Excellent day in the Sewards. Took it out pretty hard but stayed smooth through the approach trail. Dropped my vest at the Seward turn off, and continued on to tag Seymour. The climb was pretty solid! I was at the top in about 1:15 elapsed from the car. My descent was okay, plenty good enough for my standards as I’m not a great downhiller. Back at the truck trail I headed for the Seward turnoff, grabbed my vest, and started pushing up the long, increasingly difficult climb to Seward. At this point I had consumed 1 Untapped Maple Syrup shot, 0.5L LMNT Electrolyte drink, and maybe 0.25L water.
About half a mile into the climb up Seward, I scooped 0.5L water from the brook in my BeFree flask and continued onwards and upwards. This climb honestly felt never-ending, but I just kept moving forward. Soon, I had crested the summit and was headed down the ridge towards Donaldson, around 2:37 elapsed time. The rest of the ridge was pretty uneventful, but muddy of course. Dropped my vest again at the Calkin’s Brook descent and hit the out and back to Emmons as hard as I could, about 19 mins/mile, considering there are several mud pits about knee deep to traverse. Before I knew it I was back at my vest and starting the descent, around 3:35 elapsed. Throughout the ridge, I had consumed another 2 Gu gels and most of the BeFree flask, saving the last couple sips for the homestretch.
The Calkin’s Brook herd path is annoying at first, very eroded, muddy, and awkward. But it gets much better down low. I did get slightly off the path towards the bottom and ended up on the other side of the brook, but quickly adjusted. Once back on the truck trail, it was smooth sailing over the last mini climb and back to the car, touching the trail register at 4:46:12 elapsed. This route is so gnarly, even by Adirondack standards. I’m not sure it’ll ever be super popular, but it’s worth a go! Super remote, technical, and totally awesome.