Success in the Sewards!

While I'm starting out with this story, there are other trips we've done before this one, but for whatever reason, I don't feel like writing about those now. : )
After failing in the Sewards back in December, Paul and I made these four peaks our priority. The problem was that we needed everything to work out just right. We wanted the road to be plowed so we could get down to the summer trailhead, we needed good weather conditions, we needed (hoped for) broken trail...we were asking a lot. Last week we discussed which trip we were going to do and the Sewards weren't even an option until around Thursday when we found out the road had been plowed, people were heading in on Friday, and weather conditions looked good, albeit cold. It really was a last minute decision and we figured this might be the best opportunity to grab these peaks.
On my way home from work Friday night I grabbed a pizza, came home, changed clothes, and we were on our way. A quick stop at Lowe's for some salt (just in case the road was icy) and Dunkin' Donuts (Saturday's breakfast) and we were Northbound.
I was really tired and the mysterious sore throat I'd had during the week finally turned itself into a cold. Perfect timing! So, Paul was nice enough to drive the entire way into Tupper Lake to the trailhead.
We got to Corey's Road and indeed, it was plowed. Score 1. We did take our time getting down the road and got to the trailhead sometime after 11:30. After moving things around in the car, we probably got to bed around 12 or thereafter. The moon was big and bright and it was cold outside.
After a mere couple hours, the alarm went off at 2 or 2:30...I can't even remember which. We decided to give ourselves another 30 minutes, reset the alarm, and tried to nap, but it just went off again and we gave up. It was time to go. We ate our donuts, got ready to go, and ran the car to get warm before we got outside. The forecast had said to expect lows of -12 so we knew it would be cold, but at the time, we didn't realize how cold it really was. More on this later.
We started out at about 4am and recognized names in the register at the trailhead. People from the online forum we're a part of had been in the day before. Trail was broken to Donaldson, Emmons, and Seward and also to Seymour, as people had been in there as well. Score 2! We signed in and started on our way down the very familiar Ward Brook Truck Trail. It was cold. Bitterly cold. And, we hiked by headlamp and bright moonlight for what seemed like days. Luna was bright and I felt like she was following us as sometimes she'd be on my left and sometimes she'd be on my right. It was as if she was trying to help light our way. I was disappointed when she disappeared as we got closer to the peaks and daylight approached.
My spirits rose once it began to get light. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, cirrus clouds, and bright sun. We made our approach to Donaldson via Calkins Brook and had a well worn trail to follow. We made it to the summit and were thrilled! It was such a lovely day! This was winter peak #31 for us. We took some photos and headed on our way to Emmons. We made good time and got to Emmons, again took photos, and headed back to Donaldson. On our way back, we ran into a few people that we'd later find out were other forum members. And, as we stood on the sunny summit of Donaldson once again, a group of four women came up and they too were forum members. We chatted with them briefly and they left for Emmons and we left for Seward. On our way to that summit, again we ran into more forum members. They happened to be two of the guys that were in breaking trail the day before. We thanked them for their efforts and quickly headed on our way. We soon arrived at the summit of Seward and had completed our mission of the day! We were 3 for 3. The plan was to drop down the other side of Seward so that we could stay in the lean-to in preparation for hiking Seymour the next day. As we made our way that direction, we found ourselves in deep, powdery snow and were getting swallowed up by spruce traps. It was exhausting and we hadn't gone very far at all. We stopped and reevaluated the situation. We had known the trail wasn't going to be broken, but we were having trouble finding our way and decided that perhaps it wasn't the safest route. We opted to turn back, head for Donaldson (again!) and descend the way we came. We felt defeated, but knew it was the right thing to do.
Down we went, as quickly as we could. We made good time and we knew we had a big decision to make once we got back down to the trail intersection. Do we hike 3.5 miles to get to the lean-to or do we hike 1.2 miles to get to the car? We hadn't made an official decision but we both seemed to lean toward hiking to the lean-to just to help ourselves out for Sunday. But, as we neared the intersection, I began to get very cold. Paul was concerned about us staying in the lean-to, so we made our way to the car.
We both were exhausted and sore. We'd carried full packs for nothing! Paul boiled water for dinner and we started the car to warm up. We discussed options for Sunday. Truthfully, neither of us wanted to hike Seymour, but we knew we HAD to. We had no idea if the road would be plowed after we'd left, if they'd close the gate, if anyone else would be in there to provide tracks....we were already there, how could we not? So, after a meal and time to get warm, we went to bed early planning on another early wake up to do our best to bag Seymour.
We woke up and found that it had snowed through the night. We hadn't expected it to do much other than flurry, but 4-6 inches of fluffy snow blanketed the ground. I was a little concerned, but full more of dread than anything else. That 6 or so miles of trail just to get to the herdpath for Seymour was going to be tough. I was sore, tired, and anxious. This would be our third attempt at Seymour and I really wanted to get it.
Off we went, hiking by headlamp once again. Luna was nowhere to be seen. She was sleeping in I surmised. I should be doing the same, I thought! We made fairly good time getting to the lean-to. We made the turn and headed up the herdpath, following tracks from a forum member who'd been in on Friday. Even with the fresh snow, we could still make out where the path was. We soon reached the beginning of the slide and the steep climbing began. It was relentless. We made it to where we'd turned around last time and found that we were right on target. We had made mistakes earlier in the trip last time and we could see where we went wrong, but this time we were on track. Soon, we pushed to the top of the slide and were at the first little "knob" where we traversed and before long arrived at the summit of Seymour. Finally! Third time was the charm, apparently. We both were filled with relief! We took photos....I didn't smile in mine, instead, I kept the same look on my face that I'd had all day. One of exhaustion. It's a horrible photo of me and I've decided not to share that one with too many people for that reason, but it definitely conveys how I was feeling at that moment and how difficult the trek was.
We didn't stay long, as usual, and I wondered how going back down the super steep stuff was going to be. With the fresh powder, it turned out to be awesome. We were able to snowshoe-ski and butt slide nearly all of it. We got down in record time. It was at least a somewhat fun section and we were glad to be able to speed things up.
Before we knew it, we were back on the marked trail, heading back to the car. Once at the Ward Brook Lean-To we knew we had 5.4 miles to go. Daunting when you're already sore and exhausted out of your mind! I led the way out. We stopped a couple times for a snack or quick water break, but we wanted to keep moving so that we could get the heck out! We were glad we started early, because we got back to the car early too. It was nice to hike out while it was actually still light out!
We packed up our gear, changed clothes, and got ready to leave. The Element drove perfectly though the new snow which was great because the road had not been plowed. We headed into town to The Lumberjack Inn where we had a hot meal. Grabbed some drinks for the road and set off on our 4 hour journey home.
When we got home, we'd found that it had snowed a lot more here than it did up there. Our driveway was completely plowed in, so we couldn't even pull the car up the drive. We grabbed the shovels, cleared the walk and the driveway, unloaded most of the car, and headed inside.
What an exhausting weekend it was! A productive 30 miles though! We couldn't be happier and more relieved that we were able to get all four peaks in one weekend! And I have to admit that I'm pretty proud of it too. Especially knowing how cold it really was up there. My mom saw on weather.com that the low on Saturday in Tupper Lake was -21 degrees!
This trip brings us to 34 winter peaks (40 regular). Only 12 winters left to go!! Plans have us back up there this weekend, so we'll do our best to post again soon!


Sewards 10-11 Jan 09