view came from Donaldson. The mud from Donaldson to Emmons is plentiful and a foot deep in spots. The bog definitely had some good go around trails to the left as you are headed to Emmons. Emmons summit is uneventful but challenging to get to with some rock features that made me think for a second to decide the best route, but that couldd have been due to me being tired! The Calkins Brook trail seemed like a nice trail to come up in comparison to the Seymour and Seward trails. It seems to drag on for a while and by the time I got to the Calkins Brook truck trail with its couple uphill spots I was hoping to see someone on a horse and pay them to get me back to the trailhead. That is a long day and that truck trail and last bit of blueberry trail was mentally tough! Minimal blowdown all day with no insects bothering me and excellent weather with lots of friendly hikers on the trail. I could see how this range could be tough without great weather though. Beautiful day in the adirondacks on some beautiful trails. 41/46 for me. My Garmin 67i tracked it at 22.2 miles and on trail for 9:55 and 7100 of elevation gain. The mileage and elevation seem high from what all trails had me expecting.
