Donaldson, Emmons, Seward 3/17/10

Three of us did this hike via Calkins Brook. The road to the parking lot by the gate is both icy and muddy. The road to the summer lot has some ice and snow but is mainly dirt. Currently it is not muddy. Calkins Brook is still frozen. The Calkins Brook trail was hard packed but sometimes difficult find as often there was no discernible rut; the path was level with the rest of the snow surface. There are a number of tracks heading over to Emmons, but they all eventually returned to the herd path. It did not appear anyone had been to Seward since the February snow as there was no track. Once in a while we found the herd path where it was an obvious slice through thick trees but generally the trip was a bushwhack that found us drifting to the south, pushing through balsam, and sinking into spruce traps. Our approach did offer some very nice views of Seward. The round trip took twice as long as it "normally" does, but following our tracks on the way back made the return trip considerably faster. The snow on the way out had softened quite a bit. The fire road is now muddy.