thecrooker
03-23-2011, 10:43 PM
PART 1
We had three days left to get the Sewards and Seymour. Given that we had done some re-con the week before on Corey’s road and after reading High On Life’s post we only wanted to have to go into the range one time. So we got our camping gear ready for an overnight.
We arrived in Tupper Lake early after eating the craziest Chinese Buffet (probably not the best idea). At the hotel we sorted out our gear then we got a call from Sparty and Bill (SSmonte283) saying they had arrived safely. We had planned to tackle these mountains together. That night Dani and I could not sleep. I am not sure if it was excitement of a potential single season finish or just the dread of that long slog in with a sled attached to me.
Before long the alarm went off and we were at Corey’s road prepping the sled (A big thanks to Dan Winkler for letting us borrow his) and twenty minutes later we all were walking down that solitary road toward more of the same. Not much was said on our four mile walk in, but the weather had taken care of most of the snow so we were able to move at a good clip.
It wasn’t long before we hit the summer parking lot where Dani signed in and the trail became a bit more of a struggle. Seeing that most of the snow had melted it gave way to large pools of water. Now this would not have been an issue I didn’t have this sled attached to me. Then again, we could have had all this weight on our back, so I shouldn’t be complaining.
We all moved as if we were walking through land minds over these pools of water making sure our sleds did not flip over. It It was slow going, but we did manage to cross them all without getting any of our gear wet. Doug, on the other hand, was not as lucky but with the help of Bill flipping it back over his gear remained pretty dry.
Our plan was to make it all the way to the Ward Brook LT, but Doug decided it would better to leave our gear at the Calkin’s Brook trail, head up and do D/E/S come down and then head to the Ward Brook LT.
We had made arrangements to meet our friend Dan Winkler and my cousin Mark and his wife Susej that night at the Ward Brook LT. They were all coming in to finish on Seymour with us Saturday. Mark, a 46er himself, was the one who got Dani and I interested in the 46 way back on December 28th. We started our quest a few weeks later the weekend of January 8th.
As the four of us made our way up Donaldson we were feeling lucky because the trail was broken out and the sun was shinning. Then things changed. Suddenly the tracks we were following vanished. Whomever we had been following gave up and turned around after the first crossing.
At this point Bill took the lead. He is quite the human GPS. As we made our way up Donaldson Doug seemed to be preoccupied by the spruce traps along the way. As the day went on we all had our own moments with these fellows, but eventually we made it.
Dani and I took a bunch of photos at the summit then Doug emerged and said we were not there yet. We continued along the ridge a little farther and sure enough there was that beautiful yellow marker. I checked the time. It had gotten late. I looked at Dani and wondered if the other two peaks were within our reach. She didn’t miss a beat, “We can do it.”
We pushed on towards Emmons. I think we must have gotten off trail because I heard Bill call out. Doug had hit another spruce trap. I ran back to see Doug up to his armpits in snow. Doug,”I can see twenty feet below me.” This was not going to be an easy one to get out of, Doug is a tough mother and got himself out.
From then on we marveled at some of the great views along the way before we began to descended via a few butt slides. As we came down Doug called out to Bill who was ahead breaking trail. “That’s not the right way, we need to head left away from the mountain.” I remember Mudrat telling that would be the case.
We took a hard right away from the mountain heading down around and then up. Suddenly Dani screeched out, “AHHH!!” I turned around quickly knowing this could not be good. I saw her stopped in her tracks covering her face. “It cut right across me eyeball and I cant see.” This bushwhack was not going to be easy. We had to wait a bit until she could see again.
We all continued the battle of the bushwhack until we finally reached the summit of Emmons. The view was gorgeous and we knew we would have enough light to make it back to Donaldson, but would we have enough to make it to Seward was the real question?
We didn’t hang very long. When we arrived back to the Donaldson summit it was 430pm. What was the plan? Doug decided to opt of out of Seward and Bill and him would head back while Dani and I pushed on. We said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions.
It was hard for us to find the trail for this one. We were on and off for some time and this was eating up the remaining daylight. We did not want to summit in the dark.
We dug deep trying to make up for lost time, but it wasn’t working we just kept descending. It felt like it was going to take forever. In our heads we wondered, had we made the right decision to press on? Well we were finally beginning to ascend the mountain. Once we broke the tree line we saw a view neither of us had seen the whole winter. The sun was beginning to set and the colors that swam across the sky were mesmerizing.
But we knew we had to keep moving. As made our way to the summit of Seward we saw that the warm golden ball being swallowed by the horizon and emitting an array of beautiful pastel colors that rolled over the mountains. I wondered if anyone one else was on any of the other 46 seeing the same thing.
