seymour mountain.

can you believe it has been almost two years since the last time we climbed a "new" adirondack high peak? the year of 2011 was dominated by a historic september event which took a whole bunch of planning. additionally we were banking our vacation days for the honeymoon that followed.
with that behind us, it is now time to resume the quest to finally finish hiking all of the 46 adirondack high peaks. we chose to start back up with a day hike of seymour mountain, the peak we left behind in our july 2009 backpack into the seward range.

Untitled we drove up to corey road and slept friday night at the seward mountain trailhead. we started the hike at 7:30 on a clear and sunny day. two hours and approximately 5 miles later we arrived at the location where we would leave the marked trail. a cairn marks the beginning of the unmarked, unmaintained herd path up seymour mountain.
while the hike on the marked trail was mostly level and dry, the bushwhack up to the summit was grueling. our progress slowed to a crawl. it took us two hours to climb the approximately 1 1/2 miles to the top of seymour mountain, reaching the summit at 11:30. it was steep, muddy, and "picky"; necessitating the mentally and physically exhausting search for the right foot and hand holds.

seymour mountain seymour mountain's summit is fully wooded but there are multiple rock outcroppings where excellent views to the north and east can be found. we spent over an hour on the north facing overlook, eating lunch and snapping pictures before heading back down the knee busting descent.

from seymour mountain looking at the rest of the seward range it took us just under 2 hours to climb back down the herd path at the junction with the marked trail. the unusually hot spring weather was starting to take a toll on our dog, crosbi (and also on us to be fair). we took many, many rest stops on the trip back to the trailhead to let the dog nap and to soak our feet in the cold, clear brooks, spotting small trout along the way. we arrived back to the parking area at 5:00, battered but successful.
adam and i are now at 39 completed high peaks, with crosbi at a respectable 21.

(for more pictures, visit my seymour mountain flickr set here.)

2 comments:

  1. your post has gotten me pysched up to begin the season myself. beautiful day for your hike...congrats on 39!

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks, corin!
    it's good be back on track again. getting out there makes me realize it was WAY too long a wait!

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