Hmm… Which way should we go?

This trail basically headed right up Donaldson Mountain (in the center of the range) and was surprisingly easy and rock free. It was mostly a dirt trail, with loads of exposed roots crossing the entire length, and a gentle to moderate grade. We commented on how relatively easy the trail was, and dry (there had been somewhat of a drought lately, which worked to our advantage here. We took very few breaks but did stop at one point on some large rocks in a light stream. We’d seen no one since starting on the truck trail, and just as David was commenting that “This is usually the point when someone passes…” a father and son duo came up behind us and passed through (also commenting that we were the first people they’d seen all day)!

We continued upwards, noting how surprisingly rock-free the trail was, and joking that with Camryn’s extremely bright, fluorescent yellow shirt and shorts, nobody would lose us, since he was a loud beacon showing our location. We saw numerous mushrooms and toads along the way. At the junction with the Seward Range Trail, we talked briefly with a couple that had just come up and over Seward. I also got to use my new phone app PeakVisor, which worked great, helping me name the peaks in view to the north, but it was also alarming when we realized that Seward was the farthest of the many “bumps” we could see in that direction. Turning our backs on that for now, we made a right, heading uphill to the summit of Donaldson Mountain, only about 5-10 minutes from the junction, and over a few large rock scrambles. The summit of Donaldson was atop a large boulder to the left. We got there at 10:26 a.m., almost exactly 4 hours after we’d started. This was a pleasant surprise! The sky was blue and dry, with beautiful cloud formations, and the small summit area had outstanding views of the High Peaks to the southwest. There was no marker, but a tree with a bare spot and a cord tied around it clearly indicated that this was the summit. We spoke with a fit, middle-aged woman who was resting here with her dog, and she explained that her plan was to hike in the High Peaks for 7 days and do whatever her dog was able to. We continued onwards after about 10 minutes at the top.

The ridge walk, heading southwest towards Emmons, wasn’t too bad, offered a great view atop a boulder to the left, and as our friend atop Donaldson had told us, opened up to an outstanding view to the west, right along the trail, overlooking the lowlands of the Adirondack Park and the numerous lakes in the area. Long Lake featured prominently in the distance, its shape, showing off its name. We took a bunch of photos here, and continued to descend the ridge, climbing down several large rock outcroppings until we got to the col about 300’ down from the summit. In the col, the trail became muddy, and though not bad, it was evident that this must be a VERY wet and muddy trail in typical, much wetter, conditions than today. The ascent was much the same and not too difficult. Although we’d only seen one other pair of hikers on our ascent to the ridge, while on the ridge, we encountered many other groups. It almost felt crowded, as people passed by in both directions on this narrow trail. One hour after leaving Donaldson, we hit the summit of Mount Emmons. There were some views to the southeast just before climbing the summit rock, but the summit itself (labeled with a wooden sign on a tree), was quite small and with almost no view. Regardless, we were hungry, and squeezed into the spot to eat our lunch (while inundated by many flies). We spoke with a solo 30-year-old hiker, who counted this as his 42nd peak, and was planning to knock off his remaining 4 in short order. We headed out at noon, after a 20-minute break.

This is where we started seeing the same groups of people over and over, as we crossed paths going back and forth along the ridge. We passed right by Donaldson, and continued northeast, downhill toward Seward. One spot offered a great vantage point of Donaldson and Emmons behind us. There were other nice views to the east along the way. The trail was substantially rockier here, and at one point we had a good view of Seward in the distance, with a couple of large vertical rock outcroppings in between. David announced he would NOT be climbing over those. Little did he realize we would be, but they were nowhere near as treacherous as they’d looked from a distance. “Don’t impale yourself” quickly became the theme of this hike, as downed trees with branches broken off into stubby ends, crossed the paths in numerous places. In fact, by the end of the hike, Alex was calling this the Vlad Range, in honor of Vlad the Impaler (aka Count Dracula). The ascent of Seward was extremely rocky with large loose rocks for a good portion of this hike. It was longer too, gaining about 450’ to this highest point on our hike. We hit the clearly labeled summit in the woods at 2:34 p.m. Although there were nice views along the way, there were none at the top. This was my 34th High Peak, Alex’s 31st, David’s 16th, and Camryn’s 13th. We rested here for about 20 minutes and refueled with some more food once again.

We were forewarned that the descent of the north side was a tough one. It was very steep, rocky, and muddy. Camryn sank far into the mud and needed to change his socks. This trail was difficult as it was and would have been brutal if it was truly wet or rainy. We lost the trail for a short time, but quickly backtracked to find the trail switched back along a very large rock “wall”. At other points, we found we were on the wrong side of the stream, or had veered off the mapped trail by quite a bit. The whole time, Camryn kept jokingly threatening that we’d hike Seymour, when we got to the bottom. That was DEFINITELY out by this point. The steepness and wet, rocky stream bed were interminable. It was a 2-mile descent, but took us just over 3 hours just to get to the bridge bottom at 6 p.m., relieved and exhausted. We were finally on a nice, broad, flat, dirt truck road. I’d never recommend that someone go up this way.

The relief didn’t last long. The hike back to the car was 5 more miles, and we quickly left the truck trail for the narrow, “Adirondack flat” Blueberry trail. The word “interminable” again kept popping up, and I found myself complaining more than the others. Even Alex, usually the most energetic, requested a rest/refueling stop as we were making our way back. I was so wiped out that while attempting to take ibuprofen for the pain, I found I was having a hard time  even holding on to the tablets, and kept dropping them. Those last 5 miles took us another 2 hours and 15 minutes before we were back at the trailhead. We were all hurting and exhausted but completed the 16.9-mile hike just as we lost most remaining sunlight (with no need to break out the headlamps). Finishing at 8:15 p.m., we’d hiked from sunrise to sunset. This was a great hike up and along the ridge. It was just the descent on the north side of Seward and the hike back that did us in.