The photo shoot was fast and our hopes that the backside would be broken out were soon thwarted. Now we had to make a decision, either descend down to the road and walk the three miles to our gear or retrace our steps to Donaldson and out. Together we decided it would be faster just to keep going this way.
The sun had now disappeared on us. We would have to make it down in the dark. We sparked up our third eyes and headed down. We were on the path. It was nice and wide, perfect. We would be down in an hour or so.
Wrong!
It began to get thick and the thicker it got the darker it got. Even with the super moon above us and our head lamps seeing through the brush was impossible at times. We were in for a long night.
We sucked it up and kept going. The both of us landed in countless spruce traps and were lacerated by many branches till we hit a breaking point. We had to stop collect ourselves look at one another in the eye and say, “We can do this.” Dani’s knee began to act up so we took it even slower down knowing what was in store for us tomorrow.
It was a long hard descent but we finally made it to the trail coming out between Blueberry LT and Ward Brook LT. It was 10:30.
Ok, now where do we go, to Ward Brook and see if the folks we were supposed to meet are there and possible drop our packs then head back three miles get the sled and then travel back again? Yeah what a question. Well there were snowshoe tracks heading to the Ward Brook LT. So we went, took a chance and followed them and when we got there... no one! Just a set of tracks that went around the LT and out. What a waste of time!
We turned around and headed back. We stopped for a moment to take in the super moon. WOW, it almost made our head lamps obsolete.
As we approached the BB LT I noticed someone sleeping in their bag. Now, normally I wouldn't do this but because we were meeting people and I didn’t want our plans to get screwed up I spotted my lamp to get a better look. Suddenly.. they popped out of their bag startled which made me scream like a girl. Looking back on it it was pretty damn funny. Needless to say I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me, but I did find out that all the snowshoe tracks we followed were his. I apologized for scarring the hell out of the him and we continued on into the twilight-zone.
Now here is were things get weird.
As we walked in the dark I heard Dani say, “What is that?” I turned to see a men’s dress belt lying perfectly buckled on top of the snow. Ok, a belt used for a suite buckled lying on top of the snow in the woods at night... I don’t know about you, but that’s creepy and that set the tone for what’s about to happen.
We had three days left to get the Sewards and Seymour. Given that we had done some re-con the week before on Corey’s road and after reading High On Life’s post we only wanted to have to go into the range one time. So we got our camping gear ready for an overnight.
We arrived in Tupper Lake early after eating the craziest Chinese Buffet (probably not the best idea). At the hotel we sorted out our gear then we got a call from Sparty and Bill (SSmonte283) saying they had arrived safely. We had planned to tackle these mountains together. That night Dani and I could not sleep. I am not sure if it was excitement of a potential single season finish or just the dread of that long slog in with a sled attached to me.
Before long the alarm went off and we were at Corey’s road prepping the sled (A big thanks to Dan Winkler for letting us borrow his) and twenty minutes later we all were walking down that solitary road toward more of the same. Not much was said on our four mile walk in, but the weather had taken care of most of the snow so we were able to move at a good clip.
It wasn’t long before we hit the summer parking lot where Dani signed in and the trail became a bit more of a struggle. Seeing that most of the snow had melted it gave way to large pools of water. Now this would not have been an issue I didn’t have this sled attached to me. Then again, we could have had all this weight on our back, so I shouldn’t be complaining.
We all moved as if we were walking through land minds over these pools of water making sure our sleds did not flip over. It It was slow going, but we did manage to cross them all without getting any of our gear wet. Doug, on the other hand, was not as lucky but with the help of Bill flipping it back over his gear remained pretty dry.
Our plan was to make it all the way to the Ward Brook LT, but Doug decided it would better to leave our gear at the Calkin’s Brook trail, head up and do D/E/S come down and then head to the Ward Brook LT.
We had made arrangements to meet our friend Dan Winkler and my cousin Mark and his wife Susej that night at the Ward Brook LT. They were all coming in to finish on Seymour with us Saturday. Mark, a 46er himself, was the one who got Dani and I interested in the 46 way back on December 28th. We started our quest a few weeks later the weekend of January 8th.
As the four of us made our way up Donaldson we were feeling lucky because the trail was broken out and the sun was shinning. Then things changed. Suddenly the tracks we were following vanished. Whomever we had been following gave up and turned around after the first crossing.
