Seymour Mountain
Date of hike: 7/23/2022
Vertical Ascent: 2800’
Length of Hike (miles): 15.0
Total Time: 9:45
Hiked with: Alex
Ever since orphaning this peak when we did the others in the Seward Range two years ago, I’d been itching to get back and knock this one off. This was a sort of last-minute decision, but Alex and I were home for the weekend, Beth was away, and the weather in this area looked to be a lot better than the 97 degrees and high humidity at home. We decided we did not want to head up to Tupper Lake on Friday night, so we agreed we’d try to do this as a day trip from home, realizing that we’d be adding a lot of driving time. We left home at 5:20 a.m. and took just under 3 hours to get to the trailhead at Coreys. The lot was full, but there was plenty of parking along Ampersand Road (the dirt road that leads here), and only a few cars had spilled over onto it.
We hit the trailhead at 8:15 a.m., signing in along with a couple who were planning to replicate our hike of the other three Sewards two years earlier. We gave them some advice and kept pace with them along the Blueberry Trail up to the point where they turned off on the Calkins Brook Trail, about a half hour later. We wished them luck and continued on our way. The Blueberry Trail is relatively flat (“Adirondack Flat”, as we say), and we noted a few small downhills, which we predicted we’d groan about on our way back. There were a few campers out here, but it was not too busy. Just before 10 a.m. we passed the Blueberry lean-to, and a few minutes later, spotted the cairn for the trail to the right that we’d come back down last time. At 10:15, we hit the Ward Brook lean-to, where we decided to rest for a short bit, and to fuel up in preparation for the climb that was about to come. We opted to drop some salt tablets into our hydration packs (good move!). Once on the trail again, it was just a couple of minutes until we found the Seymour Trail to the right, clearly marked with a large cairn (that included a large bowl in it) and turned onto the trail. At this point, we were 2 hours and 15 minutes into our hike (only about 2 hours of actual hike time, subtracting out our break).
That’s an Adirondack trail? Nah… it’s too nice!
Someone’s bowl of rock soup runneth over
We knew this trail would be tricky and expected it to be steep. The first half mile or so wasn’t bad at all, with a gentle climb, as it followed along Ward Brook, occasionally crossing back and forth over the quiet little rock-strewn stream (though I’m not sure what it’s typically like, since it’s been dry lately). We knew that we shouldn't get lulled into a false sense of security, because the profiles we’d seen of this trail showed that the steepness increases at a regular rate, as you ascend. Sure enough, it began to get steeper. At this point, we were both sweating profusely. The forecasted dewpoint for today was 62, which was certainly more humid than we like to hike in. It was also hotter than we like, but it was as predicted. Since the weather had been so unbearable at home over the past week, we’d initially hoped an 84-degree day with a dewpoint of 62 could potentially seem pleasant. There were just a handful of people on this trail. We saw other groups (usually descending) about every 30-40 minutes. The humidity began taking its toll, and my pace slowed. The trail had some very muddy spots on it, but that’s pretty much any Adirondack trail in these mountains, so they didn't really phase us. A few of the muddier places had some well-worn bypasses. A good portion of this trail is pulling yourself up the mountain using tree trunks, branches, the ubiquitously exposed roots, and lots of rocks. As is typical, the higher up you go, the more boulders you need to scramble over.
Roots and rocks – now THAT’s more typical
Just after 11:30 a.m., we hit the bottom of the slide. This was easier to negotiate than other slides we’d been on recently, and in fact, most of it was pulling yourself up through the trees just off the slide. There are a lot of bare, sloping rocks here, but it really wasn’t very difficult to pick your way up and around it. There were some nice views of the Sawtooth Mountains opening behind us, to the north. After passing through a beautiful mossy area, it began to feel very much like we were approaching the summit. We even climbed a big boulder, which we typically associate with the final push to the top. Unfortunately, that was not to be! In short order, the views in front of us opened to expose the real summit of the mountain, about 120 feet higher, and still maybe a half mile ahead. I christened this “Point Disappointment” since it was totally deflating. I was hungry, tired, and so deflated after being certain I was about to summit. We pushed on, passing over a nice flat section of trail, which was a great reprieve. We bypassed the side trail for the viewpoints, and we hit the summit sign at 12:56 p.m. It’s a low sign nailed to a tree, only about 50 inches above the ground. Total time to summit: 4 hours 41 minutes.
Bottom of the slide area… Did I mention roots and rocks?
“Point Disappointment”
Ye Olde Summit Post
At the summit, we took some quick pictures, and pushed straight on just a few feet through a very rough trail through the low spruces, where we were greeted by an unexpected and stunning view of the Santanoni Range to the south. Through the trees to the east, we could even clearly see the MacIntyre Range, featuring Algonquin Peak, and to the right, behind the MacIntyres, Mount Marcy. I believe this little gem of a viewpoint is relatively new. Retracing our steps, we followed the spur trail to the fabulous views to the west and northwest. There’s a great shelf of bare rock that’s about 5 feet wide and 20 feet long, with great views of Ampersand Mountain and Ampersand Lake to the northwest. Just below this, there’s another rock face that juts out and has this same view, but in addition, includes a better perspective of the rest of the Seward Range looking to the west and southwest. We thoroughly enjoyed the break, the views and, most of all, eating on this rock as a nice, long break. We had the whole place to ourselves and ended up staying up here for about an hour. That certainly pushed our time estimates back, but we were really enjoying the moment. There wasn’t another soul up here the entire time.
Looking south from Seymour
Looking north from the viewpoint’s ledge (foreground), with Alex out on the rock, and Ampersand Lake in the valley
The other Sewards – Emmons, Donaldson, and Seward (left to right), from the rock promontory
I’ll go onto the promontory too, but I’m not standing up there!
We started down at 1:45 p.m., seeing a few people from time to time. About a third of the way down, a solo guy in his twenties passed us on his way up, moving at a very quick clip, in sandals! I wasn’t surprised when about an hour or two later, he passed us again on his way down, although I was amazed at his surefootedness in footwear like that! We hit the Blueberry Trail at 3:37 p.m. and took a 15-minute break at the lean-to again, taking advantage of the outhouse here. We moved at a good clip along this trail, and finally got back to the trailhead at 5:54 p.m. 9 hours and 39 minutes was longer than we’d anticipated the hike would be, but we did linger at spots for a while. We also realized that we did some poor math in our original calculations. We ate at Long Lake Diner on the way home, and finally arrived back home 17 hours later, at 10:20 p.m.