At this point Bill took the lead. He is quite the human GPS. As we made our way up Donaldson Doug seemed to be preoccupied by the spruce traps along the way. As the day went on we all had our own moments with these fellows, but eventually we made it.
Dani and I took a bunch of photos at the summit then Doug emerged and said we were not there yet. We continued along the ridge a little farther and sure enough there was that beautiful yellow marker. I checked the time. It had gotten late. I looked at Dani and wondered if the other two peaks were within our reach. She didn’t miss a beat, “We can do it.”
We pushed on towards Emmons. I think we must have gotten off trail because I heard Bill call out. Doug had hit another spruce trap. I ran back to see Doug up to his armpits in snow. Doug,”I can see twenty feet below me.” This was not going to be an easy one to get out of, Doug is a tough mother and got himself out.
From then on we marveled at some of the great views along the way before we began to descended via a few butt slides. As we came down Doug called out to Bill who was ahead breaking trail. “That’s not the right way, we need to head left away from the mountain.” I remember Mudrat telling that would be the case.
We took a hard right away from the mountain heading down around and then up. Suddenly Dani screeched out, “AHHH!!” I turned around quickly knowing this could not be good. I saw her stopped in her tracks covering her face. “It cut right across me eyeball and I cant see.” This bushwhack was not going to be easy. We had to wait a bit until she could see again.
We all continued the battle of the bushwhack until we finally reached the summit of Emmons. The view was gorgeous and we knew we would have enough light to make it back to Donaldson, but would we have enough to make it to Seward was the real question?
We didn’t hang very long. When we arrived back to the Donaldson summit it was 430pm. What was the plan? Doug decided to opt of out of Seward and Bill and him would head back while Dani and I pushed on. We said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions.
It was hard for us to find the trail for this one. We were on and off for some time and this was eating up the remaining daylight. We did not want to summit in the dark.
We dug deep trying to make up for lost time, but it wasn’t working we just kept descending. It felt like it was going to take forever. In our heads we wondered, had we made the right decision to press on? Well we were finally beginning to ascend the mountain. Once we broke the tree line we saw a view neither of us had seen the whole winter. The sun was beginning to set and the colors that swam across the sky were mesmerizing.
But we knew we had to keep moving. As made our way to the summit of Seward we saw that the warm golden ball being swallowed by the horizon and emitting an array of beautiful pastel colors that rolled over the mountains. I wondered if anyone one else was on any of the other 46 seeing the same thing.
The photo shoot was fast and our hopes that the backside would be broken out were soon thwarted. Now we had to make a decision, either descend down to the road and walk the three miles to our gear or retrace our steps to Donaldson and out. Together we decided it would be faster just to keep going this way.
The sun had now disappeared on us. We would have to make it down in the dark. We sparked up our third eyes and headed down. We were on the path. It was nice and wide, perfect. We would be down in an hour or so.
Wrong!
It began to get thick and the thicker it got the darker it got. Even with the super moon above us and our head lamps seeing through the brush was impossible at times. We were in for a long night.
We sucked it up and kept going. The both of us landed in countless spruce traps and were lacerated by many branches till we hit a breaking point. We had to stop collect ourselves look at one another in the eye and say, “We can do this.” Dani’s knee began to act up so we took it even slower down knowing what was in store for us tomorrow.
It was a long hard descent but we finally made it to the trail coming out between Blueberry LT and Ward Brook LT. It was 10:30.
Ok, now where do we go, to Ward Brook and see if the folks we were supposed to meet are there and possible drop our packs then head back three miles get the sled and then travel back again? Yeah what a question. Well there were snowshoe tracks heading to the Ward Brook LT. So we went, took a chance and followed them and when we got there... no one! Just a set of tracks that went around the LT and out. What a waste of time!
We turned around and headed back. We stopped for a moment to take in the super moon. WOW, it almost made our head lamps obsolete.
As we approached the BB LT I noticed someone sleeping in their bag. Now, normally I wouldn't do this but because we were meeting people and I didn’t want our plans to get screwed up I spotted my lamp to get a better look. Suddenly.. they popped out of their bag startled which made me scream like a girl. Looking back on it it was pretty damn funny. Needless to say I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me, but I did find out that all the snowshoe tracks we followed were his. I apologized for scarring the hell out of the him and we continued on into the twilight-zone.
Now here is were things get weird.
As we walked in the dark I heard Dani say, “What is that?” I turned to see a men’s dress belt lying perfectly buckled on top of the snow. Ok, a belt used for a suite buckled lying on top of the snow in the woods at night... I don’t know about you, but that’s creepy and that set the tone for what’s about to happen.